Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

[kjjjjshab]

Trying to decide between re-purposing an older machine for NAS or purchasing a QNAP NAS (219P)... anyone have any experience with these? I am not too concerned about the power saving from the QNAP as I will never save enough electricity from it to recoup the $400.

The server must serve windows and linux, which all of these of course will do...

Mainly wondering about ease of set-up and administration... any RAID problems (thinking about mirroring), etc.

Also, would love to have DNLA support... the QNAP does this.

[Telengard]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

I'd go for using an old machine as a file server. I don't think I'd choose Ubuntu though. Debian is more likely what I'd use.

Never having used FreeNAS I can not say much about it, but it looks pretty slick. FreeNAS is BSD-ish though, so be prepared for some differences. Looks like it is still technically beta too.

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

I'd go for using an old machine as a file server. I don't think I'd choose Ubuntu though. Debian is more likely what I'd use.

Never having used FreeNAS I can not say much about it, but it looks pretty slick. FreeNAS is BSD-ish though, so be prepared for some differences. Looks like it is still technically beta too.

Tried FreeNAS... already put off by the lack of ext3/4 fully supported options... hmmmmm. My RE3's will be here soon...

[ukchucktown]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

I took a look at FreeNAS. I decided on openfiler instead. I have an ext3 formatted USB drive I want to use from OS X and some virtual machines. I'm setting it up as a NAS using vmware and openfiler. I wanted to use virtualbox but it's having problems with it through the USB so I decided to try Fusion along with openfiler until VB fixes the USB bugs.

[sithlord48]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

my "file-server" just runs ubuntu w/ nfs and samba shares

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

my "file-server" just runs ubuntu w/ nfs and samba shares

I've always had some difficulty getting kubuntu and samba to work correctly... probably because I relied on the gui rather than just editing the config files...

ubuntu server edition was a bust for me... wouldn't install with a md5 check and on disk check both ok... I suppose I should burn another to be sure, but that was disappointing nonetheless...

[ukchucktown]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

I have good luck with Samba but I also edit the config file. I do like openfiler but it can't handle pre-existing partitions without LVM so I had to look elsewhere. As for FreeNAS, it supports ext3 but only 128 byte inodes, again out of luck, so I finally settled on a Samba share from my Kubuntu VM. 500 gig of music files is just too much to move around. I wanted to tinker with openfiler more than anything. It's pretty slick and has a nice web console for managing disks and access.

[sithlord48]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

i can't ever get samba to work when setting it up via the gui tool. at least the way i want it where i have several users all with differant share rights. for that i had to manually create my smb.conf file

[Telengard]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

The File Sharing applet in Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron has worked great for me all along. It has a ton of options I'll probably never use, but I suppose if you have very particular requirements then hand editing smb.conf might be the easiest way.

[sithlord48]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

The File Sharing applet in Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron has worked great for me all along.

never tried that. as i said eariler in the post i use ubuntu on my server (as in w/ gnome) makes NX faster

[sithlord48]

Re: Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS or QNAP (NAS)?

DERP~~!!, i just re-read the subject, and i would go w/ ubuntu server ! , oh wait i do ,accually i use the desktop version, but have thought often about droping X and using server only , but sadly some of the things i need the box to do require a DE is running (currently gnome). you can read about my server here..