[Gllug] Cheapish NAS.

[Dan]

Hello Roger.

On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 4:01 AM, general_email at technicalbloke.com <
general_email at technicalbloke.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I could do with a bit of advice, it seems I have an embarrassment of
> options to choose from! The question is what would be the best
> replacement for my client's ancient win2K file server. They are an
> architects office with ~6 PCs on Gb Ethernet. Many files are quite large
> so throughput fairly important. Budget is ~£450 (pre VAT) for hardware
> and they want at least 1.5Tb of usable space in it. Expandability is
> desirable (naturally) but not pivotal.
>
> <snip>
>
> I'm eager to know what you would do. All advice warmly welcomed, even if
> it's "your budget isn't big enough!". I have to say I'm very tempted by
> Option 1: almost zero maintenance and virtually no time to setup is a
> big win IMHO but I'd rather recommend the right thing than satiate my
> laziness! ;)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Roger.
>
>
> * i.e. Better than their current backup regime. I know the other options
> ought to be "very well backed up" too but I haven't got round to talking
> backup with him yet, he currently just plugs in one of two USB HD's in
> every other day and seems fairly happy doing that. I think using RAID 0
> for the main server would mandate a more serious, regular, automated
> backup system!
>

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.

Dan
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