Moving linux /home and /spool directories to freenas

[Ptera]

Would like to move these directories to the FreeNAS so we can offer more storage space.
I am not able to use mapping because that will change ownership.
But I get permission denied when I try to copy folders/files over with no mapping set.
Can some one point me in the direction of a HowTo to accomplish this?
Should I use iSCSI?

 

[anodos]

I'm a bit confused.
You are trying to free up some space on a linux server?
Why can't you just add more storage to the existing linux server?
If that's not possible, why can't you move over a directory that's less critical? (for instance a large CIFS or NFS shared directory)
I think you're trying to find a solution to a problem you haven't clearly defined. Give more details about your servers, network, what problem you are having, etc.

 

[Ptera]

Our email server is a Dell Poweredge 2850 server that is limited to 300gig drives.
Since we spent all the money to build a NAS we want to utilize the 7Terabytes of space to provide more storage for email customers.
The customer emails are the large storage requirement. Moving other directories would not accomplish this.
The FreeNAS server and the mail server are directly connected via ethernet connection - no switch or router between them.

 

[cyberjock]

If you are using this in production (which it sounds like you are) you need to find someone to contract this work out to. If you can't or aren't able to set this up, you might likely set it up incorrectly and later regret it when you lose an email archive or something.

So please find someone to contract this out to for your own sake as well as the sake of your customer's emails.

 

[Ptera]

OK different track then. We virtualize the server and store the VMK file on the FreeNAS server and run it from there.
So Replication come to question. Since it is one huge file, does replication have to send the entire file at every replication task?

 

[cyberjock]

Can you please explain "virtualize the server"?

Do you mean virtualize FreeNAS?

 

[Ptera]

OK different track then. We virtualize the email server and store the VMK file of the email server on the FreeNAS server and run it from there.
So Replication come to question. Since it is one huge file, does replication have to send the entire file at every replication task?

 

[cyberjock]

Replication is only between zpools.

There is a way to take a snapshot and convert it to a file and then store that file elsewhere, but its a manual process and you'd have to manage it yourself or via scripts. The file you'd get would be one very large file.

 

[Ptera]

So which would be better for replication performance - One big iscsi dataset with all the vms in it or a single dataset for each vm?

 

[cyberjock]

There's no signficant difference between the two. But if you do file-based iSCSI extents then handling several smaller files is better than handling one massive file.

 

[Ptera]

So how does one see the usage of the iSCSI file extent - does not show up under active volumes and I am not finding anything under the iSCSI tab either.

Thanks

 

[Alvin]

Putting /home on an NFS server is a classic method. I'm storing my /home directory on FreeNAS and is works perfectly. Be careful though. Nowadays, a lot of software uses small databases. Akonadi and Baloo for example. In that case you'll want NFSv4 for proper locking. ( https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/3546 )

 

[cyberjock]

Alvin,

Not sure why you are mentioning NFS at all. NFS and iSCSI are two totally different services that have no impact on each other.

 

[Alvin]

Quite simple. The question in the first post was: "Should I use iSCSI?".

 

[cyberjock]

Quite simple. The question in the first post was: "Should I use iSCSI?".

His last question though was "So how does one see the usage of the iSCSI file extent - does not show up under active volumes and I am not finding anything under the iSCSI tab either" so maybe he has decided?