NAS - Network Attached Storage
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008I just find out about this tech a few days ago. I found it very interesting and useful. NAS makes it possible for us who have many computers at home or office to centralize all data in one server.
For more detail on NAS - Wiki
Using a free NAS system which is called FreeNAS, I transformed my old PC, a Pentium 3 with 256MB RAM to a NAS server.
The process was very simple.
1. Download a FreeNAS image, and “iso” file.
2. Burn it into a CD using Nero
3. Start the computer using the CD to boot up
4. Install it into the hard disk
5. remove CD and restart computer
6. Setup LAN interface
and it is ready! It only took about a few minutes of my time. You could read a very details explanation on how to install FreeNAS at DailyCupofTech Blog. Although quite an old article, but the current how-to is not much differs.
The next thing is to setup it’s function or network protocol such as NFS, FTP, iSCSI etc. You can see the quick guide from here.
What I am going to do with this NAS.
Actually, at this stage, I just want to test it. May be in the next few months when I got enough budget, I will buy a good PC to make it as a dedicated NAS server. Not a high end PC but a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM and 2 x 240GB SATA HDD is in my imagination. Set those HDD to RAID1 so I don’t worry about the reliability.
I will put all my photos, mp3 and avi files on that server so that every user in my house could access those files anytime.
What are the advantages?
1. I will not worry about hard disk failure. Learn more about RAID1 here. Wiki - RAID
2. I will not have any storage capacity problem any more. My laptop hdd will not full same as other user’s hard disks.
3. Can access same files from any computer.
4. Sharing files is fast, easy and efficient. ( You would be amaze of how fast the file transfer’s rate )
Disadvantages:
1. Have to buy new hardware/PC.
2. Electricity bill would be slightly higher.
Why it is better than a normal window folder sharing?
1. The performance, local and network
2. Centralize
3. More than just folder sharing. iSCSI, webserver, uPnP etc.
Well that’s it. I’ve much more to learn!
