ReadyNAS 3200 - Volumes, Single or Multiple?

[arbar]

Hello all, could I get some feedback on configuration options...

I have 2 new ReadyNAS 3200s that I intend to use as iSCSI targets serving 2 Windows 2008 R2 servers with the File Server Role and DSF for replication. (We are decommissioning a Netware server with about 6TB of project data files)

What would Best Practices suggest regarding the initial setup of the ReadyNAS boxes.

X-RAID2 or Flex-RAID (RAID 6)
- I don't expect to add drives or replace them with larger sizes
- I like the idea of having a hot spare in addition to the RAID6 protection

Single Volume (X-RAID) or Multiple Volumes (Flex-RAID)
- remember this will be purely for iSCSI targets
- I will have a bunch of iSCSI targets so I don't NEED one giant volume

How many Volumes can be created on the 3200?
- I read somewhere 4 was the limit but is this the case on the 3200?
(other limitations discussed don't apply to the 3200 like the 2TB file and iSCSI target size limitation)

Would multiple volumes be safer in regards to possible corruption and volume check/rebuild times? Possible loss of data if something goes bump in the night?

Thanks

[dengar]

Hi Arbar-

Good questions. Here are some considerations and best practices.

1. Why not use CIFS and rsync for the file sharing and replication? iSCSI with DFS from the host is fine but puts a load on your servers that you could shunt off to the ReadyNAS. If you have lots of complex DFS relationships you may want to stick with Windows.
2. X-RAID will let you grow your volumes (and the LUNs on them). It's usually the simplest way o get started and gives you choices that FlexRAID can't.
3. We support 4 volumes. If you use FlexRAID with each volume protected with a parity drive, you'll be far less efficient in drive capacity usage.

One argument for multiple volumes is that snapshots are done on a volume basis. Snapshotting your LUNs will be a big job, so you may not want to do it, but if you wanted to separate tasks (put a VM on a LUN, for example) you might consider using a dedicated LUN.

There's a beta software version out that gives you support for more than 2TB, and it will be finalized shortly.

HTH