OS Suggestions for a Homebuilt NAS device?
FormFactor
At the core of forgotten
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!
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!
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Comments
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.
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
does ReiserFS offer the ability to assign share permissions? Can I do it based on Windows user IDs?
-drasnor