Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS
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@travisdh1
OD = Open Directory, yes. I have it on since it is necessary for Profile Manager which in turn is nice for pushing out configuration profiles to Macs and iThingies. Definitely not needed for managing a handful of users. Profiles for iOS, there's an app for that of course.Caching Server is for software updates (OS and apps). The first client request triggers the download from the internet. The software is then cached on the server, and other clients download it from there. Huge bandwidth benefits when you have >2 clients. There also is the older manually managed Mac-only Software Update service.
CS is basically the reason for me favouring OS X Server, I'm not sure if this could be replicated under Linux.
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Thanks for the component list. I'll have to research that.
I'm not against virtualisation by any means. I am doing it now, actually. Just a Plex Media Server on a CentOS 7 minimal VM inside VirtualBox. Turned PMS into an appliance and allowed me to do one thing that the OS X version of PMS did not: Run it without a user logged on. There are more VMs to come, but my current server is limited to 4GB of RAM and would choke.
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@scottalanmiller
Is that you running that blog? Read http://www.smbitjournal.com/2015/06/make-your-business-jealous/ before coming here, and like that approach. I won't tear up the walls of my current apartment and put CAT cable in because I'll move in a year or two, but in the mid term I'd like to move in that direction."These days there is very, very little to assembling a computer.": Putting the components together, yes. The hurdle for me would be component selecting & sourcing, I'd be starting from zero there.
"If you're worried about noise at all, rule out rack based anything." Server cabinet is planned for the future home, for now all IT sits in the home office
"Only consumer units and desktop units use USB, IEEE 1394, eSATA, etc." together with the previous item leads me to believe I'd best go for top-of-line consumer grade.
"That said xByte and Stalled Tech…" Based in Spain, similar offers can certainly be found here.
"RAID 10 is always…" and "…no benefit to enterprise drives…" perfectly address my doubts.
"I only use rackmount at home…" As I said, I'm no IT pro. It's a hobby, and I do take it more seriously than the average user.
"One starting spot…" I'll go there next.
@All
Went to bed after posting (Spain is 6-9 h ahead of the U.S.) and woke up to a wealth of information. Where's the "overwhelmed" emoji? Thanks. -
@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
Caching Server is for software updates (OS and apps). The first client request triggers the download from the internet. The software is then cached on the server, and other clients download it from there. Huge bandwidth benefits when you have >2 clients. There also is the older manually managed Mac-only Software Update service.
Right, that same functionality is available with any proxy. I use them with the slow internet we have at work.
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
@MattSpeller
Not an IT professional. I'd call myself more of a "ProSumer".that could change the equation a bit. Is there value to learning the Linux, PC build and similar skills? Or would those only be useful for the fun of learning and not going to provide any career advantage?
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
@coliver
That's the website that led me here. I do like that approach very much.Oh nice! Is there a link on that site pointing to this one?
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
Thanks for the component list. I'll have to research that.
I'm not against virtualisation by any means. I am doing it now, actually. Just a Plex Media Server on a CentOS 7 minimal VM inside VirtualBox. Turned PMS into an appliance and allowed me to do one thing that the OS X version of PMS did not: Run it without a user logged on. There are more VMs to come, but my current server is limited to 4GB of RAM and would choke.
We were meaning more of Type 1 virtualization or full virtualization, but partial where there is an OS plus some workloads virtualized on top.
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
@scottalanmiller
Is that you running that blog? Read http://www.smbitjournal.com/2015/06/make-your-business-jealous/ before coming here, and like that approach. I won't tear up the walls of my current apartment and put CAT cable in because I'll move in a year or two, but in the mid term I'd like to move in that direction.Yup, I'm the main author over there.
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
"That said xByte and Stalled Tech…" Based in Spain, similar offers can certainly be found here.
Where are you in Spain. I lived in Granada last year. I normally live in Europe but happen to be in the US dealing with some stuff, including passport renewals. We have lots of people on here in your timezone.
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@travisdh1 said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
Right, that same functionality is available with any proxy. I use them with the slow internet we have at work.
Good. I'll look into that.
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@scottalanmiller said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
that could change the equation a bit. Is there value to learning the Linux, PC build and similar skills? Or would those only be useful for the fun of learning and not going to provide any career advantage?
I'm a mechanical engineer at heart who happens to like IT stuff, so it's for the fun of learning, not for career.
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@scottalanmiller said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
Where are you in Spain. I lived in Granada last year. I normally live in Europe but happen to be in the US dealing with some stuff, including passport renewals. We have lots of people on here in your timezone.
My avatar is telling… Catalonian central coast, just south of Barcelona.
You mentioned peer review somewhere on the SMB IT Blog if I recall it correctly.
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
@scottalanmiller said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
Where are you in Spain. I lived in Granada last year. I normally live in Europe but happen to be in the US dealing with some stuff, including passport renewals. We have lots of people on here in your timezone.
My avatar is telling… Catalonian central coast, just south of Barcelona.
You mentioned peer review somewhere on the SMB IT Blog if I recall it correctly.
I didn't even think of looking at the avatar
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So, after spending the better part of today's local holiday researching, this is the plan:
- I want to get fully operational again asap. Don't want to run off the backup drives for too long, and the significant other is already asking when he can can access all his stuff. That rules out the Linux box for now. I need to study that a bit more. Will be a medium-term project.
- So a Mac mini it will be. Has good resale value later on, or can be used as a desktop.
- As for storage, it won't be a desktop NAS. I like to think of them as file servers with too much make-up (NAS OS) hiding the "real" OS and walking with a limp (often underpowered CPU).
- Instead, I shall connect a Thunderbolt/USB3 desktop DAS to the mini–basically what we have now but updated. And the current DAS will serve as backup drive.
Which DAS?
- Low-cost consumer units, no.
- Mid-level consumer: LaCie Big5 has only Raid 0 and 1, Promise Pegasus has only Raid 5/6. Didn't find too many promising units.
- Areca 5026/5028 don't look too bad on paper, but seem to offer less and be more expensive than what I have set my eyes on:
- Drobo 5D / 5Dt. Seems to be almost entry-level business with thin provisioning and SSD cache option. Their proprietary Raid has me going "hmm…", though.
Any alternatives to the Drobo 5D? The B810i would be the next step up
, but I'm afraid that iSCSI over a simple home network would add more complexity than benefits.Does that sound reasonable?
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
- Drobo 5D / 5Dt. Seems to be almost entry-level business with thin provisioning and SSD cache option. Their proprietary Raid has me going "hmm…", though.
What makes their RAID proprietary? its just RAID 6.
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@scottalanmiller
Is it? All that blurb about "proprietary, patented yada-yada" made me wonder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drobo#BeyondRAID wasn't too helpful, and apart from http://www.ufsexplorer.com/und_beyond.php and http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/03/drobo-review-1/2/ I didn't find too much info. -
They figured out how to do parity RAID with dis-similar drives. Something ZFS has been doing for how many years before Drobo?
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@Thomas_R said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
@scottalanmiller
Is it? All that blurb about "proprietary, patented yada-yada" made me wonder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drobo#BeyondRAID wasn't too helpful, and apart from http://www.ufsexplorer.com/und_beyond.php and http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/03/drobo-review-1/2/ I didn't find too much info.So a few things about it...
- All RAID is proprietary, more or less. Linux has MD which while open and public is still "proprietary" to Linux and no one else uses it. Every system uses their own RAID, open or closed, it is unique to some degree to that system.
- Even the most proprietary RAID systems still use the same RAID basics. there are a few variations but everyone works from the same basics.
- All of the patents and stuff are not the RAID but RAID management and the logical volume manager under the RAID. Exactly the same that ReadyNAS does, for example.
- Drobo is RAID 1, 5 and 6 under the hood for all functions. That's all that it uses no matter what it looks like.
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@travisdh1 said in Need advice on OS X Server & DAS/NAS:
They figured out how to do parity RAID with dis-similar drives. Something ZFS has been doing for how many years before Drobo?
it's not even something to figure out, Microsoft had how to do that as required learning for the NT4 certification exams in 1996. By that point it was already base RAID knowledge, not even speciality for storage people, was required for anyone certified on MS products. Pretty much every RAID system ever made supports that but doesn't give you an interface to it because it is such a bad idea.
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@scottalanmiller
Understood.
