Question

Home Grown NAS?

Asked by: ged125

I recently got a good deal on some hard disks and wanted to leverage them to create a NAS.  I know that there are a lot of chassis' available on the market for something like this, but I was wondering if it is easy to create a home-grown model?

What I mean is, I have a spare PC laying around that isn't really doing anything useful.  Can I load some sort of bare-bones O/S like Linux to simply mount the drives on the network?  I am going to put a SATA raid card in as well, so maybe I will just spring for a NAS Chassis.

I would like something that can alert me in the event of a RAID array failure.

Suggestions?  Best idea gets the points.

Thanks in advance.

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Asked On
2009-04-08 at 16:57:59ID24307947
Tags

Network Attached Storage

,

NAS

,

Linux

,

Windows

Topics

Linux Setup

,

Storage Technology

,

Hard Drives & Storage

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
17

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Answers

 

by: torimarPosted on 2009-04-08 at 17:41:51ID: 24103298

This may be the "barebones Linux" you are looking for: FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org/index.php)

"FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key."

Although it is more Unix than Linux ...

 

by: dolomitiPosted on 2009-04-08 at 17:55:06ID: 24103346

hi ged,
you have to find a RAID (sata,scsi,sas) that has an agent in the guest OS
I know ServeRAID IBM (Adaptec IBM re-branded), they have, but they are
expensive.
Inside agent configuration, you can define an action, typically an e-mail, to do.

How many disks do you think to use, in which cfg (RAID1,10,JBOD or also 5),
and which bus have you in your spare PC ?

bye
vic

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-08 at 17:58:19ID: 24103363

I have SATA.  It can be up to 6 disks in the array

 

by: rydersaintPosted on 2009-04-08 at 18:53:13ID: 24103527

Hello ged125 and torimar
http://www.openfiler.com/
Is linux solution
However I prefer FreeNAS because you can go into the source and modify for your needs too
version 7 (still Alpha, not stable) has ZFS. This is better then raid and give you much more control and pools you HDD instead of raid magic numbers that (yuk)

ZFS http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/
is really worth reading about if your going to do any NAS save you alot of hassles later on

Ryder
 

 

by: airtopPosted on 2009-04-08 at 19:03:54ID: 24103554

I agree with rydersaint but I would use nexenta. I just built a home grown nas out of a shuttle PC with 2 sata cards and a sata / sas hot swap drive cage for 2.5" drives. ZFS is great.

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-08 at 19:14:02ID: 24103585

Alpha not stable meaning not a solution?   Or does it work with minor bugs?

 

by: airtopPosted on 2009-04-08 at 19:18:41ID: 24103604

Are you referring to nexenta? I have been using nexenta and opensolaris with ZFS and I love it. I have had no problems at all.

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-08 at 19:38:22ID: 24103664

Airtop might be the winner.  I will validate tomorrow.  I would rather not have a Alpha level solution if I can avoid it.  Thanks to everyone for the input.  

 

by: tankergoblinPosted on 2009-04-08 at 23:47:34ID: 24104638

NAS  is network attached storage, purpose is use to store file.
Now adays NAS allows you to setup FTP server, streaming server, etc.

Of course you can use your pc to create your own NAS. In fact NAS is a file server.
Just that NAS will be cheaper than pc server.
You can create NAS or file server using any OS that can connect to network or internet.
with pc server you can do more that share file and ftp file....

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-09 at 09:14:19ID: 24108695

Ok, so I installed Nexenta and I am completely new to SunOS.  Airtop, can you shoot me a quick tutorial on getting it up and running?

Thanks

 

by: airtopPosted on 2009-04-09 at 09:24:13ID: 24108807

You want to create your zfs and then setup your share

To find your connected disks
cfgadmin | grep "disk"

Create your pool
zpool create data raidz c1t1d0 c1t1d0 c2t1d0 c3t1d0
zpool status

zfs set sharesmb=on data

browse to \\ip\data


 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-09 at 11:35:51ID: 24110131

cfgadmin didn't end up working as a command.  Not sure why, I am logged in as a power user.

Also, question for Rydersaint:  I have been looking at FreeNAS and I like the interface.  However, it looks like ZFS should be a requirement.  That being said, how much testing have you done with version 7?  Realizing that it is still Alpha, how long before you would consider it stable?   Do they have a scheduled RC release?

Thanks

 

by: airtopPosted on 2009-04-09 at 17:29:05ID: 24112792

it should be located in /usr/sbin/cfgadm and should be in your path. in any event you can use the commands above to create your pool. the example shows creating a raidz pool with 4 disks.

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-11 at 17:48:58ID: 31568322

I ended up going with FreeNAS.  I am testing version .7 and .69

 

by: rydersaintPosted on 2009-04-13 at 15:15:19ID: 24133347

Hello ged125 and airtop

Version 7 I was running for quite some time
I found it really errors out when you use zfs and iscsi together (crash burn)
and you lose the web interface (due to memory) after awhile if you dont set up a swap partition
Other then that it was really good (still alpha though so expect the unexpected)

thank you  for the points

 

by: ged125Posted on 2009-04-13 at 15:31:38ID: 24133429

So I have already deployed 7 using a 1GB flash USB, but I didn't create a swap file because I have 2GB of RAM.  Do I still need to build one?  If so, can I do that without reinstalling?

 

by: rydersaintPosted on 2009-04-13 at 15:53:47ID: 24133561

hello ged125

Yes I recommend you still add one as my server had 4GB
it explains howto  it under the swap area in the web interface
basically add another disk(partition / left over space) and place in the path to it

Ryder

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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