[Tfug] NAS again

[John Gruenenfelder]

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On February 1, 2014 11:50:52 AM MST, Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>The problem(s) that I've found with OTS "appliances" of this sort are:
>- single spindle (means each spindle needs a network drop)
>- current "with disk" offerings are too big (this is my "precious"
>   archive -- i.e., nothing can get lost -- so I distrust few/big
>   spindles)
>- cost (some of the "no media" boxes are as expensive as a PC)

A bit late to this party, but here's my two cents:

Have you considered using broadband routers as your NAS access points?  My router/switch running dd-wrt just died and as a result I have become far more full of dd-wrt related know-how than I was a few days ago.  While my ex-router did not have them, it seems that most of the units these days have USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports on them, and, judging from the forums, many people are using them for NAS.

You'd still need an external enclosure, of course, but everything should be non-proprietary.  The variety of tools and capabilities you get on the router depends on the image you flash, but any unit with >= 8MB of flash has enough space for the NAS related stuff.

It sounds like you really don't need the wifi bits, but most of these projects tend to target units with wifi.  So, you might need to get one with wifi anyway and just disable it.  Also, even though a unit might have USB 3.0, we all know there's no way these CPUs can push that much data.  Fortunately, I believe you said that SuperSpeeds weren't a big concern.

I used to run OpenWrt on my old WRT54G unit, but I had to switch to dd-wrt when I got the new one since OpenWrt did not yet support it.  Depending on your preferences/needs, you may find OpenWrt more to your liking.  dd-wrt tends to take an all-in-one approach with big image files whereas OpenWrt uses a dpkg-alike package management system and online repository so you can easily choose what is installed.  You can customize dd-wrt, too, but you'll need to download their tools and build your own image.

>I was told to look at "Shuttles" (?) in that they are a very small
>form factor and could probably accommodate 2-3 drives (haven't done
>that research yet)

I wholeheartedly recommend Shuttle PCs... but not for what you need here, I think.  Shuttle offers a variety of bare-bones PCs in a tiny rectangular box.  The form factor is non-standard, I believe, so you always get a case+motherboard.  I don't actually have any now, but in the past I used them for MythBoxes and they do great at this.

The case design is quite nice and you can pack a surprising amount into one.  A normal Shuttle case can hold up to two 3.5" drives (one has a faceplate available), one 5.25" drive, one low-profile expansion card, and one regular sized expansion card (likely a video card).  All of the Shuttle motherboards I have seen come with integrated video and numerous video outputs on the back, so a video card isn't strictly necessary.  If you fill one up all the way you get a very dense, but very port	able, PC.

Cooling is achieved via a nifty heatpipe system that sits on the CPU and curves up to the back of the case where there is a big radiator and fan.  It's a closed system, though, so no worries about liquids.

My previous desktop was also a Shuttle XPC and served me quite well.  I only moved away from Shuttle because I had too much stuff and needed a regular tower case for the added space.  Also, the last few generations of video cards generate *so* much heat, I don't think a Shuttle case could adaquately cool it.


- --John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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