[NTLUG:Discuss] Small NAS box ideas?

[Chris Cox]

Darin Smith wrote:
> I've been pondering the possibilities of creating an inexpensive Network
> Attached Storage (NAS) box to sit in a closet at home.
> 
> Main goals:
> Cheap
> Reliable
> Capability of supporting at least 4 drives, figuring on RAID-4 for
> redundancy and efficiency of storage volume (though not as
> performance-happy as mirroring--since it's destined to be networkable
> filesystems, I see performance as less of an issue)
> Compact
> Also capable of running a small, minimal traffic Apache installation, so
> I can free my desktop machine of that task and have it completely
> firewalled off.  HTTP will be the only thing my external router will let
> through to the NAS box.

Does Linux md handle RAID 4??  If not, and you use a HW RAID, I'd
go with RAID 5 for better performance with same benefit.

> 
> So, I'm thinking of a PII or one of the slower/cheaper Athlons, on a
> MicroATX board with an extra 2-controller IDE card in a PCI slot.  Since
> "cheap" is a goal, and performance isn't as critical, I'm figuring on
> inexpensive IDE drives and software RAID.

Nope.  Not unless you have the hardware lying around.  You are looking
at PIII or newer Celeron on the Intel side and Duron/Athlon on
the AMD side.  My guess, just because of MicroATX options, you'll
go with the Intel based solution.

I've heard bad things about Linux SW RAID 5... however, mirroring,
RAID 1, seems to work well.  Might be an option.

> 
> Does anyone have any opinions on AFS vs. CODA vs. NFS?

If you want speed... oddly enough, go with Samba.  Obviously there
are the normal Unix-CIFS permission issues, but probably 2-3 times
faster than something like NFS.

> 
> It will also run Samba, so my Win98 notebook (SLOOOOWWW Celeron 333) can
> make use of the space too.
> 
> Being a closet dweller, video and sound aren't issues, and I think most
> of the micro ATX mobo's out there have both onboard, as well as 100BT
> ethernet.
> 
> I am considering splurging a little bit and getting one of those cool
> LCD or Flourescent displays that fits in a drive bezel...where I could
> display %free space, cpu temp, and put up witty little sayings...
> 
> Does anyone see any gross flaws in my plan here?

Cost.... but certainly a fun project.  Most of these appliances
(which btw, can use the lower end products more easily than you
or I) cost about $350 - $1000.  I would think you could put together
something reasonable in $500 range.  Hopefully that pricing is ok.

For instance, I recently reviewed a Toshiba SG-10.  Had the
capability of mirroring its 2 20G IDE drives... used a K-6 and
had the LCD, also an inboard switch in addition to the primary
100BaseT and modem... I think it goes for $320-350... hard
to beat for the features (unless you go used market).

$100-400  MicroATX case and PSU
$120      Mb and possibly CPU and memory
$100      used drives (or single new drive)
$100      LCD display
$50       CD

This is an excellent project for a used Compaq unit... esp.
their older celeron systems... they have one MicroATX with 2 5.25"
front bays! Perfect!  They are a bit rare, but I have one that serves
as a CD duplication device (SuSE 8).