[ale] NAS enclosure recommendations?
Ron Frazier (ALE)
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
Sun May 12 14:06:56 EDT 2013
Doug,
Glad to help.
PS I think it was JD that mentioned addonics.
Ron
On 5/11/2013 3:36 PM, Doug Hall wrote:
> Thanks for the advice, Ron. At home, I've been using CrashPlan, which
> allows you to seed a backup and take it to a friend's house (or the
> office, if allowed), for free offsite backups. A friend of mine, who
> lives about twenty miles away, swapped drives with me. (I wouldn't
> choose a nearby neighbor, in case a tornado happens to cross both
> houses.) This has the huge advantage of being much faster to restore,
> if you need it. Because, you can simply retrieve your drive from your
> friend/office, and take it home for restores.
> <http://www.crashplan.com/consumer/crashplan.html> Also, the backups
> are encrypted from the source - which means your friend can't snoop,
> even if they wanted to. The one disadvantage of the free version is
> that it's a once-a-day thing. If you want it to happen more often, you
> have to get CrashPlan+.
>
> I've been looking at some of your links. The Addonics stuff, like this
> one:
> <http://www.addonics.com/products/na3ms4hu2.php>
> appears to simply be an external array - meaning I still need a
> separate computer to run FreeNas. Not what I want. I guess I'll need
> to just buy or build a tower computer and do it myself. :-( I was
> hoping to find a fairly small (mini-tower) enclosure which was
> specifically designed for NAS devices, with energy-saving power
> systems and on-board processing and memory cards. Some of the
> proprietary NAS devices have easy-access to the drive bays, and
> external lights which indicate whether or not there's a problem with
> the individual drives.
>
> The AcmeMicro stuff does, for the most part, appear to be overkill.
> Since this will be in a home, I really don't want a rack-based system.
> A tower would be better, but I can't seem to find the right
> combination of features and size.
>
> Thanks, and keep me posted if I missed something.
>
> Doug
>
>
> On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 1:15 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
> <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Doug,
>
> I had one more thought. Backup the nas online with something like
> carbonite or Amazon S3 via a Jungledisk client or similar. I use
> Jungledisk on both Windows and Linux machines. The client
> software is a little dated, but it works fine for me. It uses the
> Amazon S3 servers. I have my data backups run every 6 hours. If
> anyone needs help configuring that, I could assist. Amazon
> charges $0.18 / GB / mo for storage. That could get cost
> prohibitive depending on the amount of data. Carbonite's normal
> marketing says all your DATA on your personal hard drive, so
> system files, etc. don't get backed up. I think they require a
> different contract for each PC at $ 60 / year or so. Whereas, I
> backup all my pc's to my Amazon S3 volume and just pay for the
> total data storage. I think I have about 70 GB of storage in use,
> so my bill is about $ 14 / mo. If you're talking TB of data, cost
> would go up a good bit.
>
> Another alternative is to do peer to peer syncing with the nas to
> another nas. A very early but promising (alpha stage) solution is
> BitTorrent Sync. If you can provide peers you want to sync with
> and you don't need cloud storage, this could work. Steve Gibson
> did a podcast on this recently. I haven't tried it but it sounds
> cool.
>
> http://twit.tv/sn/402
>
> Low bandwidth versions are available here. Look for episode 402.
>
> https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
>
> Experts that Steve likes to quote on the show recommend a 3-2-1
> backup strategy. If I'm remembering correctly, you data should
> exist in 3 places - original, backup 1, backup 2. It should be on
> 2 different mediums preferably. And 1 copy should be off site.
>
> By the way, DROBO appears to be a nice, but not cheap plug and
> play NAS solution.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com <mailto:doughalldev at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> >This is a pro-sumer application. She has written a book, and has
> a blog
> >for
> >promoting that and other pursuits. She's got thousands of high res
> >photos,
> >and is getting into video too, for her blog. Add to this, backup
> space
> >for
> >her computers - some of which can be alleviated, if she's not moving
> >files
> >between computers all the time. So, she does need a fair amount of
> >storage. Their Apple Time Capsule is full, and quite frankly -
> >inadequate.
> >
> >This NAS won't be directly connected to a computer, but I was
> thinking
> >that
> >it would be a good idea to have that option. They've got an iMac
> and a
> >MacBook Pro, so Firewire or Thunderbolt would actually be better than
> >eSata. The NAS will probably be situated in a closet, provided
> there's
> >enough ventilation. I was hoping to use FreeNAS and ZFS, for
> worry-free
> >storage.
> >
> >While I'm thinking about it, how are upgrades handled? Is it a matter
> >of
> >pulling in updates, like with Ubuntu, or do you download a
> package and
> >replace the whole OS? I'm not that familiar with FreeBSD. Is there a
> >learning curve I should be concerned about?
> >
> >Thanks guys!
> >
> >
> >On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
> >atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
> <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> This sounds like a consumer application so the following security
> >issues
> >> may not be too pressing. However, depending on the situation,
> >physical
> >> security may be an issue; from kids (ie teenagers that want to play
> >> everything or toddlers that want to touch everything), pets,
> >visitors,
> >> contractors, etc.
> >>
> >> You may want a case where access to the physical ports and
> drives is
> >> lockable. A closet or cabinet would also work with proper
> >ventilation.
> >>
> >> Also, while I haven't had experience with the high speed port
> options
> >> myself, I heard an interesting tidbit on the Security Now podcast.
> >> Apparently both firewire and thunderbolt are dma access systems.
> >That
> >> means that anything plugged into one of those ports may be able to
> >directly
> >> access and alter system memory, with the potential of inserting
> >malware or
> >> reading critical data. USB of any type does not have that problem.
> >I
> >> don't know about sata / esata.
> >>
> >> Also, I've heard that esata connectors are notorious for being
> >finicky and
> >> getting unplugged.
> >>
> >> Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
> >>
> >> Sincerely,
> >>
> >> Ron
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> JD <jdp at algoloma.com <mailto:jdp at algoloma.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I use an external array from these guys: http://www.addonics.com/
> >> >attached to a normal Core i5 PC, but mine is only 4 bay. 6+ yrs,
> >ever
> >> >any issues
> >> >besides a loose SATA cable that was my fault.
> >> >
> >> >I'd avoid USB3 as the primary connector. IME, it has queuing
> issues.
> >Of
> >> >course,
> >> >those could be due to the USB3 card or driver used. I've never had
> >that
> >> >issue
> >> >with eSATA-MP.
> >> >
> >> >For a business, things get harder due to all the choices.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >On 05/11/2013 01:50 AM, Doug Hall wrote:
> >> >> I want to build a NAS for a friend. I need a five-bay enclosure.
> >It
> >> >must have a
> >> >> 64-bit CPU and allow me to add up to 16GB of memory. It'll be
> >using
> >> >ZFS, which
> >> >> performs better with lots of memory. I'll probably need USB3,
> >eSata
> >> >and dual
> >> >> ethernet ports. A low power unit would be nice.
> >> >>
> >> >> Anyone know of and can recommend any such enclosures? The
> ones I'm
> >> >seeing appear
> >> >> to already be set up to run some proprietary system, but don't
> >even
> >> >mention
> >> >> memory capacities or CPU specs. I want to use FreeNAS, of
> course.
> >> >Thanks for any
> >> >> suggestions.
>
--
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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