Join multiple filesystems (on multiple computers) into one big volume

Posted by jm666 on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by jm666
Published on 2012-06-03T20:07:20Z Indexed on 2012/06/03 22:42 UTC
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Scenario:

Have 10 computers, each have 12x2TB HDDs (currently) in raidZ2 (10+2) configuration, so, in the each computer i have one approx. 20TB volume.

Now, need those 10 separate computers (separate raid groups) join into one big volume.

What is the recommended solution?

I'm thinking about the FCoE (10GB ethernet). So, buying into each computer FCoE (10GB ethernet card) and - what need more on the hardware side? (probably another computer, FCoE switch? like Cisco Nexus?)

The main question is: what need to install and configure on each computer? Currently they have freebsd/raidz2, but it is possible change it into Linux/Solaris if needed.

Any helpful resource what talking about how to build a big volumes from smaller raid-groups (on the software side) is very welcomed. So, what OS, what filesystem, what software - etc.

In short: want get one approx. 200TB storage (in one filesystem) from already existing computers/storage. Don't need fast writes, but need good performance on reading data. (as a big fileserver), what will works transparently, so when storing data don't want care about onto what computer the data goes. (e.g. not 10 mountpoints - but one big logical filesystem).

Thanks.

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