Okay I will try and keep this short while still providing relevant history and facts.
I have mixed OS home environment; Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
I would like to be able to consolidate storage for reasons I am sure you are all sympathetic too.
However I have a lot of personally created and collected data from my old windows machines on NTFS where the create timestamps are very important to me and part of the relevant data I need to preserve.
*nix's and there file systems seem to historically not care about true file create timestamps either preserving them or even having a space in the meta data to even record them!
I did find some references to XFS and JFS supporting create timestamps but the user tools and samba don't seem to be supporting access to them.
So I would like advice on how I can hopefully create a free home Raid5 level NAS with all the spare hardware and drives I already have that would allow me to migrate all the NTFS files over while preserving the create timestamps and ideally being able to modify them and add new files from the other windows and Mac OS X systems that also retain and preserve the create timestamps on the NAS.
I would consider just about any solution, including Windows Home Server, that would let me retain my investment in drives and hardware I already have.
Would trying to get all three OS types accessing the shares via NFS instead of SMB help with this issue?
I played with OpenFiler some already using XFS for the underlying file system. I tried using rsync to transfer some test files over from the Mac OS using the rsync server method on the NAS and create timestamps don't seem to be preserved.
I am not sure if that test was a Mac OS X problem, an rsync problem or a samba problem (I was viewing what I sent via samba from the Mac). But since the userland tools in OpenFiler don't show XFS create timestamps I have no other way than what Samba shares to verify if the create timestamp was preserved or not.
I am/was hopeful that the new ZFS based FreeNAS 0.7 series would handle create timestamps with full visibility and preservability, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with my motherboard (I get ACPI errors streaming across the console when I try and install/configure any FreeNAS).
I would consider buying a new motherboard, either Asus P5QL-CM or P5KPL-CM\, if I was sure ZFS based FreeNAS would provide what I need.
Any help from those more experienced with these various NAS offerings and any way you have learned to migrate data and use the shares provided from the NAS while preserving meta data would be very much appreciated!
I have mixed OS home environment; Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
I would like to be able to consolidate storage for reasons I am sure you are all sympathetic too.
However I have a lot of personally created and collected data from my old windows machines on NTFS where the create timestamps are very important to me and part of the relevant data I need to preserve.
*nix's and there file systems seem to historically not care about true file create timestamps either preserving them or even having a space in the meta data to even record them!
I did find some references to XFS and JFS supporting create timestamps but the user tools and samba don't seem to be supporting access to them.
So I would like advice on how I can hopefully create a free home Raid5 level NAS with all the spare hardware and drives I already have that would allow me to migrate all the NTFS files over while preserving the create timestamps and ideally being able to modify them and add new files from the other windows and Mac OS X systems that also retain and preserve the create timestamps on the NAS.
I would consider just about any solution, including Windows Home Server, that would let me retain my investment in drives and hardware I already have.
Would trying to get all three OS types accessing the shares via NFS instead of SMB help with this issue?
I played with OpenFiler some already using XFS for the underlying file system. I tried using rsync to transfer some test files over from the Mac OS using the rsync server method on the NAS and create timestamps don't seem to be preserved.
I am not sure if that test was a Mac OS X problem, an rsync problem or a samba problem (I was viewing what I sent via samba from the Mac). But since the userland tools in OpenFiler don't show XFS create timestamps I have no other way than what Samba shares to verify if the create timestamp was preserved or not.
I am/was hopeful that the new ZFS based FreeNAS 0.7 series would handle create timestamps with full visibility and preservability, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with my motherboard (I get ACPI errors streaming across the console when I try and install/configure any FreeNAS).
I would consider buying a new motherboard, either Asus P5QL-CM or P5KPL-CM\, if I was sure ZFS based FreeNAS would provide what I need.
Any help from those more experienced with these various NAS offerings and any way you have learned to migrate data and use the shares provided from the NAS while preserving meta data would be very much appreciated!
