[CentOS] What NAS device(s) do you use? And why?

Sat Dec 11 17:45:46 UTC 2010
Ryan Wagoner <rswagoner at gmail.com>

On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers <Rudi at softdux.com> wrote:
> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm
> referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or
> home theater system.
>
> We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but
> I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest
> ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe
> with them is the lack of decent scalability.

I setup a Netgear ReadyNAS for a small office client and found the
performance to be lacking. I could only get 10-15MB/s on a gigabit
network.

> So, what do you use?
> How well does it work for you?
> And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it?

For my own NAS I use CentOS and mdadm across a few TB drives.
Performance gives me 30-40MB/s from Windows clients using Samba. Of
course this route means you need to roll your own HA solution.

If you want off the shelf performance, scalability, and reliability
expect to pay $15k plus. For the office I am using a Dell MD3200i
iSCSI SAN with redundant controllers and switches. I have a few ESXi
boxes connected. One guest is a Windows box with a lun mapped for file
sharing. Performance is decent, reliability is there, and it is easy
to expand by adding additional bricks.

Ryan