Mac Mini as OSX Server + GlobalSan iSCSI
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Looking into some opinions here... Trying to get a customer of mine AWAY from dropbox, as they're essentially using it as distributed file system between their office locations.
They're building out a new office location which I'm taking care of the network setup and wifi and servers.
Recently went 100% MAC's as their locations (Real Estate).
The idea:
Setup 2015 Mac Mini (8GB, 256GB SSD). and run OSX Server.
Open Directory
All shares, etc.. the works..Plan was to use Synology DiskStation 5-bay unit. 4-Disk RAID-10 array, 1-hot spare.
Volume1 - to pull down ALL their existing Dropbox data
Volume2 -- be large iSCSI LUNMap iSCSI LUN to Mac Mini Server. (GlobalSAN iSCSI initiator)
use BOTH Thunderbolt connectors using TB to 1GBE adaptor. Directly connect to Synology NAS (LACP Bond) using IP address. So bypasses switch
Then NIC Card in Mac Mini connect to regular network using regular Data network subnet.
Create all data storage on the attached iSCSI Drive.
Use a regular dropbox or Google Drive account & install on the Mac Mini server. This would then point to the iSCSI Local drive and re-publish the data to dropbox or google drive
NOTE: This would be so another remote office or if needed, a windows client or Linux client access the company files via a dropbox or google drive account.
Right now they have ALL workstations running dropbox.... Dropbox kills CPU & Disk I/O and disk space.
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Do you already have the SAN unit? Ideally you would want DAS for this, not SAN. Using GigE is going to be a huge, unnecessary bottleneck here and extra complication that isn't warranted. Having something connected via SATA, SAS or Thunderbolt directly will be much better.
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I would consider Thunderbolt DAS enclosure instead of SAN. Less complexity, much faster, and probably much cheaper too.
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Gotcha
I was considering just a NICE 5 bay Thunderbolt DAS unit for them as well. Right now, its all Proof of concept before I suggest as a solution. As they want to get away with dropbox for all their locations
Always complaining to me the slowness of mac's even though they're spec'd accordingly. Soon as you kill dropbox.. runs fine. had to implement alot of QoS on their network to throttle DB traffic.
The thing is.... Synology & QNAP both have an "app" that you can install on the NAS unit to Syncronize with Dropbox or Google Drive. I was planning to install the app. and let it rip and pull down ALL the dropbox data to a separate Volume.
with a DAS. I do not think I can create separate block level volumes
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Otherwise.. Have to install Dropbox locally on the Mac Mini server, let it save to the DAS volume.
As they want to 'start fresh' and only bring over files & data they need from the current Dropbox business account.
All sites are connected with IPSEC VPN. So the new users I would have login to the netowork using new OpenDirectory credentials and they automatically have network drives mapped to them and have access to needed company files.... no more dropbox!
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@marcinozga said:
I would consider Thunderbolt DAS enclosure instead of SAN. Less complexity, much faster, and probably much cheaper too.
I don't know if Synology offers one. I know that the Drobo 5D does this. Five bays in RAID 6 with an SSD cache option.
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@scottalanmiller I found this:
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/a-comparison-of-10-thunderbolt-raid-storage-solutions/
It's a bit dated, but it gives some options... -
Is Dropbox that bad on resources? I have used it at a previous location prior to a different technology and it worked fine. It did exactly what it needed to do without issues. Just wondering why the move away from a distributed system to iSCSI when it isn't necessary.
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Ive always stayed away from Drobo. i'll check into them again as well
Synology NAS's have SSD cache option.
really think be that much of a bottleneck using 1Gibe direct to the SAN for iSCSI LUN directly attached to mac? The write speeds I see would indeed be capped to 1Gbe speeds as the RAID-10 array disk read/writes would absolutely be faster than 1Gbe.. so i see the point.
but the data coming over the network would never be greater than 1Gbe... ?
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@ntoxicator said:
but the data coming over the network would never be greater than 1Gbe... ?
There is overhead in that from the local system. Indexing, Backups etc.
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I know internally the NAS or even DAS would have read/write capabilities which would exceed regular 1Gbe network transfer rates.
as a RAID-10 array with 4 disks of 7200 RPM drives would easily be in the 350-450MB/s range.
So if a user was pulling or saving or copying a file from their workstation, over to the network share. That file copy would only be at wire speed or network switching speeds.
Or am I missing a something
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@ntoxicator said:
I know internally the NAS or even DAS would have read/write capabilities which would exceed regular 1Gbe network transfer rates.
as a RAID-10 array with 4 disks of 7200 RPM drives would easily be in the 350-450MB/s range.
So if a user was pulling or saving or copying a file from their workstation, over to the network share. That file copy would only be at wire speed or network switching speeds.
Or am I missing a something
Why would you go for a more complex setup when a simpler setup would actually work better?
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You mean having the DAS?
Simply put, customer always complains and all their agents/users about dropbox. They're paying over 2 grand per year for Dropbox business.
Workstations disk space gets torn into and used up because dropbox data is pulled down onto each machine running the software.
Unless there is another distributed file solution that can make work for their Mac / Apple eco-system.
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Look at this baby.. Just found QNAP has new product. But as any TB equiped device, you get hit with price
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@ntoxicator said:
Look at this baby.. Just found QNAP has new product. But as any TB equiped device, you get hit with price
Don't get QNAP... oh man I (and most customers) have horror stories about how terrible those NASs are. Look at Netgear or Synology if you just need file storage.
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Gotcha. Yeah, Personally I've always used Synology Diskstations or their Rackstation products.
Looking for other TB DAS units.. Promise has some nice units. But not seeing any that are empty without disks.
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Agree with @coliver avoid QNAP. Support issues.
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@ntoxicator said:
Gotcha. Yeah, Personally I've always used Synology Diskstations or their Rackstation products.
Looking for other TB DAS units.. Promise has some nice units. But not seeing any that are empty without disks.
Synology, ReadyNAS, ReadyDATA, Drobo and maybe Buffalo only. Look at no one else. Promise, Lacie, QNAP... these are not business class devices. You don't want that kind of stuff in your shop.
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Drobo makes a good DAS product as well but last time I looked at them they were a bit lacking in performance.
