Computer Advice :: NAS Server?

[Gareth Mahon]

I work in a small 3 person office. We use a windows peer-to-peer network to share all of our data. We have one dedicated computer on the network that acts as a peer-to-peer “server”. We run AutoCAD, Office and Adobe CS. Some recent network/computer problems are making me real nervous about this system and all of our data! We do regular backups.

I was recommended to look at a Network Attached Storage solution – basically a cheap server – that is managed over the network – it typically does not have a keyboard or screen. The one I’m looking at runs about $625.

Does anyone have any real world experience with these? Do they work well for a small design office?

Thanks

G
 

[Chris Whitted]

I did my internship (more than ten years ago) in a firm with six people on a similar computer network. One of the things I did on my very last day was to pick up an early NAS for them after some research and recommendations. Unfortunately I didn’t have much to do with it beyond plugging it in.

But based on what I know of NAS boxes, particularly the recent explosion in the consumer market, I’ll offer a few thoughts. If you plan to work off of the device as opposed to making local copies, I would be looking for one with two minimum features – hot-swappable RAID 5 support and a Gigabit network connection (also requiring a router with at least one Gigabit port for it to be plugged into). Another consideration would be whether the device can function as a print server. Beyond that, without knowing much about the problems you’ve run into or how your network/office generally operates, I can’t think of any specific suggestions. How do you do backups (and how regular are they)? If you use a tape drive, will the NAS support it directly or will you have to back up over the network through a workstation? What kind of interface do you need/want – complicated with all the details, or something simple that someone with minimal hardware and network knowledge can manage? Without knowing the features and size of the NAS you’re looking at, that price sounds potentially high – a really good but expensive one on a current recommendation list I’m aware of is $400 with no drives. Have you looked into getting an actual server as opposed to an NAS? A small but infinitely more functional Linux box can be built for that kind of money (but might require more complex support or operating knowledge).

[Jason T. Radice]

Make sure you do plenty of research on the reliability of the box. Most use consumer grade hard drives to lessen the costs. These can be notoriously unreliable and slow. Your NAS , at a minimum, should have real-time drive mirroring as a backup. I would also suggest getting offsite backup from something like Mozy or Carbonite. Its cheap insurance, and it allows you to access your files remotely and securely from anywhere, without setting up a VPN. Some of the NAS units also allow for FTP and webhosting as well, which is great if you need it. If you have large files and want to work directly with those files on the NAS (without transferring them to the local workstation) I would suggest getting a full blown server with SCSI drives. Far faster and far more reliable. By the time you load up some of the NAS units with good and fast drives, it’s the cost of a low-end server. The server will not have as much space, you just need to archive more and have excellent file management. A NAS is great for long-term storage space for backups and archiving. As mentioned by Chris, you can turn an old PC into a full blown server for next to nothing using Linux or FreeNAS. I’d recommend FreeNAS, and am planning to try it myself, soon on an old Athlon Thunderbird machine I built years ago.

http://freenas.org/doku.php

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