Another NAS advice thread...

[peterb]

I'm thinking the same but the stumbling point on this at the moment is finding an ITX chassis which has the ability to take 6 or more hard-drives. Ideally, one with 10 bays would be ideal for my intended usage

You might want to look at this (it is rack mount - but you could use it freestanding)

http://www.xcase.co.uk/X-Case-RM413-...case-rm413.htm

or perhaps (but quite expensive)

http://www.xcase.co.uk/Chenbro-RM-21...nbro-rm215.htm

or

http://www.xcase.co.uk/Chenbro-RM-21...nbro-rm217.htm

or you could use this

http://www.xcase.co.uk/Cfi-B8253ER-5...fi-b8253er.htm

with another smaller case.

The Chenbro kit is a bit pricy - but I have bought an OEM case from them (this one http://www.xcase.co.uk/3u-short-rack...ase-rm300s.htm - has 4 internal drive bays and two external) and it is very well made. Company were good to deal with too.

You can get eSATA RAID enclosures but they'd probably be as expensive as a full NAS. I wonder if you could use a SATA port multiplier with it though?

Yes - that external Raid housing about would do (and it looks as if it may come with a port extender card)

I think we have rather expanded on your original requirement though!

[peterb]

Yeah that GuruPlug looks very interesting, was considering getting that for a router platform but I wanted to run m0n0wall or pfSense which are both x86 only.

Edit: The CTERA Cloudplug is based on the SheevaPlug platform and it's been reviewed by SNB, performance looks pretty good! http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/n...owall=&start=3

Well if you don't go for the SheevPlug, this looks as if it would fit the bill for a very nice and compact home server, using a mini itx board.

[Lee H]

You might want to look at this (it is rack mount - but you could use it freestanding)

http://www.xcase.co.uk/X-Case-RM413-...case-rm413.htm

Just the ticket - many thanks

[watercooled]

Wow some good cases listed there, a lot cheaper than I though they would be too. Got a bit of decision-making to do now...

Edit: Just noticed the PSU in that Mini-ITX case, any idea who the OEM is/if an ATX PSU would fit in that case?

[peterb]

Wow some good cases listed there, a lot cheaper than I though they would be too. Got a bit of decision-making to do now...

Edit: Just noticed the PSU in that Mini-ITX case, any idea who the OEM is/if an ATX PSU would fit in that case?

I don't. Some of their PSUs are "badge engineered", looking at their PSU section. Might be worth calling themto ask - I found them very helpful. Or you could strip out the PSU and add Pico Psu (more cost though, and you would want some form of blanking plate over the redundant PSU hole.

Their 250W PSU (in the PSU section) is a Seasonic - designed for a 2U case, so that may not be the one fitted. It could also be a non-standard fit (in that it isn't ATX form factor).

The reviews look quite good (although there are only two of them - but I'd just call them!

[watercooled]

I've just tried Openfiler on a spare PC to see what it's like to set up/use etc and I'm having trouble getting shares through Samba working, it doesn't help that you have to pay for the documentation!! I've heard Openfiler is more efficient than FreeNAS though so does anyone know where there's a decent unofficial manual or something? Or what about something like Fedora like peterb suggested, but how bloated would that be in comparison? One more thing, would webmin be a good idea?
A lot of questions there, sorry about that.

[peterb]

Webmin is excellent for remote (or even local) administration if you aren't familiar/happy with command line. As for Fedora being 'bloated' - you can cut it down to size. You don't 'need' a heavyweight GUI like gnome or KDE (although it is helpful when setting up - but you can remove it later). My Fedora installation takes up around 5Gb for the basic setup, but I have separate partitions for /var (5Gb - of which about 20% is used) and /home is separate as well). Gnome is probably the biggest static resource hog.

But the customisation during install is quite good, although setting up the drives/partitions during the setup procedure is a bit complex, especially if you are thinking of using mdadm and/or LVM. Straight forward partitioning is easy though. If you do go the mdadm/LVM route, think carefully about the partitioning requirments at the start and do a bit of research on it.

I found "Fedora Linux" by Chris Tyler (O'Reilly) invaluable - t is based on Fedora 6, but the general stuff on installation and system admin, software RAID and LVM is still just as relevant and well worth it. Or you can just use the man pages built in - but they can be a bit dry.

And - I have a bone to pick with you! Having looked at that NAS case yesterday - I am tempted to get one to see what they are like - another project looming I think! (And I don't even need another NAS/server setup!)

[watercooled]

Thanks for explaining all that, it make things much clearer. TBH I don't have a lot of experience with Fedora beyond the LiveCD really but I have a day off today so I'll have a play with it.

And - I have a bone to pick with you! Having looked at that NAS case yesterday - I am tempted to get one to see what they are like - another project looming I think! (And I don't even need another NAS/server setup!)

Sorry about that. I must admit I do stuff like that all the time though...

[peterb]

Just the ticket - many thanks

Let me know how you get on!

There is this case too http://www.xcase.co.uk/Compucase-S41...p/cc-s411b.htm - not so much space for hard drives, but it looks as if the drives are in a hot swap bay, if that is important to you.

[watercooled]

I want one of these! http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01...-cloud-storage http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30922/

...even though I'd barely fill one of the hard drives...

[Lee H]

I might even go down This type of route and build my own chassis.

Looks fairly straight fowards, I just need some spare time to plan and get the bits sorted out

[peterb]

The second link in watercooled's post (above yours) makes for an interesting read too - especially if you are thinking about doing your own metal bashing.

[Lee H]

Oh I don't think I'm not going to do it.

My dads a welder/pipe-fitter/underwater welder/general metal working guru and as such I'll just draw what I need and get him to sort it out for me

It will give him something to do as he's sat at home with nothing to do apart from checking his blood sugar levels.

[watercooled]

Do you think it would be worth running a caching DNS server on my home server as well as a file server? I've never run one myself before so how hard are they to configure/manage? I've been playing with Debian (I'm more familiar with Debian than Fedora/RHEL) and found that using a GUI just gets in the way since you end up using a terminal for everything anyway so I used the netinstall CD to install the base system then just installed what I needed on top of that.

[Splash]

Do you think it would be worth running a caching DNS server on my home server as well as a file server? I've never run one myself before so how hard are they to configure/manage? I've been playing with Debian (I'm more familiar with Debian than Fedora/RHEL) and found that using a GUI just gets in the way since you end up using a terminal for everything anyway so I used the netinstall CD to install the base system then just installed what I needed on top of that.

Depends on what you're wanting to get from it. If you're a terminal tinkerer (like myself) and you're already looking at a Debian box then... why not?

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO-3.html should get you started.

If you're expecting massive differences in your internet experience then... you'll likely be disappointed, but it's well worth doing just for the experience.

[peterb]

As sp[alsh says - worth it for the fun of doing it! However you might like to think about setting up postfix as a mailserver - even if it only relaying mail from users on the network to your ISP's mail server.