Technical question ... NAS: Use a NAS appliance, or a Mac Mini leopard server + DAS? And by "NAS" I mean, DLNA, SMB, Samba, AFP, time machine, FTP, yada, yada, yada.
Current leaning: storage and serving are two different things, and different companies have different specializations. I can get an industrial grade DAS box ... RAID 6, capacity migration, yada, yada. And Apple probably does a better job with server SW than the NAS appliance guys.
Have you looked at Drobo? Like, say, the DroboPro FS. Not the cheapest, but pretty slick for storage. Does what you want. Plays nice with Time Machine and iTunes and everything else, plus has add on things like BitTorrent clients (through their open SDK.)
Or could go with a cheaper Drobo (DAS) behind a Mini server, but I'm not sure that would actually be better.
Drobo did catch my eye. So many options. Oof!
I've got the master cheap Linux server builder if you want to go that way. But they are LOUD!
I've decided my most pressing problems is iTunes. I need a new stationary machine to host it. I'm leaning mac mini plus a 2 TB firewire 800. (They'll be sure to add esata to the mini right after I buy one.)
I still need a windows/osx file sharing and backup solution, but I don't have to jump on it right away. A drobo NAS is a possibility. My backup & file sharing strategy over the past few years has been USB drives (and NTFS support on my mac). Every couple of years I need a bigger one. (My collection of USB drives ranges from 10 MB to 1.5 TB, to give you an idea of how long I've been doing that.)
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- mark 1-03-2011 4:07 am
Current leaning: storage and serving are two different things, and different companies have different specializations. I can get an industrial grade DAS box ... RAID 6, capacity migration, yada, yada. And Apple probably does a better job with server SW than the NAS appliance guys.
- mark 1-03-2011 4:49 am [add a comment]
Have you looked at Drobo? Like, say, the DroboPro FS. Not the cheapest, but pretty slick for storage. Does what you want. Plays nice with Time Machine and iTunes and everything else, plus has add on things like BitTorrent clients (through their open SDK.)
Or could go with a cheaper Drobo (DAS) behind a Mini server, but I'm not sure that would actually be better.
- jim 1-03-2011 2:55 pm [add a comment]
Drobo did catch my eye. So many options. Oof!
- mark 1-03-2011 9:56 pm [add a comment]
I've got the master cheap Linux server builder if you want to go that way. But they are LOUD!
- jim 1-03-2011 10:28 pm [add a comment]
I've decided my most pressing problems is iTunes. I need a new stationary machine to host it. I'm leaning mac mini plus a 2 TB firewire 800. (They'll be sure to add esata to the mini right after I buy one.)
I still need a windows/osx file sharing and backup solution, but I don't have to jump on it right away. A drobo NAS is a possibility. My backup & file sharing strategy over the past few years has been USB drives (and NTFS support on my mac). Every couple of years I need a bigger one. (My collection of USB drives ranges from 10 MB to 1.5 TB, to give you an idea of how long I've been doing that.)
- mark 1-04-2011 12:00 am [add a comment]