[fedora-arm] How about SAN or other Network Block Storage on ARM devices

[Peter Robinson]

On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 2:19 PM, David Gates <dgates at iocellnetworks.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I've been tinkering with the Linux NDAS driver.
> The competition for this storage system in the x86 world are Coraid's AOE
> and Linux' NBD.
> They are essentially the same idea, connecting computers to the block device
> on the LAN.
>
> NDAS seems to work fine, on my Fedora desktops, and on the ARM units I have
> tested: pogoplug, sheevaplug and seagate goflex.
> They are running a BusyBox version though. I have not yet installed fedora
> on the plug to test it though.
>
> I am wondering if there is any future using it with ARM networks.
> I don't see much talk about using this type of storage applications on this
> and some other ARM lists that I joined.
>
> I am working on the web scripts working that allow connecting the storage as
> a typical drive from my sheevaplug, but it looks like there is no big market
> now. So I am asking what users here think of this.
>
> At first, AMAHI.org released a Fedora based plug version with Greyhole
> storage pooling by default. I was thinking it might be a good idea as a low
> cost, high capacity system if the plugs were to pool several of the NetDISKs
> together.
>
> Shall I continue my experiments?
>
> Do you think the growing power of ARM boards will lead to simply building in
> HD and such?
>
> Can you see this kind of scale out connectivity in the future of ARM
> computers, using several block devices on LAN as a storage for lots of ARMs
> doing background storage and service?
>
> Has anyone done multiple ARM computers connecting to a block device for
> central storage using a Global File System or Greyhole?

If it's possible on x86, whether it be client or server, it's possible on ARM.

Peter