Using FreeNas as iScsi relay

[NooS]

Hello everyone!

Question for those who want to think, I have a challenge, I'm using 2 storage IBM DS3512 and DS3524, these wonderful boxes do not have iscsi connection insted they use some fancy DAC cables, which greatly limits the number of servers that can be connected (2 per storage). I am thinking of using FreeNAS as a central point to link these storage to the network with iScsi, so I would not use ZFS Raid (this would be handled by the RAID on the storage) and would only do the transaction between 8 esxi servers conected to the freenas box b isci and the storage by DAC, what do you think? What problems can it bring to me? Will it be stable enough for production?
The FreeNas would run on an IBM x3550 M4 with dual Intel CPU E5-2620 and 32gb RAM, the total storage of the 2 storage is 25TB

Cheers!

 

[dlavigne]

Did you try this? If so, did it work out?

 

[jgreco]

I wouldn't do this with FreeNAS, but you can do it with FreeBSD and it's likely to work just fine.

 

[kdragon75]

You can also look into SAS switch's but you need to use a cluster aware file system that's appropriate for your use case.

That closest I've done to to is using FreeBSD as a fiber channel brideg to an ISCSI SAN. It's a dead simple setup it you take the time to learn the basics of ctld.