klein2 blog » esata

Hmm… OpenSolaris / ZFS / Onnto DataTales and an idea in my head

Dennis Klein — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:15:00 +0000

So you’ve maybe read about my issues with OpenSolaris and the Windows Server + Exchange 2010 I wanted to run on it. The base system itself is, as mentioned before, very stable (as you would expect from such a system). With the idea of NOT using Exchange 2010 at home (because of several reasons) and still “hunting” for the perfect storage & backup strategy and yes, I admit, by browsing through this nerdy thread, I played with a configuration in my head that I would like to show.

Imagine the system you know as Belldandy already, running OpenSolaris. The main system is installed on an IDE 160GB (WD / new) HD. There is an Intel Desktop CT 1000 + a Sil3132 chipped eSATA controller stored in both PCIe slots (x1 & x16). Now I would add the following HDs.

-640 Hitachi SATA-II
-640 WD SATA-II
-640 WD SATA-II
-640 WD SATA-II

2x Mirror, striped – Highest Security zpool – usable: 1280/1100GB

1000 Seagate SATA-II
1000 Seagate SATA-II

Mirror II – usable: 1000/990GB around about.

4000 STORAGE eSATA

Main Storage for very big files (Onnto DataTale “STORAGE”) usable: 2.7TB

4000 BACKUP eSATA

Backup of “Storage” (Onnto DataTale “BACKUP”) usable: 2.7TB

-160 Boot IDE

Simply the OpenSolaris on it. Usable: 140GB

…………….

12.700GB overall, usable after mirroring & striping: 7.630GB

Yeah, freaky plan and MAYBE a step back, but I still think that maybe ZFS (and even if I run the STORAGE & BACKUP in an external hardware RAID5) is the very best option.

For a secure and reliable storage that would feed my needs perfectly, I would say: Ok – I will NOT use Exchange. I will find another way to accept invitations, sure – easiest would be to run Outlook in a Parallels VM and simply accept it there. Exchange 2010 is pretty good, but I also have concerns to let it run when I’m out of the house for some days. That’s maybe my main painpoint.

So what do you guys think? Is it worth to retry it a last time? I’ve VERY compatible hardware here incl. meanwhile 6GB of ECC RAM for this box.

Would be great to get a feedback from you!

Ciao
Dennis

See for reference: About my project Belldandy

PS. Why I don’t think about using Debian? Well, I don’t see a very reliable filesystem there that I would like to use. ext3 is too slow for large files, xfs seems also not be the fastest one and ReiserFS is in jail

Benchmarked: Onnto DataTale eSATA Port

Dennis Klein — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:38:00 +0000

I was a bit confused about the relative slow speed of the external box, so I put the new box through two tests. One on Mac OS X using XBench and the other on inside Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 using HD Tune Trial.

I used the SAME Sonnet card in the Mac Pro and in the Win Server. Also, I used the SAME box (sure I don’t want to shredded my Storage ).

Here are the amazing results:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Vote for yourself.

Ciao
Dennis

Slow copying using rsync on Mac OS X?

Dennis Klein — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Last night I’ve started the backup – pardon – rsync process – of our STORAGE volume to the newer BACKUP device. While both devices are connected via eSATA (Sonnet PCIe x1 eSATA card in the Mac Pro with Sil3132 chip), the copy process is what I would describe as very slow. A max. of 13MB/s from one eSATA drive to the other. Keep in mind, that both are RAID5 boxes with 4x 1TB HDs each! So I would suggest a higher speed.

After plugging the BACKUP device from eSATA to FW800 (thought it’s maybe a bus issue because PCIe x1 can only do 150MB/s), I started the rsync process again – with the same result: 13MB/s still. Ouch!

Next thing I tried was copying a file NOT with rsync but via drag&drop using the ordinary Finder. For my surprise, the speed to FW800 went up to 50-60MB/s. Still not what I had in mind, but a lot better than 13MB/s, isn’t it?

So I unplugged FW800 and attached eSATA gain. Now I’m copying the COMPLETE content using the Finder and pray for no interruption or any kind of mistake, because the Finder is so “dumb” and stops the complete process if this happens…

By the way – the max. peak after copying the first 40GB is about 73MB/s.

Ciao
Dennis

[Update]
The Finder managed it to copy all stuff over the night Nice! Backup completed now rsync can do it’s slow job for syncing just changes.