Topic: NAS Device vs. PC Running NAS Distro vs. SME as NAS Device

[ntblade]

Hi all,
I need to add some backup storage to an existing network and having considered NAS Device vs. PC Running NAS Distro vs. SME as NAS Device I thought I'd ask for advice here.  I've looked at some cheap devices offering 500GB - 1TB of storage which look OK but I wasn't too happy about the possibility of a drive failing and not being notified so I ruled them out.  Next I looked a various mini Linux NAS distros but found a few stories of flaky performance.  So, at the moment I'm installing SME 7.2 onto this...
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=12785&category_id=65&manufacturer_id=0
with 2 x 500G drives and 512M RAM.

Now, I know that SME might be overkill in terms of using this hardware just for NAS but at least I know that if a drive fails I'll be notified, It'll work with a UPS and It'll be rock solid.

Anyone care to comment?  I'm open to suggestions as to the best way forward.

Thanks
Noz

[henry44]

I have been using FreeNas with either Raid 1 or Raid 5 in software for some time now. The FreeNas boxes have been stable and trouble free. The newest build has some nice features. There was some issues with transfer rates with older builds, but I have had no issues. I use this distro to serve video to the TV over a 1000T lan with no lag.

I have had some issues trying to use SME for just file storage. The newest build is power hungry and demands too much to use old kit. FreeNas runs well on old PIII stuff with 512mb ram.

I haven't found any other distributions that work as well as FreeNas for just file serving. Your milage may vary.

[p-jones]

I found FreeNAs to be a dog. Of all the releases, I only ever got one to install correctly on very conventional hardware. Being an Rsync server out of the packet was great but it ended up being too much trouble. I ended up using a second SME Box and have never looked back.

[ntblade]

Thanks for the replies,

I found FreeNAs to be a dog. Of all the releases, I only ever got one to install correctly on very conventional hardware. Being an Rsync server out of the packet was great but it ended up being too much trouble. I ended up using a second SME Box and have never looked back.

How did you mount the shares?

Thanks

[p-jones]

ntblade - No, it is not possible to consider mounting the shares when it wont go past the installation stage.

[ntblade]

Sorry,  I don't understand what you mean.

N

[p-jones]

The product will not install correctly to start with - essential for creating and mounting the volumes.

[shell]

Hi N,

Are you talking about mounting between the 2 SME's, if that was the path chosen as opposed to FreeNAS?

I used this command to connect up one share on a storage only SME (otherserver) to an ibay (files) on my main SME...
 
smbmount //otherserver/share /home/e-smith/files/ibays/files -o username=admin,password=XXXXX

I run it straight from the command prompt.  there is probably a way to automate....

Cheers,
Shell

[ntblade]

Yes, that's what I'm after so it would be something like...
//server/share    /mnt/tmp   smbfs   username=xxx,password=xxx  0 0
in /etc/fstab.

Thanks

N

[judgej]

That's a fine looking NAS/appliance box. Let us know how it goes, because I may pick up a few them myself, just for RAID file sharing and backups in the office.

I haven't looked at FreeNAS for a year or so, but from what I remember, it was no good in multi-user environments, which is essential in many of the ways I tend to use network storage. If it supports multiple users, with different privileges on shares, then it may be time for another look (so I can use some *really* old PCs gathering dust).

-- JJ