Translating NAS features - what do I really want and what is it called?

[flyboy]

Hi,

I have spent a bit of time trawling the forums looking for information and there is loads but just not quite what I'm looking forward so time to ask the experts. I know the things I want to do but despite being on my 3rd engineering masters degree the continuously varying company jargon is doing my head in!

Basic setup (we move house a lot so flexibility is key):

User devices: 3-5 laptops, xbox 360, media streamers, sky+ hd box, iPhone etc etc

ADSL modem providing internet access. Running DD-WRT to terminate VPN access from outside. DynDNS solves the variable IP problem.

Powerline adapters to link ADSL modem to NAS, wifi router, print server and main media using 4 port switches located as required.

The NAS will be hooked up to a UPS for soft shutdown and will be backed up to a remote HDD periodically.

Services that I want to run

The core question really is about how the file storage on the NAS is used. I want each of the laptops (and devices) to have access to a common share with our core family files. This needs to be continuously (or very rapidly) mirrored onto every laptop. I want them to work from a local copy to keep bandwidth demands low and to ensure that it is always available when the laptop is off the network and requires no user intervention (or screw up for that matter). Is what I am describing implemented in continuous data protection? I had a look on wikipedia and it suggests that in this case every time a write is requested to the local drive it triggers a remote drive update as well... The share and all of the remote copies need to continuously shadow each other. How is this described by the vendors?

Has anyone any experience is loading an iPod from a NAS over wifi .11g? Is the USB transfer rate sufficiently slower than the wifi transfer rate that there is no performance disadvantage with hosting the media in a remote share on the NAS.

I am therefore after the following (I think):

Shadowed (or continuous data protected) main file share
User shares as required
Complete backup of systems either by image or incremental backup
RAID1
UPS compatibility
CIFS / AFP support
DLNA uPNP AV serving
File shares remote accessed by VPN terminated at modem
File shares accessed by https and ftps from remote systems (iPhone or from work system). This will be port forwarded through the firewall.
Quiet
Low power (wake on LAN and auto sleep timings definitely an advantage)
Print server would be nice.

Now for the difficult bit! What do you guys think my options are? I am thinking a 2 drive solution of 2 x 1/2TB drives. I am after a reasonably easy life as I don't want to spend ages writing scripts to execute what I want. I am settling towards one of the ReadyNAS Duos but willing to accept any advice!

Thank you!

 

[teknojnky]

I don't think your gonna find any inexpensive and easy to use solution for any type of 'continuous data protection', especially involving multiple remote computers sharing a single set of data.

Possibly the closest, and ironically the cheapest, is to use windows 'offline files'. This will create a local 'cache' and attempt to sync up when connected to the network.

You will still have problems if multiple people try to update the same file(s) while both offline.

the rest of your requirements should be sufficiently handled by any of the most recent generation of atom/intel cpu powered devices.

its not available yet, but netgear will be releasing an 'ultra 2' 2 bay device in the next few months, else I would personally recommend an ultra 4.

also, you will find wireless performance very slow for long transfers like ipod syncing and copying large files etc.

you will want to be on wired gigabit for best performance.

 

[flyboy]

Thanks for the info teknojnky,

I use windows offline files with my work laptop and work shares and want to try and avoid working from the NAS as the wifi transfer speeds will affect performance.

It seems that what you are suggesting is that media should be backed up onto the NAS but synched to iPod from one of the local laptops. The same would suggest that keeping the photo library local to work with picasa and photoshop would be a better way to go. Gigabit is a luxury that moving house means I can't have!

Anyone any info on the bundled memeo software that comes with readynas or any other appropriate backup software?

 

[flyboy]

Create dropbox / live mesh functionality locally using a NAS

OK so done some more research and what I want to do is replicate live mesh / dropbox functionality locally using the NAS as the cloud...

I want to avoid using scheduled rsynch and have it run continuously i.e. change file on laptop 1 and it ripples via the NAS to any of the other machines or they pick it up when they wake up. Importantly I want them to run / access the local copy in the foreground and synch in the background.

 

[teknojnky]

http://www.egnyte.com/