Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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we're currently using 3 snap servers (3 x 40gb network storage devices) which are 10/100 mb. The network is growing and they are starting to slow down as the amount of people are accessing them.
Im thinking of buying a nice PC with large amount of RAM and 2 500gb hard drives setup for mirroring, with a 10/100/1000 mb connection.
Just wondering if anyone else has done this before? how did they find it?
Im assuing i could map the drives quite easily etc accross the network?
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mjw_2k2
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Registered: 18th Sep 03
Location: Anglesey, North Wales
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yes it would be easy to map each drive on the network, i would reccomend for your new pc -
SATA RAID 4x250gb = 1000gb
[Edited on 15-08-2006 by mjw_2k2]
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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that seems alot.. when we are currently only using 1x80 and 2x40
Ive just found this:
http://www.freenas.org/
What do you think? might be a good way to add security to the mapped folders?
Ideally we dont want certain people having write access to some folders.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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freeNas seems to be pretty good, but also look at http://www.ubuntu.com .It offers more services, like dns/firewall etc and reviews seem to say it runs slighly faster than freenas in a windows enviroment.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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your right.. !
im currently downloading ubuntu server.
Ive briefly used the live cd for ubuntu desktop, and it seemed very clean and efficient. i havnt looked at it properly though.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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let me know how you get on with it as im looking at ubuntu for a firewall/DHCP/DNS box but it adds file storage unlike smoothwall and the likes 
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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im going to do it at home
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Ian
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Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
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Sell me a Snap when you're done with them 
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian
Sell me a Snap when you're done with them
aye i wouldnt mind being in this offer if you have any spare  whats the model number of the snap servers anyways?
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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they are quite old.. i think we have two 1000 models and one 1100
i might consider it, but on the other hand, ive read this article and found a way to add larger hard disks.. so i might try this (keeping the orignial hard disc safe.
IVe read a couple of people have had trouble following that way, and another way is to find a tool called dolly.exe and it clones the original disc to your new disk.
(the current disk is not accessaible in windows or any software in windows in anyway... ive tried).
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Ian
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Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
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Yeah I was after dropping a few bigger drives in, let us know how you get on 
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
they are quite old.. i think we have two 1000 models and one 1100
i might consider it, but on the other hand, ive read this article and found a way to add larger hard disks.. so i might try this (keeping the orignial hard disc safe.
IVe read a couple of people have had trouble following that way, and another way is to find a tool called dolly.exe and it clones the original disc to your new disk.
(the current disk is not accessaible in windows or any software in windows in anyway... ive tried).
it seems that its a hit or miss with the 1000/1100s i believe as the OS (modded BSD isnt it?) is stored on the drive itself unlike on 2000/2200+ models (use AMD 486 cpus  ) where it's stored in flash.
Some people have had success with seagate drives, just dropping them in doing a hard reset. Though didn't realise there was software to clone the drives, handy if it works.
Old 1000/1100 dont go for much second anyways, can pick them up for 40 quid or so - but they aren't that good performance-wise unlike new nas gear.
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Ian
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Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
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What model is the one in that article about modding them? Looks more like a 2 series?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian
What model is the one in that article about modding them? Looks more like a 2 series?
Yea, its the 2000 model, alot easier to upgrade the drives due to the os being on flash etc
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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i did pick an older 1000 model up personally off ebay for £50.
it only had a 10 gig drive in, and i ended up giving it to someone who actually needed it.
i did try to play about with it, but without any luck. Im not sure about where the OS is stored on the 1000.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
Im not sure about where the OS is stored on the 1000.
Read up a bit fella, its stored on the drives themselves - procooling seems to have a lot of info about upgrading 1000's on their forum, seems a bit hit and miss with it though.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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Dom, just been looking more into Ubuntu Server.. its purely command line (yikes).. but you can bolt on a GUI.. either Ubuntu/Kubuntu/XBuntu
Think i will be looking at bolting on Kubuntu Desktop
I wouldnt feel at ease with just the command line considering ive never used linux before.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
Dom, just been looking more into Ubuntu Server.. its purely command line (yikes).. but you can bolt on a GUI.. either Ubuntu/Kubuntu/XBuntu
Think i will be looking at bolting on Kubuntu Desktop
I wouldnt feel at ease with just the command line considering ive never used linux before.
not sure if the GUI supports the server version of it mate, worth a try (but just have a sneaky feeling ).
Tbh, im far from a bod with linux, struggle using GUIs and installing stuff under redhat lol...but it isn't too bad after a few hours playing around and command line is just like the good old days of DOS
If you aren't happy though, have a play with freenas first as that it web interface (i believe) but you can also telnet to the box if you fancy command lining any of it, might be easier to set up too!
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Ian
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Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
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I wouldn't worry about command line. Less clues about stuff but then the support forums for that OS are supposed to be fairly active, shouldn't be a worry.
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willay
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Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
we're currently using 3 snap servers (3 x 40gb network storage devices) which are 10/100 mb. The network is growing and they are starting to slow down as the amount of people are accessing them.
Im thinking of buying a nice PC with large amount of RAM and 2 500gb hard drives setup for mirroring, with a 10/100/1000 mb connection.
Just wondering if anyone else has done this before? how did they find it?
Im assuing i could map the drives quite easily etc accross the network?
There are some good suggestions in this thread but you seem to be bothered by the fact that Ubunto will be alot of command line.
At the end of the day mate you need to remember YOU will be supporting this when it breaks and can you afford to say "uh.. let me just make a post on.." to resolve the issue?
Also regarding spec:
Processor: 2-3Ghz range
Ram: 2GB range
HD: go crazy.
If it was me, I'd be on my bosses back asking for a HP DL380 with a few large SCSI hard disks running either Windows2003 (easy to pick up) or FreeBSD 6.x (because I'm geeky like that).
IMHO - You have two options:
- Get normal PC hardware, perhaps a fancy RAID controller (read: FUCK onboard), do some yummy RAID5 action and run an operating system you are comfortable with (win2003,xp etc)
- Get a proper network storage device, something recent with a decent amount of storage (say 200-300gb) - from what I've seen lately these dont cost too much and come with cool stuff like samba/shares/ftp/etc. Get it out of the box, plug it into the network and watch the bitches roll in
[Edited on 17-08-2006 by willay]
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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thanks for the advice guys.
Willay, this might sound silly.. why buy a raid controller?
Decent mobos (i have an asus a8n-sli prem) have built in raid controllers.
Im split about what to do. looking at the DL380, they seem very expensive.
Do you have much experience with these type of things? i have never even looked at them.. are they just essientally a PC in a 2u rack?
Can you easily setup file/folder security to give individual simple read/access rights etc?
If we use something like 2k3, we're gonna have to start shelling out on network licences for clients wont we?
thanks for the advice guys
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willay
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Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
thanks for the advice guys.
Willay, this might sound silly.. why buy a raid controller?
Decent mobos (i have an asus a8n-sli prem) have built in raid controllers.
Because onboard raid controllers are shite compared to what dedicated ones can provide, I dont think mobos have battery backup yet but i may be mistaken. Plus having it seperate means that the motherboard wont have to be replaced if you fry your raid controller...
quote:
Im split about what to do. looking at the DL380, they seem very expensive.
Do you have much experience with these type of things? i have never even looked at them.. are they just essientally a PC in a 2u rack?
DL380 is merely a bare HP server with no OS, HP gear is fucking wicked. If cost is an issue look at somethnig smallerl ike a DL360 BTW HP have brilliant support, I had one server fail on its nighty reboot so afte rspending 30 minutes on th ephone to india I had a company come replace every component in the server until it booted again Cant beat 3 year onsite warranty
quote:
Can you easily setup file/folder security to give individual simple read/access rights etc?
Depends on the operating system.
quote:
If we use something like 2k3, we're gonna have to start shelling out on network licences for clients wont we?
Yes mate, you'll be limited by the number of CALS you have, unless you serve the files over FTP or something silly. If you run a linux/bsd server with Samba (Windows file sharing emulated) you can have as many users as you like share the drive but abit of apig to configure for someone who hasnt seen it before.
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Melville
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Registered: 4th Jun 03
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Would it bot just be better to get a NAS drive 
Surely it would be more effective to do that or either pay a company to come and set something else up properly so that you are free to work on what ever you get paid to do?
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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lol.. ^ back to sq1.
we currently have 3 nas drives 
I think i will try ubuntu with GUI at home first and see how i get on.
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Melville
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Registered: 4th Jun 03
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Yeah but 3 x 40g. Surely 1 x 300gig would be ok?
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