[dba-VB] Unraid

Hi John

For what it is - a simple fileshare (CIFS/SMB) only - the unRaid seems pretty expensive. Did you study the free alternatives like FreeNAS?

Also, don't you subscribe to the Action Pack? If so you should have plenty of server licenses to set up a straight Windows file share with or without AD - or even the Small Business Server. Or you could pick an old Windows 2000 license.

Have you considered iSCSI for sharing and to set up a SAN? That is extremely flexible and much better if your task is not so much file sharing but rather allocating of disc space. On your server you allocate some disk space (a target) and from your client you address this (using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator) and that disk space pops up as a local disk.
Free options are again FreeNAS (which I haven't tested) but should be somewhat limited. Or OpenFiler (Linux based) or OpenSolaris which runs its impressive ZFS filesystem. However, for a Windows guy and speaking of experience, these represent a learning curve which you may not be tempted to pass; but Windows options are available at a cost. StarWindSoftware used to have a free entry-level version but that has been taken off-line - quite a pity as it is excellent software. Thus, the only offer at a friendly cost, I can locate, is iSCSI Cake:

http://www.iscsicake.com/

Using iSCSI you can set up a network connection with multiple port truncated NICs and set these to use Jumbo frames to obtain transfer speeds comparable to local disks.

/gustav


>>> jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com 20-10-2010 12:11 >>>
NewEgg had them on sale for $55, maximum of 3 per customer.

That makes a good start for a NAS.  I have pieces and parts laying around the office so the rest of 
the box will just be spare parts.  I do have to buy the UnRaid license though.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 

On 10/19/2010 10:18 PM, Doug Steele wrote:
> Three 1GB drives?  What did that set you back, $2.99?
>
> Sorry, I couldn't resist :)
>
> Doug
>
> On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 7:13 PM, jwcolby<jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>wrote:
>
>> I got a good deal on three 1GB Samsung drives the other day, and as a result I am about to launch an
>> UnRaid NAS.
>>
>> http://lime-technology.com/ 
>>
>> I currently use Windows Home Server but have never been happy with all aspects of what it is and
>> does.  I absolutely love the way that it backs up computers, with the sector copy / compare.  Cool
>> technology.  Unfortunately my experience has seen an abysmal restore scenario.  I have had restores
>> work, I have had restores fail to work.  When they refuse to restore I have just utterly failed to
>> force that restore to ever work.
>>
>> I have the same experience with the backup.  9 of 10 of my machines restore faithfully, the other
>> absolutely refuses to see the WHS server.
>>
>> Backups have to be 100% absolutely reliable and restores have to be 100% absolutely reliable or you
>> are rolling dice when you do your backups.  WHS has never had that 100% reliability for me.
>>
>> So I am about to take down my WHS in favor of an UnRaid NAS and plain old backup software.
>>
>> We shall see how this goes but it certainly looks promising.
>>
>> --
>> John W. Colby
>> www.ColbyConsulting.com