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SoHo NAS With Good Network Throughput?
An anonymous reader writes "I work at a small business where we need to move around large datasets regularly (move onto test machine, test, move onto NAS for storage, move back to test machine, lather-rinse-repeat). The network is mostly OS X and Linux with one Windows machine (for compatibility testing). The size of our datasets is typically in the multiple GB, so network speed is as important as storage size. I'm looking for a preferably off-the shelf solution that can handle a significant portion of a GigE; maxing out at 6MB is useless. I've been looking at SoHo NAS's that support RAID such as Drobo, NetGear (formerly Infrant), and BuffaloTech (who unfortunately doesn't even list whether they support OS X). They all claim they come with a GigE interface, but what sort of network throughput can they really sustain? Most of the numbers I can find on the websites only talk about drive throughput, not network, so I'm hoping some of you with real-world experience can shed some light here."
If they have a windows machine for "compatability testing" and the rest of the units are Macs, you know damn well this guy couldn't "build his own"!
For what it's worth, I have worked in a place that almost exactly matches that description -- ton of macs, some leftover Windows PCs (rarely if ever used), and I ran Linux.
Everyone in that office could have built their own, if they had a reason to.
It is possible to actually like a Mac and not be technically illiterate / incapable of assembling a PC.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
See, the problem with responses like this is that they ignore the request of the original poster, and, while being valid instructions for a home-built, it is only a good solution if the time of the OP has zero value. Your instructions involve eight steps: Order (multiple) parts, wait for delivery, assemble, learn how and then install OS, learn now and install three other packages. The OP is looking for three steps: Order one thing, wait for delivery, plug in and use.
Your post has value to the DIY crowd, certainly. But for someone looking for a product recommendation, it totally missed the boat.
Ah, wrong.
This guy is talking about SOHO type NAS boxes, their cpu and network throughput is their bottleneck.
If he was talking about 'real' NAS, then that is very different (although it is still trivial to get a NAS that can saturate GBit for many workloads).
Our 16/32 drive Raid6 SATA raid arrays easily sustain 400MB/sec locally for moderately non-random workloads - there are workloads for which this of course does not apply, but since he is apparently moving around GByte lumps, it would not be his case.
SOHO NAS devices normally run out of grunt at around 6MB/secish, even for long linear reads, some do better at up to 25.
I am thinking your workload is TPC type database loads, dont assume everyones is (we have a mix of video files and software development, very different..). TPC type disk loads are a corner case.
We also love ATAOE but that is DEFINITELY not what he is looking for.
... to say that software RAID is almost invariably a poor solution. It is woefully slow compared to even a slow hardware RAID implementation.
Spend a few bucks and get the right hardware. It is not expensive these days.
This may have been true years ago, but it's not anymore. Modern CPUs can handle parity computations without a problem. As long as your controllers can support the throughput needed, there is no need for hardware RAID. After all, we have ZFS.
Storage is undergoing a massive paradigm shift and folks like EMC are being caught with their pants down. Their spindle cost and price per GB is just too high.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
Wrong. Go do your homework.
What the hell? Is this the new quarterly NAS discussion?
Yes, I hope it is. Maybe not quarterly, but I have no problem "revisiting the classics" periodically. Technology marches on, best practices come and go, so it is useful to cover the same ground every so often. Seven years ago the coolest story ever was covered here: build a Terabyte fileserver for less than $5,000!!! (Note to visitors from the future: it is late 2008 and you can buy an external terabyte hard drive for a little over $100. Call it $125. That same five grand could buy you FORTY terabytes today. You probably got a 1TB USB jump drive in your cereal this morning.)
Plus, not everyone has been around as long as you and I. Won't somebody please think of the n00bs?!? :-)
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