Newb: How do I create a large pool of storage?

[smartin]

Hi,

I need to create a massive (relatively! :-) and expandable storage area for digital images with as much redundancy as practically possible. Ideally it would be accessed using eSATA but gigabit ethernet will do.

I guess I'm trying to create my own local mini-cloud.

I use an OSX client.

Budget is tight! :-)

It's critical that the system never loses any data in the event of a disk/server failure.

I was thinking of using microservers, each with three X 2TB disks set up using RAID 5.

I can set up each individual server but how can I create the 'Pool'? I want to be able to access all the files apparently through one point, not have to browse separate servers.

If I follow this howto using GlusterFs:

http://www.howtoforge.com/creating-a...n-ubuntu-10.04

can I simply create multiple versions of the server and have each instance seamlessly add to my pool of storage?

Will GlusterFs automagically take care of my data should one server/disk fail?

Is there an easier way to solve my problem?

I'd be grateful for any pointers :-)

Thanks

S