what is the best way to use free space on several boxes?

[Graham Todd]

On 12/09/10 09:14, Zeus V Panchenko wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> we have several FreeBSD 8-STABLE boxes, each has 2x500GB HDD in gmirror
> UFS dedicated
>
> but really it's used less than 30% each box ...
>
> so, advice please, what is the best/correct/right way to use the free
> space on the boxes? nfs? zfs? iscsi?
>
> the aim is to have storage place ...

Have you tried hastd? I believe at this time it only syncs to one remote 
node but Mikolaj Golub has documented how to build a "stacked" HAST setup 
out of 2x2 systems.  I think the plan is for hast to be able to use 
multiple nodes

Otherwise you could iscsi export files/volumes from each box (i.e. made 
with truncate or dd) and then use those into a zpool. I'm guessing that if 
you then nfs exported the file systems from that pool things could be a 
bit slow though :)