mattpant Posted April 30, 2007 Posted April 30, 2007 Hi Folks, Our server is slowly running out of storage space and I'm thinking of putting in place some kind of NAS storage device. Can anybody recommend anything in particular or something that will work well? We are running a Windows Server 2003 Network with Active Directory; I have about 1000 users on the system. I was looking at getting something like a 1.5 to 2 TB drive I've been looking at the Buffalo TeraStation Pro II and also RM’s version “NASBox†which uses Windows Storage System platform. http://www.rm.com/Secondary/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD477914 (Don't go buy the price on the website, been quoted better) I’m looking for something that will be simple to setup, and that I can easily move the data from our current servers hard drives and create new folders and share on the NAS device,, although I’m guessing that I’ll probably have to re-create all the shares/permissions etc etc Is there anyway in setting these devices so that they “think†they are just a new hard drive in the server, and extend the current partition size so the server thinks that the storage drive is now a 2TB disk instead of a 250GB disk? Cheers, Matt
Ric_ Posted April 30, 2007 Posted April 30, 2007 You could always do it 'properly' and add a SAN.... adding the storage as you need it. The disks then appear local to your servers.
mattpant Posted April 30, 2007 Author Posted April 30, 2007 Sounds good... any pointers or links that anyone could suggest/recommend? ... also if it turns out that cost is a problem, any tips on the NAS! Cheers, Matt
ajbritton Posted April 30, 2007 Posted April 30, 2007 Watch out on lower end NAS boxes for poor Active Directory integration. For example, both Buffalo and Iomega claim some of their NAS boxes will integrate with AD, but it only works if your AD domain is in Mixed mode. Now some ADs may be still in Mixed mode, but if they have been upgraded to Native mode (2000 or 2003) then there is no going back. Whatever you consider, check the user forums on the supplier websites for disgruntled customers.
localzuk Posted April 30, 2007 Posted April 30, 2007 There seems to be a major lack of specifications on the RM units on their site, such as what type of hard disks are used and what redundancy is provided (power, ethernet etc...). I have both a Windows 2003 Storage Server NAS box (Fujitsu Siemens FibreCat 2TB) and a Adaptec Snap Server 520 (2TB) and find the SnapServer to be the least work. It took 10 minutes or so to set it up as an iSCSI drive on a normal server and voila, it needs no further setup. Whereas the Windows one seems much slower. Also, the RM unit is 2U in size, which now may seem like no problem but in a few years time racks will start filling up and a 1U unit would seem like a much better idea.
alonebfg Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 I am sorry if i am a bit out of order here but I have just set up a nas box and it cost me £0. I had about 6 hard drives lying around manage to get hold of a controler card ok it is ide and has sofware raid but i installed openfiler and i now have about 160gb with raid and it cost noting and was so easy to set up everyone has shares on it and it is really good. Ok its not a nas box and you do need to install the software but it is really simple. and i beleve you can go as big or as small as you like have worked out for £200 i could have 1tb with raid and hot swap sataII drives
localzuk Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 What is the reliability of that though? How much trouble will it cause when it goes down? I'm all for reusing equipment (it should be done as much as possible) but on something as important as the central servers you need the stability and fallback of something substantial. If it breaks, you will receive questions as to why there wasn't a repair warranty on it for next day. Doing stuff like that is kinda against the idea that school's are supposed to be becoming more business-like when it comes to their ICT.
Ben_Stanton Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 I used to get 3TB out of a 1u rack. 4 hot-swap SATA-II drives and a redundant PSU to boot Generally used open-e NAS but sometimes Windows Storage Server. Obviously this was never as cheap as a 'commercial' product but very reliable/scaleable.
Guest Guest Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 Doing stuff like that is kinda against the idea that school's are supposed to be becoming more business-like when it comes to their ICT. Aye very good, now give us business money Nothing wrong with doing like he has, how exactly do you think he replaces ANY part? His way he can replace a faulty part in 5mins not next business day. RAID 5 setup with spare PSU, RAM, CPU (all quite normal things to have laying about the office) and then if the mobo fails just go buy one frm your local shop - far far better than phoning up some forgein idiot in india who doesnt know what your talking about and then sends an engineer with the wrong part. We've got a NAS and i wouldnt even think about buying another one when the free ones are better (unless you have £1000s to spend)
alonebfg Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 relibilty of the openfiler is supurb i have been testing it out over the last 4 weeks or so and hammering it to death and so far it has taken more stick than i can give it. also as it is a linux based it is free and something i tried the other day even with the dc switched off i can access the openfiler system. Origanaly i tested it on an old p2 256 meg of ram and 4 ide hard drives mounting up to 14gb of storage and it still worked fine. they have also relised a 64 bit ver but not tested it myself yet. (by the way it way ty goeff) as it was a post about 4 weeks ago i asked the same thing.
NetworkGeezer Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 Even server failure isn't an issue. You still need some form of backup for archival purposes or restoring from accidental/malicious deletions. How can you cover terrabytes of data without spending shed loads more on a backup system.
Guest Guest Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 How can you cover terrabytes of data without spending shed loads more on a backup system. Yep. Its almost impossible now as a school to afford to back up that amount of data, itll be great when all the multimedia comes in properly, imagine it for uncompressed video for 1000+ kids . External HDs are starting to get used around here atm but they aint exactly the best backup device.
mattx Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 Freenas: http://www.freenas.org In the middle of moving our media server over to 1 terabyte box I have built with a few 500 gig driving using JBOD.... I have not tried using the AD support in it but you can always give it a go first as its open source....
alonebfg Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 well i have just finished building it today ok backup is an issue need to sort that next got cheap mb prosser sata2 raid5 card had a spare case 4 sata2 hd and i am off as it is raid not got to worry too much about hd failer as can hot swap them. all in all it has cost £150 seems to be working fine of the drives are only 240g but thats enough for now.
Ben_Stanton Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 JBOD always makes me laugh. Right guys, we need a super duper technical name for this system we have devised. Something cool and catchy, preferably something we can use with an acronym... How about JBOD - sounds technical but actually isn't!
alonebfg Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 I am also lookin at building another openfiler as a backup server it will be in a diffrent room locked away and will do the backups every night.
alan-d Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 Watch out on lower end NAS boxes for poor Active Directory integration. For example, both Buffalo and Iomega claim some of their NAS boxes will integrate with AD, but it only works if your AD domain is in Mixed mode. Now some ADs may be still in Mixed mode, but if they have been upgraded to Native mode (2000 or 2003) then there is no going back. Whatever you consider, check the user forums on the supplier websites for disgruntled customers. We are looking to do a similar thing - do you have a link to the user forums for buffalo? According to this It should work fine if set up as a client. I just want to check
Uraken Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 far far better than phoning up some forgein idiot in india who doesnt know what your talking about and then sends an engineer with the wrong part. sorry mate couldn't let that go... A little out of order enough said??
Midget Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 Like JBOD? You'll love TWAIN "Technology Without An Important/Interesting Name".
mattx Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 "Technology Without An Important/Interesting Name". IBM - Its Being Mended IBM - I Blame Microsoft VISTA - Very Irritating System Try Another VISTA - Vista Is Shittier Than Anything [ sorry about that naughty word ] My Fav: MACINTOSH: Most Applications Crash; If Not, The Operating System Hangs
CyberNerd Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 IBM - Its Being Mended IBM - I Blame Microsoft VISTA - Very Irritating System Try Another VISTA - Vista Is Shittier Than Anything [ sorry about that naughty word ] VISTA - Virus Intrusion Spyware Trojan Adware
Andrew_C Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 IBM = I'm Bl**dy Marvellous (often applied to their staff)
Guest Guest Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 far far better than phoning up some forgein idiot in india who doesnt know what your talking about and then sends an engineer with the wrong part. sorry mate couldn't let that go... A little out of order enough said?? :?
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