My own Storage Linux OS

I'm developing a Linux system for storage purpose. I was looking for a cluster enabled iSCSI target. I gave a try to openfiler and freenas: they have lot of features but both are missing what I was looking for.



So, starting from gentoo, i realized my stripped down OS.

Current features are:
- runs on 64 bit hardware
- Focused  for serving as Datastore for ESXi and/or Xenserver
- System image relatively small (approx 2GB)
- Boot from USB key
- Enterprise class iSCSI Target ( SCST )
- Block device replication ( DRBD )
- Cluster support (corosync) with cluster resource monitor ( pacemaker )

In Development features are:
- Give the project a name :-)
- Text user interface (written in bash) for common operations
- Data deduplication ( with Lessfs or ddumbfs )
- Virtual Tape Library Support ( with mhvtl ) in cojunction with dedup
- NFS/CIFS support
- Backup of Xenserver  with xenbackup script via remote cli

Future planned features are:
- Web User Interface
- Better build system (maybe move to embedded gentoo)
- BTRFS Support

It is suited for creating iSCSI Datastore for ESXi/Xenserver. It can act as Virtual San too.

If you are interested in testing you can downlad a test virtual machine (I packed the OVA from VirtualBox I think is compatible with vmware too).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3102209/Projects/SAN/Test-vSAN.tar.gz

Critics and comments are welcome!



9 commenti:

  1. I'm working on similar solution... will be very intersting to try your. Francesco

    RispondiElimina
  2. I turned it into a sf.net project. For now it has only the name, some artwork, a couple of development VMs and lot of ideas.

    I'm running a cluster of two in production with a vmware a xen pools and it's running very fine and fast :)

    If you are interested in participating let me know :)

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Hi Riccardo,
      at the moment I'm supporting Openfiler based solutions similar to yours.
      Definetely I want to migrate to something a little bit more modern :-)
      Please, let me know how can I contribute to your project.

      Ciao,
      Massimo

      Elimina
    2. I had a little stop just because I have a peak of work.
      For now you can test the vm and tell me your impressions.
      :-)

      Elimina
  3. sarebbe moooolto comodo averlo anche a 32 bit !

    RispondiElimina
  4. Hi!...

    I've just started many ideas about a storage server plus other similar / related services...I've startted with ubuntu, SCST, RAID/LVM, NIC teaming and I'm reading a lot of DRBD...integrating backup services with bacula and virtualization to offer a redundant storage controller, just like the storage controllers in proprietary, hardware-based storage solutions

    I'll try to write to you about my findings and I'l try also to test and analyze your project...

    Best Regards!

    Giovanny Ramirez
    IT Consultant
    giovanni.ramirez@itconsultores.info

    RispondiElimina
  5. Ha avuto un seguito questo progetto? Vorrei mettere insieme una distribuzione orientata allo storage e cerco collaboratori, ma non vorrei re-inventare la ruota...

    RispondiElimina
  6. Ciao!
    Diciamo che dato che la mia SAN si è assestata non sono più andato avanti.
    Ho continuato a lavorare sui resource agent per pacemaker fino a fine 2013 circa. Ora sono abbastanza stabili (per quanto riguarda iscsi) e non ho più rilasciato aggiornamenti. Realizzare una distro storage-oriented che sia molto facile da usare è un po' un'utopia, visto le varie tecnologie di storage con cui puoi aver a che fare (Fibre Channel, InfiniBand ...) e alla stratificazione che puoi ottenere combinando LVM, TIER, ecc... detto questo esiste già una distro starage oriented che procede lentamente, ma procede. Il progetto si chiama ESOS ( https://code.google.com/p/enterprise-storage-os/ ) e promette bene. Appena avrò tempo ricomincerò a collaborare con loro :)

    RispondiElimina
  7. Grazie per la risposta.
    Esos sembra ben fatto e funzionale. Lo metterò presto in un cluster di test.

    RispondiElimina