What is the Ideal Low-end NAS Solution?

Mark asks: "As demand for storage continues to grow and prices continue to drop, network attached storage (NAS) devices are popping up everywhere...from large enterprises to restaurants to small offices and homes. Several vendors are now offering low-end NAS solutions targeted at SOHO users, with varying results. Most of them are just standard PC components and standard IDE hard drives running Linux, but the price tag on these often far oustrips what one would expect to pay for the parts. Hence, people all over the world (myself included) are building their own NAS machines at home at a fraction of the cost. Beyond support for RAID, CIFS, NFS, HTTP, and FTP, what would the ideal home NAS operating system include? And more importantly, what should it leave out to avoid conflicts, security vulnerabilities, and instability? Are there any Linux/*BSD/other distributions out there optimized specifically for NAS applications? What does the ideal NAS distribution look like to you?"

include support for WebDAV

[stonebeat.org]

I don't know of any any distro optimized for creating a NAS. But I have used RedHat successfully to create a NAS.

On my NAS, I have also included support for WebDAV [xml-dev.com] protocol. It comes in handy when your users are publishing Web Content.

What I think it should have

[Student_Tech]

If it is just for NAS work, then only have the servers necessary to share the files, and perhaps a SSH server to modify configurations. Leave everything else out, the less stuff running on it, the less stuff to have to keep patched up for security reasons.

To me the ideal disto would probably fit in under 100 MB, just need the servers, network support files, and a way to get in and edit files. If the machine has a monitor that can be used, perhaps you don't need SSH or any other remote method of getting into the machine.
And the smaller the distro installed on it, the more space on the hard drives for the files. Perhaps the distro could be set to run off of CD, with only the config files on the hard drive.

Two ideas

[dasunt]

I would consider two OS's for a low-end home NAS.

First OS:

Debian GNU/Linux

Why? 1) Easy to update. 2) Wide selection of packages. 3) Possible to do a minimal install and have a pretty bare-bones OS.

Second OS:

OpenBSD

Why? 1) Security. 2) Security. 3) Security.

Build your own

[Vlad_Drak]

You might have answered your own question.. most of the products out there do use some form of Linux, and rarely do these vendors offer anything of value beyond a unified web based interface. You'll invest more time in the front end, but you'll gain much more in having the ability to upgade, use the machine for other tasks, etc. You'll get more for your money if you have even basic linux skills though.

There are plenty of recipies out there utilizing LVM, MD, Samba, NFS, etc. You could make a MythTV server too, you get the idea.

You can use smartmontools or most of the popular RAID controllers out there have linux configration apps and monitoring tools. Use 3ware if you have the cash, Promise can work depending on who you ask, Adaptec has some cards, others may have more to add here.

You could even just get a board that has lots of ports, and do Software RAID, although adding a drive to an array is experimental at this point, which scares me at least.

Samba 3 will fully integrate in AD if you have that need. Winbind has come a long way, you can even login to the linux box with your AD credentials if you were so inclined (now this might be flamebait fodder).

Anyways, with drive prices falling so rapidly, it would be a shame to spend $$ on a box that could be doubled in capacity 9 months down the road. So be very careful.

-Vlad

Re:Build your own

[Vlad_Drak]

As far as distributions go, its really a matter of opinion mostly, but I use debian/sarge; dpkg/apt makes updating very easy. Don't know of any file server centric distributions out there, which ultimates testifies to the relative ease one can set things up from any distro.

If you're using the unit for home, it can make sense to also use the box for your internal audio/video streaming, home directories, web, and mail, and backup for other workstations. This is what's going on over here.

-Vlad