Prepressforums.com - NAS - Network Attached Storage

jasonbuss · #1 (**permalink**) 01-26-2005, 11:50 AM

When I got to my current job at a small town press/screen printer, after working in fortune 500 land... I was shocked at the presence of NO backup, archive, or retreival scheme other than burning CDRs of jobs completed, and indexing them with DiskTracker. Ive used disk tracker before, but the way we back up here was way different than the workflow I was used to with network attached storage Raids for images, fonts, files and templates.

I got the go ahead last month to research and purchase a NAS device to bring our backup filing system into todays world and streamline our search for the above mentioned items. Due to my higher ups hollering at the artdept for taking so much time to locate older digital files to make changes on for new runs...

I read some reviews of two NAS devices in particular, Snap server from Adaptec and the Lacie Ethernet Disk. and went with the latter.

When I received the Lacie NAS and hooked it up to our network (on the same 3com 16port 10/100 switch that all our art department computers are on.

The NAS device could not be seen in appleshare on any of our os9 macs. The osx macs could see it in the network portion of a finder window, but when double clicked, the error of could not connect to device because the origional item could not be found came back.

I could connect any of the os9 macs to the NAS directly by going through the chooser/appleshare and clicking on server ip address and entering the ip address of the NAS (the ip, which i found by running the java based utility that came with the product - which allows you to select DHCP, or manually enter the network info for a maunal ip assign).

I could connect the osx computers to the NAS via the Go/connect to server path and then enter the IP of the NAS.

This was an acceptable workaround, since our router, which the switch connects to for internet access via DSL was assigning the same IP to the NAS each time the NAS was restarted, and after all these restarts were out of the way, it would be left on the same redundant UPS strip as the other network hardware and our windows server was on. Which means I could select aliases for each computer and login to the NAS just by double clicking, and or login at startup.

The reason for difficulty with the NAS is as follows.

First, it uses the similar windows file name restrictions, certain characters and file name length, no " etc...

Second, I would copy over the entire contents of a Back up CD (lets say 300 files - various folders, file types and naming schemes, and I would say, get to only see 67 files in the NAS window on the os9 macs. If I would view the same NAS window from a osx mac, I would see only 19 files. I knew the files were there, as If i dragged over a file from either desktop to the NAS window that I initially transfered over with the 300 files which wasnt showing in the NAS window after the fact, I would get a Do you wish to overwrite this file popup.

Third, and this has to do with the second difficulty along with... But sometimes I would transfer a file that wasnt appearing in the NAS window, but i transferred originally, I would get the popup asking me to overwrite, I would, and the file would sometimes appear along with the said 67 or 19 files only showing in the NAS window, or sometimes the NAS window would refresh and only show that one file I just overwrote and remove everything else. then after a short pause, that file would dissappear. I did this with empty folders, named various schemes (just numbers, letters and numbers, letters etc..). And I did this with various file types and file sizes and naming schemes.

Fourth, I hooked up the NAS directly to an os9 computer and after that a osx computer and had the exact same difficulties as above with a patch cable. (I had to find the ip using the network config that came with it like above)

After a while, I concluded it wasnt the file or the network causing these inconsistancies. So I first deleted all shared folders on the NAS and recreated them. Same problems. I then used the supplied webbased utility to reformat the drive used for the NAS. This also produced the same exact difficulties as above.

I then called lacie tech support, which by the way, I was quite pleased with the turnaround and capability to directly talk to a person right away. After describing this same problem to them, they got back to me in a days time and told me to do everything I already troubleshooted, and as last resort, ship the item back as it might be bad hardware.

My dilema is as follows...

The unit where I ordered it is most likely backordered till Apple releases a G5 powerbook ( A LONG TIME ), So I am at a loss, do I look for similar product (like go with the Snap Server) or do I wait it out and cross my fingers that this thing will work when I get a new one shipped.

I still have the unit here as we are waiting on a RMA, so if any of you can think of somthing else to try, that would be great.

Or if you have experiences with NAS devices and can reccommend a similar product for us to use, I would be all for it.

My requirments for this NAS are:

Multiple user (no more than 10-15 required)
10/100 based
Utility to manage users and shared directories (preferrably via a web based utility like the norm)
Ability to connect via local FTP
200 - 250 gb drive

Added Bonus would be:
Ability to connect via outside FTP or HTTP (for file dropbox)

Price range would be $700 or below.

I really appreciate anyone who adds thoughts or info to this. Thanks for reading.

Jason Buss

Greg_OneVision · #2 (**permalink**) 01-26-2005, 02:36 PM

It might be difficult with price, but what about putting a firewire raid on an existing OS X Box?

One thing to think about . . . what happens if you fill up all 250 G. At least with an RAID, you could swap out drives for larger ones.

I had researched snap servers a few years ago. They might be more expensive than the LaCIE ones.

Regards,
Greg

jasonbuss · #3 (**permalink**) 02-16-2005, 07:53 AM

I figured I would give a heads up as to what transpired in this situation, as it might lend help to anyone in a similar situation.

I ended up trying another LaCie ethernet disk, same model, and same problems. Sent that back.

Researched some similar NAS devices and came across a small company I had never heard of. Buffalo. They have a UNIX based NAS device (HDLAN) that has two USB 2.0 ports on the unit and have built in software to run a shared printer on the network, a nice addition. They also come in a 300gb model and are somewhat cheaper with a smaller footprint of the Lacie I was trying to use.

I hooked it up when i received it, installed the management soft on a windows box (only drawback, but oh well). And I was up and running in less than 10 minutes from the time I unpacked it.

Ive been shoving data to this thing for almost a week now and havent had a single problem that was hitting me with the other unit.

The only drawback I see is once we outlive the capacity of this drive, and the attached USB drive capability, it will be time to upgrade to something more scalable, rather than dead end in the terms of upgradability of storage space.

But right now, this is working and has actually sped up our workflow already.

jasonbuss

mattbeals · #4 (**permalink**) 02-17-2005, 11:09 PM

You should really look at a Snap appliance, they really are excellent. You might also want to look at the Iomega NAS solution. You could use a FireWire drive attached to a Mac OS X box. Using something like Sharity you can share the FW drive using SMB and AFP. Something to look at.