Ideas?

I know this may not be the "correct" topic for this NG, however I have read
with interest most of your posts for the better part of a year and now I
need some ideas.

I am looking for a "poor man's NAS"...I just can't believe that there isn't
a unit out there, say from Linksys or D-Link, that has a configurable
web-based RAM that allows you to add 2, 3, 4 hard drives and make a
cost-effective storage solution! I mean, they have Linux-based
Gateways/Firewalls and VPN's, why not NAS?

Anyway, I've googled to no avail and was wondering if there is another
solution that I am missing. Such as a Linux-based ISO image that you use
old PC parts with some hard drives and BINGO, you've got a NAS configurable
via web browser!

Thanks in advance!

DM

P.S. Email me for further explanation if I've not made myself clear!

Dave Mitchel wrote:
> I know this may not be the "correct" topic for this NG, however I have read
> with interest most of your posts for the better part of a year and now I
> need some ideas.
>
> I am looking for a "poor man's NAS"...I just can't believe that there isn't
> a unit out there, say from Linksys or D-Link, that has a configurable
> web-based RAM that allows you to add 2, 3, 4 hard drives and make a
> cost-effective storage solution! I mean, they have Linux-based
> Gateways/Firewalls and VPN's, why not NAS?
>
> Anyway, I've googled to no avail and was wondering if there is another
> solution that I am missing. Such as a Linux-based ISO image that you use
> old PC parts with some hard drives and BINGO, you've got a NAS configurable
> via web browser!
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> DM
>
> P.S. Email me for further explanation if I've not made myself clear!
>
>
Depending on how you want to farm the storage out to your clients, there
are lots of solutions available. If you just want a big storage array
farmed out as a big NFS mount, then you can use a machine with a few ide
or scsi controllers, and use LVM (software raid) to gang them together
as one big drive, exported via NFS. You can even gang multiple machines
together using iscsi if you like. If you want a sligly more complicated
/more scalable solution, you may want to look into OpenAFS, or some of
its alternatives like coda, or lustre.

HTH
Neil

--
Neil Horman
Red Hat, Inc., http://people.redhat.com/nhorman
gpg keyid: 1024D / 0x92A74FA1, http://www.keyserver.net

Hi Dave,

"Dave Mitchel" <(E-Mail Removed)> schrieb in
news:6A8Pb.32483$P%(E-Mail Removed) gy.com:

> I am looking for a "poor man's NAS"...I just can't believe that
> there isn't a unit out there, say from Linksys or D-Link, that
> has a configurable web-based RAM that allows you to add 2, 3, 4
> hard drives and make a cost-effective storage solution! I mean,
> they have Linux-based Gateways/Firewalls and VPN's, why not NAS?

Because of the price? A simple PC suitable for this task is about 250
EUR (310$). Thats hard to beat.

Regards, Kurt

--
PiN - Präsenz im Netz GITmbH
Kurt Harders
http://www.pin-gmbh.com

Dave Mitchel wrote:

> I know this may not be the "correct" topic for this NG, however I have
> read with interest most of your posts for the better part of a year and
> now I need some ideas.
>
> I am looking for a "poor man's NAS"...I just can't believe that there
> isn't a unit out there, say from Linksys or D-Link, that has a
> configurable web-based RAM that allows you to add 2, 3, 4 hard drives and
> make a
> cost-effective storage solution! I mean, they have Linux-based
> Gateways/Firewalls and VPN's, why not NAS?
>
> Anyway, I've googled to no avail and was wondering if there is another
> solution that I am missing. Such as a Linux-based ISO image that you use
> old PC parts with some hard drives and BINGO, you've got a NAS
> configurable via web browser!

Well, you could roll your own with an old PC and almost any Linux distro.
How fancy you get, is up to you.


--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Kurt Harders wrote:

> Because of the price? A simple PC suitable for this task is about 250
> EUR (310$). Thats hard to beat.

Sure. Now how do you explain the millions of SOHO routers/firewalls sold
each year? I would probably purchase about 10 of these SOHO NAS units if
they were available. Not every office needs/wants a computer to serve a
few files.

Nick Adams wrote:

> Kurt Harders wrote:
>
>> Because of the price? A simple PC suitable for this task is about 250
>> EUR (310$). Thats hard to beat.
>
> Sure. Now how do you explain the millions of SOHO routers/firewalls sold
> each year? I would probably purchase about 10 of these SOHO NAS units if
> they were available. Not every office needs/wants a computer to serve a
> few files.

Actually, almost any computer rescued from the dump has sufficient power to
be used in this manner. Also, the original question was about NAS (network
attached storage), not routers.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 18:44:22 +1000, Nick Adams scribbled:

> Kurt Harders wrote:
>
>> Because of the price? A simple PC suitable for this task is about 250
>> EUR (310$). Thats hard to beat.
>
> Sure. Now how do you explain the millions of SOHO routers/firewalls sold
> each year? I would probably purchase about 10 of these SOHO NAS units if
> they were available. Not every office needs/wants a computer to serve a
> few files.

companies make a decision as to what is going to sell --->more than one
person<---...or a few.

Making and selling a product that most people would just dumpster-dive
for, is not good marketing practice.

And...learn how to use "followup-to" headers.

--
-Joseph-
The easiest way to get over on a people is to make them believe that something
that threatens -YOUR- plans is really just a sneaky way for your enemy to steal
something from them. Now they will fight tooth & nail for you, and be no wiser.

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.security.]
On 2004-01-21, James Knott <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Actually, almost any computer rescued from the dump has sufficient power to
> be used in this manner.

Sure. My firewall/NAT machine is a P-200 that was literally pulled out of
a dumpster. I spent a few bucks on eBay for more memory and a HD, installed
NetBSD (smaller footprint than linux) and it's been running ever since. I
had an uptime of over 100 days when I had to bring it down to replace the
UPS.


--

-John ((E-Mail Removed))

Dave Mitchel wrote:

> I know this may not be the "correct" topic for this NG, however I have
> read with interest most of your posts for the better part of a year and
> now I need some ideas.
>
> I am looking for a "poor man's NAS"...I just can't believe that there
> isn't a unit out there, say from Linksys or D-Link, that has a
> configurable web-based RAM that allows you to add 2, 3, 4 hard drives and
> make a
> cost-effective storage solution! I mean, they have Linux-based
> Gateways/Firewalls and VPN's, why not NAS?
>
> Anyway, I've googled to no avail and was wondering if there is another
> solution that I am missing. Such as a Linux-based ISO image that you use
> old PC parts with some hard drives and BINGO, you've got a NAS
> configurable via web browser!
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> DM
>
> P.S. Email me for further explanation if I've not made myself clear!
Quantum did with their "Snap drives". They charge way too much for them
though. I would buy a via mini-itx mainboard, EPIA 5000, 500MHz fanless,
network, usb, etc on board, two ide ports about $100. Stick 4 ide drives
in it and load linux and samba.

James Knott wrote:

> Nick Adams wrote:
>
>
>>Kurt Harders wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Because of the price? A simple PC suitable for this task is about 250
>>>EUR (310$). Thats hard to beat.
>>
>>Sure. Now how do you explain the millions of SOHO routers/firewalls sold
>>each year? I would probably purchase about 10 of these SOHO NAS units if
>>they were available. Not every office needs/wants a computer to serve a
>>few files.
>
>
> Actually, almost any computer rescued from the dump has sufficient power to
> be used in this manner. Also, the original question was about NAS (network
> attached storage), not routers.
>

Thats exactly my point. Kurt said that a PC can replace such a device so
why spend the money. I gave another situation that defies that logic -
SOHO routers. They are sold by their millions and yet a cheap PC could
easily replace such a product. If there is such a large market for such
devices, even though they can be cheaply replaced by a PC, why couldn't
a NAS device be marketed?