[Discuss] NAS: buy vs. build

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey (blu))]

> From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On
> Behalf Of Tom Metro
> 
> I haven't yet figured out exactly what my requirements are, but I'm
> probably looking to end up with two NAS units for office storage, where
> one acts as primary and one as backup. Not sure yet whether I'll go with
> identical hardware on both, so they can be swapped, or have the backup
> be lower-end, and use a JBOD configuration instead of RAID.

To me, the above is all you need to know, in order to make a decision. Because you haven't yet figured out exactly what the requirements are, you should use a standard OS, to support the most flexible software choices you might ever want to use.

If you're planning to do one as primary, and one as backup, I am biased toward ZFS - which could be either openindiana/smartos, or ZFS on linux. Apparently ZFS on linux has been working well now, for at least a couple of years.

Also, if you happen to choose ZFS, then you should definitely use JBOD, and allow the software to do the raid for you. I mention this because of your comment about JBOD vs RAID - sounds like maybe you didn't already know?