Net Attached Storage: DLINK DNS-323 -- anything much better?

[David Combs]

For an NAS box, is the DLINK DNS-323 a pretty good thing
to get?

(Holds two disks, contains software to mirror them.)


Or is there something (not too expensive) that's a lot
more reliable?


(primary use will be for use by my still hanging-by-a-thread
sunblade 2500.)


THANKS!

David

[Michael]

Hi,

Why not use Solaris on a fileserver or add disk top the Blade?

/michael

[ji...@specsol.spam.sux.com]

I have had a DNS-321 with two mirrored 1 TB (largest available at that time)
drives on my home network for years.

The network is a mix of Solaris, Linux, and Windows machines.

The DNS-321 provides network shares for Windows, NFS for *nix machines,
and a virtual tape autochanger for Amanda backup of the *nix machines.

I have never had a problem with it but would suggest having it on a UPS.

It is not enterprise hardware but certainly suitable for a home of small
business network.

[David Combs]

In article <9hlmi9-...@mail.specsol.com>,

<ji...@specsol.spam.sux.com> wrote:
>
>I have had a DNS-321 with two mirrored 1 TB (largest available at that time)
>drives on my home network for years.
>
>The network is a mix of Solaris, Linux, and Windows machines.
>
>The DNS-321 provides network shares for Windows, NFS for *nix machines,
>and a virtual tape autochanger for Amanda backup of the *nix machines.
>
>I have never had a problem with it but would suggest having it on a UPS.
>
>It is not enterprise hardware but certainly suitable for a home of small
>business network.
>
>
>

What actually happened is I bought a refurbished DNS-323; worked for
over a months, then lost connectivity, would not show up as being
on the network. $78.

So, I was thinking about getting a NEW (not refurbished) 323, is about
$180 (cheaper than when I bought the refurbished, like over $300 then).

And, dlink now has a 325, for maybe $180 (tigerdirect, maybe also
amazon).

------

ANYWAY, I googled "amazon net attached storage" (amazon for the
reviews), and there were a whole bunch, different manufacturers.

I go look at the reviews, and for each one, maybe a third or a
fourth had only one star. Look at those, and man do these
machines look horrible. (try it, you'll see). No matter
who made it.

You know, they either can't get it to work, or it works
ok for a few weeks, than quits. Many had the same
problem that I have, machine doesn't show up on the
network.

(Yes, I changed cables. Even brought it from upstairs down
here and plugged it directly into the router. No difference.)

So what's the deal? Aren't there ANY quality manufacturers?


Do have a look at the reviews on Amazon, it's really depressing.


Do YOU guys know of anything that's pretty rugged?


Thanks,

David

[David Combs]

Now, suppose I buy an new NAS box.

The one that quit on me: it has two disks in it (mirrored),
and a bunch of data on it (them).

QUESTION: I get the new box, and slide in the same two
disks -- already formatted, etc, tar files etc now
on them.

Can I do that, without having the new box REFORMAT
the drives (and wipe all that data)?


When I was reading the one and two stars Amazon reviews
of various NAS boxes, many of those low reviews
complained bitterely about the *software* they came
with.

So maybe my question would get different answers depending
on the manufacturer?

Thanks!

David

[Doug McIntyre]

dkc...@panix.com (David Combs) writes:
>Now, suppose I buy an new NAS box.

>The one that quit on me: it has two disks in it (mirrored),
>and a bunch of data on it (them).

>QUESTION: I get the new box, and slide in the same two
>disks -- already formatted, etc, tar files etc now
>on them.

>Can I do that, without having the new box REFORMAT
>the drives (and wipe all that data)?

The exact same model box?

Or any generic two-drive NAS box?

A two disk RAID1 is pretty generic, but even so, something built
around an LSI RAID controller will write out the RAID config to unused
last blocks on the drives, and if the geometry is different than it
saw before, will most likely not recognize the raid group.

DROBO uses a very proprietary RAID layout that anything is game on.

Most others are using an embedded linux distribution, and just using
LVM, so theoritically they act much the same.

There are some NAS's that steal a little bit of the disks for storing
the OS on them rather than a Flash disk built inside the unit as well,
so that might be a surprise to show up when disks get moved.

[ji...@specsol.spam.sux.com]

Not a clue.

The Dlink things are an embedded Linux and the one I have has been
running just fine for years now.

Dlink does use a very small piece of the disk for its own use.

My guess is that if you put them into anything other than a Dlink
box they would get reformatted.

[ChrisQ]

I know these small nas boxes look attractive, but the one's i've
seen look pretty flimsy. There's little info on what's under
the hood, which makes it more difficult to debug when something
inevitably fails. You trade off ease of use / setup / cost against
data reliability, which is fine, so long as that's understood. Not
that some of these boxes are exactly low cost.

You could get far more flexibility by building your own from an
old pc, bunch of drives and linux distro and learn something
usefull as well. A p3 or p4 series machine show be more than
enough for the task, though linux distros like debian are well
sorted for sparc platform, so there's plenty of choice.

Here, still using older sun machines as servers, which can show
uptimes of years without fault...

Regards,

Chris

[Chris Ridd]

On 2012-09-19 11:15:34 +0000, ChrisQ said:

> I know these small nas boxes look attractive, but the one's i've
> seen look pretty flimsy. There's little info on what's under
> the hood, which makes it more difficult to debug when something
> inevitably fails. You trade off ease of use / setup / cost against
> data reliability, which is fine, so long as that's understood. Not
> that some of these boxes are exactly low cost.
>
> You could get far more flexibility by building your own from an
> old pc, bunch of drives and linux distro and learn something

Linux? What for? What about HP's Microserver boxes - pretty tiny but
there's space for 4 3.5" disks and will run Solaris distros like
Nexentastor.

--
Chris

[ChrisQ]

On 09/19/12 14:09, Chris Ridd wrote:

> Linux? What for? What about HP's Microserver boxes - pretty tiny but
> there's space for 4 3.5" disks and will run Solaris distros like
> Nexentastor.
>

Linux looks pretty effective for some tasks and you would be no worse
off than a proprietary closed embedded linux machine from some vendor
or other. The microservers look good, but in essence, just another pc
in a neat little box, or am I missing something ?.

Of course, Solaris is ideal, but Freebsd has zfs in kernel now and is
worth a look. It also has a good reputation for robustness and security...

Regards,

Chris

[Anonymous]

The best NAS box right now is a halfway decent 2 socket Intel 1U server with
8GB RAM and Solaris 10 ZFS and as many drive bays as you can find. Look on
ebay and get something cheap. An old server is better than the best
consumer "NAS" server. They're all pretty much shite.

> You could get far more flexibility by building your own from an
> old pc, bunch of drives and linux distro and learn something
> usefull as well. A p3 or p4 series machine show be more than
> enough for the task, though linux distros like debian are well
> sorted for sparc platform, so there's plenty of choice.

I wouldn't use Linux for anything important.

> Here, still using older sun machines as servers, which can show
> uptimes of years without fault...

Yep! Sun sure knew how to make 'em.

[ji...@specsol.spam.sux.com]

David Combs <dkc...@panix.com> wrote:

> What actually happened is I bought a refurbished DNS-323; worked for
> over a months, then lost connectivity, would not show up as being
> on the network. $78.

Have you tried a reset and then run the Easy Search utility to see if
it shows up as in default configuration?

[cindy swearingen]

If you connect these disks to a system that has support for the driver
type, they should be compatible, but you should confirm that they are
supported first.

As long as you don't install the OS on the newly attached disks, then
the drives and your data should remain intact.

If you install Solaris on system and select the root pool disk, the OS
will be installed on that disk. If you have an existing ZFS pool, for
example,
it will not be touched during the install and you just need to import
the post
to access your data after the system is installed.

Thanks, Cindy

[cindy swearingen]

On Sep 19, 11:17 am, cindy swearingen <cindy.swearin...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Ack. I mean import the pool, not the post. Duh.

cs

[hume.sp...@bofh.ca]

David Combs <dkc...@panix.com> wrote:
> The one that quit on me: it has two disks in it (mirrored),
> and a bunch of data on it (them).

The 323 uses Linux with LVM, so you should be able to plug it into a Linux
system and recover the data.

As for the NAS you buy... that depends completely on the NAS and its
software. Anything goes.

If you have any electronics expertise at all, you can hook up a serial
console to the 323 (yes, you'd need to solder) to get a serial console
and find out why it bricked. But I'd also suggest seeing if it's simply
failing to get an IP address and coming up with a default IP first.

--
Brandon Hume - hume -> BOFH.Ca, http://WWW.BOFH.Ca/

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Formatting is one of those things that you do once with a
new disk. You shouldn't need to reformat unless you want to
"wipe" the disk. Don't rely on FORMAT to "wipe" the disk
for security reasons. See "DOD ERASE".

DON'T even think of doing this until you have made a backup
that you KNOW that you can restore if necessary. Somehow
there is always some little bit of treasure on that disk!

If you are told to "scrub that disk clean", get it in
writing! Put your copy of that order in your safe deposit
box! You might just need that copy some day!

[Ian Collins]

On 09/20/12 04:35 AM, Anonymous wrote:
> The best NAS box right now is a halfway decent 2 socket Intel 1U server with
> 8GB RAM and Solaris 10 ZFS and as many drive bays as you can find. Look on
> ebay and get something cheap. An old server is better than the best
> consumer "NAS" server. They're all pretty much shite.

The quality may be shite in comparison to an old rack server, but I know
which I'd prefer to share a room with!

I have a older PC running Open Indiana with a Supermicro 5 bay hot-swap
drive enclosure and a couple of Intel Pro-1000 NICs that makes an
excellent NAS box.

I guess the drawback with any storage based on a consumer grade board is
you can't fit ECC RAM. I don't store anything critical on the old PC
NAS, just media files.

--
Ian Collins

[hume.sp...@bofh.ca]

Richard B. Gilbert <rgilb...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Formatting is one of those things that you do once with a
> new disk. You shouldn't need to reformat unless you want to

Re-read his post... formatting is something he's trying to avoid.

And in this case "format" is being used loosely for mkfs. People mkfs
all the time.

> If you are told to "scrub that disk clean", get it in
> writing! Put your copy of that order in your safe deposit
> box! You might just need that copy some day!

Or he might not need it all, since he's not been asked to do anything
of the sort, and they're his disks to do with as he pleases.

[Doug McIntyre]

Ian Collins <ian-...@hotmail.com> writes:
>I guess the drawback with any storage based on a consumer grade board is
>you can't fit ECC RAM. I don't store anything critical on the old PC
>NAS, just media files.

Although older servers with lots of drive bays get to go fairly cheaply.
One of my personal file servers is a Supermicro 16 drive box with a
dual AMD250 setup on it and server board. I think I got it for around $200.
Just had to add cheap ECC RAM (16GB) and drives and go. While it isn't
setting speed records, it has been a workhorse.

[David Combs]

In article <67bpi9-...@mail.specsol.com>,

No; so I'll have to check it out.

I have a call into dlink; will first ask them.

Thanks!

David

[David Combs]

In article <5059512f$0$95326$8046...@newsreader.iphouse.net>,

Dlink told me today that whenever you put disk-drives into
the machine, it automatically wants to reformat them.

Which to me that the dlink NAS-product is totally useless; in
fact, seems like it's DANGEROUS to use. Like, if the machine
crashes, forget it, you can consider your data GONE.

They told me that the software people are working on making
that reformat NOT happen if you didn't want it to. How long
we have to wait until that problem is fixed, who knows?

And who knows that once it is working, what makes us
think that it will even recognize a disk made with
the "old" software; maybe it will recognize only
a disk that was MADE with the NEW software?


Kind of a very ugly surprise!

David

[David Combs]

In article <bp0oi9-...@mail.specsol.com>,

That's what SHOULD happen; have it not reformat a disk
written by a DLINK box.

But, like I say, they told me that it reformatted ANY tape.

Really stupid!

David

[Michael]

Hi,

Yep ECC is very important as the memory size is to huge today that I
have learned the hard way on ZFS so I have moved back to Sparc from
desktop x64!

And it must be a well designed ECC covering internal buses aswell, to
receive a ECC failure a couple of times a year and see "corrected" makes
me feel comfortable I like faults when they are detected :)

Michael

[Michael]

Hi,

On 09/19/12 11:59 PM, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> On 9/18/2012 10:38 PM, David Combs wrote:
>> Now, suppose I buy an new NAS box.
>>
>> The one that quit on me: it has two disks in it (mirrored),
>> and a bunch of data on it (them).
>>
>> QUESTION: I get the new box, and slide in the same two
>> disks -- already formatted, etc, tar files etc now
>> on them.
>>
>> Can I do that, without having the new box REFORMAT
>> the drives (and wipe all that data)?
>>
>>
>> When I was reading the one and two stars Amazon reviews
>> of various NAS boxes, many of those low reviews
>> complained bitterely about the *software* they came
>> with.
>>
>> So maybe my question would get different answers depending
>> on the manufacturer?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>
> Formatting is one of those things that you do once with a
> new disk. You shouldn't need to reformat unless you want to
> "wipe" the disk. Don't rely on FORMAT to "wipe" the disk
> for security reasons. See "DOD ERASE".
>

Please separate formatting(low level) from making a filesystem(mkfs)!
The latter is nothing wrong with.

> DON'T even think of doing this until you have made a backup
> that you KNOW that you can restore if necessary. Somehow
> there is always some little bit of treasure on that disk!
>
> If you are told to "scrub that disk clean", get it in
> writing! Put your copy of that order in your safe deposit
> box! You might just need that copy some day!

/michael

[Richard B. Gilbert]

I don't believe that I mentioned mkfs at all, nor did I intended to do so!

[hume.sp...@bofh.ca]

Richard B. Gilbert <rgilb...@comcast.net> wrote:

> I don't believe that I mentioned mkfs at all, nor did I intended to do so!

Yes, that's why your answer was waaaay off in left field.