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14-07-2007, 11:42 AM
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Stuck in IKEA. Send help.
Group: Administrators
Location: St. Albans, Melbourne
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RAID-5 External NAS recommendations?
I'm running out of space for my digital goodies and need more pronto. I have a few requirements:
- 5 slots for SATA HDDs (or 8 HDDs)
- RAID-5
- Gigabit Ethernet (or eSATA/FW800)
- Reliable
- cheap (well, as cheap as one of these sort of things can get)
Also after the same thing, but with 3 slots for RAID-5 instead 
Last edited by decryption; 14-07-2007 at 11:52 AM.
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14-07-2007, 11:58 AM
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Member
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne, Vic
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Toms hardware guide have a huge section on NAS reviews.
You could always build a cheap one yourself though.
Do a quick google on building your own Raid 5 NAS.
Cheers
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14-07-2007, 12:20 PM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by decryption
- cheap (well, as cheap as one of these sort of things can get)
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Cheap? pfft.. I somehow don't think so. Anything remotely decent is atleast 1K upwards before you add drives.
EDIT: The thing that worries me and others too. Is the investment is quite large for such a item. I'd be concerned with spares for such a purchase. Might be fine for the first few years, but after that bit more difficult.
I've had friends consider the purchase of a PC and then a nice hardware based PCI-e raid card. However the problem I have with that, is the single point of failure is that card. And when they cost about $1300 for something with 12 ports, your not going to buy 2. So what happens if that card fails. Pretty much screwed to access the data on those drives.
I came to conclusion that since processors are now so fast, that software raid is probably the better solution to future proof itself. Since moving the drives in a software raid group on linux from system to system (should the system die) is pretty easy and works. But with the hardware based raid card solution it's not easy at all.
A blog entry I found a few days ago was an interesting read, not entirely related to the NAS stuff, but still a worthy thought. Considering everyone is going to need some sort of digital storage at home as the next few years progress. Click here for a read.
I personally think I'll setup something on Linux/OpenSolaris/*BSD based with a proven software raid, for the sake of being able to migrate it up through hardware failures (without the need to invest heavily into something that might not have spares around in 5 years time).
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Last edited by purana; 14-07-2007 at 01:16 PM.
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14-07-2007, 01:53 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Hobart, Tasmania
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http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/satakits.php
Just been looking at these, might be of some interest.
__________________
If it is hidden, it is the flower - Zeami, Noh playwright
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14-07-2007, 02:05 PM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkhum_Eramak
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Nice enough, not quite a NAS. As these still need to be connected to a host. But not bad. Those external cases are generic, I remember seeing same style in beige. They don't appear to easy to find in Oz though, as buying a few suitable firewire to sata bridges is easy, but not a suitable case.
__________________
MacBook 2.4Ghz C2D Superdrive w/ 4Gb ram, 160Gb HDD (White)
iMac 20" 2.16Ghz C2D w/ 3Gb ram, 256Mb video ram (White)
iPhone 3G 8Gb
1Tb Time Capsule
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14-07-2007, 02:15 PM
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Stuck in IKEA. Send help.
Group: Administrators
Location: St. Albans, Melbourne
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That 8 bay case looks tasty. Is it possible to get one of those, pop 8x 750GB SATA drives in it, hook it up to a PC running FreeNAS via eSATA and then have FreeNAS handle RAID-5 for it? I'm guessing the drives appear as 8 individual drives when plugged in to the system?
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14-07-2007, 03:38 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Brisbane
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I have one of these
http://ht.com.au/N/-29+-82+-135/part/U8794/detail.hts
I bought it as disk-less unit and before it was taken over by Netgear.
Managed to pick up for 1K
No problems at all
__________________
C2D MBP 2.4 Ghz, C2D MBP 2.2 Ghz, 1st Gen iPod mini 4 GB, 1st Gen iPod nano 2 GB, 5th Gen iPod 80 GB
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14-07-2007, 11:59 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Toongabbie, NSW
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__________________
... and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
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15-07-2007, 03:59 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: \\AU\Vic\Dandenong_Nth\
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If you don't mind DIY you could scrounge up some parts and try FreeNAS.
Quote:
FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, PHP scripts and documentation are based on M0n0wall.
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iBook - [PPC G3 600 | 384MB RAM | 40GB HDD | OS X 10.4.11]
iPod - [3rd Generation | 20GB | FW 2.3] + [Touch | 8GB | FW 2.1]
iNetwork - [Airport Extreme 802.11n | Airport Express 802.11g | WDS] |
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15-07-2007, 07:53 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Western Sydney, NSW
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How about the drobo. At least you can start small with not all drives being the same size and scale up from there.
Chris
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nightelves, suryo, TheKeddi
Last edited by purana; 15-07-2007 at 08:17 AM.
Reason: Fixed hyperlink
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15-07-2007, 08:18 AM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cgollner
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Never heard of this, but just looking at it now. Looks rather interesting. Will have to do a bit of informed research.
Thanks for details.
EDIT: watching the video clip from the CEO and well it's pretty impressive. I think this unit is pretty funky, shame it's usb2 connected  But I still reckon I could be convinced to buy one. Since it works with PC and Mac (seems they have software to monitor it on both platforms).
__________________
MacBook 2.4Ghz C2D Superdrive w/ 4Gb ram, 160Gb HDD (White)
iMac 20" 2.16Ghz C2D w/ 3Gb ram, 256Mb video ram (White)
iPhone 3G 8Gb
1Tb Time Capsule
Last edited by purana; 15-07-2007 at 08:30 AM.
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15-07-2007, 10:31 AM
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MacTalk Podcaster
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne
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All I wants is a Drobo.
USB 2 means I can plug it into an airport extreme base station for NAS.... well I hope I can. |
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15-07-2007, 10:43 AM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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I believe the Drobo has no international shipping, or so I read somewhere. Might have to contact them to confirm. It's not cheap either. $499 USD
__________________
MacBook 2.4Ghz C2D Superdrive w/ 4Gb ram, 160Gb HDD (White)
iMac 20" 2.16Ghz C2D w/ 3Gb ram, 256Mb video ram (White)
iPhone 3G 8Gb
1Tb Time Capsule
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15-07-2007, 11:46 AM
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MacTalk Podcaster
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by purana
I believe the Drobo has no international shipping, or so I read somewhere. Might have to contact them to confirm. It's not cheap either. $499 USD |
Those two factors are the reason I haven't purchased one. It does everything I want. Just need to get one here without breaking the bank. |
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15-07-2007, 01:11 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: The Red Centre
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quamen
All I wants is a Drobo.
USB 2 means I can plug it into an airport extreme base station for NAS.... well I hope I can. |
Apparently you can...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....47084�
This guy says his drobo works fine off the AEBS USB port by itself, but less so if it's sharing a USB hub with his printer... |
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