performance NAS

we have a SMB company that has 4-8 employees. to cut cost we purchased a linksys nas-200 that has not been performing very well. the nas file server sometimes hangs and tells users that is mapped to the server it has insufficient system resources. i am currently considering upgrading to a performance NAS. can anyone recommend me one?

Thanks

cadnyc

Asked: 2011-03-09

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1 Solution

LVL 6

expert02232010Commented: 2011-03-09

have you looked at Openfiler or Freenas? you use your own hardware of most any variety, and any disk to create the NAS, which makes it easily expandable.
I run Openfiler as a SAN for exsi host without any issues.

LVL 19

joolsCommented: 2011-03-09

I've used FreeNAS successfully before but it depends on the type of data you're sharing and the network setup you have, if you use FreeNAS you may want something quite powerful CPU/Memory wise and use GB Ethernet if the users share large files are you are doing lots of backups, on the other hand if it's just the odd file here and there then you should be OK with any desktop PC you have spare but see if you can stick a GB NIC in it. You may also want to invest in a GB switch if you're cabling can take the speed

Have you tried updating the firmware on the linksys? The unit seems to have had mixed reviews for read/write performance and if there is a firmware update it may be worth looking at.

LVL 25

kode99Commented: 2011-03-09

Take a look at products from Synology and Qnap

http://www.qnap.com/Products.asp

http://www.synology.com/us/index.php

Also you can see some performance charts and reviews from a fairly wide range of makes and models here,

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190

With NAS the price is usually going to match performance, low priced units have very weak processors and little memory and it shows in performance.

Both companies I suggest specialize in NAS and are on their 3rd generation of software that is running on decent hardware.

For the kind of application the minimum would likely be something like the Qnap TS-219+,

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=182

or Synology DS211,

http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS211/index.php

Both are priced in the $300-350 range (without drives) with similar functionality. Each company uses almost the same software for all their models so the features are very similar for the different sized units.

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