wibbled on Friday 25 June 2010 12:17

Tim Watts wrote:
Gordon Henderson
wibbled on Friday 25 June 2010 09:48

In article ,
Tim Watts wrote:
Hi,

Looking for a small portable 1-2TB backup box, ethernet, internal disk,
appliance form factor and most importantly, replaceable linux - I want
a proper filesystem (no VFAT) and direct access to rsync and ssh on
this.

Wifi would be cool - but optional.

Buffalo would have been my choice 2-3 years ago, but all the wiki's on
hacking the LinkStation (Pro) seem seriously out of date.

I don't want a cobbled together solution (too busy) but just a little
self contained box...

Well, this is uk.d-i-y ... So build your own - which, if you're up to
doing an Linux install really shouldn't be hard.

The DIY will be the software setup

I really want an off the shelf Linkstation type bit of kit (small, and
ready to run bar reloading and tweaking the software). ITX is too lumpy
and I really don't have the time.

I'll do some more research and see if the Linkstation is still hackable -
the problem is the name covers a plethora of actual models so knowing
what you're dealing with is tricky.

I have a WD Mybook World Edition, a neat little NAS which consumes
only 6 watts but with the big plus of having proper ssh access built
in so you can get into it, add programs (I've added rdiff-backup) etc.

Much cheaper than Synology plus a big disk, much lower power than a
d-i-y Linux box (unless you go very esoteric).

There's quite an active user community and they have developed a
proper repository of software and installation/upgrade facilities.


Just got one (2TB MyBook World Edition "Whitelight").

Very impressive. Added the Optware ipkg stuff documented at

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/

Changed a few UID/GIDs around to match my main systems and installed a few
bits including rsnapshot.

Long story short, it's sync'd up 645GB of 538,000 files in a couple of days
(that's good BTW). Now, an rsnapshot run over the same domain takes about 35
minutes which is bloody good for a device in its class.

A very good machine indeed

Thanks for the tip!

Cheers

Tim

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.