"The important thing is to protect your data. You have lots of options here, so we'd need to know more precisely what the other requirements are before we could give better advice. -- richard"
Please let me come in with a parallel need, the answer to which should contribute to this thread. -Physical details: 3-drive (plus DVD) box with Micro-ATX board, 1 on-board controller and the option for one raid card. Actual board, CPU and Memory yet-to-be-spec'd, but we'll throw in whatever the "hardware-compatible" Micro-ATX board can handle. -Software details: OpenSolaris 2008-05, ZFS+PostgreSQL+Python. -Mission: ZFS box is to watch a Windoze box (or a MAC box) on which new files are being created and old ones changed, plus many deletions (animation system). -Objectives: (a) make periodic snapshots of animator's box (actual copies of files) onto ZFS box, and (b) Write metadata into the PostgreSQL database to record event changes happening to key files. -Design concept: Integrate ZFS+SQL+Python into a rules-based backup device that notifies a third party elsewhere in the world about project progress (or lack thereof), and forwards key files and the SQL metadata (via internet) to some host ZFS box elsewhere. -Observations: (a) The local and the host ZFS boxes are not expected to contain the same images; indeed, many local ZFS boxes will be distributed, and one host ZFS box will be the ultimate repository of "completed" works. (b) High Performance is not an overriding consideration because this box "serves" only two users (the watched box on the local network and the host down the internet pipe). Question that relates to the on-going thread: What configuration of ZFS and the hardware would serve "reliable and cheap"? David Singer This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss