[dba-Tech] Building a network storage device

Lembit Soobik lembit.dbamail at t-online.de
Fri Feb 9 05:31:45 CST 2007


thanks John,
I have not installed the disks, only the NASlite software on an old 500MHz 
PC which I did not need any more.
also, I have not decided yet which disks to use.
once i do that I wil install a Gigabit network card.

I really dont need a very fast startup, so for the time being a floppy is 
fine.
But I would like to have it auto started when I turn my main PC on (maybe 
run a little VB program from Autostart)

This PC does have a "Wake on LAN".
My question was really how to make the wakeup call.

Lembit

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JWColby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
To: "'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'" 
<dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Building a network storage device


> You are using NASLite?
>
> The BIOD might have a "wake on lan" setting.  I have never really 
> understood
> what that does for you precisely.
>
> One thing I would recommend is to see if you can boot off a USB thumb 
> drive.
> If so, then you could place the NASLite out on a thumb drive, plug it in, 
> ad
> boot from that.  It would be almost instantaneous for a system as small as
> NASLit appears to be, which would allow "wake on lan" to actually be 
> useful,
> although even then the storage drives would have to spin up before the
> storage could be used.  I have no clue how long that takes, although I do
> know that for a large raid like I am doing, they stagger the drives spinup
> so that the drives don't all come up at once, in order to take it easy on
> the system power supply.
>
> Thanks Lembit, keep us informed on how it is working.
>
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lembit Soobik
> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 5:45 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Building a network storage device
>
> thanks Bryan and John
> for the discussion.
> I have done it yesterday and it worked like a charm.
>
> the question i have now is
> how can I start that PC via LAN, and is there a way to shut it down when 
> the
> UPS tells to shut down?
>
> Lembit
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bryan Carbonnell" <carbonnb at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues"
> <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 7:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Building a network storage device
>
>
>> On 2/7/07, JWColby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:
>>> >Have  a read of the docs, all 8 pages, and that should give you a good
>>> >idea
>>> how little you really need to know.
>>>
>>> Isn't that what Microsoft tells Joe user about Microsoft Access?
>>
>> Point taken, but I dont' work for MS ;-)
>>
>>> >NASLite doesn't have web admin, but it does have web status monitoring.
>>>
>>> Hmmm... What status?  Is this a Linux thing?  Or the drive stuff?
>>
>> Drive stuff. The drive space, the drive health if they are SMART aware
>> devices, etc. and server status/info.
>>
>> The NASLite-SMB Info share offers the following status information pages:
>> . Server ? Provides information about server network settings, lists
>> recent server users and displays the server (Samba) configuration
>> file.
>> . System ? Displays information about the server OS, uptime, load,
>> CPU, memory, fixed disk drive usage and network interface status.
>> . Disk-X - Displays Disk X initialization messages, hardware
>> description and S.M.A.R.T. status information if applicable. Disk 1 is
>> the primary (master) fixed disk
>> . SYS Log ? Displays the current system messages log file.
>> . SMB Log ? Displays the current SMB/CIFS Server (smbd) log file.
>> . NMB Log - Displays the current NetBIOS Name Server (nmbd) log file.
>> . About ? Contains general NASLite-SMB information.
>>
>> Here is a link to typical (their words not mine) status pages:
>> http://www.serverelements.com/info/NASLite-1/Server.htm
>>
>>> >Yes, that's command line but it is still done remotely.
>>>
>>> And here we are learning Linux command line stuff.
>>
>> Nope. I wrote that wrong. It's a text based menu. No fancy point and
>> click GUI. Its all done with the keyboard, via telnet or in front of
>> the actual PC.
>>
>>> Bryan, I am not saying that NASLite won't do what I need.  What I want 
>>> to
>>> know before I get in there is that I will NEVER have to go do Linux 
>>> stuff
>>> for this thing.  Not finding a driver for a video card or the raid card
>>> or
>>> the NIC, nothing!  If I ever have to do any Linux stuff then I just lost
>>> whatever benefit I might have gained by using it in the first place, and
>>> since I know absolutely NOTHING about Linux, I could be in trouble in a
>>> hurry.
>>
>> Nope. AFAICT, you will NEVER have to learn Linux. Never, ever, ever
>> with NASLite. It will either work out of the box with your hardware or
>> it won't. Period. EOD.
>>
>> If it doesn't, you will need to find another solution. If it does,
>> then you wont' need to upgrade anything. Now having said that, if you
>> change hardware then the new hardware may not work. Just like any
>> other hardware upgrade with (pick your favourite OS here)
>>
>>> I just have visions of weekends lost 6 months down the road because of
>>> (put
>>> your favorite unexplained circumstance here).  XP isn't beautiful, and 
>>> it
>>> isn't problem free, but it is a known quantity which counts for
>>> something.
>>> OTOH I have played the XP "where is the share that is supposed to be
>>> there"
>>> game so I know quite well that it isn't all roses on the XP side of the
>>> house either.
>>
>> I can't say that you won't have that experience. But it won't be
>> because of having to upgrade drivers or things like that. Like I said,
>> it'll either work, and then you're off to the races, or it won't and
>> you'll need to find another solution.
>>
>>> It sounds appealing, that is for sure.
>>
>> I guess the best way to tell for sure is to try it, in a non-critical
>> environment/role.
>>
>> It may be for you, it may not. All I can say is that it sounds like it
>> will fit the bill for what you need, and I have used it myself in the
>> past and it worked for what I was doing.
>>
>> -- 
>> Bryan Carbonnell - carbonnb at gmail.com
>> Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well
>> preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,
>> shouting "What a great ride!"
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