building a NAS device

[ct_]

anyone got good ideas?

i have power, i have drives, what i need is a way to just connect the drives to the network, without making a full pc out of the box

all i want is a network port and a power plug port on the back of the unit


i've seen similar ways, but they use firewire - and that of course requires a pc to connect to

i was thinking of a SNAP! server, but that's WAY out of my price range, and not enough storage

:afro: :shrug:

[yujen]

your probably not going to be able to do it without a full PC either apparant (PC) or transparent (embedded).

Whats your pricerange by the way?

[Andy]

although it is making a full computer, if you can get your hands on a VIA mini-itx mobo and set up a small (physically) system

[kane2g]

I would look around for a mobo with Raid option. even if you dont use it as Raid, it gives you extra 2 ide channels.;)
KT7Raid can be found for about 20bux or so. and putting in a Duron will do the job.
But I guess it will be more of an FileServer than NAS. :rolleyes:
Unless there is some big difference between them that I dont know.

[yujen]

a NAS is a sort of network appliance where it operates independantly of any other server on the network.. its sole purpose is to provide network attached storage.

that said, a NAS is usually controlled by an embedded computer running a full OS in order to support common network filesystem protocols found on a variety of operating systems (NFS, CIFS, SMB, etc) it usually has a hot swap backplane (either IDE or SCSI) and supports both software and hardware RAID (software RAID is probably enough as it has a dedicated CPU controlling the whole system). like a router, you configure some NAS devices through a web interface, its usually a headless device though. oh and a good NAS usually has an external SCSI port to plug in dedicated backup devices to (external tape archivers).

theres NAS systems which attach to 100mb ethernet or 1000mb ethernet, theres also USB 2.0 and Firewire types.


true, a computer can replicate everything a NAS does... a NAS is basically a computer but its so much neater and less hassle to get a 1U Rackmount NAS with 4 hotswap IDE drive bays :)

[kane2g]

Thanks for the info.
But I figured that NAS doesnt have OS and is mostly remotely controlled/administred, as opposed to FileServer where you setup permissions/shares whatever through the OS itself.

BTW is NAS where the Single Board Computers are used? I see them all the time, yet cannot figure out what exactly they plug into! :confused:

[yujen]

yes a NAS does have a full proper OS such as Win2k, FreeBSD as well as other suitable operating systems.

yes a single board computer is commonly used in NAS appliances... as well as a host of other applications... mostly commercial/industrial based... very seldom consumer based.

[ct_]

so how about www.rebyte.com ?

anyone know anything about these?

:?:

[kane2g]

I never heard of them. But it says that you can convert any PC into a backup.
So its nothing more than some install of Linux that you configure through the web.
But thats only my guess after looking at the front page for 23sec. :rolleyes2
Since it still requires a whole PC, I would just put W2K on it and call it a day. :thumb: