Fibrechannel Target Mode
by Jesse on May.29, 2008, under FC@Home
Ok – So I’m going to put the question out here.
Has anyone heard of a decent fibrechannel target mode package? I’ve been doing some research and have found a number of open NAS appliances, but only a few (and none of them open) that do target-mode.
Open-E – seems to be about the most solidly built, but expensive, retailing at about $1,600 US. Their “Data Storage Server (DSS)” software seems to be the most robust. It does offer NIC Teaming and the like, but I’ve not actually seen it work as of yet. (They have a demo-bootable CD) but I’ve not really been able to get it configured, mostly due to lack of time, also due to lack of interest – I don’t like the idea of putting storage out there that is going to evaporate in 60 days. If the folks at Open-E want to provide me a usable copy of the software I’d be happy to give it a serious exercising. 
FreeNAS - as a rule – don’t trust any software for “production” data that is still in the 0.x phase of it’s lifecycle. Let me know when you get a 1.x version out and I’ll have a look.
OpenFiler - probably one of the more mature open source products on the market – no support for Fibrechannel target mode is an instant turn-off. In my eval of it I was also not able to discern an easy way to bond network interfaces together. I’ve considered trying to SSH into the box and do it via linux but never got around to trying. If it will support true LACP it might be worth investigating. I’m still not sold on iSCSI as being “production-worthy” because ethernet being what it is, I question reliability. (I don’t even like running NFS when it comes down to it.)
So that being said – does anyone have any suggestions for FC target-mode appliances?
May 29th, 2008 on 1:50 pm
I think SanMelody does this. Can’t say I’ve ever used it or know anyone who has.
May 29th, 2008 on 1:56 pm
I haven’t seen a FC target, but there are lots of iSCSI targets to choose from. I’ve had lots of fun with the Linux target lately and was thinking of blogging about it actually. Do let us know if you find a FC or FCoE one!
May 29th, 2008 on 3:13 pm
SanMelody is another of the “iSCSI / NAS” appliances I’ve seen around. If that’s what I’m looking for I’d be much more inclined to go with OpenFiler 2.3 than to spend the money on what is essentially the same thing.
May 29th, 2008 on 7:31 pm
Ive never seen a FC target. Ive used Microsoft Storage Server before. It has some nice features but is an iSCSI target. It does has Single Instance storage to reduce the total amount of storage sitting ont he filesystem using pointers for duplicate files. For the record we (previous employer) ran multiple Equallogic arrays and i have to say that I couldnt complain about iSCSI as a protocal (other than being chatty) or the Equallogic arrays. iSCSI has proved itself in my opinion and as long as proper precautions are taken (seperate network minimum, seperate switches is ideal) they perforam great. Another one ive been playing with is from nimbus data. Its also iSCSI based but its still in release candidate stage and has been for awhile.
Link is here
http://www.nimbusdata.com/products/mysan.php
Regards,
D3STRUKT
May 29th, 2008 on 8:51 pm
While I haven’t used the Linux iSCSI implementation which I heard was put together using a packet sniffer to understand the iSCSI protocol using a CISCO iSCI device ?). I have used iSCSI across Celerra and NetApp for backups and they perform equally well (in other words, no complaints from the DBAs) when doing database backup dumps. We have a seperate VLAN for iSCSI though with jumbo frames enabled.
I too have been contempelating FC vs. iSCSI for home lab setup and iSCSI just seems to be winning given it’s availability in various inexpensive forms and the fact that I don’t have to buy or install HBA cards and fibre cables. I think I’m going to go with a 3Ware/Adaptec/PERC RAID card on a Dell 2650 then run FreeNAS or CentOS to serve NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, RSYNCD etc – should be good enough for a home/lab setup.
May 29th, 2008 on 8:59 pm
you might give OpenFiler a try, the only real complaint I had with v2.2.x was that joining it to an AD domain was clunky at best. I’m told it’s better but we’ll just have to see.
I’m really enjoying my playtime with Open-E’s product. I won’t eval it fully beyond a couple of test VM’s unless I get a full version though, too many risks.
iSCSI seems to make more sense from a pure cost standpoint, and yes, i can see the performance on a system that allows real load-balancing and such – but given that VMWare’s support for load-balancing via iSCSI is anemic at best (it will let you zone to multiple targets, but not really using multiple source NIC’s) I think if you want real performance you’re going to have to go FC.
May 29th, 2008 on 10:39 pm
I’ll give OpenFiler a shot, thanks. So, if one were to look for a paid yet inexpensive FC solution for home, what’s a good deal out there these days? Older FC4700s?
CX300? AX-150? HP MSA 1000? Apple X-RAID? OpenE? San Melody? I find most FC connectivity solutions also use FC drives which are $$$ as opposed to say the SATA drives ( performance and error rates aside)
May 30th, 2008 on 4:04 am
Try OpenSolaris, there’s a FC,iSCSI and now SAS target, native in-kernel NFS and CIFS support (no samba) with wonderful AD support.
Oh, and it’s free
May 30th, 2008 on 4:16 am
Oh, and solid LACP support as well.
Feel free to mail me if you need further informations.
bye,
Fabio
May 30th, 2008 on 7:48 am
I’ve seen a number of CX300′s up for $2-3k, one starting as low as $500. FC4700′s/FC5700′s are there as well, but since you can’t get the larger drives for them, they aren’t really worth the operating cost. (I got rid of my FC5300 because to have 30x 18G drives was kind of a waste given the power, rack space, and cooling it required.)
June 6th, 2008 on 12:58 pm
*cough*opensolaris*cough*
June 6th, 2008 on 1:04 pm
Ok – I think I’m sensing a theme here. Something tells me i might want to look into OpenSolaris.
June 6th, 2008 on 5:06 pm
If you’ve used netapp, it’s definitely a familiar feeling. Nowhere near as refined, and I personally wouldn’t ever stick it in an enterprise setting… but for a lab/home use, it gets the job done if you’re a geek
June 7th, 2008 on 9:35 pm
I played with the Open-E demo for a while, it is VERY refined but I hate the idea of not being able to present a lun down multiple iSCSI targets. I don’t know if the Fibrechannel works any different.. But I’m not going to put anything I need to keep on it until I have a copy that doesn’t expire.
Jg