How to make a server cluster | Linux

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FieldWolf

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Jul 20, 2016
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Hi Toms,

I would like to make a redundant storage system in my household, as we keep a lot of important information on our hard drives. I would like to know if it is possible to create a large pool of storage from multiple servers.

I have 4 servers on hand, each with 24TB of storage (4x6TB HDD), these will however be set up in RAID5 on all the systems.

I will have the servers connected via ethernet, and will have them placed in different areas around the house, as far away as possible. What I want to do though, is something I have trying to do research on, but I can't find any sources on how to do it.

So my plan is:
All 4 servers must be connected as a RAID 5, so that if one server wants to commit suicide, then I can atleast replace the part that went wrong, and have the server up and running again, and not lose any of my information.

As I said, we store very important and personal things on our drives, and if can worry less about losing our data, that would be awesome.

Hope to hear from you guys soon.
 
Solution
WyomingKnott
I would recommend that you use one or more of these machines as a backup node, and run "continuous backup" software. This type of software backs up file changes as soon as they are made, with a small delay. This will protect you from loss of data due to the failure of a single machine (if the backup machine fails, the data is still on the original machine).

I would also recommend that you get multiple external drives and back up to them periodically. Store these off-site. One lesson we had beaten into us by the first attack on the World Trade Towers was that backups stored on-site are not adequate in case of a physical disaster. If your files are important enough that you would still want to have them even if, God forbid...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I have 4 servers on hand, each with 24TB of storage (4x6TB HDD), these will however be set up in RAID5 on all the systems.
Click to expand...
All 4 servers must be connected as a RAID 5
Click to expand...

That is way too much 'redundancy', electricity use, noise, and wasted drive space for a single household.
IMHO, anyway.

So in theory you have ~100TB in total drive space, but actually 18TB for each system, and then 54TB across all 4 servers.
And all susceptible to a single flood/fire/robbery/virus.
 
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
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I would recommend that you use one or more of these machines as a backup node, and run "continuous backup" software. This type of software backs up file changes as soon as they are made, with a small delay. This will protect you from loss of data due to the failure of a single machine (if the backup machine fails, the data is still on the original machine).

I would also recommend that you get multiple external drives and back up to them periodically. Store these off-site. One lesson we had beaten into us by the first attack on the World Trade Towers was that backups stored on-site are not adequate in case of a physical disaster. If your files are important enough that you would still want to have them even if, God forbid, something happened to your whole home, you need either cloud backup or physical offsite backup.

If you tried to build a RAID array with drives on different machines, you would probably find that it takes five minutes or so to save a text document, and that reading email would take all day. Not a practical idea.
 
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Solution
USAFRet

USAFRet

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Take 3 of those drives.
Copy anything really critical (scan of birth certs, marriage licenses, etc, etc, etc) to those.
Have 1 at home, 1 in a desk drawer at work, 1 in a safe deposit box at the bank, or at your brother in laws house.
Rotate and refresh once in a while.

Off site storage.
 
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FieldWolf

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Jul 20, 2016
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Wow, ok. Thanks everyone. I actually have a backup plan setup for this, it is off-site backups, as an extra precaution. It is constantly monitoring my current system and duplicating files from that system to itself every hour. I was thinking of just upgrading the HDD storage in that server, so that it can handle the capacity of the 4 other servers in total.

But, I have decided to go with this:
4 servers all in the household, 2 of which is going to be set up in a RAID 0 for the quick transfer speeds to the main storage pool, and the other 2 in a RAID 5. Those 2 that are setup in RAID 5 will then backup every hour to the off-site machine. I posted this here just to hear what you guys think of it.

Oh, aswell. The off-site backup server has been running in a RAID 5 this whole time, and I'm thinking of adding more drives and taking it up to a RAID 10. This backup server also has a secondary backup server, right above it actually, that backs up the data after the main backup server has backed up the data from my home network every night.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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2 individual servers, in a RAID 0 across the LAN?
I'm not sure that can be done (without specialized equipment), and the LAN aspect would completely destroy the dubious benefit of the RAID 0.
I'd be glad to be proven wrong, though.

How much actual data do you have for 'safekeeping'?
What is this data?
 
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FieldWolf

Commendable
Jul 20, 2016
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The servers will be set up in a RAID 0 individually, so that in Windows Explorer I will see 2 different shared pools. These will not be RAID 0'ed over the network at all.

The RAID 5 servers will then back up those 2 RAID 0 servers every minute, and then those RAID 5 servers will be backed up to the off-site backup server at 7am and 7pm.

All the backups will be done using Comodo backup on Windows 10.
 
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