Best Network Storage Device - LAN 2-4TB

[karan_jhr]

I want to maintain backup of my servers for that I am looking for a fast a reliable Network storage device of atleast 2TB

 

The device must have a fast Ethernet connection and if possible must support USB as well.

 

I have used Lacie, WD & NetGear but the speed of data transfer is very slow on 100Mbps LAN. Even the software provided is not powerful enough to do lots of things.

 

Any recommendations plz?

[adhutton]

We just got one of these and it seems really good - Cisco Small Business NSS 322 2-bay NAS Enclosure.. | Ebuyer.com

 

Not the cheapest, but a free HDD at the moment and a nice piece of kit.

 

Andrew

[CVGeek]

Hiya,

 

Take a look at Drobo. They have a range of products with eSATA, USB3 and iSCSI conections. We use a Drobo FS 5bay Which has a 1Gb network connection and also the Drobo Elite which has 2 x 1Gb iScsi connections.

 

I cannot be more happy with them. Our Elite serves as our main network data storage and has 4TB in it at the moment, but if you want a fast expandable NAS to put your backups then the Drobo FS is the way to go.

 

Let me know if you want more info or prices as we resell them.

 

Kind regards.

[karan_jhr]

thanks

I hears synology devices are good as well !!

anyone ever used it ? any feedback on it?

[bio]

We have a QNAP here

 

bio..

[m25man]

You only get what you pay for, so research your requirements carefully first and what your peak loads will be.

 

If you want performance you will need a decent CPU, as many spindles as you can afford and at least two NIC ports if you intend to service lots of clients.

 

If you plan to use iscsi and want to share the storage make sure the unit supports shared storage the Drobo Pro doesn't but the Elite does!

If you intend to use it in a Virtual Environment make sure it has the VMware or Hyper-V HCL approval.

Be sure your chosen vendor has a level of support you are comfortable with.

 

Everyone of the major storage suppliers have offerings from £500 - £5000 to do the job but as always the budget is likely to determine your final selection.

Just don't sell yourself short! Determine your real needs and sell these to the SMT and Finance.

[FN-GM]

I wouldnt go with any of the buffalo products.

 

We have had problems in the past joining it to AD and also the hardware has failed a good few times. The technicial support was also useless. Overall the experience wasnt good.

[dirtydog]

We have a QNAP here

 

bio..

 

Yep us too from recommendation here - really happy with QNAP

[m25man]

I wouldnt go with any of the buffalo products.

 

I would beg to differ, without the Terastation in my workshop I would have nothing to Fry Eggs on!

[karan_jhr]

i have a very powerful computer with 6gb or ram etc

Is it possible to use my computer as the File-server or Files Sharing server?

If there is a good software available for it?

Any windows based software?

[dhicks]

Is it possible to use my computer as the File-server or Files Sharing server?

 

Certainly - you'll need to add some harddrives to it, obviously. What drive bays does the machine have free? If it has 3 5.25" drive bays free at the front then you can get a 5-disk array enclosure. You'll need enough SATA ports to plug those hraddrives in - you'll probably have to get an expansion card to fit in the back of the PC to add some more SATA ports.

 

Windows Server will share files just fine by itself. If this is already a server machine we're talking about here then you should be fine. Actually, if you are running a small network with only a few clients then you can just use any version of Windows, although if you have a Windows domain you should probably be running the latest version of Windows Server on the machine (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1).

 

You don't have to use Windows, there are several all-in-one Linux distributions available that are desgined to do file sharing. Lots of people here use OpenFiler, which might be worth a look.