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Any suggestions for an easy, incremental file backup application?
XyloSesame:
--- Quote from: Cakemeister on September 21, 2007, 10:26:12 am ---I did some research on various NASes and I found six options that fit my own needs (2 terabytes, raid 5)
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I just researched this myself, but for an ESATA SAN rather than a NAS setup.
Thecus came highly recommended and seemed to have fairly good user marks on boards around the 'net, and, as some have found, Buffalo was mixed. I almost went with a Terrastation until my wife saw the price tag...
You might want to check Addonics and Sans Digital as options for both prebuilt boxes and DIY cages; they were both tops on my list. If you like the Sans Digital line, go for an off-brand of the same units like 3Gen and save some cash.
Samstag:
I found the 2TB Terastation I mentioned earlier. It's $600 now but it seems to go on sale once in a while closer to $500.
Putting together a Linux box is pretty darn cheap, and not too hard to do. I did all the work myself using Slackware, but there are some distributions out there that will take care of it for you. Someone I work with is using one of them. I'll find out what he uses next time I see him. The main drawback of a PC-based system as opposed to a NAS box is it's big, ugly, and power-hungry.
patrickl:
I wouldn't go for a BYO NAS box anymore. I tried that for years, but it never really worked nice. It sounds cheap to just put a cheap PC to use, but old PCs are usually not capable of running 24/7 (I had some hardware failures over the years). PC's are powerhungry too (it actually costs a lot of money to run a PC al the time). They are often slower than a dedicated NAS and it can be troublesome to configure. I had so many problems with it that I decided to spent the money on the ReadyNAS.
It's actually not that difficult to setup up a NAS with Linux or something, but I always had weird configuration problems or hardware problems. There are products like FreeNAS too, but still.
I suffered a disk failure on my homemade NAS box and I couldn't get it to work again. Couldn't figure out which disk was broken and in the end nothing worked anymore. I actually had to restore a backup! I had troubles with the RAID card not being supported in newer kernel versions anymore. Settings kept going wrong, computers couldn't connect now and then. I would run an update of the OS and the whole thing would stop working (basic Linux misery I guess). Every time there was something wrong and I'd be fiddling with configuration files Linux kernel builds, boot disk and what not for hours again.
A factory made NAS just works so much easier. I suffered a disk failure with the ReadyNAS. It shows which disk is faulty. I simply replaced the disk and things went fine again. I decided to increase storage, one by one swapped out the disks for a bigger model and presto a bigger NAS.
The ReadyNAS sends e-mails when something goes wrong. Or is about to go wrong (with SMART errors) I kinda like that too. It even sends an e-mail when it gets too hot or when a fan fails.
The Thecus looks like a very fast machine. Even faster than the ReadyNAS. Cool. I see some complaints about the firmware though. In fact that was what kept me from getting a Thecus a few years ago. Lots of complaints about support back then too. I'd hope that they improved that.
I wasn't very impressed with the ReadyNAS support either. I asked them a question when my disk broke down and after two weeks I received an answer. I managed to fix the problem myself, but still.
If you want to use the Terastation as a file server then make sure you buy a model with good performance. That Terastation Pro is fast, but he home evrsions are so slow it would not be usable for that. Mediaserver would be fine. IIR it got something like 5000kB/s
Cakemeister:
--- Quote from: Samstag on September 21, 2007, 01:32:38 pm ---I found the 2TB Terastation I mentioned earlier. It's $600 now but it seems to go on sale once in a while closer to $500.
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That's an incredible value at $600. I would be all over it if there were any in stock. I'm usually wary about "reconditioned" drives, but that's what Raid 5 is all about, right?
Samstag:
--- Quote from: Cakemeister on September 21, 2007, 02:16:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: Samstag on September 21, 2007, 01:32:38 pm ---I found the 2TB Terastation I mentioned earlier. It's $600 now but it seems to go on sale once in a while closer to $500.
--- End quote ---
That's an incredible value at $600. I would be all over it if there were any in stock. I'm usually wary about "reconditioned" drives, but that's what Raid 5 is all about, right?
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All 8x250GB drives in my server were WD refurbs, and they've been running over 2 years without a failure. Your mileage may vary.
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