Storage upgraded
by Volker Weber
vowe is a very happy camper. After 2.5 years the NSLU2 is being (semi-)retired. Two machines are busy moving hundreds of thousands of files from the slug to a Netgear RND4425, the artist formerly known as Infrant ReadyNAS+. The Netgear NAS will now be the main storage on vowe's magic flying circus. The NSLU2 is going to serve backup purposes.
The small Linksys device was inexpensive, open and extensible, but overall too slow, especially with large directories of small files. It did an excellent job at providing very low noise storage across the network, and I will continue to use it for this purpose. I overclocked it, added an iTunes and a uPnP server, but now it is going to be re-flashed with the regular firmware. It no longer needs any application server capabilities.
The Netgear storage comes with everything I need. It already contains an iTunes streaming server and a uPnP media server. I did not need to consult a manual to get it started and so far I am very impressed. Since I am currently moving loads of files on its disks, it is very busy and you can hear the fan. It's the loudest device in my office, almost like a regular PC.
Comments
I need to get my hand on one of those :-)
and i'm pretty certain i can get one for free ihihihi...
Have you done any performance testing with it?
I have been assuming the worst because I can't find test results.
If your system runs anything like mine, the fan won't be any quieter after you get it loaded up. The fan noise is the one thing that disappoints me. I don't know why but I thought the fan would have varisou speeds depending on the work load and heat in the NAS. My fan runs constantly even if the NAS is basicly idle. Storage, speed, services, etc. are all very good.
Just a side note here - I happened to notice the NSLU2 on sale in Saturn Hansa on the Zeil in Frankfurt on this Monday for about 35 Euro (don't remember the exact price). Quite a lot cheaper than anywhere else. If anyone needs one, they had 2 units in stock.
Dwight, I have not done extensive testing so far, but it seems to be in line with our ReadyNAS test: 6.8 MByte/s write and 34 MByte/s read.
Glen, are you spinning down the discs after 5 minutes?
Just a chapter from my experience: Work with checksums for the files you transfer to the NAS, at least in the beginning. My first memory chip was flawed, and all the files on the NAS were... er ... let's say modified. (Luckily, at first I copied them instead of moving... and I found out in time...)
After the memory was replaced, everything worked fine. I still check the files I transfer, but now they're all OK.
As for the fan: Yes, it's a nuisance (noisance...) sometimes.
But the bottom line is: Cool device, I like it a lot. I miss a BitTorrent Client, but there's still the other server that's running 24/7 anyway...
Volker,
how much energy is the device consuming (more than the NSLU2)?
How loud is the device? Is it louder than the NSLU2 and an external HDD?
The NSLU2 makes no sound at all. An external disk can be very quiet, as my Samsung SpinPoints are. c't was running a test on the ReadyNV (and other devices) in 2006. I strongly suggest to read it before you buy.
The ReadyNAS NV+ has improved the fan. Stefan Rubner may be able to shed some lights on the difference, since he tested both.
Does the NAS allow you to run extra things? Like SVN. The Unslung NSLU2 does.
Stephan,
the ReadyNAS allows you a couple of extra things. E.g. as vowe mentioned it has a couple of media servers & BU features integrated and will come along with SSH in the next update.
Unlike the NSLU2 it's a dedicated NAS that is constructed to store data in first place. No OpenSource community behind that.
The Sling on the other side is a very fancy network server for USB drives (no RAID).
Find more specs in the Infrant forum
I think you are touching on the main feature of the ReadyNAS: RAID, and even better X-RAID. The only thing the slug (not Sling) lets you do is to copy one drive to the other.
The only thing I don't like about this device is that RAID5 and SATA disk sizes are the potential rebuild times if a drive dies. There is a lot of discussion about this in the enterprise space but basically rebuilding a 750gb drive in a raid5 set could take quite awhile. As the array gets older, the liklihood of drive failure increases linearly and dual drive failures become more likely. It's not so bad but restoring 1-2TB of data can take awhile. These are all just things that need to be taken into consideration. I would almost prefer a 5-6 drive system that is doing RAID6 for SATA using smaller drives (e.g. 750gb instead of 1tb drives).
"It already contains an iTunes streaming server" ... that's not a real Apple iTunes server but simply the SlimServer that plays MP3s and non-drm AAC files, right?
There are four media servers in the box:
SlimServer
iTunes Streaming Server
UPnP AV
Home Media Streaming Server
I am using 2 and 3.
Don't know about DRM since I don't have any crippled tracks. The daap protocol is open (?) and there are other implementations. The tracks are encrypted on the client so I suspect that you can also listen to "protected" AAC tracks.
Volker - I do let the drives spin down after 5 minutes.
I have also tried the "recalibrate" option on the fan. During recalibration, the fan does get very quite for a short time (I saw 1638 RPM briefly) but then it settles back in around 2100 RPM which is much more noise.
I'd be interested in what others see for the operating speed of the fan. Mine may either running hotter (currently 32 C) than most or just thinking it is hotter.
Here's mine.
Glen, here is the data:
4 Seagate ST3250620AS running at 37/40/40/38 Celsius
Fan speed 2083 RPM
System running at 30 Celsius
Room temperature 24 Celsius
Ah, I forgot. Room temperature 36° Celsius. Which expalins the somewhat high temperature of my ReadyNAS. At least somewhat.
Hallo Volker,
unterstützt Dein Netgear NAS auch AFP3.1?
Gruss,
Stefan
Stefan, according to the specs it does.
Volker - looks like our stats are similar. I only have 2 750GB seagates at present. 30c/31c respectively and room is about 25c.
curious ... why is it the Mac interfaces always look better ? (no widget for windows)
Stefan - 36c ambient is too warm for me.
The ReadyNAS+ is definitely the most noise in my office but that is also because all of my machines are laptops (old ones become linux servers). I would agree it is no louder than a standard PC.
Volker;
danke, sonst heisst es meist nur Apple Compatible. (was auch heissen kann, benutzt doch SMB und mach was draus.)
Schönes Gerät, doch leider sprengt der Preis mein Budget.
Dann muss ich weiter auf foonas für meine Linkstation warten.
noise: you will not like it in the living room, I find it "just ok" for the office
performance: good, and even the backup-button on the front copies files fast enough to an external harddrive, when you select "Aktiviert schnelles Schreiben auf USB Festplatten." ("activate quick write on usb harddrives"). Otherwise it had been really (!) slow with my ext3-formatted USB-drive.
iTunes: it works great, even for DRM-ed AAC-files
