Making Use of Terabytes of Unused Storage

kernspaltung writes "I manage a network of roughly a hundred Windows boxes, all of them with hard drives of at least 40GB — many have 80GB drives and larger. Other than what's used by the OS, a few applications, and a smattering of small documents, this space is idle. What would be a productive use for these terabytes of wasted space? Does any software exist that would enable pooling this extra space into one or more large virtual networked drives? Something that could offer the fault-tolerance and ease-of-use of ZFS across a network of PCs would be great for small-to-medium organizations."

GlusterFS

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out GlusterFS. (http://www.gluster.org)

You definitely can't run Windows in order to utilize this, but it should be a minimal effort to setup a quick netboot lab to test it with.

Cheers.

Sanmelody

[theoverlay]

Datacore offers software called Sanmelody to turner servers into a cheap storage network and there are other vendor solutions as well. http://infiniteadmin.com/ [infiniteadmin.com]

AFS

[arabagast]

OpenAFS [openafs.org] is a distributed file system. It seems to fit your bill. No personal experience, so don't know how well it actually works.

Solution for Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

There's project dedicated to this on Linux, http://nbd.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net].

If there's nothing similar for windows, you might be able to run it through cygwin.

Actually, this claims to run on Windows: http://www.vanheusden.com/Loose/nbdsrvr/ [vanheusden.com]

Storage

[Genocaust]

I tried to tout the merits something like this could have for non-critical regular user backups, but as previous posters mention, it was shot down.

I was suggesting to run DrFTPD [drftpd.org] as a backend with NetDrive [american.edu] as an access medium. It looks good on paper, but I've never had the chance to apply it so widescale :)

With DrFTPD it's easy to setup whatever kind of redundancy you would want, ie: "at least 3 nodes will mirror all files in /doc" or whatever. NetDrive (and I'm sure there are others) help take away the learning curve and hassle of "here, use this internal ftp for backups, not a network drive" as it will map the actual FTP to a network drive and appear like normal.

Just my 2c.

Re:vista?

[PolarBearFire]

Yeah, according to apple Vista takes up 80GB.

Backup

[m0pher]

If you don't already have a backup mechanism for the data that may be on these systems, one way to use all the available storage is for backup. Vembu StoreGrid a solution designed specifically for this problem. Get more info @ http://www.vembu.com./ [www.vembu.com]

Storage at Desk

[phooji]

is a project at the University of Virginia that tries to do exactly what you describe: take unused storage on a bunch of machines and turn it into a file system. http://vcgr.cs.virginia.edu/storage_at_desk/index.html [virginia.edu]

Re:vista? - DFS

[whackco]

You know, make fun of Microsoft all you want, but they actually have something for this - DFS - Distributed File System. Just create a share with each of these and POOL IT with a DFS system. Then use and manage it to your hearts content with all the midget-donkey-goatse crap you want.

Re:Send them to our troops in Iraq

[eagl]

The drive survived because the 9mm is weak. Get a better gun using a better round, like .40 cal or even a good old .45.

I've had a chance to read after-action reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 9mm is pretty much a joke. Most of the forces that really rely on hangun stopping power have obtained emergency authorization to bypass normal procurement processes in order to get better handguns using better ammunition. To my knowledge, a modern .45 is considered one of the best alternatives.

Re:Send them to our troops in Iraq

[Firethorn]

Nahhh...

Remember, pistol rounds are pistol rounds, and rifle rounds are rifle rounds.

Next time he should test it with pretty much any centerfire rifle.

Re:vista? - DFS

[felipekk]

Running DFS (to serve files) on Windows XP clients? What are you smoking?

From Microsoft TechNet:

The servers that will participate in DFS Replication must run Windows Server 2003 R2.

It is possible to use DFS Namespaces when domain controllers and namespace servers run a mix of Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 without SP1, and Windows 2000 Server, but some functionality is disabled or available inconsistently, depending on the operating systems on the servers.

From: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/1aa249c0-40f3-4974-b67f-e650b602415e1033.mspx?mfr=true [microsoft.com]

It's been done by Microsoft: DFS NameSpaces

[Anonymous Coward]

WoW... it appears you Penguins are just 'reinventing the Microsoft Wheel' (same w/ ZFS fans really) - Microsoft's already been there, & DONE that, & it works.

Imagine SQLServer 2005 blazing away on a Distributed Namespace, spreading it db-devices across 100's/1000's (whatever) of systems, using their idle time for it, & diskdrive read-write heads + RAM & CPU, etc. et al + using a high-speed interconnect, & maybe toss in a few dozen Solid State Drives (placing critical devices onto them, for the clients that use those tables/files/devices the most, you place them locally onto THEIR machine node, etc.), well...

YOU GET THE PICTURE!

So... Hey Penguins, new NEWS:

"It's been DONE (& works + is called DFS NameSpaces)"

By Microsoft, already.

Sesquipedalian verbalization

[CustomDesigned]

Since the Romans invaded Britain, English speakers have used latinate phrasing to appear scholarly. Anglo Saxon words were short and pithy, like "home", "pig", "horse", "cat". But scholars learn latin, so it's "domicile", "porcine", "equine", "feline". In modern English, the choice gives you a palette of moods - like colors on a web page.

Re:vista? - DFS

[hjf]

ZFS ftw http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=729 [cuddletech.com]

Re:Typical IT guy

[kernspaltung]

Way to jump to conclusions about me and how I manage a network. I honestly didn't ask the question as a "control freak", I don't spy on the employees, and I don't play Internet cop. I try to get them the tools they need to do their jobs, help them when things don't work, and otherwise stay out of their way. I also didn't imply the pool would be for me to do with as I please; I can see several ways in which that storage would benefit our business were it not spread out in small chunks. The users have all that space, and they simply DO NOT use it. In our business, they don't have much call for large files like photos, movies, etc. It's mostly spreadsheets and OpenOffice Writer documents. But thanks for being an ass.

Re:vista? - DFS

[RedK]

The poster asked how to use the wasted space on all the Desktops in his business by pooling them as one big hard drive. So yes, we are in fact looking for ways to make 1 big hard drive, not just share files, and yes, we're pretty sure he's not running a Windows Server Family Operating System (tm).

So you can count DFS as a big NOGO.

been done already?

[reiisi]

limitations? [slashdot.org]

And, if you're claiming some kind of market race, you might want to check for relevant dates concerning ZFS [wikipedia.org]

Of course, if you're just trolling, ignore me.

Allmydata "Tahoe"

[n6mod]

I do some work for Allmydata, which an online storage provider. Their next-gen storage technology is open source and nearly perfect for this application. It's a bit green at this point, but coming along nicely. http://www.allmydata.org/ [allmydata.org]