Harry Putnam wrote:
I've been looking into setting up or getting somekind of nas
storage/backup capability lately so thought I'd ask about it here
since I'm sure some of you will be using something or will have built
your own.
After looking at a few on google .. I'm a little surprised at the high
end pricetags and even the midranges for a factory made setup.
Makes me wonder what if anything I'd be missing, functionality wise,
if I were to build it up myself.
I see these storebought things are mostly running a small embedded
linux os.
The lowend stuff like WD `mybook 1tb world Edition II' advertises
gigabit throughput but I see many reviews that report way less in
practice. In fact it started to look like that particular one is way
below its advertised capability. I ran across many complaints about
dreadfully low write speads. Also apparently has some sorry thing
called Mionet for (secure) remote access.
I'm thinking of doing something like a semi-minimal regular (not
embedded) install on a P4 I have with asus P4C800 mobo and some 2 gigs
ram. Maybe add an extra sata controller (the mobo has one) so I can
put up to 6 or so sata disks on it along with one small IDE disk for
the OS (just to head of any problems related to installing on sata)
Maybe start with 2 500 sata disks and build up as I need it. Or more
likely `if I need it'... I kind of doubt I'd need more than 4 anytime
soon so maybe wait on the controller part too.
I guess I'd connect to it mostly thru samba/cifs for windows XP
machines that have lots of biggish graphics and video type stuff to
backup/store. And nfs for my main gentoo desktop.
I wondered what the downsides are compared to a medium range
storebought rig?
A few I can think of are space and noise.. but having never been
around our run a nas setup... I'm not sure if that is really true.
Anyway, a few thoughts on what I might be running into doing it myself,
or missing compared to storebought. Maybe maintenance
considerations.. or whatever, wodld be welcome.
I know its a little OT, but I have to mention ZFS. It'll mean running
Solaris or FreeBSD in order to get the best out of it, but it's worth it.
I changed my fileserver from a gentoo box with software raid and lvm
over to ZFS on OpenSolaris and I haven't looked back. Gentoo is still my
main OS but I think you just can't beat ZFS for a filer.
Just check it out and see what you think.
--
Matt Harrison
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