Homelab FC storage

[werner.zeller]

Hello, I'm looking for a free fc storage for a homelab. I did not found a working setup with freenas or openfiler with fc qlogic cards. Who has a working solution with a step by step guide?

Thank you very much!

[daphnissov]

I have never heard of a free fibre channel implementation for a home lab, mostly because the physical layer is quite expensive. Why specifically are you wanting FC over either iSCSI or NFS?

[werner.zeller]

Hi Thanks,

I have Qlogix NICs and Switch to my P2000 MSA, but I need a shared storage with more throuput and diskspace...

Thanks!

Werner

[sjesse]

Your only real option cheap  is to find a card you can set to a target and try using a cheap box and try something like freenas(not supported by them) or maybe windows but thats very difficult. The optimal answer is search ebay for something cheap, but there is nothing for free, even fcoe from what I've seen

[Raudi]

but I need a shared storage with more throuput and diskspace...

Even with NFS or iSCSI you can create a shared storage... Use a 4 bay storage from QNAP or Synology and put in 4x 1TB SSD's in a RAID5, this must have throughput...

[Raudi]

Manny years ago i used this one: https://www.open-e.com/products/data-storage-software-v7-soho/pricing/​

It worked very well, but more stable is real hardware solution. After that i was using a very long time a Promise VTrak E610f storage, because here i can use every harddrive model.

[werner.zeller]

Hi Raudi

thanks, but I can only see NFS and iSCSI not FC., 4TB would be enough for testing...

Best regards

Werner

[Raudi]

Ah, o.k. then they have changed that, now it seems that you must buy the full DSS to have FC. Perhaps you ask if this is correct...