I want to build a custom disk storage system to store backup of my customers' data. My main concerns: _ Enclosure: rack-mount form (preferably 4U). _ Storage density: Able to combine as many 3.5" hard drives as possible (preferably hot-swap). _ Works well with consumer-grade 3TB 3.5" SATA drives. _ Support RAID 6. _ Lowest investment cost possible. This is the first time I try to build this kind of system. The above criteria are results of my hasty research on data storage over the last few days. If I miss anything important please let me know (e.g. I've read a lot about SAN,NAS,DAS,... but still not sure how these concepts apply to my situation). P.s: Please also tell me if you know any pre-built commercial solution that fits the criteria above.
Is there a price they'd like to stay with or not? Does it have to be in a rackmount case? What is the function of this unit? RAID 6 is a little more uncommon, so that might make things trickier than finding a RAID 1/0/5 setup. I'm a little foggy on RAID 6, but IIRC it offers an second redundancy disk in the array and puts the minimum up to 4 disks. SAN, NAS, and as a guess on DAS are some sort of networked storage solutions. I haven't done this sort of setup before, but I know SuperMicro caters to the server environment and you might start looking as to what chassis or chassis/motherboard setup they offer.
With the right software (front-end and back-end) compression, dedupe, snapshot and delta updates etc, the right business plan, the right up-front capital expenditures and a lot of luck you can make a go of it. Obviously, backblaze is offering unlimited backup for as low as 3.96 per machine per month. As per them they are profitable. In any case, this is a risk-filled investment like many online propositions. Its up to you if everything you need to fund... Both front and back end software, capital equipment purchases and monthly expenses such as power, bandwidth, personnel, advertising etc is worth it based on your projections.|
