Free SAN Storage Software for Linux

Question

I'm looking for a free solution to build virtual disk targets accessible over SAN (iSCSI). Primary requirement for me is data deduplication support. After much search on the internet i came across quadstor (quadstor.com) and nexentastor (nexentastor.org). nexentastor isn't on linux but since they include everything as an iso its fine by me.

But i haven't been able to get any reviews on these software. Has any one had experience with either ? Have i missed any other obvious solution ?

Cheers

Solution

If you're tied to Linux, then you can take a look at building something with IET (http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/) for hosting iSCSI targets, and LessFS does block level deduplication (http://www.lessfs.com/wordpress/). I'm not sure about the production-readyness of LessFS though - I've never heard of anyone using it in anger.

That said, this appears to be a no-brainer for something like FreeNAS (freenas.org) or OpenIndiana (http://openindiana.org/) - neither of which are Linux but both would be my first choice of doing something like this, on a budget of zero.

Nexenta's also pretty good, but as you point out, that's not Linux either.

Comments

[MDMarra]

Welcome to Server Fault! Please read the faq. This kind of discussion-oriented question is off topic.

[Nils]

SAN is fibre channel. iSCSI is IP.

[MDMarra]

@Nils not accurate. There are iSCSI and Infiniband SANs as well as FC. Having FC interfaces is not the defining characteristic of a SAN.