Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Guy Boisvert]

Rob Townley wrote:
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 12:35 PM, Les Mikesell <[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> wrote:


Joseph L. Casale wrote:

The Dlink DNS-323 looks exactly what you are asking of


What a procedure to hack that thing!

The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is
that down the
road, there's always some function you'd like to add -
but you can't.
You've hit the limitations of the box.


That's why I want to put straight Linux on it:)

As fun as hacking that thing would be, I might just buy one of
the tiny
boards, but for the price if I brick the DNS-323 it would still
be fun
and I wouldn't really care!




http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/readynas_specs.swf
 



I had the ReadyNAS NV+ and finally sold it because i found it too slow 
and too choppy.  To reach its full potential, which on paper is supposed 
to be able to transfer around 30 MBps (i never go that), you have to use 
jumbo frames and gigabit ethernet.


The problem is that the CPU is very slow.  The ReadyNAS was supposed to 
offer shell access but it never happened during the time i had it.  The 
ReadyNAS was one of the fastest on the market if not the fastest.  Then 
Infrant was bought by Netgear.


Sure it had many cool features like their X-Raid technology.  The casing 
was slick and solid.  I used it for storing my music (i do disk jockey) 
and the ReadyNAS was choppy.  It seems to be weak at multitasking 
requests (playing a song while searching for another).  Playing Music 
was glitching while i was doing a "filesystem search", not cool for a DJ!


I replaced the thing by an Asus micro-ATX mainboard and an Athlon Dual 
Core 4600+ i had here (there's so cheap now!).  I took the 4 hard drives 
i had on the ReadyNAS (Western-Digital 500 Gigs RAID Edition) and i do 
software Raid 5 with CentOS 5: the result is very good (transfer around 
35-40 MB/s and the cpu usage is low).  I experienced the Samba problem 
that made "disconfort" to Winblows XP but it's fixed now with the update 
of Samba.


If you're not into performance, one of these boxes could do it but don't 
expect something zippy.  Don't expect high transfer rate.


Guy Boisvert, ing.
IngTegration inc.
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Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Rob Townley]

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 12:35 PM, Les Mikesell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Joseph L. Casale wrote:
>
>> The Dlink DNS-323 looks exactly what you are asking of
>>>
>>
>> What a procedure to hack that thing!
>>
>>  The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is that down the
 road, there's always some function you'd like to add - but you can't.
 You've hit the limitations of the box.

>>>
>> That's why I want to put straight Linux on it:)
>>
>> As fun as hacking that thing would be, I might just buy one of the tiny
>> boards, but for the price if I brick the DNS-323 it would still be fun
>> and I wouldn't really care!
>>
>
> The most demanding operation you'd want such a server to do is probably
> feeding video/media files to a DLNA client like an xbox360 or PS3 which
> sometimes involves transcoding the content.  You'd probably get the most
> specific advice about device capabilities on the forums for those programs
> (mediatomb, for example, which runs on a lot of the small network hard
> drives).
>
> --
>  Les Mikesell
>   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/readynas_specs.swf
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Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Les Mikesell]

Joseph L. Casale wrote:

The Dlink DNS-323 looks exactly what you are asking of


What a procedure to hack that thing!


The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is that down the
road, there's always some function you'd like to add - but you can't.
You've hit the limitations of the box.


That's why I want to put straight Linux on it:)

As fun as hacking that thing would be, I might just buy one of the tiny
boards, but for the price if I brick the DNS-323 it would still be fun
and I wouldn't really care!


The most demanding operation you'd want such a server to do is probably 
feeding video/media files to a DLNA client like an xbox360 or PS3 which 
sometimes involves transcoding the content.  You'd probably get the most 
specific advice about device capabilities on the forums for those 
programs (mediatomb, for example, which runs on a lot of the small 
network hard drives).


--
  Les Mikesell
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Toby Bluhm]

Joseph L. Casale wrote:



What's involved in building an embedded version of CentOS for a Soekris or 
similar
small mobo? Is that a feat worth considering or is the work involved huge?


Centos 5 supports 686 or better. I *think* the geode is a 586 type cpu.

Something like Puppy or DSL would probably be better. The hw vendor may 
say what it can run - hopefully something less generic than just "Linux."



--
Toby Bluhm
Alltech Medical Systems America, Inc.

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RE: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Joseph L. Casale]

>The Dlink DNS-323 looks exactly what you are asking of

What a procedure to hack that thing!

>> The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is that down the
>> road, there's always some function you'd like to add - but you can't.
>> You've hit the limitations of the box.

That's why I want to put straight Linux on it:)

As fun as hacking that thing would be, I might just buy one of the tiny
boards, but for the price if I brick the DNS-323 it would still be fun
and I wouldn't really care!

What's involved in building an embedded version of CentOS for a Soekris or 
similar
small mobo? Is that a feat worth considering or is the work involved huge?

Thanks a lot guys!
jlc
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Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Lorenzo Quatrini]

Toby Bluhm ha scritto:
> Joseph L. Casale wrote:
>> I am looking for something that I can hack away like a NSLU2 but that
>> thing only has one disc
>> and worst of all its 100m interface. Anyone know of a device you can
>> load Linux on that has
>> maybe 2 discs like a NAS200 with a gig nic? I need a quiet device to
>> act as a tftp-dhcp/web/dns
>> system.
> 
The Dlink DNS-323 looks exactly what you are asking of

> The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is that down the
> road, there's always some function you'd like to add - but you can't.
> You've hit the limitations of the box.
> 
The Dlink can be easly upgraded; I can't find an english page now, but I guess
you'll find all the info that you need googling a bit.
It has gig nic, 2 disk and a bittorrent client. If you want you can add other
clients (like mldonkey) on a kind of chrooted environment and with a bit of
hacking you can also install a full Debian inside (but this involves soldering
a serial interface, for what I can understand), is quiet and is quite flexible
on the configuration even on the standard configuration.
I just saw one yesterday, and looked interesting; the owner is fully satisfied.

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Regards
Lorenzo Quatrini
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Re: [CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Toby Bluhm]

Joseph L. Casale wrote:

I am looking for something that I can hack away like a NSLU2 but that thing 
only has one disc
and worst of all its 100m interface. Anyone know of a device you can load Linux 
on that has
maybe 2 discs like a NAS200 with a gig nic? I need a quiet device to act as a 
tftp-dhcp/web/dns
system.


The problem I see with going the all-in-one NAS route is that down the 
road, there's always some function you'd like to add - but you can't. 
You've hit the limitations of the box.




I thought of just building one from a new Soekris board, or even a mini itx but 
hope there was
something simpler/cheaper.



Or even micro-ATX. I saw recently that AMD came out with a clocked-down 
 Athlon. The total package wattage was projected to be lower than 
Intel's Atom. If I can find that link . . . . .


. . . here it is:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html


--
Toby Bluhm
Alltech Medical Systems America, Inc.

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[CentOS] OT: Home NAS device

[Joseph L. Casale]

I am looking for something that I can hack away like a NSLU2 but that thing 
only has one disc
and worst of all its 100m interface. Anyone know of a device you can load Linux 
on that has
maybe 2 discs like a NAS200 with a gig nic? I need a quiet device to act as a 
tftp-dhcp/web/dns
system.

I thought of just building one from a new Soekris board, or even a mini itx but 
hope there was
something simpler/cheaper.

Thanks for any reco's!

jlc
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