Network storage device

[grizzla]

I have just started as a laboratory technician at an optical manufacturer in Scotland, it is a small company and at our site there is myself, the CEO and his sister.

Part of the reason for my succesful application was that i have a fair amount of IT knowledge, i have been setting up the network which is pretty small, two vista pcs and a laptop. Currently they have no file backup system and i have decided that this is vital due to the sensitive nature and traceability required for a lot of the information that we store digitally.

So i am looking for a network storage system which can be accessed from each machine on the network, ideally i want to know which NAS box to get ie the most reliable, best performance. It must be able to take more than 1 HDD, preferably it will facilitate 2 @ 750GB each. Secondly it is a while since i have bought a HDD so i would like to ask which brand is considered the most reliable for this sort of storage solution.

In my home PC i use Maxtor drives (see PC spec) the 2 older IDE drives have been in use since 2002 never a problem, however the SATA drive is a replacement as its predecessor died. So as you can see i have a mixed experience with Maxtor products, i am aware that they were bought out by Seagate, a problem when i was trying to RMA the dead drive to Maxtor.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated, i look forward to your suggestions

[Jay]

are these government contracts? If so your going to need a lot more than that.

[grizzla]

That amount of storage space is more than sufficient, the company has been running at its current location since last autumn, the 2 PC's that we have use 320GB drives and i would estimate that 1/10th of the capacity is currently used. A lot of the data is currently kept on MS excel spreadsheets and we are looking into havin a bespoke package made to improve the current system we use.

I am only really interested in which NAS box people would recommend and then which brand of HDD to use. Storage space can and will be altered if we feel that we require more.

[dave87]

I think Jay means in terms of redundancy & security if you are a government contractor will be beyond what has been suggested.

A Raid 1 Nas with a backup to DVD or tape would be your best bet, or an entry level RAID1 server from the likes of Dell with a Tape drive.

[grizzla]

Well seeing as what has been used up until now is the hard drive on the PC then having any sort of backup will be an improvement, i did think about having DVD backup. There is no procedure in place by us or any of the people we are contracted by for backing up the data. This is why i said to them on my second day that they really need to set up a backup system.

My idea was to backup up to the NAS at the end of every day then at the end of each week (maybe end of month) to then backup the record onto DVD which can then be stored for reference in the future.

[Jay]

I would go with tape that you put in a fire proof safe, backups are best done everyday .

If you are a government contractor you will need a full domain with off site storage etc.

[grizzla]

Right i have thought about this a bit more, we do not have data that needs to be backed up everyday. At the moment, as i see it, we will only need to backup once a week, we do not record data everyday, usually once a week. If we were to go the NAS route what would the recommendation be, if i were to go with another solution what would you recommend, the solution must be so that either of my other 2 colleagues wilkl be able to access the data as and when they need.

Thanks for all the input so far

[Lourdes]

I'd suggest a small server using RAID 1 with backups to tape, DVD or external HDD that is stored offsite. Depending on the quantity of data online backup in addition to this might be an idea.

[grizzla]

Well having looked at the tape solution that is an expensive solution and im sure that using NAS would be more cost effective.

I'd really just like to know what NAS box people would recommend and then which HDD brand people think are the most reliable.

[peterb]

I think you nee4d to sit down and think out your requirements very carefully. You are now in a commercial domain, and what might be acceptable for a home system may not be quite so suitable commercially.

You said that some of the data you are handling is sensitive - which some have assumed means some form of government. However, that need not be the case and any form of commercial data may be sensitive - from payroll data, through tender information through to manufacturing processes.

A NAS device can be used as a backup store, but is that really what you want? It then relies on individuals remebering to back up data from the PC to the NAS.

Do you want a central file store which is used by all the users of the network by default? (I appreciate there are only 3 (?) at the moment, but that may increase at a later date. If that is teh case, a NAS device really isn't the way to go - you are looking at something that will be used as a file server. You could do that with peer to peer networking at present, wityh a view to upgrading to a full server solution at a later date.

Backups are critical. The problem with a hard drive is that it will fail. DVD or other optical media have an unproven life cycle - but general wisdom is about 5 to 10 years. TYou need to consider off site (secure storage) and how you secure the backups on site. Backing up is as much about record keeping and testing as well as doing the actual backup.

There is little doubt that tape is the most reliable medium, and with teh LTO series is likely to be around for aq while. But you are right - it is relatively expensive up front - although possibly cheap when compared with the value of the data yiou are storing.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that RAID 1 is a backup substitute. It isn't. While it does give a degree of safety in the event of a drive failing, it gives none if you get some other failure which results in the controller failing, otr the array as a whole getting corrupted.

Set agains the rquirements is your budget. NAS may be cheap initially (and I'm not discounting it) but longer term I suspect it won't meet your requirements.

So discuss this with your employers to see exactly what it is teh business needs, then put together a costed business plan with options, putting together the pro's and Cons of the various solutions. Once you have a solution, look at the specs of the equipment you are considering (and there is lots of help here on Hexus).

For what its worth, I'd be looking at the filestore solution with a medium spec machine running 24x7, using RAID 1 and something like an Ultrium 2 tape drive - about £1,500 of which half is the tape subsystem (Scsi card, tape drive). You could dispense with that ifor the time being if you want to stick with DVD backup.

Software. you could use MS home server initially, with a view to upgrading to a full blown server later, or a Linux distro. A cheaper alternative might be the HP home server, but I'd need to look very carefully at the specs and a back up straqtegy.

Don't under-estimate the administrative overhead that setting up a network may involve. Initially it may be small, but could end up being a significant part of your job.

But the first job is to nail down the current (and future) requirements.

PS - Disk drives - Maxtor seem to have a poor reputation on Hexus. Consensus seems to be WD, Samsung or Seagate. Personally I like Samsung, but others will come out in favour of WD or Seagate. It's a bit like religion!

Hope that helps - or at least gets you thinking on the right lines.

[MadduckUK]

maxtor is dead and gone now. new drives branded as maxtor say "manufactured by seagate" on the bottom of the label..

i miss quantum bigfoots so much space for so little price

[Jay]

I would stick with WD RAID edition drives.

[grizzla]

Guys all this information is gonna prove extremely useful to me, i will speak to my boss on monday explaining that although the NAS system is cheaper there are better solutions in the long run, if NAS option is still prefered then i will recommend using DVD on top of this.

A friend exclusively works on sharepoint, MSDN etc. solutions so i can consult him on some other issues.

[MadduckUK]

if the tech side is the reason you got the job then perhaps a system that is less automated would be more suitable

/bofh

[grizzla]

if the tech side is the reason you got the job then perhaps a system that is less automated would be more suitable

/bofh

My job is as a laboratory techinician, my primary role is to make fibre optic cables, they did not want a scientist as such, they need someone who is good with their hands and can work with very small intricate components. It just so happens that i also have experience with computers, while this experience is not commercial it is more than anything that they currently have so they see it as an advantage, i will never claim to be expert in any field but i do have an understanding for a wide range of fields in IT.

If i have to learn some new skills along the way in order to implement a new procedure then im happy to do that, it will only be of an advantage to me in the future

I've written a test batch file to test wheteher or not i will be able to automatically backup the contents of one folder to another on the network and that seems viable, but again there may be other better ways to do this

[MadduckUK]

in that case you could very easily get another windows pc, automate the copying of files to that pc, and even automate the burning of said files to dvd on a set date+time. all that would be required is to take the burned dvd's out, put a fresh one in and close the drive..

my god thats brilliance