Tuesday Tech Tip - An Overview of the Network File System Protocol

It's that day of the week again, Tech Tip Tuesday!

In this week's tech tip, Mitch gives us an overview of the Network File System (NFS) protocol. He explains the background of NFS, why it's useful and gives us a mini-tutorial on how to set up an NFS server, client and mounting a share.

Check it out below!

As always - we welcome your feedback! Leave a comment below or suggest a topic you would like to see covered in this series. New Tech Tips are released every Tuesday!

Be sure to check out our GitHub and our technical articles on our Knowledgebase.

Tuesday Tech Tip - How Should You Use The Cloud?

We're back this week with another Tuesday Tech Tip!

Today it's all about the Cloud. Our lead engineer Brett Kelly, talks about the differences between cloud computing and cloud storage. He even tells us how we can build our own publicly accessible cloud using the tools and infrastructure you may already have! Check it below.

Each Tuesday, we will be releasing a quick tech tip video that will give users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers. This...

As always - your feedback is welcome! Feel free to leave a comment below on a topic you would like to see covered in this series. New Tech Tips are released every Tuesday!

Be sure to check out our GitHub and our technical articles on our Knowledgebase.

Tuesday Tech Tip - How To Replace a Motherboard Inside Your Storinator

Archie makes his debut in this week's tech tip!

Here at 45Drives we do things a little differently. We're not about locking you in - that's why we're opensource. But, that also goes for our hardware!

We use enterprise commodity hardware making it easy to swap out and replace parts - as they can be bought right off the shelf.

In this week's tech tip Archie, our field application specialist is showing us how to replace the motherboard inside a Storinator. Check it out below!

As always if you have any questions leave them in the comments on YouTube or below!

Be sure to check out our GitHub and our technical articles on our Knowledgebase.

Tuesday Tech Tip - Configuring CTDB 4.9

Our lead engineer Brett Kelly tackles a user-submitted question in this week's tech tip!

This particular user asked us to go over the new configuration that comes with CTDB 4.9. If you've been following our tech tips you'll notice we've covered this before, but things changed with CTDB.

Check out this week's tech tip below to learn more!

Thanks for the question, Thomas! If you have a question you want to ask - leave a comment. You might just be our next tech tip!

Be sure to check out our GitHub and our technical articles on our Knowledgebase.

Storinator Buying Guide, Part 2

The Storinator Buying Guide is available to help you determine what size Storinator you need for your data storage solution. In this part of the guide (part 2), we will discuss considerations to make based on your use case.

Storinator Buying Guide (Part 1)

Determining what storage application works best for you can be a difficult task. Luckily, we have an amazing support team and plenty of great resources to help you get the right 45Drives storage solution for your specific needs.  

If you are out of storage or running out of storage but are not sure what you need – this guide will help you decide which Storinator storage server and configuration is best for your data needs.

Tuesday Tech Tip - Linux RAID vs ZFS RAID

Each Tuesday, we will be releasing a tech tip video that will give users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers.

This week, Mitch gives you a comparison of Linux vs ZFS RAID, giving you scenarios where you would use one over the other, and a tutorial on how to set up each one.

Be sure to check out our GitHub and our technical articles on our Knowledgebase.

Tuesday Tech Tip - Ceph and Its Components

This week, Mitch gives you an overview of what Ceph is at its core, including a look at the components that are needed to make up a Ceph storage cluster. 

Be sure to check out our GitHub: https://github.com/45drives 

Be sure to check out our technical articles on our Knowledgebase: http://knowledgebase.45drives.com/

Tuesday Tech Tip - ZFS Read & Write Caching

Each Tuesday, we will be releasing a tech tip video that will give users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers. 

This week, we tackle a commonly asked question here at 45Drives. Brett talks about how ZFS does its read and write caching. 

Be sure to check out our GitHub: https://github.com/45drives 

Be sure to watch next Tuesday when we give you another 45 Drives tech tip.

Tech Tip - IPMI Security

In this week's tech tip, Mitch walks us through the process of patching your IPMI and offers a few tips and tricks to secure your motherboard for any future issues that may occur.

Check it out below and let us know what you think!

Each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video that provides information on various topics relating to open source, data storage, storage servers, the Storinator and more! If you would like a topic covered, let us know in the comments!

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to ensure you don't miss a video!

Resources:

Check out our IPMI Security blog: https://45drives.blogspot.com/2019/09... Be sure to check out our GitHub: https://github.com/45drives

Tech Tip - ZFS 80 Percent Rule

In this week's tech tip, we're debunking the ZFS 80% rule!

Today lead engineer Brett Kelly is talking about ZFS writes and the "mystical" 80 percent rule.  Check it out below.

 

Don't forget, each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video that gives our users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers. If you would like a topic covered, let us know in the comments!

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to ensure you don't miss a video!

Resources: 

• Be sure to check out our GitHub: https://github.com/45drives

Tech Tip - Expanding a Ceph Cluster

Curious how you expand a Ceph Cluster? We can help!

In today's' tech tip, lead engineer brett kelly is explains everything you need to know when planning to expand your cluster.

 

Don't forget, each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video that gives our users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers. If you would like a topic covered, let us know in the comments!

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to ensure you don't miss a video!

Resources: 

• Be sure to check out our GitHub: https://github.com/45drives

Tech Tip - CentOS and FreeNAS

In today's weekly tech tip, Mitch discusses the advantages and disadvantages of CentOS and FreeNAS! Check it out below and be sure to watch the ending and help us with our office debate.

Don't forget, each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video on various data storage topics and questions from our users, followers, and fans! Tune in next Tuesday at 3pm and hit subscribe on our YouTube channel to ensure you never miss a video!

Your Guide to IPMI Hardening and BMC Security

Some of you may have seen the recent stories about security flaws found within the Baseboard Management controllers (BMC) within SuperMicro Motherboards. While this is indeed very serious, many of the articles were somewhat misleading by taking something that is by its very design, a very powerful feature - and giving the impression that the feature itself is the flaw. This is not the case, and the BMC is something many System Admins rely on in the enterprise daily.

Tech Tip - Clustered Storage and Windows Active Directory (User Request)

We're back with another Tech Tip and this week we're answering a question from one of our users. 

In this tech tip video, our Lead Engineer Brett Kelly goes more in-depth to answer a question from one of our users about joining a clustered storage solution. If you have ever wondered how to join a clustered storage solution into a Windows active directory or just want to learn something new today - check out the video below! 

If you have a question you'd like to ask, let us know!

Each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video that gives our users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to ensure you don't miss a video!

Tech Tip: ZFS Snapshots

This week Mitch is telling us all about ZFS Snapshots in under 5 minutes!

Did you know ZFS Snapshots can be mounted read-only to allow for the recovery of files or to roll-back an entire file system to the last time a snapshot was created? If you want to know more about ZFS Snapshots such as what they are, why they are useful and even some of their limitations - check out these weeks 45Drives tech tip below!

Each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video on various data storage topics and questions from our users, followers, and fans! Tune in next Tuesday at 3pm!

Tech Tip: Why CephFS is Great

We use the term Ceph a lot, but have you ever wondered what it actually stands for? Our lead engineer Brett Kelly, gives a great explanation in this week's tech tip! He also talks about CephFS and why he thinks it's the best-distributed file system out there. Hear what he has to say below!

Don't forget to subscribe to our Youtube channel, where we release a new tech tip every Tuesday at 3pm!

Tech Tip - Choosing the Right RAID Configuration

How do you choose the right RAID configuration? Our 45Drives engineers are here to help answer that question! Check out this week's Tuesday Tech Tip to find out the 5 main aspects to consider when choosing your RAID levels.

Tech Tip - Surveillance Software on the Storinator

Did you know your Storinator has the power to be both, a local storage target and a high-performance server that can manage your video recording software? 

Even if you may already have an existing infrastructure in place that handles things like camera management and local monitoring, your company may be required to store more footage than your current infrastructure will allow. 

Check out this weekly tech tip to where Mitch talks about using your storage server as a storage target for network video recording software. Check it out below! 

Tech Tip: Measuring Component Stats in your Storinator

Each Tuesday, we release a quick tech tip video that helps give our users information on various topics relating to our Storinator storage servers.

This week, Mitch is showing you the various ways to find and monitor the component stats inside your Storinator. Check it out below! 

Be sure to watch next Tuesday, when we give you another 45Drives tech tip.

Tech Tip: Using Ansible for your IT Infrastructure

Curious about Ansible? Our lead engineer Brett Kelly, is telling us all about it in this week's Tech Tip! to find out why we love using this automation tool here at 45Drives and how to use Ansible in your infrastructure - check out the video below!  

Tech Tip: Network Bonding with CentOS

This week on our weekly video tech tips series we are talking about network bonding on CentOS and why it's useful. Check it out below to learn more. 

Tech Tip: Direct-Wired Architecture of the Storinator

Ever wonder how we make our storage servers so fast? Well, you're in luck! In this weeks tech tip, our lead engineer Brett Kelly is talking about the architecture of our Storinator storage servers.

Check out the video below to find out how we wire our storage servers and how we make them super-fast!

Tech Tip: Backing your Storinator up to the Cloud

We're back this week with another tech tip! Did you know you can back your Storinator up to the cloud? Chris tells us all we need to know in this weeks 45Drives tech tip. 

Tech Tip: Setting Up Remote Management

Each week we release a 45Drives Tech Tip from one of our team members. These short tech tips videos cover some of the most frequently asked questions we receive from storage users, customers. fans and followers.  

Learn How Ceph's New Dashboard is Easy to Use and Enterprise Ready

Some people are under the impression – if it’s free, it can’t be enterprise. We’re here to tell you that’s not correct. Although Ceph is free, it carries some amazing features that validate its enterprise capabilities. In this blog, I want to focus on the Ceph dashboard and its features.

What makes the dashboard so amazing?

Hardware RAID Vs. Software RAID

 How to Protect Your Data Using ZFS

A question often asked in the server industry is, ‘what’s better - software RAID or hardware RAID?’ If you research this topic, a lot of the information about RAID suggests that a hardware RAID card is preferable to using a Software RAID.  But I don’t agree. In my opinion is that, for most applications, Software RAID is far better than hardware RAID.  Hardware RAID does have a place under certain OS’s, but I’m going to tell you why Software is generally far superior.  

What is Ceph & Why Our Customers Love It

In this blog and the series of blogs to follow I will focus solely on Ceph Clustering. Many people are intimidated by Ceph because they find it complex – but when you understand it, that’s not the case. I want you to leave this blog with a better understanding of what Ceph is and why you should use it – then I want to dive into how it works and eventually get into some testing and results performed here in our 45Drives lab.  But first let’s start with the what, and the why.

The majority of our customers are interested in storing files - so we will focus on that capability (CephFS) in this blog. 

Ceph Cluster using 5 XL60 Storinators and 3 Ceph Monitors