Looking for a 4-bay NAS. Suggestions?

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criccio

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Im currently in the market to re-evaluate my home storage/server setup. Currently i have the following:

Windows Home Server v1
Q6600
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
4GB RAM
2x1TB HDD
2x2TB HDD
Intel Gigabit NIC

I do a lot on this machine. It runs VMWare Workstation full time with two linux VMs, a full time Subsonic music server with about 10 active users and an Minecraft server with about 5 active users. I frequently run into disk I/O issues that are inherant with WHS v1.

What i would idealy like to do is offload the storage duties to a dedicated NAS and upgrade the server to something like Server 2008R2 and have that just run the apps i mentioned above. My concerns are getting the Windows version of Subsonic to see a network share as its main music directory as well as bandwidth issues between the server and NAS. I would ultimately like to store the VMs on the NAS but run VMWare on the server.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
 
That actually looks pretty decent. Thanks! Anyone have any suggestions about my bandwidth questions?

EDIT Nevermind, the HP only supports RAID 0 and 1. I would like 5 or 6.
 
Raid6 with only 4 drives isn't very interesting...Raid5 with 4 drives is barely interesting.

In any case, you can always run Solaris, OI or FreeBSD and use ZFS for the filesystem. That way you get software Raid with high performance.
 
Interesting. Im looking for something with a simple web gui. I have no interest in managing another linuxish type box from a command line if i dont have to. Either of those options have one? OI looks intriguing.

Napp-it. Will that work?
 
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What is your budget? Are you looking for decent network throughput and performance? There are several vendors that make decent NAS's but the prices are all over the map. You can look at QNAP, Synology, Netgear and Thecus to name a few. They all make enterprise and home/SMB devices.
 
My budget without drives was around $350 give or take so this was something i was initially looking at: http://www.thecus.com/product.php?PROD_ID=17

The HP server mentioned above also is around that price but adds the option for picking an OS such as OpenIndiana. If installing OpenIndiana and getting a ZFS pool setup and managable with a web gui is as easy as the Thecus i linked, i would rather go that route.
 
criccio said:
Interesting. Im looking for something with a simple web gui. I have no interest in managing another linuxish type box from a command line if i dont have to. Either of those options have one? OI looks intriguing.

Napp-it. Will that work?
Click to expand...

Napp-it will work beautifully on an HP MicroServer.
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I definitely have a direction now.
 
HP just updated their microserver lineup with an upgrade to the N40L processor and a doubling of base memory (from 1GB -> 2GB) for a 10 dollar prices increase

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html

so a good time to buy.

Napp-it works like a champ with OI. Should you desire the only commands you really need to type in will be the one on the napp-it page to install napp-it, then one passwd command after install to reset the CIFS share passwords.
 
It looks like an HP Micro Server running OpenIndiana and napp-it are in my future. Thanks everyone! ZFS looks like a great system. :)
 
I like my Qnap 459+

Works great for streaming my video collection to the tv...via my popcorn hour.....
 
If I go with the HP MicroServer, where would I install the OS? It has 4 SATA ports for the main drive bays but I would like a separate SATA port for a standalone OS drive if possible. How would this work with OpenIndiana/ZFS? How do you guys do it?
 
I'd say Synology > Qnap
Just make sure you get a x86-based one if you want decent performance
The HP Mini Server (first gen) seems to have a few quirks when it comes to FreeBSD and/or Solaris, I've seen people claiming that AHCI doesn't work on all ports as it should etc but that might just be end user mistakes.
//Danne
 
criccio said:
If I go with the HP MicroServer, where would I install the OS? It has 4 SATA ports for the main drive bays but I would like a separate SATA port for a standalone OS drive if possible. How would this work with OpenIndiana/ZFS? How do you guys do it?
Click to expand...

iI have no microserver but as i know, you may remove the DVD, you may use
the external Sata port or you may add a additional controller. there is also a
bios around (see microserver thread) that enables ahci on all 6 sata ports

Solaris/ napp-it is reported to work on it without problems
Perfect, if you just need a easy to use ZFS-NAS with enterprise storage features

Main thing of the microserver (if you want use it for virtualization) is the lack
of hardware virtualization (IOMMU/vt-d) and expandability (cpu, drive bays, adapters)
Compare it to a cheap server-board from Supermicro (about 150 euro + cpu + ram)
+ a more expandable case. In such a case you can use a barebone Hypervisor
like ESXi and virtualize all systems with much better speed and reliability
you can even virtualize the storage server (see napp-it all-in-one = Virtual server with embedded NAS/SAN)

- maybee just replace the mainboard and use the old one for a small backup system-
 
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Thanks _Gea, I was hoping you would chime in after I read your ZFS thread. As for the heavy lifting (VMs, etc...) I'm still going to use the Q6600 powered rig I mentioned above.

That settles it then. I'll be picking up the HP shortly. I still need to research ZFS friendly drives :)
 
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