[Gllug] Network file server (for home use)

[Andy Farnsworth]

Richard Jones wrote:
> I've determined to centralise all the photos, music, etc. spread
> across laptops and desktops at Jones HQ onto a network file server,
> mainly so that it's all in one place and can be backed up.  I need at
> least a terabyte to handle current & future storage, and really it
> should be RAID-1 + backup (in other words, 3 * the storage).  Oh, and
> fast too ...
>
> Nowadays there seems to be a new class of device which has some sort
> of motherboard and OS, and space where you plug in a certain number of
> harddrives, for example:
>
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-SC101-Storage-Central/dp/B000AL5H7A/
>
> I just chose that one at random, but all these devices seem to get
> miserable reviews on Amazon.
>
> An alternative seems to be some sort of midi-tower sized enclosure and
> perhaps a fanless mini-ITX motherboard and Linux.  Better for me
> because I can install and manage Linux, make sure the firewall is
> configured properly and so on.  But unfortunately I'll need something
> which is really quiet (logical place for this is going to be in the
> living room), and it seems like (quiet cases /\ large enough to
> contain 4 or more HDDs) = empty set.
>
> Do GLLUGers have any ideas about this?
>
> Rich.
>
>   
If you build your own system you can put in 3 or 4 drives (500gb are 
cheap today) and run in RAID 5 mode (Give up 1/3 storage for 
redundancy).  You can run these with a mobile CPU, underclock it, and 
put a big speed controlled fan on it and the fan will run very slowly if 
at all.  Your biggest noise makers at that point will be the drives 
themselves.  You could bump up to 1 Tb drives which should reduce the 
noise, but that will cost more and reduce the redundancy for a given 
storage size.

Just out of curiosity, have you seen drobo?  (www.drobo.com) data 
robotics, it looks good, but is USB rather than network.

Andrew
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug