OS Suggestions for a Homebuilt NAS device?

FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
edited September 2006 in Hardware
I would like to build a machine specifically for hosting files. So im thinking of just building a cheap machine, with a ton of hard drives in it.

I would prefer to just use SMB shares to connect to this thing, and I would prefer NTFS to be the file system.

I would also like it to serve files (Mostly media like music and video) over a gigabit network.

I would also like some RAID options included.

Does anyone know of a good no-nonsense Linux distro that might offer such features?

Or is there a cheap device that already does this that I could just buy and add my own storage to?

I am also open to any suggestions anyone with such a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, if anyone has any experience.

Thanks in advance fellas!

Comments

  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    You're not going to run NTFS on any Linux distro.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited September 2006
    hmm I could have sworn there were hacks to mount an ntfs vol... oh well... Still awaiting suggestions...
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    There are, but write support is still sketchy and you couldn't use NTFS as the filesystem for the Linux OS itself. ReiserFS is better to be honest and barely fragments (maxes out at like 6% fragmentation over years).

    Any Linux Distro would work for you to be honest, are you familiar with Linux at all? If not just load up Ubuntu or something and you're set, heh. If you want to be more hardcore though and refine it (as it's a server you don't really need a GUI) and use something like Gentoo.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I would use Gentoo for the job since it is no-nonsense and because Gentoo has extensive HOWTOs available for this task. I would stick the machine in the closet and use SSH to access the server console remotely from my Windows box.

    Why would you want to run NTFS? Windows doesn't care what filesystem you use on your Linux machine unless you pull the hard drives out and stick them in a Windows box. Besides, you're not going to be able to do that if you run a software RAID. Aside: Linux can't boot from a software RAID so if you decide to go that route you'll need a boot drive (old hard drive, USB stick, or old camera memory ~32MB, enough to hold grub and a kernel). A better solution is to use a hardware RAID card but they can be expensive.

    ReiserFS is a great filesystem but I seem to remember reading that it's a bad idea to use it on a RAID though I don't remember why. I used ext3 on my last RAID and it worked pretty well but the load was only one machine. If you plan to have multiple machines on your network hammering your server for data at the same time you might want to consider using XFS though you'll want very much to get a battery-backed RAID card or put the machine on a UPS due to the amount of caching XFS performs.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited September 2006
    Well the reason I wanted NTFS is so I can assign permissions based on user. I have some basic linux knowledge but I am by no means a superuser.

    does ReiserFS offer the ability to assign share permissions? Can I do it based on Windows user IDs?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    All Linux partition types support permissions as it is fundamental to how Linux operates. Have you read my shell primer? It discusses briefly how permissions are implemented and how to modify them.

    -drasnor :fold:
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