NAS newbie

[themightymrp]

We are looking at buying a NAS device to host some network drives/shares. Having never used one before, are they easy to configure for accessing shares from Windows? I'm thinking mapped drives etc? And how do you work with NTFS permissions on them??

 

Any pointers?

[rich_tech]

They are easy enough, you will get them to Auth to your network, most of them can join a domain easily enough within their internal software and you can manage them accordingly then.

 

I would recommend Buffalo ones after seeing two of them in action where I work, also Synology and QNAP make some nice devices that I have seen. We have an 8TB one of these on site :-

LS-QVL : LinkStation

 

Only make I would be very weary of are LaCie after a unit they put our way which was a horrible windows xp embedded thing

Edited March 20, 2014 by rich_tech

[themightymrp]

How do you work with file permissions? Does it just work as though you are connecting to a Windows share? If you manage it remotely I mean?

[rich_tech]

If you get it onto the domain, you can allocate permissions easily enough in its web interface for each share, on both a group and user level if need be, though we tend to control access to the shares full stop here, if they dont have that share, it doesnt map in windows when it comes to the users here.

[ess2k]

We are currently looking at Synology.

Synology - Network Attached Storage (NAS)

[synaesthesia]

We currently using some Synology boxes. We also have countless Bufallo boxes and on their weaknesses I'd advise strongly against them. Slow, unreliable (especially with network/domain credentials) and not worth the hassle considering their lesser price.

[sted]

depends on teh nas box. The (granted cheap) netgear we use for backup you cant add to ad so you would have to create users on them (or script mapping drives with a generic username/password) I suspect one that does iscsi is easiest as the server will just see it as a n other drive

[JPElectron]

I would suggest ReadyNAS by NETGEAR series, very reliable, haven't replaced once yet.

 

Newer models do support AD integration, see: How do I configure active directory mode on my ReadyNAS OS 6 storage system?

 

Alternatively, all models support an internal user/group database - you can use a common username and have several workstations all map a drive letter to that same share, using the same "generic" user.

 

Buffalo Linkstation however, never again, I would like to go all "office space" on the 3 dead units I have besides me...

(Note: NSFW / NSFS audio) Edited March 20, 2014 by JPElectron

[jamesfed]

If your NAS supports it I would forget about any kind of AD integration and look straight to iSCSI (link to a guide on the QNAP website on how to set it up - QNAP - Resources - Tutorials - How to create and use the iSCSI target service on the QNAP NAS).

 

The short version is the NAS box appears as just another hard drive plugged into whatever file storage server you have already. That way instead of managing two setups (your Windows servers and your NAS box) you just keep managing your Windows servers with all the file permissions etc that you are used to already.

 

It looks daunting at first but its a great technology once up and running.

[glennda]

Buffalo support is awful…

[timbo343]

In buffalos defence, we have 4 of boxes and not one, touch wood has ley me down however we only use them as a backup store for our backups. We had a netgear ready nas which first one of the drives failed, then another drive failed then the actual socket on the board failed. It was only in production 2 years.

[ricki]

Buffalos are great while they are working but a pain when they go wrong and support is an interesting experience. Donr forget to have them in pairs so your data is backed up. We used thrm for years ad a back up space but ee would have to repkace one every year

[plexer]

Go for the iscsi option that's what we did to provide additional storage.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Go for the iscsi option that's what we did to provide additional storage.

 

Ben

[themightymrp]

Any mileage in using FreeNAS on a system I build myself? I think that has an iSCSI plugin too...?