On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Dwayne Reid wrote: > I've heard of ZFS previously but know absolutely nothing about > it. =A0I'd like to learn more. > > I have a small Windows Home Server (v1) box with 7TB of active > storage. =A0I'm currently using about half of that, perhaps less. > > I quite like this little box - its made by Acer and has an adequate > Intel Atom processor on the motherboard. =A0Underpowered by today's > standards, but it seems to work. =A0The box also has an eSata port on > the back, along with several USB 2 ports and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet > port. =A0Its intended to be a 'Headless' box but an internal connector > has VGA video, PS-2 keyboard/mouse and even a TTL-level serial port > available. =A0I started making a cable for it but never did finish - I > never needed it. > > Microsoft concatenates all 4 drives into a single data pool using > something they call "Drive Extender". =A0However, apparently some > random failure somewhere can render the drive pool broken and its > supposedly a real pain to fix. > > Microsoft never did fix the problem and their new Windows Home Server > (v2) doesn't include Drive Extender, nor did they ever come up with a > replacement. =A0I guess that means that all those hard drives appear > just a bunch of drives (I assume). > > Although I've never been bit by that rare, random Drive Extender > failure, the fact that it is a possibility bothers me. =A0I'd at least > like to learn of alternatives before I get hit. > > Assumption: ZFS doesn't run under Windows. =A0I saw FreeBSD mentioned > and I'm guessing that it runs on several or all of the Linux variations. > > > Question: as a complete, clueless Linux newbie (I've run Ubuntu > several times and played with Puppy Linux a couple of times), what > easy method would exist for me to build a system that runs the ZFS > file system and gives me an approximate equivalent to Windows Home > Server. =A0The ideal situation would be where it could run on the > existing hardware that I have (Atom processor with 2GB RAM and 4 Sata dri= ves). > > The other 'sort-of' requirement is that I can run either LogMeIn on > it or some other Windows-friendly remote access software. =A0I've heard > of TeamViewer but know absolutely nothing about it. > > > I know that I could be starting a lively discussion here - please: no > flames. =A0I'm genuinely interested is seeing what alternatives exist > for me to use something like ZFS for my home server box. > > If anyone knows of something that provides similar reliability and > the ability to make multiple drives appear as a single drive pool > under Windows, I'd really like to hear about it. =A0That's in addition > to hearing about the best way to deploy a Home Server kind of box > that uses ZFS natively - and is Windows friendly on the client side. I would start with FreeBSD (I'm going to be messing around with it right now to get a feel for it before I decide to deploy it on my servers). --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .