Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
Kevin Shackleton kev...@reachnet.com.au writes: Any thoughts on multi-disc NAS devices, firmware capability and drive formats? They vary wildly, and are frequently good only if you can accept a slow, large storage system. They are seldom good for fast storage, and especially storage needs that want IOPS rather than streaming read/write. Looking at a mirroring dual-drive device for reliability, but what happens if the box dies - are the drives ext2/vfat/proprietary? Yes. Specifically, it really depends: some vendors just have a tiny Linux, some use a dedicated RTOS with some random format. Some use VFAT32, or NTFS — anything that also has a USB device side port is probably VFAT or NTFS, for compatibility with Windows. Are they all SMB/ftp or do some require Windows-only client software? Yes. Some devices require Windows-only software, others do SMB, ftp, HTTP, NFS, NCP, AppleShare, or some combination of the above. Regards, Daniel -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
I must say after years of filling up old Compaq servers with SATA disks and then having said servers die after 18 months, I just gave up and went and bought a Dlink DNS-343 and put 4 x 1TB disks in it RAID 5. It's great. It's shuts down the arrray after xx mins of inactivity, uses very little power and makes hardly any noise. It runs a 2.6 kernel, uses Linux software RAID, it's quick and took less than 10 mins to set up. The filesystem is ext3 and the box runs Samba. On start up, it looks for a script to run which allows you do install extra software, ssh, ftp, telnet, apache, anything you need (It is intended as a NAS though) so it's infinetely hackable if thats what you want to do. Since I turned off my DL380 filer server for the last time, my power bill has gone down, my garage is quite and I have a neat solution I can grab in case of a bush fire (we live close to bush in northern sydney). Highly recommended. Barrie The manual for the Dlink DNS-323 dual-disc NAS shows the drives are ext2 or ext3 format (selectable). Therefore if I use RAID1 I will not only have drive redundancy but each drive ought to work in a PC should the box fail. Anyone tested this? (of course a model 343 running RAID5 woould be very wizzy but I doubt the drives data would be recoverable by a dunce if the box failed) In respect of firmware, the devices are version 1.06 (better than 1.00??). A quick look through freenas didn't bring up any familiar devices it would run on as firmware and I didn't really want an old PC sucking up power all day to function as NAS. Thanks, Kevin. . On Sat, 2009-03-14 at 11:05 +1100, Sonia Hamilton wrote: * Kevin Shackleton kev...@reachnet.com.au [2009-03-14 08:04:44 +0900]: Any thoughts on multi-disc NAS devices, firmware capability and drive formats? Looking at a mirroring dual-drive device for reliability, but what happens if the box dies - are the drives ext2/vfat/proprietary? Are they all SMB/ftp or do some require Windows-only client software? Kevin, I asked a question on SLUG about this several months ago [1]. While not directly relevant to your question about firmware, I got some good replies, especially about a specialised NAS distro called http://www.freenas.org/. [1] http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2009/01/msg00037.html Sonia -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 05:29:22PM +1100, Barrie Hall wrote: I must say after years of filling up old Compaq servers with SATA disks and then having said servers die after 18 months, I just gave up and went and bought a Dlink DNS-343 and put 4 x 1TB disks in it RAID 5. It's great. It's shuts down the arrray after xx mins of inactivity, uses very little power and makes hardly any noise. It runs a 2.6 kernel, uses Linux software RAID, it's quick and took less than 10 mins to set up. The filesystem is ext3 and the box runs Samba. On start up, it looks for a script to run which allows you do install extra software, ssh, ftp, telnet, apache, anything you need (It is intended as a NAS though) so it's infinetely hackable if thats what you want to do. what sort of performance do you get from it ? Since I turned off my DL380 filer server for the last time, my power bill has gone down, my garage is quite and I have a neat solution I can grab in case of a bush fire (we live close to bush in northern sydney). Highly recommended. Barrie [snip] -- After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week we will have an all-volunteer army! - George W. Bush 10/16/2004 Daytona Beach, FL signature.asc Description: Digital signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
Sorry - this is getting off topic from where I was looking for a trustworthy (ie Linux) firmware on a drive box. But discussion all the same . . Maybe speed is important in some apps, but not my main concern. What if you had just forked out $3k to digitise some (ok - at lot of) slides, delivered on DVD by the contractor. Step 1 - put them on secure drives - you probably have 14 days to complain about if the DVD worked or not. Step 2 - work out some form of storage that's going to be longer lived than the slides themselves (don't tell me about DVD longevity). Step 3, split storage so that you have some sort of fire protection. Kevin. On Sat, 2009-03-14 at 20:46 +1100, Alex Samad wrote: what sort of performance do you get from it ? -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
Sorry - this is getting off topic from where I was looking for a trustworthy (ie Linux) firmware on a drive box. But discussion all the same . . Maybe speed is important in some apps, but not my main concern. What if you had just forked out $3k to digitise some (ok - at lot of) slides, delivered on DVD by the contractor. Step 1 - put them on secure drives - you probably have 14 days to complain about if the DVD worked or not. Step 2 - work out some form of storage that's going to be longer lived than the slides themselves (don't tell me about DVD longevity). Step 3, split storage so that you have some sort of fire protection. Kevin. This whole data retention over many years thing is a both a huge problem and a huge opportunity for the industry. We are seeing a lot of activity in commercial backup offerings. (Backup your stuff to the cloud). This is really catching on in the US. My approach is to have to 1) A good local NAS (my DNS-343) with RAID 5 and 2) Some DAT tapes. DAT tapes don't work for most people (the drives are expensive, etc ,etc) but I have DAT tapes from 1995 which are still readable and the 40G format works for me. I think GP has two choices: 1) Backup to the cloud 2) Buy a second NAS, sync it to you primary every couple of months and take it off site. Barrie -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
Any thoughts on multi-disc NAS devices, firmware capability and drive formats? Looking at a mirroring dual-drive device for reliability, but what happens if the box dies - are the drives ext2/vfat/proprietary? Are they all SMB/ftp or do some require Windows-only client software? Thanks, Kevin. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
* Kevin Shackleton kev...@reachnet.com.au [2009-03-14 08:04:44 +0900]: Any thoughts on multi-disc NAS devices, firmware capability and drive formats? Looking at a mirroring dual-drive device for reliability, but what happens if the box dies - are the drives ext2/vfat/proprietary? Are they all SMB/ftp or do some require Windows-only client software? Kevin, I asked a question on SLUG about this several months ago [1]. While not directly relevant to your question about firmware, I got some good replies, especially about a specialised NAS distro called http://www.freenas.org/. [1] http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2009/01/msg00037.html Sonia signature.asc Description: Digital signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] NAS storage compatibility
The manual for the Dlink DNS-323 dual-disc NAS shows the drives are ext2 or ext3 format (selectable). Therefore if I use RAID1 I will not only have drive redundancy but each drive ought to work in a PC should the box fail. Anyone tested this? (of course a model 343 running RAID5 woould be very wizzy but I doubt the drives data would be recoverable by a dunce if the box failed) In respect of firmware, the devices are version 1.06 (better than 1.00??). A quick look through freenas didn't bring up any familiar devices it would run on as firmware and I didn't really want an old PC sucking up power all day to function as NAS. Thanks, Kevin. . On Sat, 2009-03-14 at 11:05 +1100, Sonia Hamilton wrote: * Kevin Shackleton kev...@reachnet.com.au [2009-03-14 08:04:44 +0900]: Any thoughts on multi-disc NAS devices, firmware capability and drive formats? Looking at a mirroring dual-drive device for reliability, but what happens if the box dies - are the drives ext2/vfat/proprietary? Are they all SMB/ftp or do some require Windows-only client software? Kevin, I asked a question on SLUG about this several months ago [1]. While not directly relevant to your question about firmware, I got some good replies, especially about a specialised NAS distro called http://www.freenas.org/. [1] http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2009/01/msg00037.html Sonia -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
