…the question.
The amount of data I have around here isn’t the problem. I’ve plenty of space left. The thing which makes me worry is the reliability of my space. I’m currently running 2 LaCie Harddrives with a total of 1.5TB space on my iMac’s FW800 port. 500GB for my iMac’s TimeMachine, 1TB for the “Archive” (well, all the stuff which is rarely used but you still want to keep it). If my “Archive” disk dies, everything is gone for good. I can’t afford this to happen.
So, what I need is not really space, but I’d like to have all my data *a lot* more secure than it is currently. All the data I’ve produced in the past 10 years is basically the biggest asset of my little company. And it should be network attached. And it should be cheap. And I want to use it for other services than just serving files (VPN,SSH tunneling etc). And the power consumption is also relevant. A NAS is what I was looking for at first. But there are a couple of downsides to them. I was setting up the network environment at PGM using a Synology DS509. It works nice and since we just replaced an outdated CS407e with the new DS509, we have a backup server “for free” which relaxes the whole data security situation quite a lot. The only thing this box is doing is serving files to a small number of office users. For that, it’s quite right. And most important, the data is secured, daily backups, etc.
But for my home office, I don’t want just some file-serving box. I want something I can play around with. And it should be somehow expandable with other peripheries than just an USB printer or an USB disk. My Epson R2880 won’t work with a NAS for example, because it’s not a PostScript printer and needs special RIP drivers to work.
Other than a NAS, there’s basically only the LaCie 4big Quadra which I’d consider for the job. It’s not very cheap, but offers a *lot* of speed on FW400/800/eSata, HW/hotswappable RAID5 and whatnot, but no Network connection. After comparing dozens of NAS-Boxes and reading about possible pitfalls and comparing speeds (which vary really a lot), I had the following idea:
Why not use a MacMini as a server?
Sure, it’s not the ultra-cheap solution I was looking for. But it has quite a lot of advantages over the (not so cheap) NAS when I think about it: It’s a full featured box with plenty of speed (core2duo@2GHz), video output and – using remote desktop – pretty much a third workstation for my home office and expandable to become a *real* server, not just some downsized linux.
So I did a little price comparison:
1xMacMini 1GB RAM + 2xLaCie 4big Quadra RAID 2TB
Storage Security: 2xHW RAID5, software mirroring via FW800
System Backup: Monthly disk clone to old 1TB disk (scheduled)
Total cost (CHF): 2'165.–
1 x Synology DS409 2TB + 1xLaCie Quadra 2TB
Storage Security: 1xSoft RAID5 + 1xRAID0, via USB2.0/daily backup
System Backup: N/A (AFAIK)
Total cost (CHF): 1'346.-
So, for 800.– more, I will get a full workstation and the security of a mirrored 2TB (well, 1.5TB, actually) RAID5. I could even run OSX Leopard server on this box, use it as file-, media-, VPN-, etc. server. Additionally, I would be able to handle data storage and server independently. The whole thing would be running on HFS+ formatted disks and it would be quite easy to upgrade the MacMini to a newer version or expand the storage. Of course, the whole power-consumption aspect will become quite useless with this configuration. :P
But, let’s say cpu performance would be an issue. There’s a box made by Netgear which has an Intel Atom processor and is currently reviewed as one of the fastest NAS servers. Let’s add this to the list:
1xNetgear ReadyNAS Pro 6x1TB
Storage Security: 2 Volumes: 2xRAID5 over 3 1TB disks, daily backup from Vol 1 to Vol 2
System Backup: N/A (AFAIK)
Total cost (CHF): 2'999.–
So, this setup actually costs more than haveing a MacMini + 2 FW800 disks and doesn’t nearly offer the same possibilites in terms of being able to expand the system with additional hardware. If something goes wrong, I can detach the FW drive and continue to work on another box without having to worry about unmountable file systems etc. I could attach 4 USB devices to the MacMini + a display and even the processor is faster. Theoretically, I could even run the AppleTV OS on this box on a small bootable USB HD :P. With all the free and 10-20$ apps for OSX and Leopard’s built-in server abilities… I can attach my scanner, the 2 printers, DVD-writer and other stuff and control everything either by sharing over the network or using remote desktop control. “Real” iTunes servers, UPnP/Media, SMB, AFP, NFS, VPN and pretty much everything else which is possible on Leopard. Best of all: all on a nice GUI, no need for any terminal (well, maybe for the initial MacPorts setup :P) Thinking about it now, this would be totally and absolutely awesome. :D
PS: No! Backup to CD/DVD is *not* an option and backup to tape is far too expensive for my financial situation. And I want a solution which is easy to handle: That’s the whole point. I realise that this is not the most secure setup but it’s the best price/performance situation I can think of right now. However, if you think you have a better idea, let me know. :)
Update: After thinking about it again, I think the following config’s sustainability factor is bigger. At least in my case, since I’ve got plenty of external HDs already which can easily serve as a backup disk for another couple of years. I’ll have already enough RAID space to reduce the need for upgrading for at least 3-4 years from now. And until I reach an archive size over 1TB, there’s going to be enough inexpensive 2TB disks around.
1xMacMini 4GB RAM + 1xLaCie 4big Quadra RAID 4TB
Storage Security: FW800 HW RAID5 / Vol1 2.5TB, Vol2 1TB: TimeMachine-Volume for all macs
Vol1 will be mirrored to old 1TB LaCie-disk (daily rsync) as long as there's space left :P.
System Backup: TimeMachine -> Vol2
Total cost (CHF): 1'917.–
The things which will be moved onto the networked storage: All project data, media library, archive data. Total space needed: around 700GB. Might be that I will wire my iMac up again with Gigabit Ethernet. Should be more than enough performance for 90% of times.