[Gllug] Cheapish NAS.

[Peter Cannon]

Dan wrote:

> Thinking things through Roger.  If I were you I wouldn't touch
> OpenSolaris unless you know what your doing.  I also wouldn't go down
> the shitty (my opinion) NAS boxen route.  I just don't like them.  I
> find them a compromise in to many respects.  Performance, upgradability,
> interface, etc.
> 
> I would build a low price box that had a big case and lots of onboard
> SATA2 ports.  Put FreeNAS on there as it's free and fairly simple.  I
> would only use RAID 1.  As you don't want to worry about data recovery
> for a RAID 5 system.  Bung in as many drives as you can fit in there. 
> When the customer wants more capacity just bung even more drives in.
> 
> You can do this within your £450 budget.  If they were happy with IDE
> speeds over a Fast Ethernet connection or single gigabit Ethernet, I'm
> sure they'll be thrilled with anything running on dual gigabit with
> SATA2 drives.
> 
> As for backup solution, I'd recommend an online backup solution as well
> as using a couple of external terabyte drives which they alternate. 
> That should have you covered for speedy recovery through the external
> drives and complete disaster via the online service.  One thing I would
> say once the data on the FreeNAS box goes over 1 TB.  You'll need either
> larger external backup drives or use them in pairs which is a bit messy.
> 
> Just my two sense.  Begin flaming now.

Having just spent the last week or so playing with FreeNAS on a resurrected
Celeron IDE box I'd say this suggestion is probably the best. You can try
OpenFiler http://www.openfiler.com/ but I found it a bit overcomplicated for what
in effect is a simple requirement.

Get a nice clean case and your customer will be a happy bunny. Also note FreeNAS
comes with loads of 'services' options such as rsync and ssh so its pretty good
for free software.

Take a look at some of the refurbished stuff around, off the top of my head (I'm
in the trade) you should be able to pick a box up with a rubbish SATA drive
(40-100GB) for about £70-£80 +VAT. Western Digital (Green) 1TB SATA drives are
about £67 on ebuyer  (Inc VAT) you could put something nice together for £300 Cost
you just need to stick a disgusting markup on it :-)

-- 
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Peter Cannon

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