Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Security and Technology : More Drive Space needed

[bbrog]

Hi, I was wondering I have a server with that holds 4 drives and I have 4 drives in it.

But now the server is running low on space and i offer hosting to clients, what can I do to add additional space besides adding bigger drives?

Thanks!

[eth00]

Contact your datacenter and see what options they have. They might be able to do something like an iSCSI mount. If they don't want to you could always do it yourself....just keep in mind you are adding complexity and probably not worth it at all, you are probably better off getting a second machine and moving accounts over to it.

[gordonrp]

iSCSI is a great and stable solution, but I'd suggest a direct cross-connect for it (you don't want any issues with your local switch being overloaded).

[bbrog]

Hi, sorry kind of new to this. But what is the difference between iscsi and cross-connect?

Since I have a colocated server which i offer shared/reseller hosting on will this be a good idea to get a 2nd server to do storage? Will the first server know where to look for the data at? What are the pros and cons of doing this?

Thanks!

[gordonrp]

No difference, by cross-connect I simply meant to use a LAN cable directly from one server to the other server (on 2nd LAN ports) and run iSCSI over that connection.

Either buy a 2nd machine and move some of the clients to it, or setup the 2nd server for storage use and then use iSCSI protocol to connect to it. Checkout openfiler if you want an out of the box/easy free solution, or just use a plain OS and setup iSCSI.

[bbrog]

Hi, if we use the 2nd machine as storage is it possible to use it as load balancing or cluster also? So that way if the first servers resources get used up the 2nd one will help?

Is this a good idea to do or no?

Do let me know thanks!

[Rapid2214]

Why don't you just use the secound server for new clients?
Instead of making it really complex

[DewlanceHosting]

maybe your some clients are use your hosting for backup purpose or they're hosting a big files?

[bbrog]

Hey, some clients are using it for big files so a server for new clients wont really make a difference.

Thanks for all the great help so far let me know.

[Rapid2214]

So did you oversell?
You could make a new server, for new clients, have a partition on it for iscsi and then mount that on your first server but only for some client, probs using symlinks.

[bbrog]

Hi, well wouldent call it overselling thats why im looking for ways to increase space by mounting another server for them so they get 100% of the space they paid for.

Thanks for the help everyone it really helped!