Help with DAS for storage and distribution

duke000088

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Mar 17, 2017
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I work with scientific imaging systems that collect ~100GBs of data per day. A dual Xeon workstation runs the acquisition software and contains a few TB drive for caching the data and temporary storage (RAID 5 I believe). The entire system is "self contained" and moves around between institutions, so a network storage solution is not practical.

My users typically need to retrieve their data on USB3 external drives. Ideally, I would want the ability to conduct multiple data transfers simultaneously (plug in a couple drives at the end of the day, drag and drop files, head home for the night).

I'm wondering if a multi-TB DAS would allow me to:
1. Transfer new data off the internal drive to a safe, large collection of drives
2. Be a "transfer station" for users to plug in and grab data without impacting the performance of the main internal drives (which would still be running acquisition or analysis software).

Anything beyond a USB3 external HDD is foreign territory for me. I've read up on the overall concept of DAS. Seems about right for what I want. But I'm pretty confused about the specific interfaces between the primary PC and subsequent peripherals for withdrawing data off.

Is there a more obvious solution to a situation like this?
 
Solution
EDITED: fix some typo's

actually the most basic concept of DAS is your "USB3 external HDD", also an external enclosure for HDD is a DAS... most common DAS interface are USB and eSATA.

here are some:
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/hard-drives-external/direct-attached-storage-enclosures

also regarding your questions:

1) yes. choose a DAS with HOT SWAP. so you can remove a HDD that full and put it in a safe.
2)that depends...if the user right now is copying files using the "USB3 external drive" impacting the performance?
also the setup i had in mind is like this.

workstation <-> DAS ----user just remove/ install there own HDD to copy off data. the DAS doesn't need to be removed. (of course you will need a hot swap...
EDITED: fix some typo's

actually the most basic concept of DAS is your "USB3 external HDD", also an external enclosure for HDD is a DAS... most common DAS interface are USB and eSATA.

here are some:
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/hard-drives-external/direct-attached-storage-enclosures

also regarding your questions:

1) yes. choose a DAS with HOT SWAP. so you can remove a HDD that full and put it in a safe.
2)that depends...if the user right now is copying files using the "USB3 external drive" impacting the performance?
also the setup i had in mind is like this.

workstation <-> DAS ----user just remove/ install there own HDD to copy off data. the DAS doesn't need to be removed. (of course you will need a hot swap DAS and NOT running any RAID in the DAS)
 
Solution