NAS Recommendations?

[tonyb]

NAS recommendations? I'm looking for a new NAS device, with the following:

• QUIET. My data center is my laundry room, it can't have jet engines for fans.
• At least 3 drive bays, that can handle 2 TB drives. I'm planning on doing (3) 2 TB.
• Supports NFS and perhaps iSCSI. I'm willing to do a little command line to do it (like Drobo FS). I need the NFS for ESXi datastores.
• Self contained, can heal theyself in case of drive failures. I'm not building my own RAID system.
• Reasonably priced. In the Drobo FS range. I'm willing to put down good money, but not stupid money. I'm not running a Fortune 500, just storing some files and using it as a ESXi datastore.

I'm looking at the Drobo FS. I've seen a few other names around, and am looking for personal experiences with various NAS devices.

I've built RAID boxes in Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc. But honestly, I don't want a hacked together system. That's my ESXi host. I want my storage to be self-contained and purpose built.

What has your experiences been with these products?

 

[vraa]

ZFSGuru

 

[tonyb]

As I said, I'm not building my own system. I'm looking at Drobo, Buffalo, Qnaps, etc.

 

[Dangman]

Well judging from the responses throughout this forum, the Drobo isn't well recommended.

As for other NAS recommendations/thoughts/reviews, hit up www.smallnetbuilder.net and check out the NAS reviews they do over there.

 

[tonyb]

Well judging from the responses throughout this forum, the Drobo isn't well recommended.

As for other NAS recommendations/thoughts/reviews, hit up www.smallnetbuilder.net and check out the NAS reviews they do over there.

One of the problems I've found is that there are bad reviews and good reviews for just about every NAS.

I'd love to check out smallnetbuilder, but it appears to be a dead domain.

 

[Dangman]

I'd love to check out smallnetbuilder, but it appears to be a dead domain.

Sorry it's this: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

 

[PhantmShado]

I'm currently in a similar hunt and did not find that site useful. Seems like they review nothing priced for the consumer market.

After some searching it appears that, considering speeds, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822319013 is the best deal, included blu ray writer considered or not. Does support NFS.

Any one have a recommendation against this product?

 

[odditory]

One of the problems I've found is that there are bad reviews and good reviews for just about every NAS.

yeah but not every NAS charges you a recurring +15% of the purchase price of the unit annually for the privilege of downloading bugfixes. only Data Robotics (drobo) has the nerve to do that.

check out Synology and QNAP.

 

[tonyb]

yeah but not every NAS charges you a recurring +15% of the purchase price of the unit annually for the privilege of downloading bugfixes. only Data Robotics (drobo) has the nerve to do that.

check out Synology and QNAP.

Really? Because I just downloaded some Firmware here: http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

And I haven't even bought anything yet, let alone setup a login. It took me 3 seconds to find that, btw. I have noticed a raging hate-on for Drobo among power users, but very little of it is substantiated.

I read about some performance problems for QNAP, though I'm still sifting through.

The Synology looks pretty good so far. I'll check out the LG unit.

 

[NetJunkie]

Very, very pleased with my Synology DS1010+. It's on the vSphere compatibility list. Using mine for my vSphere lab.

 

[doofoo]

Currently using a QNAP TS-809 Pro which is also on the vSphere Compatibility list (although not for iSCSI as Jumbo Frames are not supported on TS-809 Pro hardware, it works fine without though).

For a period of time I was using it as a NFS datastore on my vmware setup here at home. Worked great.

I have been very happy with it although I am now looking to get rid of it and replace it with a ZFS solution so I can gain De-Duplication at the block level.

For what you are looking for I think the higher end QNAP's would do great.

 

[PhantmShado]

I have noticed a raging hate-on for Drobo among power users, but very little of it is substantiated.

Um, it's really not hard to find "substantiation"... Did you even try?

http://www.amazon.com/Data-Robotics...ref=sr_du_1_map?ie=UTF8&qid=1293865195&sr=8-1

31.5% bad (1 and 2 star) reviews. To give a point of comparison, I decided randomly to pull reviews of the recently released R.A.T. mouses which seems to have garnered a response in the forum indicating they were too early to market. Still only 17.3% bad reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Cyborg-R-T-Ga...sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I'm sorry, but that's not a good sign. It just isn't.