Network Raid with FreeNAS?

[Hayze Productions]

Hello Everyone!

I am new to the forum, but i have a couple questions in regards to "Network Raid".
I have a couple websites that are growing with posts, and do plan to do extra larger websites in the future such as Example:  Youtube, Twitch, GotoMeeting Webinars, Etc.
So the reason why i mention network raid, is because SQL databases and storage is needed for all websites. I would love to be able to host all my own equipment at my own office. 
As we all know there are limits with every computer, no matter the motherboard, no matter how many raid cards you use. 
So my main question is, has anybody ever created a network raid with 2 or more FreeNAS Servers, to make a larger storage volume. 

Example: 
Each FreeNAS  has 2TB of Storage available
Create Cluster with both of the FreeNAS Server

Form a Large Storage Volume with both of the FreeNAS Servers Creating 4TB of Storage available over the network. 

Can this be done? If so, How beneficial would it be to the network and data transfer speeds by using 1Gb/s Lan network.
If FreeNAS Does NOT support this kind of storage networking, What software could be recommended for this kind of project?

Hoping i can get some answers on this project! 
All help and info is welcome.  
 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, FabSocial said:

Hello Everyone!

I am new to the forum, but i have a couple questions in regards to "Network Raid".
I have a couple websites that are growing with posts, and do plan to do extra larger websites in the future such as Example:  Youtube, Twitch, GotoMeeting Webinars, Etc.
So the reason why i mention network raid, is because SQL databases and storage is needed for all websites. I would love to be able to host all my own equipment at my own office. 
As we all know there are limits with every computer, no matter the motherboard, no matter how many raid cards you use. 
So my main question is, has anybody ever created a network raid with 2 or more FreeNAS Servers, to make a larger storage volume. 

Example: 
Each FreeNAS  has 2TB of Storage available
Create Cluster with both of the FreeNAS Server

Form a Large Storage Volume with both of the FreeNAS Servers Creating 4TB of Storage available over the network. 

Can this be done? If so, How beneficial would it be to the network and data transfer speeds by using 1Gb/s Lan network.
If FreeNAS Does NOT support this kind of storage networking, What software could be recommended for this kind of project?

Hoping i can get some answers on this project! 
All help and info is welcome.  
 

Ceph, Gluster, Luster etc. The term you are looking for is a Distributed File Sytsem or Parallel File System.

[NelizMastr]

You're either looking at a distributed file system solution or something along the lines of iSCSI on a SAN. The former (dfs) is probably the cheapest option. FreeNAS doesn't really do that, but Ubuntu Server (among others) can handle glusterfs just fine for instance. It was developed for commodity hardware anyway.

[Hayze Productions]

Thank you guys!  This is a big help! I will look into parallel and distributed file system software. 
Not a fan of glusterFS, there installation instructions were severely horrible, and support was no help either. 

[Eniqmatic]

4 hours ago, FabSocial said:

Thank you guys!  This is a big help! I will look into parallel and distributed file system software. 
Not a fan of glusterFS, there installation instructions were severely horrible, and support was no help either. 

I'd have to disagree with you on that, the installation I would actually argue is the easiest of the lot.

[leadeater]

5 hours ago, FabSocial said:

Thank you guys!  This is a big help! I will look into parallel and distributed file system software. 
Not a fan of glusterFS, there installation instructions were severely horrible, and support was no help either. 

Honestly give it a shot, the install instructions just look bad because it actually is so simple there isn't much to explain. I had the same first reaction too and went with Ceph first, I still like Ceph more for what I want but Gluster is way simpler and quicker to get setup. Setup including Linux OS install is about 30 minutes and you have a working cluster storing data.