looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.

On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.

I think what you're doing isn't strictly mirroring, it's an internal
backup, possibly file replication. If you want true mirroring, you
could fit an Adaptec SATA RAID card which would mirror the drives so
that if either failed your files would still be available.
If the OS is on mirrored drives, you would suffer no interruption in
the event of a drive failure.

There's one here for £25 + postage: http://bit.ly/gtMSqe

I've fitted one of these in a PC box running FreeNAS software with
mirrored 500MB drives (it's been a few years since I built this and I
would go for larger drives if I was building it today). Whenever I
need access I boot it remotely (Wake-On-LAN) and shut it down using
the web interface when it's not required.

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),
hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

?

"Jim K" wrote in message
...

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),hopefully
unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

i have been using squeezeboxes for years, never on a nas though, the forum
here http://forums.slimdevices.com/ is very helpful


Gary

On Dec 5, 7:48 pm, "grrr"
wrote:
?

"Jim K" wrote in message

...

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:

On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),hopefully
unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

i have been using squeezeboxes for years, never on a nas though, the forum
here http://forums.slimdevices.com/ is very helpful

Gary

yup been looking on there (sometimes in bewilderment!) hoping someone
can ease the learning curve ;)

ta
Jim K

On 2010-12-05 18:30:17 +0000, Appelation Controlee said:


Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.

I think what you're doing isn't strictly mirroring, it's an internal
backup, possibly file replication. If you want true mirroring, you
could fit an Adaptec SATA RAID card which would mirror the drives so
that if either failed your files would still be available.
If the OS is on mirrored drives, you would suffer no interruption in
the event of a drive failure.

Indeed, I also looked at linux's software RAID support, but decided against
- a hardware solution, as it would have required a larger and more
power hungry PC
- software, because of possible unreliability (and the failure
scenario where the data is unrecoverable.

On 2010-12-05 19:35:22 +0000, Jim K said:


Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),
hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

I'm using one of these as my PC: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ - actually
the older fit-PC, not fit-PC2.

It was claimed at around 4W for the PC itself. The two USB drives
obviously add to this, and I didn't bother checking their rated power
consumption.

Obviously, in my case it's dead easy to run the squeezeserver on the
PC, cos it's a PC and there's no NAS hoops to jump through. I admit
never looking into what these hoops might be - I use this PC for other
things as well, so I needed a PC and not a NAS, and then once I had a
PC the NAS seemed a bit pointless.

On Dec 5, 10:00 pm, Piers Finlayson wrote:
On 2010-12-05 19:35:22 +0000, Jim K said:



Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),
hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

I'm using one of these as my PC:http://www.fit-pc.com/web/- actually
the older fit-PC, not fit-PC2.

It was claimed at around 4W for the PC itself. The two USB drives
obviously add to this, and I didn't bother checking their rated power
consumption.

mmmm $300 (£200) to $500 (~£350) *without disks, taxes, delivery*.....
seems pricey - especially if I already have a PC and a netbook and
just want to stream content (music and some file storage I imagine)

How much is a suitable NAS likely to cost me all in?

Jim K

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

Also, take a look at the QNAP range of NAS drives- QNAP offer to pre-
install various software on your NAS for free before purchase. Their
list includes, (or at list did include), Slimserver for serving to the
Squeezebox.

"Jim K" wrote in message
...
looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

Have a look at the Qnap range of NASs. They support SqueezeCent
http://www.qnap.com/pro_application.asp?ap_id=71

I've got 2 Qnap NASs, been running for about 3 years without issues. They
just work. I particularly like the scheduled start-up and shutdown feature,
and WoL. (Which my previous Buffalo NAS didn't have, so ran 24/7)
The 2.5" disk models have a tiny power consumption also - I have a SS-439
with 4x 500gb disks in a RAID5 group.

While I don't have a squeezebox, I have several internet radios that support
UPNP, and stream music to them and video / photos to an Xbox 360 from the
Qnap's built-in 'TwonkyMedia' software.

On 06/12/2010 10:58, AlanD wrote:
"Jim wrote in message
...
looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

Have a look at the Qnap range of NASs. They support SqueezeCent
http://www.qnap.com/pro_application.asp?ap_id=71


Also Squeezebox server is supported (by Logitech) on Netgear's ReadyNAS
devices. eBuyer has been selling off some of these with a free drive
offer recently.

I've got an ReadyNAS Duo RND2000 with 2TB from a pair of mirror'ed
almost ready to go, but a bit busy at the moment with other stuff which
takes me away from it, to make a comment wether it's worth recommending
the investment (approx. £300 at the moment - yup I'm mad).

The achillies heal is the speed of the builtin processor, and if ye look
around the communities of those using NAS for huge collections, ye get
the impression that there are a few folks that are recommending harking
back to servers built around standard PC bits as the grunt involved in
indexing is a bit much for the standard stuff in some NAS boxes - that
were really born in the first place just for file serving duties.

Though folks do speak highly of the QNAP series.

--
Adrian C

On Dec 6, 1:53 pm, Adrian C wrote:
On 06/12/2010 10:58, AlanD wrote:

"Jim wrote in message
...
looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

Have a look at the Qnap range of NASs. They support SqueezeCent
http://www.qnap.com/pro_application.asp?ap_id=71

Also Squeezebox server is supported (by Logitech) on Netgear's ReadyNAS
devices. eBuyer has been selling off some of these with a free drive
offer recently.

I've got an ReadyNAS Duo RND2000 with 2TB from a pair of mirror'ed
almost ready to go, but a bit busy at the moment with other stuff which
takes me away from it, to make a comment wether it's worth recommending
the investment (approx. 300 at the moment - yup I'm mad).

The achillies heal is the speed of the builtin processor, and if ye look
around the communities of those using NAS for huge collections, ye get
the impression that there are a few folks that are recommending harking
back to servers built around standard PC bits as the grunt involved in
indexing is a bit much for the standard stuff in some NAS boxes - that
were really born in the first place just for file serving duties.

funnily enough I've just been reading such posts on assorted forums
detailing issues for large collections!
The only "solutions" visible were "bigger faster NASs" with
commensurate bigger costs.... seems I may need to rethink or wait a
bit longer for things to fall out a bit more...

Cheers to all

Jim K

"Jim K" wrote in message
...
looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

I have a squeezebox server running on a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ with 3 * 2TB
discs running XRaid. It runs just fine. The only 'problem' if there is one
is that the discs take about 6 seconds to spin up from sleep (I power them
down after 5 mins of no use to save power). So it can be annoying sometimes
when you turn the squeezebox on and it becomes a bit unresponsive for 10
seconds or so.

Phil

grrr wrote:
?

"Jim K" wrote in message
...

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 -
15w),hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

i have been using squeezeboxes for years, never on a nas though, the
forum here http://forums.slimdevices.com/ is very helpful


Gary

I have done almost the same as Piers. Intel atom board in a half height
case with 2x500GB internal drives, no screen, keyboard or CDROM etc.
about 30W continuous. It stands on end to my left here, but could go
anywhere I can reach easily to reboot after a power cut, and where I can
get mains and an ethernet to it.
..
I thought about the loft..but decided against it. And where it is it
saves a networked print server as well.


Its a server for everything and rsyncs one disk to the other, more or
less, every night.

As my greatest fear is that a disk failure will lose years of work and
emails.

Piers Finlayson wrote:
On 2010-12-05 18:30:17 +0000, Appelation Controlee said:


Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.

I think what you're doing isn't strictly mirroring, it's an internal
backup, possibly file replication. If you want true mirroring, you
could fit an Adaptec SATA RAID card which would mirror the drives so
that if either failed your files would still be available.
If the OS is on mirrored drives, you would suffer no interruption in
the event of a drive failure.

Indeed, I also looked at linux's software RAID support, but decided against
- a hardware solution, as it would have required a larger and more
power hungry PC
- software, because of possible unreliability (and the failure scenario
where the data is unrecoverable.




+1
same here.

and overkill. I can recover from one days data loss easily.

Piers Finlayson wrote:
On 2010-12-05 19:35:22 +0000, Jim K said:


Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),
hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

I'm using one of these as my PC: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ - actually
the older fit-PC, not fit-PC2.

It was claimed at around 4W for the PC itself.

I find that a bit optimistic.

The two USB drives
obviously add to this, and I didn't bother checking their rated power
consumption.


I reckon my solution may pip yours to the post using internal drives.
And its neater.

And has a parallel port enabling me to dump a print server box.

Obviously, in my case it's dead easy to run the squeezeserver on the PC,
cos it's a PC and there's no NAS hoops to jump through. I admit never
looking into what these hoops might be - I use this PC for other things
as well, so I needed a PC and not a NAS, and then once I had a PC the
NAS seemed a bit pointless.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
grrr wrote:
?

"Jim K" wrote in message
...

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off
a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..

Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),hopefully
unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

i have been using squeezeboxes for years, never on a nas though, the
forum here http://forums.slimdevices.com/ is very helpful


Gary

I have done almost the same as Piers. Intel atom board in a half height
case with 2x500GB internal drives, no screen, keyboard or CDROM etc. about
30W continuous. It stands on end to my left here, but could go anywhere I
can reach easily to reboot after a power cut, and where I can get mains
and an ethernet to it.
.
I thought about the loft..but decided against it. And where it is it saves
a networked print server as well.


Its a server for everything and rsyncs one disk to the other, more or
less, every night.

As my greatest fear is that a disk failure will lose years of work and
emails.

To be really secure you need to have 2 separate systems in 2 different
locations that are mirrored. The problem with multiple disks in a common box
like a NAS is the common box. If the power supply fails and overvolts the
drives you lose the lot - unless you then use a very expensive outfit
recover the raw data from the platters.

On Dec 6, 5:47 pm, "Phil Jessop" wrote:
"Jim K" wrote in message

...

looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K

I have a squeezebox server running on a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ with 3 * 2TB
discs running XRaid. It runs just fine.

mmm sounds like that might be kinda expensive?
also read a fair few forum discussions about them runnning into probs
with lots of music media to index etc...

Jim K

On 2010-12-06 18:02:44 +0000, The Natural Philosopher said:

Piers Finlayson wrote:
On 2010-12-05 19:35:22 +0000, Jim K said:


Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),
hopefully unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

I'm using one of these as my PC: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ - actually
the older fit-PC, not fit-PC2.

It was claimed at around 4W for the PC itself.

I find that a bit optimistic.

Indeed, but I don't have anything sensitive enough to measure it with.

Phil Jessop wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
grrr wrote:
?

"Jim K" wrote in message
...

On Dec 5, 6:30 pm, Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:59:46 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 17:19:55 +0000, Jim K said:
looks intelesting - though seems a bit "muddy" how to get to run off
a
NAS, than on a (on all the time :() PC
ta
Jim K
A NAS box is, strictly speaking, only intended to provide file
storage. If you want support for running a media server, you need a
more comprehensive operating system - for that, Piers' suggestion is
sound, although what he has isn't therefore only a NAS box..
Well, from my initial toe-dips into this murk (representing the
tentative start of one of my quantum leaps in home kit) it seems
eminentlly doable to run Loitech Squeezebox server on some NASs -
Logitech even provide installation instructions and support to certain
Netgear (i think) NAS products...

NAS appeals so far as:- quiet, low power consumption (10 - 15w),hopefully
unobtrusive - to be stashed away somewhere out of
sight...poss other +'s and -'s I haven't grasped yet ;)

Jim K

i have been using squeezeboxes for years, never on a nas though, the
forum here http://forums.slimdevices.com/ is very helpful


Gary
I have done almost the same as Piers. Intel atom board in a half height
case with 2x500GB internal drives, no screen, keyboard or CDROM etc. about
30W continuous. It stands on end to my left here, but could go anywhere I
can reach easily to reboot after a power cut, and where I can get mains
and an ethernet to it.
.
I thought about the loft..but decided against it. And where it is it saves
a networked print server as well.


Its a server for everything and rsyncs one disk to the other, more or
less, every night.

As my greatest fear is that a disk failure will lose years of work and
emails.

To be really secure you need to have 2 separate systems in 2 different
locations that are mirrored. The problem with multiple disks in a common box
like a NAS is the common box. If the power supply fails and overvolts the
drives you lose the lot - unless you then use a very expensive outfit
recover the raw data from the platters.


I have NEVER had a power supply fail that way in over 15 years of
running massed PC's. Its not a mode an SMPS goes into easily.

If a power tranny goes pop. it simply stops oscillating ad cooks itself
and a fuse. What has happened is the motherboards RAM and CPUS dust up
and disks also and in the end you get bad sectors or random core dumps
after about 5 years of 24x7. blowing the thing out with an air gun
usually nest you bit more time but after 5 years its not fit for
frontline duty any more. Then its time to get a bit MORE disk and copy
all the data over..

as far as twin locations goes, its really not an issue. If this house
goes up in smoke I will have more to worry about than loss of a few
years data. A lot IS backed up elsewhere.


The PCs are deliberately unbranded and cheap looking and the Mac is well
out of date and effin huge (G5) So not the sort of gear to flog down the
pub.

Last time they took the screen and monitor and keyboard, but not the PC
screwed into a 19" rack..they took the brand new telly and microwave and
the CD's bit left the vinyl stacked up in boxes on the floor. Too effin
heavy.

MMm. They must be out of gaol by now. 8 years they got IIRC.

funnily enough I've just been reading such posts on assorted forums
detailing issues for large collections!
The only "solutions" visible were "bigger faster NASs" with
commensurate bigger costs.... seems I may need to rethink or wait a
bit longer for things to fall out a bit more...

How big is a large collection?

My collection (presented by TwonkyMedia running on the SS-439 with a 1.6Ghz
Atom CPU) is currently 12,000 MP3 tracks, 92,000 photos and 500 videos
(total about 1.2TB) and indexing has never been an issue. Is the
SqueezeCentre software slower indexing than Twonky? Can you use TwonkyMedia
with Squeezeboxes?

On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 21:57:12 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 18:30:17 +0000, Appelation Controlee said:


Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.

I think what you're doing isn't strictly mirroring, it's an internal
backup, possibly file replication. If you want true mirroring, you
could fit an Adaptec SATA RAID card which would mirror the drives so
that if either failed your files would still be available.
If the OS is on mirrored drives, you would suffer no interruption in
the event of a drive failure.

Indeed, I also looked at linux's software RAID support, but decided against
- a hardware solution, as it would have required a larger and more
power hungry PC
- software, because of possible unreliability (and the failure
scenario where the data is unrecoverable.

Software RAID is never more than a substitute for a hardware solution.

Appelation Controlee wrote:

Software RAID is never more than a substitute for a hardware solution.

Yeah but, no but ...

In a commercial setting where a proper hardware RAID controller (not
fake motherboard controller) is used, with non-volatile write-back
cache, and availability of an identical replacement via spare or
maintenance has been planned for, I'd agree.

But an el-cheapo RAID controller, without maintenance/spare is a real
can of worms, and given the choice I'd go with Linux (even Windows)
software RAID instead, you know where you are with that, you can move
the disks to another machine/controller if needed.

Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 21:57:12 +0000, Piers Finlayson
wrote:

On 2010-12-05 18:30:17 +0000, Appelation Controlee said:
Not quite what you're asking, but ...

I have opted to DIY my NAS. Rather than buying on off the shelf
(hearing bad things about the reliability of low-end RAID boxes) I have
simply implemented an el cheapo (small, low powered so also cheap to
leave on 24x7) linux box, with two USB attached 1.2 TB hard drives.
One contains all my (music, photo, video, etc) files, and I manually
mirror this hard drive to the other one over night.
I think what you're doing isn't strictly mirroring, it's an internal
backup, possibly file replication. If you want true mirroring, you
could fit an Adaptec SATA RAID card which would mirror the drives so
that if either failed your files would still be available.
If the OS is on mirrored drives, you would suffer no interruption in
the event of a drive failure.
Indeed, I also looked at linux's software RAID support, but decided against
- a hardware solution, as it would have required a larger and more
power hungry PC
- software, because of possible unreliability (and the failure
scenario where the data is unrecoverable.

Software RAID is never more than a substitute for a hardware solution.
well all RAID is software, its just where it lives..;-)

Andy Burns wrote:
Appelation Controlee wrote:

Software RAID is never more than a substitute for a hardware solution.

Yeah but, no but ...

In a commercial setting where a proper hardware RAID controller (not
fake motherboard controller) is used, with non-volatile write-back
cache, and availability of an identical replacement via spare or
maintenance has been planned for, I'd agree.

But an el-cheapo RAID controller, without maintenance/spare is a real
can of worms, and given the choice I'd go with Linux (even Windows)
software RAID instead, you know where you are with that, you can move
the disks to another machine/controller if needed.


Amen to that, too.