BIG filesystems and BIG files.

[Eyal Lebedinsky]

Brett Worth wrote:
> 
> Does anyone on the list have experience with large filesystems with large
> files on Linux?
> 
> What I want to do is 1Tb of usable space for the minimum amount of money.
> I'm considering the 160Gb IDE drives.  Assuming I had 8 spindles,
> my questions are:
> 
> 1. Should I use software RAID on many IDE controllers or is a RAID card the
>         way to go?
> 2. If its a RAID card then is one model recommended?
> 3. What filesystem would be the most stable at these higher capacities?
> 4. I guess I'll need to modify any utilities that have to access these
>         large files.  Is this true or can some utilities handle large files?
>         (Like dump/restore, dd)

I have 6x160GB in a RAID. I use the PCI/IDE cards from Dick Smith (yep,
$56 including two cables - and they do see the full 160GB). You will
also need the latest IDE patch.

The main problem is that the PCI slots get awfully busy (AGP video,
SCSI,
NIC, 3xIDE). The IDE card with the sockets are just a bit too wide. I
wonder
how you fit 4 of these PCI cards.

I run XFS over software RAID5. I do not care much for speed (this is
space
for backups). For speed you will want faster PCI (64/66), properly
balanced.
The 3ware 7500-8 will probably do a good job here but will add some
cost.
AU$1550 at cougar - almost the cost of 3 disks. US$500-550 in many US
shops.

--
Eyal Lebedinsky (eyal at eyal.emu.id.au) <http://samba.org/eyal/>