Home Network Storage Device - Recomendations?
I'm in need of a storage device to backup all my vast quantities of data on my home network and act as a file server. Does anyone know of the ultimate solution that meets or comes close to the following???...
1) RAID1 - should accept two drives to mirror all data
2) Speed - I would like it to be fast
3) Ethernet - Gigabit if possible. Minimum 100Mbps
4) Standard protocols - I would like something that doesn't require drivers/software to be installed on each client - as is required with Ximeta drives for example. OS X support is a requirement!
5) Should have ability to setup shares, permissions, etc.
6) Remote backup scheduling would be cool.
7) Price should be under $500 (including drives)
8) I would like to be able to buy just the enclosure so I can pick out the drives.
I've recently been reading about a new tech by Zetera that is being used in a new product by Netgear called Storage Central (SC101) that is rumored to be coming out in mid-June 2005. Does anyone know anything about this product? It sounds a lot like the Ximeta drives. I'm a little hesitant to buy anything that requires software installed on each client - especially if they don't support OS X.
1) RAID1 - should accept two drives to mirror all data
2) Speed - I would like it to be fast
3) Ethernet - Gigabit if possible. Minimum 100Mbps
4) Standard protocols - I would like something that doesn't require drivers/software to be installed on each client - as is required with Ximeta drives for example. OS X support is a requirement!
5) Should have ability to setup shares, permissions, etc.
6) Remote backup scheduling would be cool.
7) Price should be under $500 (including drives)
8) I would like to be able to buy just the enclosure so I can pick out the drives.
I've recently been reading about a new tech by Zetera that is being used in a new product by Netgear called Storage Central (SC101) that is rumored to be coming out in mid-June 2005. Does anyone know anything about this product? It sounds a lot like the Ximeta drives. I'm a little hesitant to buy anything that requires software installed on each client - especially if they don't support OS X.
Comments
You could get a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini, starting at $299 for 250 GB, however you want RAID, so what you're really looking for is NAS (Network Attached Storage) and chances are you'll easily pay four-digit amounts for that.
You'll probably be cheaper off buying a simple x86 tower with onboard ethernet but a hardware RAID controller.
Originally posted by mynamehere
How much data is 'vast quantities of data'?
Not too vast really. I'm thinking the largest IDE drive size would work ok. Right now I have only about 100GB of data so for that and room to grow I figure about 200 - 400 GB would work for now, with the ability to upgrade as larger drives come out in the future.
Originally posted by Chucker
I'm sorry, but your pricing demands are unrealistic.
You could get a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini, starting at $299 for 250 GB, however you want RAID, so what you're really looking for is NAS (Network Attached Storage) and chances are you'll easily pay four-digit amounts for that.
You'll probably be cheaper off buying a simple x86 tower with onboard ethernet but a hardware RAID controller.
Unrealistic? Ha! What a "legacy" way to think. If everyone thought like that none of us would have computers, unless we wanted to pay 6 digits for them.
If you haven't noticed yet there is becoming a revolution in prices of technologies, even things such as RAID - and it's being brought into reach of general consumers now.
Yes, NAS is what I'm looking for. I want enterprise features with a consumer price tag! That's basically what I said in my original post. And this is exactly what companies like Zetera, Netgear, SimpleTech, Maxtor are bringing to the consumer level - within the price range I specified. Here's some info to back this up...
SimpleTech (This one has RAID feature built in but no space for a second drive. It will raid any USB drives you hook up to it, however.)
http://www.simpletech.com/commercial...hare/index.php
Zetera
http://www.zetera.com/News/pr/5.11.2005.html
Netgear
http://www.netgear.com/pressroom/pre...ail.php?id=241
Broadcom
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Ent...utions/BCM4780
StorLinkSemi
http://www.storlinksemi.com/products-sl3316r.htm
In other words... Enterprise is not the only one concerned with protecting their data. I don't consider myself a "consumer" but I do have data I wish not to lose and I'm sure I'm not the only home user in the world who is concerned about this. This is what will bring enterprise features such as RAID to the consumer level. It's already happening, as you can see from the links above.
I refuse to put huge amounts of data onto a single drive, such as the lacie drive you mentioned. That would be Russion Roulette with my data!
$166
2) get a case
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119065)
+ $65.99
= $231.99
3) get a RAID-capable mainboard
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136152)
+ $128.00
= $359.99
4) get a CPU
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103501)
+ $146.00
= $505.99
5) and finally, some RAM
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubmit=Property)
+ $16.99
= $522.98
Pretty close, huh?
The problem with the price is the RAID; hardware RAID mainboards are more expensive and also not available for low-end CPUs, so both the mainboard and the CPU would have been a lot cheaper if you hadn't wanted RAID. I strongly disrecommend software RAID.
Originally posted by Macvault
Unrealistic? Ha! What a "legacy" way to think. If everyone thought like that none of us would have computers, unless we wanted to pay 6 digits for them.
Er, y'know, if you know this so well, then I'll just mind my own business and allow for you to know better.
Originally posted by Chucker
Er, y'know, if you know this so well, then I'll just mind my own business and allow for you to know better.
Hey there, I'm sorry about that man. I do appreciate your input. I was trying not to sound stuck up but I guess I couldn't help it.
But maybe I'm the one with the real issues... I still thinks we'll have skycars in the near future for the price of an SUV
If you've done your own research, that's great, and I hope you find the best solution for you. I personally don't believe in the kinds of solutions you pointed out for reasons of scalability, I suppose, but maybe you have much lower needs than I usually do.
Originally posted by Chucker
I'm sorry, but your pricing demands are unrealistic.
You could get a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini, starting at $299 for 250 GB, however you want RAID, so what you're really looking for is NAS (Network Attached Storage) and chances are you'll easily pay four-digit amounts for that.
You'll probably be cheaper off buying a simple x86 tower with onboard ethernet but a hardware RAID controller.
I would have to agree with that. With the storage you need, it would probably work out better to just get a low-end server from Dell or some other similar company, and then buy and install your own hard drives and run linux. (Dell's servers start in the low 300's)
...just my 1x2 cents
It's not like it needs a tremendous amount of horsepower... my home server is an old B/W 350MHz G3 with a quarter TB slapped on it.
Originally posted by mynamehere
I would have to agree with that. With the storage you need, it would probably work out better to just get a low-end server from Dell or some other similar company, and then buy and install your own hard drives and run linux. (Dell's servers start in the low 300's)
...just my 1x2 cents
Yes, you are correct and Chucker is correct - RAID is one of those expensive technologies mostly out of reach of consumers. But my point is that this has to change and is changing because consumers more and more are piling up huge amounts of data nowdays and they need simple and inexpensive networked devices to protect this stuff. So this is going to change the idea that RAID, NAS and other such features is only for the Enterprise.
I have done some research, as Chucker pointed out, but always leave room for the possibility that someone else knows of a product or tech that I've failed to find so far in my research. This is pretty much why I started the thread.
Not the most consumer-friendly way, but certainly one that scales, as you can always replace the hard drives with bigger ones later on, and even add a PCI card for faster networking (Gigabit Ethernet, FiberChannel, etc.).
Originally posted by Chucker
I still maintain what Kickaha just echo'd -- get the cheapest tower you can get, make sure it has some sort of RAID (what also works with a generic RAID with a PCI hardware RAID controller), and get two hard drives with the same capacity.
Not the most consumer-friendly way, but certainly one that scales, as you can always replace the hard drives with bigger ones later on, and even add a PCI card for faster networking (Gigabit Ethernet, FiberChannel, etc.).
Yea, maybe that is what I'll end up doing which will let me configure it exactly how I want it, like you said with Gigabit Ethernet. Now I just have to find the time
Originally posted by kwsanders
Have you taken a look at the Mirra ?
Sounds interesting but not quite what I'm looking for, not to mention it looks like it requires Windows. Or can it be hacked to do OS X?
If you run across a Bonjour/AFP NAS, let us know.
Originally posted by Chucker
I still maintain what Kickaha just echo'd -- get the cheapest tower you can get, make sure it has some sort of RAID (what also works with a generic RAID with a PCI hardware RAID controller), and get two hard drives with the same capacity.
Not the most consumer-friendly way, but certainly one that scales, as you can always replace the hard drives with bigger ones later on, and even add a PCI card for faster networking (Gigabit Ethernet, FiberChannel, etc.).
It's worth mentioning most large companies involved actually see that as the way forward where each house will have a separate network server that provides data to various appliances and computers around the house. It may not be the most friendly way but it is the way the likes of Cisco, Sony, Dell, Microsoft, et al are planning to push consumers.
If you're building from scratch, the mobo might have gigabit ethernet onboard. If you get a lot cheaper mobo without it, the PCI card is cheap too. The important thing to remember is that for fileserving, basically anything goes. You might find an old junker of a machine for $50 that is plenty good for fileserving after adding new drives.
I'm not exactly sure that a RAID is even necessary. RAID 1 gives some additional speed, sure (but does it disappear in the network and filesharing protocol?). Backup-wise it should be almost the same if there was a daily script to mirror the drives.
The Good news:
They are working on a Mac initiator
I think you get a mirrod stripe even with 2 drives (without giving up too much data) I'm checking on this.
The Netgear SC101 is "naked" and only $115! I'm buying one.
The Bad news:
10/100 for the consumer stuff.
StorCase makes Gigabit stuff but it is $$$$$
PATA only for now. There are future plans for SATA support and faster chipsets
I'm looking forward to getting a SC101 linking it to my PC network and checking performance and ease of use. I'll report when I get it sometime in the next few months.
Getting RAID in off-the-shelf NAS devices isn't happening right now. You can build your own NAS with RAID, but most people don't want to have to buy two 160GB drives just to get 160GB of space under mirroring. Most people don't value their data that much at the consumer level.
Side note: Saying that you want an enterprise solution for under $500 isn't 'thinking outside the box.' A company has to build it and sell it to you at that price. If no company is selling it at that price it isn't going to happen. Also, if a company can't build it for less then $500 then they sure as heck aren't going to sell it to you for under $500. I don't think that anyone here wants to pay more than they have to.
There is a good tutorial on making a Mini ITX RAID 5 machine with removable hard drives. This home server on a budget showed up on digg.com the other day too.
They might not run OS X, but you can easily put Linux on one of these and run Netatalk2 for AFP and Samba for SMB/CIFS. You can also setup NFS if you want. OS X supports that as well. The great part of using the EPIA boards is that there are fanless ones that you can get and they don't consume oodles of power. When you set up a Mini ITX machine it's usually the hard/CD/DVD drives that use all the power to run their motors.