NAS replacement Mac/PC

[dakels]

I have a bit of a problem. Working with a NAS which has about reached its limit. It has outgrown its usefulness in more ways then one. Before implementing some grand server setup to replace it I was wondering what can be done on a quick and simple scale to replace it with something just partially better then whats there. Before we go into details I just want to say I am not very experienced with this so bear with me...

While we are setting up a large scalable datacenter, I have to deal with this crap snapserver which is maxed out (60gb) and also not able to support the needs to the amount of users it has been forced to adopt. I was wondering what could be implemented to give better usability while maintianing open accessibility and larger storage and faster access to the data.

I would say anywhere from 5-20 people can be accessing this drive from anywhere around the world as an active file server using AFP over TCP/IP and Samba. Obviously at this point its become quite overburdeoned. I cannot wait for a long term solution to be implemented. I am looking for a solution using a desktop machine and some server software to be able to provide these services 24/7. A quick solution and I understand that its not by any means long term. Its just to get us out of a jam providing more storage and hopefully more responsivness. I would prefer to do this solution of course with accessible simple equipment like a single desktop with say 2 drives in a RAID 0. I understand to some degree the issues of security and lack of redundency. I just need something for a few weeks thats better then what we have and I would appreciate any input. I would also prefer using OS X server but whatever will do.

thanks

 

[drag]

Well if your going OS X you might as well get a Apple Xserver and a RAID enclosure.

Dual G5 with a nice professional level RAID setup, would be good good stuff. And it's all pre-built and I am sure that as long as you tell Apple you need it right away then they can probably get it to you in a reasonable time frame.


But if you want a low-buck fix then Linux and OS X get along pretty well for file sharing. After all Samba is originally native to Linux.


A nice Via or Intel setup with on-board everything. Gigabyte ethernet connections are avialbe if you need it. Check for driver support, but both of those guys have reasonable support unless your dealing the the bleeding edge hardware.

Fedora Core1/2 with a "server" install setup shouldn't be a problem for most computer savy people, and most the old documention for Redhat 9.0 (now unsupported, past EOF product) will be mostly relevent.

For RAID, I don't know. I have NO experiance with Linux and RAID so I can't recommend anything for that.

But if you can divide up the workload between 2 harddrives, then one 100+ gig on one IDE channel and another 100+ gig on a different IDE channel would be fairly quick.

Then on another computer somewhere you could stick a 250gig drive to backup the data on the other 2 drives and also a nice DVD backup sceme or if you have the money a Tape drive backup sceme is nessicary.

You can get by realy cheap, IMO, and still have a great server for peanuts, but backups is something you should NEVER skimp on.

With a good (and tested) backup sceme your platters from the harddrive could shoot out and explode in the parking lot and you can still run down to Best Buy or whatever and have a working server running within a hour.