Advice on Networked Attached Storage (NAS)

[Neuroguy]

Hi Everyone,

I am setting up a new research laboratory in a couple of months. I am looking for advice on Networked Attached storage devices. I would like something with RAID 0/1 and maybe RAID 5. It is important that the device be readily and easily accessible by Macs and PCs, as the lab will have to be (groan) a mixed environment. Storage need not be huge, 200GB to 1TB would be more than enough. I have looked at some options and so far the Synology and LaCie BlueDisk seem to look pretty good.

Anyone with any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave
(Neuroguy)

 

[italiano40]

I use a linux box that is connected to my router and that controls all the data coming and be revived from my NAS and highly recommended especial if you have a lot of computers connecting to one location

 

[pilotError]

I personally like the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. I have one that serves both Mac and PC in the house. It does a lot more than basic storage. I'm not sure about Raid 5, but it does have something called XRaid which allows you to upgrade the individual drives without having to rebuild the set.

It has other services for media sharing and iTunes server, but in a business environment, that's not what your looking for.

It also comes with EMC backup software and 10 licenses for backing up both PC and Mac to the NAS.

 

[punter]

I just made a pc running ubuntu, raid 5, with terrabyte drives and a system drive.

The pros are its cheap, the raid 5 can be expanded by adding another drive, and its powerful and flexible. It currently does all my downloading overnight and soon will be my tivo and media player using myth tv.

The cons are that it is complex and big. You have hurdles to jump with loading the os, getting it to run headless, raid 5 is technical to setup (terminal intensive), getting time machine to backup to it is a hack, and so on. I like my macs, they work out of the box, so my advise is if you want a simple nas, just get one of those two/four drive cases. Q nap or something? Save yourself the hassle.

 

[.mark.]

have you looked into drobo? they have an add on that you can buy to make it a nas (drobo share). They seem very flexible and easily expandable.

http://www.drobo.com

 

[carfac]

I picked up the D-Link NAS DNS 323. It is wired right into my router, and it is 10/100/1000. It holds two drives, either individual/JBOD/RAID 0/RAID 1. I have a server sitting around I was going to run, but I was a bit intimidated with getting it all running; plus, like someone else noted, it is BIG and sucks power. The DNS 323 is toaster sized, and is essentially plug and play. It has a built-in iTunes and uPNP server, too,

There is a fairly active hacker community for the DNS 323, too (google it, with the term "forum", too, you'll find it).

I am streaming all iTunes music (WAV format) and DVD rips to my network, including 2 iMacs, 2 wireless PC laptops and a Vista Media Center. All I had to do was add the Network drives to each computer, and I am good to go!

It formats and saves to HD in standard UNIX ext2 format, which is a plus, I think. Solid format. It will support Time Machine as long as you have not gone to 10.5.2 (Apple cut off 3rd party Network drives for Time Machine use with 10.5.2, at least that is my understanding. If you set TM up with 10.5.1, you can then up your Mac to 10.5.2, and it will be "grandfathered" in).

It has a user configurable power saving feature (power down after XX minutes of non-use), and comes back up in 20 seconds.

And QUITE affordable- I got mine for 159, and then I got a 40 dollar rebate, so $110 net (plus drives). FWIW, the 40 dollar rebate ended May First; there is a 20 dollar rebate through 5/31.

Downside- no RAID 5, and only two drives. But you CAN daisy chain a couple of these together.

So I recommend this one!

(I had a Netgear and HATED IT)

 

[fijidaddy]

i cannot get my nas-323 to connect and gain an ip on my airport extreme for the life of me.

the nas-323 is good, but i am thinking drobo is a better sureshot way to go.

anybody have the same issues?

 

[Neskeens]

DNS Buffering

Getting an IP from Airport Express is easy. Its on the first page of the setup. However I have issues of buffering after 10-11 min while watching movies or playing music directly off the DNS 323. Any suggestions???

 

[tomllama]

I considered a NAS for my home network and ended up buying an HP MediaSmart home server. It provides the centralized disk support for data files but also provides backup for all the computers in the workgroup (Mac via Time Machine and PC directly). It does not do RAID directly but does allow you to select folder duplication to ensure you have copies of data in case of a disk failure. The speed of a RAID is generally lost over your ethernet LAN anyway, even with a gigabit network so why spend more for one?