Looking for a NAS box, I think

I work in a remote location far away from home, and the internet connection there is a little better than dialup. What I am looking for is a solution which will let me set up a RAID 5 array of 3-4 disks and allow me to remotely connect to the box and set up bittorrent downloads. Transfer speeds are pretty much irrelevant, and really all I want is for the box to be able to provide a secure raid solution for my data, remote downloading, and data transfer. I have about $1000 to spend on the server and drives.

 

NAS are strictly storage boxes, which within them make good FTP units. As for BT you will need to use a PC that has RAID5 capability, running your BT software on it. You will then need to open all of the ports up and hope your ISP is not blocking them. Most are starting to bock them now. If you want access to your personal files FTP will work or VPN. Speed will be limited to your uplink speed. I use both FTP and Endpoint VPN (pc to router). My VPN gives me full access to my entire network for management. Which I could use with having FTP.

For NAS, if you know linux you have several options. For complete package units I use a Snap Appliance 4500. These are commercial units and very few non-bussiness own them, due to the expense. Can be picked up on ebay for 700-$1000 but you must get one complete with sleds and HD's. The os resides on the HD's without a working unit you can not bring one up. Supports any size HD in EIDE if you would like to upgrade. The OS along for these are $650+ so not cheap units.

But your best bet (cheapest) would get a MB that support raid5, and use it. You can share monitor, kb and mouse with your existing pc. Or add a Nexus NAS to your existing pc. Read the reviews on smallnetbuilder.com Before you get to far into I would check with your ISP and find out what ports they block. Most that have higher uplink speeds have restrictions to residential customers. Like blocking port 80 so you can not run a server, most do not block the FTP port 21.

 

Well, I don't have a home PC, just a laptop. Does that mean I am better searved to just buy a server and fill it with drives?

 

If you can get by with only FTP no. FTP would be the easiest to setup and use. Servers do give you more options as to what you can run. You will need to look at the spec pretty close when it comes to servers. I would lean toward a custom box, that way you can get a MB that will support raid5, with built in video to save money. Servers do not require a lot of video power. But Raid5, the software type requires a lot of cpu power to calculate parity. I think the Linux software comes with everything you need. Before I would spend any money I would check with you ISP to see if and what ports they are blocking. Most Due.... and most contracts prohibit running web servers unless you pay business rates.

And what ever configuration you go with, test your setup. Fail drives to see how the recovery process goes. Then make notes and save it. Drives do fail, even new ones. I would recommend interprise drives design for RAID Arrays. They are more robust and have min seek times, which yield better performance. Then you will need a UPS unit capable of auto shut down on low battery, and auto start when power is restored. Dropping power to raid5 arrays during writes is not good, and can corrupt the whole array. Just because its running raid5 it still needs to have regular backup. This is the biggest mistake users of raid5 make. I also see users take there time in replacing failed drives, in 2 weeks they loose another and all is lost.

 

Well I don't really care about webservers or FTP, I just want to remotely download bittorrent files and have raid 5.

 

I think a home server would best suite your needs. Maybe a linux box? I bet you could put one together for a few hundred dollars.

 

Try craigslist. You can buy someone's old pentium4 computer for under $200, its all you need really. Then you can get yourself a nice pci-e raid controller card, these things are great. With your budget, you can get a top notch 8port sata card. iI personally have a $110 highpoint 4-port raid card, but if you spend $300-500 on a card you'll be set for a long time.

raid 5 is also very cool, i get 930gb of space after formatting my 3x500gb array. this pleases me, lol.


@blue68f100, thanks for the great info, friend. i am definitely going to start messing around now that your posts have helped me understand a little more.

 

Well I picked up the Synology Cube Station CS 407 and 4 500gb Seagates today. I decided against buying an old Pentium 4 because I want the unit to be somewhat portable, this one is about as heavy as a 15.4" laptop, and a small cube. It fits 4 drives, which I am going to set up in RAID 5. I'll let you guys know how things go.

 

You maybe interested in something running Windows Home Server, I posted my own review of the HP MediaSmart Server in the hardware forum a little while back, here is the link if your interested http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=205544

 

Raid 5 is good only if you learn how to recover from a failure. I have over 3T of storage on my snaps. They are hot swapable, meaning all I have to do is swap in a new HD and the unit will take care of every thing for me.

Exchange of information is what OPEN Forums are all about. Glad to see that you picked up some of the technology.

 

I agree with Kurat,Windows Home Server would be a good choice for you. It backs up your files every night automatically, its easy to access the server remotely.Your nics can't be 10MB they've to be at least 100. I just brought the eval version(120 days) and will get the full version when it runs out,I think its great. And if you do know Linux I suggest Suse 10.3 it's fairly easy to get up and running.

 

I'm interested in learning Linux, and a NAS box seems like a good platform to run it off. I just hope I can find some easy-to-use remote bittorrent software for that platform. I'm reasonably comfortable with command line (get/put no prob) so maybe I will try Suse.

 

This project may be worth a look to anyone interested in NAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

 

FreeNAS is getting there but it not quite ready for prime time, still in beta. Good if you have a old pc lying around doing nothing. They have been stuck on the same release for some time now. If you use know compaitable hardware it works pretty good. But requires a modern cpu to handle the parity calculations other wise slow. Just need to follow all of the steps in getting the raid array built.