Tag: nas

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NAS versus Server

I’ve written quite a bit about the Linksys NSLU2 we’ve been using at the office, and the problems we’ve have with it. (Linksys NSLU2 Update, Linksys NSLU2 versus ????) Overall it’s been a nice device for what it does, and for the price (about $80) but we’ve outgrown it, and we’re looking for a better solution.

I think that better solution is just going to be a server. (Going back to Small Business – Server & Backup I guess.) We should be able to solve most of the problems we had with the NSLU2 by using an old G4 PowerMac. The Mac should be faster than the NSLU2, and should not have any of the permission problems we’ve experienced. We’ll also be able to just deal with AFP instead of SMB since we’re a Mac-shop.

(I still think the NSLU2 is a good device for what it is, and for a home network would probably work well. Though reading up on FreeNAS it looks like a cool solution, and something I may try to play with in the future.)

The Mac will also allow us to do a few more things, like run the internal wiki, and possibly handle the office calendaring needs. What I really look forward to is automating our Amazon S3 backups using a Mac file server.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll keep posting updates on this as we go…

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Linksys NSLU2 Update

We are still using the Linksys NSLU2 as our file server, and we still aren’t 100% happy with it. (See Small Business – Server & Backup and Linksys NSLU2 versus ???? for background.)

Some Macs in our office seem to be able to connect via browsing the network, while others require typing in the smb://192.168.0.xx address. At least one Mac seems to see it, and use it, but then not be able to use it, then when you try to dismount, and remount, it says it’s already there and requires some command line magic (or a reboot) to clean things up.

After a recent reboot of the NSLU2, we noticed a few days later the backups were not running anymore. Seems that after the reboot the 1st drive was recognized fine, but the 2nd was not. I was just about to reformat the 2nd drive but thought I should reboot one more time – that fixed it! The 2nd drive was recognized and I just had to re-setup the backup schedule.

I think if we continue to have issues, I may just take a weekend and install Unslung on it.

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Linksys NSLU2 versus ????

We put a Linksys NSLU2 in place about 4 months ago with two 500GB drives attached. One drive is meant to mirror the other for backup purposes. (See Small Business – Server & Backup)

Things have not been perfect. At least a few times in the last month I’ve had to reboot the NSLU2 because it could not be seen on the network. In most cases pulling out the power cord, plugging it back in, and powering on the device solves things, but really, should we have to do that? Shouldn’t the thing just work?

NSLU2 We’ve also had some weird permission problems. We’re a Mac-shop, and most of the files don’t really rely on having their unixy-permissions correct, but some do, like the files that go onto the web sites. A file on my Mac set to -rw-r–r– gets copied to the NSLU2 and is then set to -rwx——. This is bad bad bad! If we try to upload files directly to a web site, or even to our Macs, and then to a web site, they can’t be viewed, as the permissions are hosed.

I’m also not happy about the fact that we can’t plug the NSLU2’s drives into a Mac and get to the files. I’ve tried using Mac OS X Ext2 Filesystem but it didn’t work. This means if the NSLU2 dies, we would have to get another one to get to the files.

I think the NSLU2 is a nice little device for the hacker to play with, or maybe for a home network of Windows machines, or even Macs, where file permissions don’t matter, but I’m just not sure it can cut it for a small business.

AirPort Extreme

I know other companies make NAS devices that may fit our needs, but looking at the Apple AirPort Extreme, it just might fit the bill. It probably doesn’t have some of the nice features of the NSLU2, but we could easily add a USB hub and our external drives and be up and running. I trust Apple hardware to be reliable, easy to use, and work seamlessly with our Macs. The price is about double the NSLU2, but it may be worth it.

We have two other options right now. We could install Linux on the NSLU2 and see if that fixes the problems. My reservation there is that NSLU2-Linux is a hacker project and I’m not sure what we’d lose/gain by switching what is running on the NSLU2.

The second option would be to take an old iMac running Mac OS X and attach the drives to it. This should take care of our permission problems, and also make it easy to attach the drives to any other Mac as needed. The downside here is that the iMac is older and since it would have to be running all the time it could fail. It also does not have some of the features of the NSLU2, but I can probably add them with a few cron jobs and Perl-fu.

So right now we may stick it out with the NSLU2 as is, but I’m always looking for better solutions.



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Small Business – Server & Backup

I’m working with a small company to determine what file server and backup solutions might fit their needs. Here is what I’ve come up with so far…

NSLU2 They are a small group all located in one office, so for a file server, nothing too big/costly should be needed. My first thought was a Linksys NSLU2. The pros of the NSLU2 are that it is cheap and simple to set up and administer. It seems ideal for this situation. They would need to add their own external USB drives, which is not a big deal, as they’ve already got a bunch of those in the office. Are there any cons to the NSLU2? Other than the fact that it formats the filesystem of the external drives as something you can’t plug directly into your Mac, I don’t know of any…

PowerMac G4 Instead of the NSLU2, they could use an old PowerMac G4 that is on hand and not doing much. They could still plug in the external USB (and Firewire) drives, and keep them formatted as-is so they could be moved to another Mac if needed. Internal drives could also be used if desired. The pros of the G4 are that they already have it, it could use internal and external drives, and could be a more full-fledged server (print, http, etc.) The cons to the G4 is that management would not be as simple, and it’s more/bigger hardware with more/bigger failure points.

Amazon Web Services For an off-site backup solution, I’m seriously looking at Amazon’s S3. I’ve been using it for myself since it launched, and I think with a simple client like Jungle Disk or Interarchy, they could easily create off-site backups at a very affordable price. They do a lot of large files for print, as well as audio & video production, so Amazon’s pricing is excellent.

So what do you think? Did I miss anything?




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NSLU2 (Server?)

NSLU2-Linux looks like a fun little project. The Linksys NSLU2 is a “Network Storage Link” which means you typically attach it to your network, add an external USB hard drive, and it’s a file/backup server for the computers on your home network.

Pick one up at Amazon for about $80, and while you’re there grab an 80 GB drive for under $100 and you can build a nice little (and quiet) server running Linux, and once you’re running Linux, well, you open up a whole new world of possibilities…

Some links:

Need more info? It’s all over the place, just search for NSLU2 linux.

(I have a whole nother post on the trends I’ve noticed in small, cheap, hackable devices. So stay tuned…)