Win 2k3 co-located server and Linux Samba Mirrors

[Stephen]

ok here is something i haven't considered in this way.

Openfiler with drbd
http://www.openfiler.com/community
https://project.openfiler.com/tracker/browser/openfiler/trunk/doc/cluster_guide/openfiler-ha.html?format=raw
http://www.howtoforge.com/openfiler-2.99-active-passive-with-corosync-pacemaker-and-drbd

This might be something that will work for you depending on bandwidth ect.

so you can have a series of openfiler servers their whole job is to
keep pool of Data X synced.

And it seems you can build Samba with DFS functionality... This is interesting
http://serverfault.com/questions/193050/is-there-something-like-microsoft-windows-server-dfs-for-linux

or you can look into Lustre or Ceph

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:22 PM, Michael Butash <michael at butash.net> wrote:
> I'll second dfs, or dfs-r(2) preferably.  You more or less have to run real
> windoze dc's at some point anyways, so take advantage of the proprietary
> solution within it unless you can afford netapp/emc/other storage solutions
> that do it more effectively as a canned, optimized solution.
>
> Cisco and other enterprise-y vendors do "wan optimization" products around
> dfs as well effectively, using it as a caching solution for remote wan
> solutions when you get large enough to need it.  Sharepoint, wiki's, etc are
> built to scale around file storage (and sorting of it), whereas dumb storage
> is just that.  Can only grow the san so far without being more intelligent
> about storing the data anyways.
>
> Look at something that does dedupe too so those 58mb tps reports aren't
> replicated 300 times bi-weekly. Check out opendedup.org and tell us how you
> fare.
>
> -mb
>
>
>
> On 04/09/2012 08:44 PM, Stephen wrote:
>>
>> well if you have windows servers depending on the traffice you can use
>> DFS quite successfully.
>>
>> If you have Linux servers locally to the clients then i would probably
>> look into rsync
>>
>> the real challenge is how much delta to the same set of files from
>> what locations you will see.. this becomes a logistical nightmare.
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 5:37 PM, James Dugger<james.dugger at gmail.com>
>>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I have a Company that has recently co-located their Windows 2003 Server
>>> to a
>>> datacenter.  The system has been in a LAN environment for 15 years.  The
>>> main file server consists of 2 Dell 2800 poweredge file servers with just
>>> under 2 TB of stored files on these 2 servers in an array (don't know
>>> what
>>> type either 5, or 10).  The company is an engineering firm and so the
>>> project files involve AutoCAD .DWG, .DWF, and PDF drawings, along with
>>> excel, doc, and pst files (exchange server is also co-located with the
>>> database at 16 GB but is physically separate from the file server).
>>>
>>> The clients to this system are now connecting through VPNs to do work on
>>> their workstations.  In principle it sounds great however the biggest
>>> issue
>>> is the AutoCAD drawings.  The average drawing file in AutoCAD Civil3D is
>>> not
>>> small 100K to 250K and each file references other shared networked
>>> drawings
>>> (called externally referenced drawings).  These files can be the same or
>>> larger.  This presents an issue with bandwidth (they are limited to 5Mbps
>>> for the entire firm to share).
>>>
>>> I was thinking that each work site would improve there performance by
>>> setting up an onsite mirror of the co-located file server and that each
>>> site
>>> mirror would sync to the co-located server  2 -3 times per day.  This
>>> would
>>> be only for the file server, exchange would continue pointed to the
>>> co-location site.
>>>
>>> My questions are based on using Linux w/Samba on a file server to mirror
>>> and
>>> sync with the Windows file server:
>>>
>>> 1. What recommendations for FOSS backup synchronization software does
>>> anyone
>>> have experience with that they could recommend for this type of use.
>>>
>>> 2.  Given the fact that populating the mirrors will take an enormous
>>> amount
>>> of time up front is there any recommendations again with item 1. or
>>> procedurally that will make this an easier process.
>>>
>>> 3.   Any other pitfalls or thoughts regarding the VPN, tunneling, ssh,
>>> connections between mirrors etc that come to mind again in relation to
>>> FOSS
>>> software, Linux and Samba.
>>>
>>> Just as a further note, the files stored on the server are standard
>>> Office
>>> documents and AutoCAD formats, as well as jpeg, TIFF, PDF, GIF.  there
>>> are
>>> no databases or web servers running on the system to contend with.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice
>>>
>>> --
>>> James
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen