Hello OMV team,
Hello forum members,
This is my first post and I am expecting much from it, as I've been getting really bored these last months with reading contradictory and/or unjustified explanations in various forums about the subjects below.
In a nutshell, I have around 200 TB data (work, music, video, (retro)games) stored on multiple individual USB hard disks and I now want to get this data properly stored and secured.
NOTE 1: given the amount of movies I own at the time of writing this message, I am not considering to include my movies in this storage project. As a result, the project will deal with the remaining data, i.e., around 100 TB of archived data.
The constraints of the desired target architecture is the following:
1) A (powerful) PC (namely "the server") that embeds a (virtualized ? / containerized ?) OepnMediaVault distribution (version >= 6, presumably 7.x), is connected to a direct-attached storage (DAS) unit by means of either a unique SAS or USB 3.2 Gen 2 or Thunderbolt 3 direct connection (No USB / Thunderbolt hub beteen the PC and the DAS).
2) The DAS unit should contains at least N bays x 20 TB hard disks, where N = 8, ideally N = 16, more realistically N = 12 if I can find such a ready-to-use enclosure in Europe at a reasonable price. Yes, as you guess, the budget will be a key factor to determine the amount of bays, 8 being a minimum.
NOTE 2: given the above obvious financial constraint that might impact the final number of bays, I am considering that I might soon or later run short of storage space in my DAS, and that therefore, my conclusion is that I do not want to embed both the server and the storage in one single box, hence the choice for a dedicated "stupid" DAS box...
NOTE 3: some potential ready-to-use DAS candidates examples that I may consider for a purchase are:
- QNAP TL-D800C or TL-D800S (the SAS version of TL-D800C)
3) The OMV instance embedded in the server MUST fully drive and manage the SAS-or-USB 3.2-or-Thunderbolt 3-connected DAS disk unit.
4) Required: the OMV instance embedded in the server MUST make it possible to configure and manage the DAS' HDDs according to a RAID 5-like paradigm.
QUESTIONS :
Q1) Given the configuration constraints exposed above in 1) and 2), can an OMV instance manage a connected DAS as described in 3) and 4) ?
Q2) If so, which configuration (SAS-connected DAS, Thunderbolt-connected DAS, USB 3.2-connected DAS) is the most recommended configuration to properly work with OMV ?
Q3) As mentioned earlier, some people pretend that RAID over USB is a non sense, and/or that such a configuration paradigm would undoubtedly lead to data loss or to whatever kind of unpredictable apocalyps, rarely explaning why, and above all, never mentioning whether they refer to individual USB HDDs connected to the PC "server" or whether what they consider as undesirable configurations also embraces USB 3.2 / Thunderbolt 3 DAS connected to a PC.
So, in a nutshell, can somebody CLARIFY this point for the particular USB or Thunderbolt-based DAS configurations I am currently considering as potential purchases ?
Q4) Can the OMV team or some forum members tell me about their experience with using OMV with any OWC or QNAP product listed in above NOTE 3 ? Is OMV compatible with one or several of these DAS ?
Q5) Are there any N>=8-bay DAS model that you could recommend me as good DAS solutions to buy or build compatible with OMV ?
Sorry again about the length of my message,
Expecting your answers,
Kind regards,
Chown
