Is an off-the-shelf NAS right for my requirements?

[magnus13]

Hi there! I was told about these forums by a friend, and it certainly looks like the right place to ask this question...

I require a central storage device that I can use to store and work with files from - ie. save a file to a network location (from say laptop) and work with it from that centrally stored location. Additionally, I would also like to serve VirtualBox VHDs from the device as well. Would these vendor NAS devices be powerful enough to cater to this need or should I look into building my own?

I do have some technical knowledge and can put a machine together, but my knowledge regarding networking and server systems is somewhat lacking.

Thanks!

EDIT: I should also add that I have a mixture of connecting devices within my network:
- 1 Macbook Pro,
- 1 Windows 7 PC,
- 1 Ubuntu PC,
- 1 Netbook running Windows XP,
- 1 XBox 360
- 1 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone, and
- 1 Android powered smartphone.
All of these devices are envisaged to write/read seamlessly to/from the NAS device.

 

[magnus13]

Anyone? Please, I am more interested to know if a vendor NAS (ReadyNAS, DriveStation, etc) is powerful enough to serve at least 3 Virtual Hard-Disks across a LAN.

Thank you

 

[thiggins]

All depends on what level of performance you're looking for and how much ease of use you want.

You certainly can build a more powerful NAS for less money than vendors are asking for their current dual-core Atom or even dual-core Pentium NASes. I put together the SNB i3-based testbed for around $600 if i recall correctly (not including drives).

But the open source OSes don't approach off-the-shelf NASes for ease of use. Unless you're comfortable with Linux, you'd be better served by going off-the-shelf.

Many NASes are VMware certified. But I don't know if that includes VirtualBox support.

I'd put NETGEAR's ReadyNASes on your short list. Here's a long VirtualBox thread.
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=26468

Check QNAP and Synology forums for discussion there.

 

[magnus13]

Hi Tim and thank u for your response!!

I am certainly looking for good performance. I play with Ubuntu quite a bit (and Debian occasionally) so I don't mind tinkering, but have reservations about doing so knowing that my data is at stake. On the other hand, I quite like the idea of a custom build as I won't be tied in to a particular vendor, and if something goes south with the RAID array, I can always re-create it (get the same RAID adapter card if I go the hardware RAID route, or ensure that that the next motherboard has the same RAID support as the one that fails if I go the software route -- hope I got that right!).

I would like to be able to serve 3 VMs (ie. their virtual drives) from a NAS device, but I'm thinking that maybe this is all an overkill for a NAS device that most likely has an Atom Single Core processor (the affordable ones at least!). Maybe it's best, and cheaper, if I build a small VMware server with at least a Core2Duo CPU and 4GB memory. Tim, I know this off-topic, but would you recommend having a File Server (like a NAS) as an additional VM on the same physical box? It would be an Ubuntu Server utilising (2) 1TB SATA drives for storage.

Sorry, for the long reply, I am terrible when it comes to explaining things, so please bear with me! Thanx!