Using NAS as a server

Jimbo

Hi,
This may be a stupid question but is it possible to use a NAS as a file server over an ethernet network for say 5 pc's?

Furthermore is it possible to set up a NAS to back up onto an offsite backup service like Carbonite?

Currently were using a pc as a server but I'd like to free it up.

DublinWriter

Surely....that's what NAS is all about.

My own 4TB Buffalo NAS has a number of UNC shares on it and is used by several PCs we have about the place. It's also a BitTorrent client.

I'm not sure about the 3rd party backup option though.

Dingatron

Do you want to backup all your files to a NAS and then back the NAS up on-line? Haven't used Carbonite but it appears you can select on a per file/folder basis so I suppose if you keep the NAS drive mapped on one pc and select files/folders from the NAS it will back them up? The NAS cannot do it without the pc running though as Carbonite runs as client on the pc. Raid 1 NAS would be the ideal option if your worried about the data but if you have decent upload speed and looking for something cheap it may work. Test it and see.

Jimbo

I want to use the NAS as a file host rather than a backup.
I'd perfer to use offsite backup rather than RAID incase the worst would happen.

I havn't bought the NAS yet, just wondering if it's possible.
Just want a cheap and easy server.

Dingatron

Ah ok. As DublinWriter said that's what a NAS is. Computer data network storage. They come in all shapes sizes and prices so be sure to think about your requirements. Do you need disk quotas, AD support, ftp access, file security, are you running it 24 x 7 etc? Buffalo do some nice ones which may fit your requirements. Have one at home myself and another one backing up a local school @ 12:00 AM every night that spins the drives down once the backups complete.

Jimbo

Cool.
Now, I just need to find way of automatically backing up offsite.

vibe666

any one of the main soho/smb NAS vendors devices will replicate data at an offsite location automatically over the internet (usually to another device of the same type).

I would imagine you'd probably want to minimise the amount of data you copy over a WAN interface but assuming you have control of 2 different locations it's pretty much plug and play.

assuming you want a single drive NAS and not something bigger, here are some options that will do everything you want to do with them.

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=92

http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS108j/index.php

I'd planned on adding a thecus NAS to the list too, but I can't find a definitive answer on remote replication, so I've left it out, but they may also have something that would suit in their product line, so have a look at them too: http://www.thecus.com/

basically, you set up your main device, put all your data on it and (optionally, to save bandwidth) you then run a backup to your second device locally before moving it to your remote backup site and (if both sites are on static addresses) after configuring firewalls etc. you're all done.

other than that if you're on a dynamic IP you may have to set up a dyndns account, but all these devices have dyndns updaters even if your router doesn't, so no need to leave anything other than the NAS itself on and leave it to mirror what's on one device onto the other.

20goto10

I'd highly recommend a synology NAS. I've had one for years and its an amazing bit of kit. I have not setup a remote backup but I understand it is simply a matter of entering the IP address (or dyndns address) and forwarding the ports. Here is a wiki guide from the forums.

Dingatron

Those synology drives look like a nice bit of kit.

**Bookmarked**

vibe666

what i've always liked about the synology products is that whe they come up with a new feature for one of their products, how quickly they roll out a firmware update across their whole range to upgrade them all, even on older discontinued models.

i'm actually looking for a really big NAS myself as you might have seen in my own thread here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055467768 (alas, no replies yet:() and was initially going to go with the new thecus 7700 7 bay NAS, but after trawling their own forums and the thecus forum on hexus.net i've gone off them altogether and amd leaning towards QNAP now which seem to offer better service and a more complete product, altho it's currently limited to 6 bays.

they do have an 8 bay NAS coming out imminently but i can't really wait that long.

mocata

Is my thinking flawed on this? I have bought 2 identical servers ,one is a SBS 2003, exchange and file server mainly. If i clone these and use something like cobian backup to copy the user folders and exchange boxes overnight would this allow me to "hot-swap" them if the first ever keeled over? Or is there a better way to do this?

zod

if u clone em they cant be both on the network at the same time .. unless you dual boot the second one and leave it on with the alternate ID

mocata

Yeah i thought of that, the server will be hosted offsite on a separate network.So if there is fire/theft/failure, they would be able to basically carry it in and plug it straight in and resume operations. The other thought i had was to run a virtual machine on a decent spec box and back it up over the internet to a nas box in my house. Has anyone tried anything similar?

CuLT

Boards.ie uses one of these.

Pricey for what amounts to a fancy hard drive, but it's very fast, completely reliable* and makes it's own hourly/daily/weekly backups so an accidental rm-rf isn't going to leave you up the creek.

Hot pluggable hard disks, up to 12TB raw, failover PSUs, iSCSI, NAS, reboots in about 3 mins (if you ever need to reboot it).

Possibly overkill for your requirements though, certainly for ours, although I can see it being useful for myriad applications

Note: NAS is great for network reads but not quite as fantastic for writes (generally), you wouldn't really want to be mounting a heavily used database off it, for example. The iSCSI option is quite nice though as an alternative. But again, it's possible you're really just looking for a decent Buffalo/Thecus/Netgear (I really want one of these) consumer system.

*had one problem with it initially that probably wouldn't affect most people to do with intensive writes colliding with it's own backups at 3am.

DublinWriter

CuLT wrote: »

I really want one of these

The Buffalo 4TB Link Station NAS is half the price of that and also has an inbuilt BitTorrent and can act as a DNLA server.

Jackz

DublinWriter wrote: »

The Buffalo 4TB Link Station NAS is half the price of that and also has an inbuilt BitTorrent and can act as a DNLA server.

Where did you buy this it's a nice price.

The ReadyNAS Cult mentions also has BitTorrent via an already installed add-on. It also has a community developing other add-ons: ReadyNAS Community

I'm considering this: 1TB Ready NAS And go to 3TB with disks I buy separately, then afterward to 4TB.

vibe666

all the prosumer NAS's have similar built in features like that although some do seem to be better than others. i think it would need to come down to reliability, real world speed and personal preferences to pick one over another.

carbsy

Hello all,

Slightly off topic but...

I'm in the market for a cheap iSCSI NAS too and after exhaustive online searching, I've settled on the QNAP TS-509 5 drive NAS - awesome piece of kit for a really good price. Komplett do it for €830 plus the cost of the 5 drives.