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8 months ago
in Is the FCoE Starting Pistol Aimed at iSCSI? on Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat
Thanks for that. From what you say, is it safe to make an assumption that no comparison data yet exists for FCoE vs iSCSI over long distance?
Also, from my limited understanding, I would expect that main usage for iSCSI over WAN links would be asynchronous replication, rather than primary storage attachment, is this so?
Also, from my limited understanding, I would expect that main usage for iSCSI over WAN links would be asynchronous replication, rather than primary storage attachment, is this so?
8 months ago
in Is the FCoE Starting Pistol Aimed at iSCSI? on Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat
Hi Stephen,
Have you seen any research done to compare how FCoE fares against iSCSI over long distances (100s of kms/miles)? It is absolutely possible today to get a long distance Ethernet service, so the question is not an empty interest.
Also, while FCoE does require 10GE UNI, does it also require full 10GE connectivity in between (I would expect not)?
Thanks :)
Have you seen any research done to compare how FCoE fares against iSCSI over long distances (100s of kms/miles)? It is absolutely possible today to get a long distance Ethernet service, so the question is not an empty interest.
Also, while FCoE does require 10GE UNI, does it also require full 10GE connectivity in between (I would expect not)?
Thanks :)
8 months ago
in OS X Custom Drive Icons 2: Boot Camp and NTFS on Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat
There's also Paragon NTFS driver for MacOS X, which is a commercial product.
8 months ago
in The Future of Home Storage on Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat
I can reflect on your home storage organization musings, as I am going through the similar experience. For about 5 years I relied on a ASUS barebone PC running Linux with couple HDDs shoved into it as my file server, running Samba and then atalkd. I chose barebone because I wanted thing to be as quiet as possible, as it sits in my living room. This was quite successful, but had a few drawbacks: not really silent, as fans would periodically come on in short bursts, and drives do get hot in there (especially old ones, especially when there was more than one). Also mt-daapd kind of sucked, especially when I got my AppleTV, which refused to see it.
What I wanted is a centralized iTunes library plus iTunes itself (especally after Apple Remote app came out for iPhone/iPod) - I have Airport Express with iPod Hi-Fi in my bedroom and wanted to be able to play music on it from my main library, but don't want to keep my or my wife's laptop running, streaming to Airtunes. To do that, I needed a computer with iTunes running. I tried to get iTunes on Linux running (with wine), which didn't work, so I abandoned it, not wanting to spend too much time on it. Necessary note - our home now is 100% apple environment, running Windows only in Vmware, when needed (which is almost never).
To cut long story short, about a month ago I decommissioned my Linux box and replaced it with a Mac Mini with two external HDDs - one on Firewire, another on USB. First disk is the main storage, while the second serves as Time Machine backup disk for built-in system disk and external media storage disk. I chose to use two enclosures rather than one hosting two disks to avoid the risk of a common element failure, such as SATA-USB bridge or power supply. I can't quite rationally explain my choice to use different interface (USB+firewire), but both enclosures have all three interface types (USB+FW+eSATA), and it "felt right" to do it. The external disk arrangement gives very good options to expand storage further, when needed - firewire can be chained, and there are two more USB ports available (and a hub can be used as the last resort).
I used WD AV hard drives, which are meant to be able to work 24x7 at highter than usual operating temperatures, and do have intelligent power management (meaning they change their rotation speed, depending on demand). All this is now lives directly inside my TV cabinet, as its footprint is very small and it makes very little noise. I am running iTunes on it (auto-login + start iTunes as login item), and can play music to my remote speakers, driving it from iPhone or iPod touch. I am also sharing the whole storage HDD for use from all other computers in the house for files, and mount it from my jailbroken AppleTV for playing movies. Oh, and I have my APC SmartUPS wired up to Mac mini via USB extension vable, so the thing can shut itself down if there's power outage (yes, mac mini and both drives get power from that UPS, too).
So far this arrangement worked for me beautifully. Apple Remote Desktop is perfect for remote management, it even shows you the post-logout screen when you're installing OSX patches/updates (it logs you out before running patch installation). File system performance I can't really complain about - with both Mac Mini and my desktop being on a GigE network, I routinely get throughput of about 40 Mb/s (which I think is limited by Firewire/USB speeds anyway). I find this pretty plenty for what we use it for (shared storage).
What I wanted is a centralized iTunes library plus iTunes itself (especally after Apple Remote app came out for iPhone/iPod) - I have Airport Express with iPod Hi-Fi in my bedroom and wanted to be able to play music on it from my main library, but don't want to keep my or my wife's laptop running, streaming to Airtunes. To do that, I needed a computer with iTunes running. I tried to get iTunes on Linux running (with wine), which didn't work, so I abandoned it, not wanting to spend too much time on it. Necessary note - our home now is 100% apple environment, running Windows only in Vmware, when needed (which is almost never).
To cut long story short, about a month ago I decommissioned my Linux box and replaced it with a Mac Mini with two external HDDs - one on Firewire, another on USB. First disk is the main storage, while the second serves as Time Machine backup disk for built-in system disk and external media storage disk. I chose to use two enclosures rather than one hosting two disks to avoid the risk of a common element failure, such as SATA-USB bridge or power supply. I can't quite rationally explain my choice to use different interface (USB+firewire), but both enclosures have all three interface types (USB+FW+eSATA), and it "felt right" to do it. The external disk arrangement gives very good options to expand storage further, when needed - firewire can be chained, and there are two more USB ports available (and a hub can be used as the last resort).
I used WD AV hard drives, which are meant to be able to work 24x7 at highter than usual operating temperatures, and do have intelligent power management (meaning they change their rotation speed, depending on demand). All this is now lives directly inside my TV cabinet, as its footprint is very small and it makes very little noise. I am running iTunes on it (auto-login + start iTunes as login item), and can play music to my remote speakers, driving it from iPhone or iPod touch. I am also sharing the whole storage HDD for use from all other computers in the house for files, and mount it from my jailbroken AppleTV for playing movies. Oh, and I have my APC SmartUPS wired up to Mac mini via USB extension vable, so the thing can shut itself down if there's power outage (yes, mac mini and both drives get power from that UPS, too).
So far this arrangement worked for me beautifully. Apple Remote Desktop is perfect for remote management, it even shows you the post-logout screen when you're installing OSX patches/updates (it logs you out before running patch installation). File system performance I can't really complain about - with both Mac Mini and my desktop being on a GigE network, I routinely get throughput of about 40 Mb/s (which I think is limited by Firewire/USB speeds anyway). I find this pretty plenty for what we use it for (shared storage).
