[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
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Ron Frazier
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linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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