Alan, While I can't even begin to venture a guess to the challenge, I find it quite fascinating and anxious to see some input to this thread. Learning is a great thing.
Erich On Feb 14, 2007, at 6:52 AM, Alan Brown wrote: > > I know this is outside the scope of the list, (despite someone > having this > on the wishlist), but I'm looking for a *nix-compatible (pref linux) > hierarchical storage system. > > Explanation: A HFS (*) is a virtual filesystem, similar to unionfs. > > > Files are kept on "slow media" (tape or CD or DVD or even NFS-over- > WAN, > etc) and are loaded from the "slow" media into a "fast" disk cache > on an > as-needed basis. Files written to the system are stored on disk and > then > flushed through to tape periodically. > > One example of such a HFS is the old MS-DOS "Rombrain" setup BBS > operators > used to use. > > Backups are made in normal ways as the filesystem is transparent apart > from being slower to access. > > > Why? > > Tapes have few moving parts, high density and consume zero power while > idling. > > Adding to the filesystem is simply a matter of adding more (cheap) > tapes. > > The filesystem can be "frozen" at any time and moved to a safe (not > recommended), then resumed later. > > A single large robot can operate as both HFS storage and backup > library. > > > Why am I asking for one? > > Much of what I am storing is "write once. read occasionally". We > have 25Tb > online now, most of which is already in this state. I've just been > asked > to add 20Tb to that and have been informed there's a request in to add > 50Tb to the mix in about 6 months. > > 90% of this will be accessed "occasionally", so that's an awful lot of > disks spinning (power draw, airconditioning) for no good reason, and > additional expense every time the demand grows. > > The amount of data coming in from space probes seems to be growing > a lot > faster than the natural growth in disk drive sizes. With larger tape > robots able to increase capacity by simply bolting on an extension, > growing a HFS is fairly easy and relatively cheap. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to > share your > opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash > http://www.techsay.com/default.php? > page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
