Best NAS with AD integration? Multiple shares with different permissions.

[dany2010]

Hi,

 

We are trying to compare options with network attached storage devices and wondered if anyone could give us a hand in making a decision.

 

We are looking for a NAS system that will allow integration with AD and allow us tocreate multiple shares,each with different permissions. Our current NAS boxes only allow one folder to have permissions applied to it.

 

The two options that we have is to either:

 

Build a computer and run the freenas software,

 

or

 

Buy a proper NAS box.

 

Can anyone give a recommendation please. As always budget is tight.

 

Many thanks,

 

Dan

[m25man]

The only way to achieve full windows integration is to use a Windows based NAS running storage server with the volumes formatted in NTFS.

Everything else is a Linux based system using a different file system with CIFS and authentication over LDAP.

 

You can use ISCSI and attach the storage to an existing Windows host and control acces to it that way.

 

Low cost Storage server devices are available from several vendors Buffalo do a Storage server with Windows 2008 Storage Server.

Many of the so called AD Integrated NAS boxes have limits to the number of AD users supported, so these would not be suitable for a school with a 1200 user roll! Check the number of AD accounts permitted by your vendors OS before parting with you money.

[dhicks]

Can anyone give a recommendation please.

 

Build your own NAS box. It depends on how much storage capacity you need as to what size case you need and how many disks you'll need to connect. Our QNAP NAS box seems to simply be an Atom-based motherboard with on-board SATA ports for half a dozen disks - 6 2TB disks in RAID 6 should give you arround 8TB of storage capacity. You can use FreeNAS or similar or simply set up Samba yourself:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/nix/48032-configuring-samba.html

[Duke]

The only way to achieve full windows integration is to use a Windows based NAS running storage server with the volumes formatted in NTFS.

 

I dunno, our Oracle S7000 has handled Windows perms with no issues. We're serving 1TB+ of data over several shares, all have different permissions, and some of the shares contain home folders so each folder inside the share has different permissions on it. There were a few little issues 3 years ago when it first came out but these days it's rock solid.

 

I don't like the idea of having to go SAN > iSCSI > Windows Server because it adds another point of failure into the loop, increases management/maintenance required and until recently the Windows SMB/TCP stack didn't provide anywhere near as good performance as a dedicated NAS/SAN.

 

NetApp's SMB/CIFS implementation is pretty solid too, but on the old version of ONTAP I'm using it's not very nice to use.

 

Chris

[dave.81]

I like the QNAP NAS, have 2 onsite at moment, 1 in raid5 and the other in raid10. Access speeds seem very quick even comparing them to our main 15krpm SCSI file server.

[3s-gtech]

We use NASs with AD integration, but only to control it so I can get in and no-one else. However, they do support AD groups as well as users, so multiple shares with groups is straightforward. As has been stated, trying it with users is pot luck - they don't support more than a sample of the total number.

[jinnantonnixx]

As @dhicks syggested, roll your own is a good idea, or was a good idea before the ridiculous disk price hike.

 

I bought a HP Microserver (from serversplus) and just heard that my £100 cashback cheque is on its way to me. Nett outlay = £100, and that includes a 250GB disk for the OS. If you want to go free, you could do worse than Ubuntu server + Samba or FreeNAS.

[3s-gtech]

An 8TB Buffalo Terastaion is £600 or so (inc VAT) at the moment - not bad when you consider the price that disks are going for!

[dhicks]

roll your own is a good idea, or was a good idea before the ridiculous disk price hike.

 

Anyone looking for storage at the moment would probably do best to wait until after Christmas, harddrive prices will probably come back down then.

[januttall]

Anyone looking for storage at the moment would probably do best to wait until after Christmas, harddrive prices will probably come back down then.

i hope they do. any one know how japan's geting on with geting production back up.

[3s-gtech]

^^Thailand

[ricki]

Hi

 

We use tera stations and they are great when they work, but ours only last about 3 years before they have problems. Dont foget to have backup terastations if you use them for storage instead of backup. They can backup to another terastation.

 

Richard

[shenley]

I have integrated the Netgear ReadyNAS and the LaCie Etherdisk into active directory and both worked fine. Both were on the same network too, with the ReadyNAS backing to to a LaCie. The ReadyNAS is Linux based and the Etherdisk XP.

[3s-gtech]

Hi

 

We use tera stations and they are great when they work, but ours only last about 3 years before they have problems. Dont foget to have backup terastations if you use them for storage instead of backup. They can backup to another terastation.

 

Richard

 

I'll confirm they can have issues - regular firmware updates and UPS protection have helped mine serve well. Just had to pension off a Mk1 Terastation as it doesn't work well with Windows 7/S2008 but it'll work fine with our Macs. That's now 6 years old.

[dany2010]

Thanks all for your posts.

 

We currently have 2 readynas's and one terastation. One of the readynas's started failing today, we had real trouble acessing the setup site. The terastation seems to be a bit iffy with AD for some reason.

 

I think i may go with a home built one but will wait until early next year for prices to come down (hopefully). Will take a look at the other software options mentioned above to see how they compare with freenas. The only problem that i have come accros that is putting my manager off is that you have to use the zfs file system which ive read online requires 4gb of ram to be stable.

 

Thanks again for your help

[Duke]

I like the QNAP NAS, have 2 onsite at moment, 1 in raid5 and the other in raid10. Access speeds seem very quick even comparing them to our main 15krpm SCSI file server.

 

I've got a QNAP too and it seems really nice, especially for the price. The only thing I'd say is that the AD integration is not as robust as the big names. You're supposed to set Windows perms through the web interface and they recommend you only go down a couple of folders, whereas on Oracle/NetApp you can treat it just like a share on a Windows server and do what you want with it. I'm not knocking it through, just be aware if you were planning to use one in a complicated permission environment.