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Is it possible to buy a blank FC array and add my own hard drives…
and connect it to x-san 2.
I was thinking about purchasing a blank 12 bay array and throwing in my own drives and hooking it up to xsan-2. Is this possible guys and can my xserve g5 still act as a meta data controller on these custom fibrechannel arrays ?
and any recommendations on a cost effective fibrechannel raid array with either 8 or 12 bays ?
or
i might be looking at this all wrong, i have read a couple of posts on here and they are talking about a JBOD and raid card, is there no array system out there like the xserve raid ? (which i am thinking is just a jbod as well)
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2 Replies
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Prasad,
Anything is possible however I would not suggest it, the amount of money you may save by doing this most likely will be spent in personal time along with down time. There is much more to building a RAID then mounting the drives into the chassis. Drive compatibility to the RAID card for one along with having the correct firmware for the drive you choose. You also need to take into consideration things Rotational Vibration, ESD and potential shock vibration when integrating the drives. In addition to all of this not all raids are set up and optimized for video use and in many case’s warranty issues may also arise.
Bottom line is there are several types of RAID out in the market and I would suggest talking with several Raid suppliers to determine what the best set up for your application would be. Rorke has been around the block for 24 years supply storage to this industry, we have several types of RAID products that can be used as direct attached or incorporated into Storage Area Networks.
Let me know if you have any other questions and will be happy to help.
Bob Herzan
Vice President of Sales
Rorke Data Inc
952-829-0300 -
It sounds like you are going to attempt XSAN the cheapest way possible. I am very surprised Bob Z didn’t jump on this post yet, it almost sounds like a fake posting, just trying to temp Bob to nail him to the boards. 🙂
But seriously, it is a very bad idea to build an xsan how I imagine you are thinking. More than likely you don’t need the power of fibre or a large file level system. Post your bandwidth needs and expectations of your work environment and i’m sure somebody will come up with a better solution for you. Most xsan deployments are well over $30,000 (that is one of the lowest numbers I’ve seen… but that is do to it correctly and not have issues later down the road) I’m not bashing xsan, i’m just saying you need to do it right.
-Jordan
Senior Systems Engineer
Active Storage Labs
Los Angeles, CA
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