NAS, WHS, or Linux?

[snouter]

I have shared drives and USB 2 drives all over the place. I also have Windows 7 and OS X computers. I want to start using server.

I see pre-built NAS boxes, but they seem expensive and get mediocre rating almost universally. Also, their price/storage ratio does not seem that great.

I kinda forget about Windows Home Server but doesn't it get pretty decent reviews?

I have some Linux skills. I could build a linux server, but have only really set-up LAMP servers and firewalls and stuff with Linux. My linux is openSuse, but Ubuntu seems to have a nice server and private cloud edition going on, though I know little about them. With Linux which tech would I want to use? NFS? rsynch? ways to push and synch, maybe like Dropbox? etc I am a little thin on the details of what is available to me in the Linux world.

I'm not sure I need RAID. I use Time Machine to back my Macs up to externals and I keep my PC pretty clean and backed up. I'd rather go for capacity than RAID.

I like mounted drive shares, but Macs don't?

Any other approach I'm missing? I'm just looking to store ~10TB of stuff and have it readily available to Macs and PCs over at least gig/E.

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I do graphics, video and multimedia development, and there is a home theater involved with lots of .m4v, .mkv and VIDEO_TS folders involved, so moving 4-50GB won't be uncommon. I play video through my Windows 7 HTPC or my PS3 to my TV through an AV receiver to my TV.

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My computers:

Windows 7 HTPC
Windows 7 workstation
Macbook Pro work
MacBook Air

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Thanks in advance.

 

[sxr7171]

I was in the same boat. I used WHS for 2 years, real horrible system at the end of the day and no future with MS removing a critical feature. Besides performance is atrocious. High bitrate video will stutter. I tested both version of the Vail beta. Even worse performance from that one.

I considered NAS boxes, and you're right, you'll get mediocre performance for a high price and judging from the reviews no better reliability for paying more.

I just built myself a Nexentastor based ZFS file system based NAS appliance and I couldn't be more satisfied. All my performance issues gone. Reliable access from Macs and PCs.

I must admit that I actually use a WHS for what it does best: PC backups. I actually use it as my Time Machine drive as well. Machines from HP have the software to do this. However I see you have actual Time Machines, so this won't matter.

I have about 10TB available to my Macs and PCs and all machines except my personal laptop are connected by Gig-E. I subscribe to the setup you are planning and fully endorse it. I play even Blu-Rays with no issues.


EDIT: Btw, I know almost nothing about Linux and even less about Solaris. All you have to do is burn the install CD and run it on the machine. Then you set up a password and maybe a simple network setting and the web interface will be working. From there you can setup your storage easily. Experiment a little before your final data copying. It really was very easy.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I do graphics, video and multimedia development, and there is a home theater involved with lots of .m4v, .mkv and VIDEO_TS folders involved, so moving 4-50GB won't be uncommon. I play video through my Windows 7 HTPC or my PS3 to my TV through an AV receiver to my TV.

Sounds like the perfect Unraid setup. I use my two Unraid boxen in mixed environments (OSX, Linux, Windows) everyday.

With Unraid you get the parity of RAID and the space of pure drives. Really nice NAS software.

 

[pjkenned]

I was in the same boat. I used WHS for 2 years, real horrible system at the end of the day and no future with MS removing a critical feature. Besides performance is atrocious. High bitrate video will stutter. I tested both version of the Vail beta. Even worse performance from that one.

I considered NAS boxes, and you're right, you'll get mediocre performance for a high price and judging from the reviews no better reliability for paying more.

I just built myself a Nexentastor based ZFS file system based NAS appliance and I couldn't be more satisfied. All my performance issues gone. Reliable access from Macs and PCs.

I must admit that I actually use a WHS for what it does best: PC backups. I actually use it as my Time Machine drive as well. Machines from HP have the software to do this. However I see you have actual Time Machines, so this won't matter.

I have about 10TB available to my Macs and PCs and all machines except my personal laptop are connected by Gig-E. I subscribe to the setup you are planning and fully endorse it. I play even Blu-Rays with no issues.


EDIT: Btw, I know almost nothing about Linux and even less about Solaris. All you have to do is burn the install CD and run it on the machine. Then you set up a password and maybe a simple network setting and the web interface will be working. From there you can setup your storage easily. Experiment a little before your final data copying. It really was very easy.

I'd second NexentaStor. Runs well in a ESXi VM also. I actually have a box right now with a NexentaVM + a Windows 7 instance for RDC that I use for my 11.6" MBA instead of trying to run a VM on the MBA. Nexenta is simple to use, and has ZFS as an underpinning so you can get good performance and it does great data scrubbing which most cheap NAS setups don't do, or don't do well. Also things like native iSCSI targets are pretty nice.

 

[Modelworks]

A lot of options for software/OS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeNAS
http://www.open-e.com/products/open-e-data-storage-software-v6-lite/
http://www.openfiler.com/

 

[notposting]

I've used WHS for 2 years, and at the end of the day performance is fantastic. HOWEVER, with the future of it cloudy at this point I can't recommend it anymore.

Mine has been used for daily PC backups (5 machines), music, central file storage, and DVD and recorded HD OTA video serving to the HTPC and 2 Media Center Extenders.

Looking into Amahi using Greyhole, it seems to come pretty close (if not exceeding) to DE* functionality, and you can use the built-in backup capability of Win7 daily as well (incremental after the first one).

* DE: Drive Extender. Part of the real magic of WHS. Throws everything into a share, eliminates dealing with drive letters or having to do any mapping of new drives, no RAID to fuss with...can add a USB external, a new onboard SATA, a new IDE, expansion card drives, all to the pool with no hiccups. And you can enable duplication by folder and it will copy the files to another drive (all behind the scenes) all of which are standard NTFS volumes readable by other machines.