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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • NAS (by Vern on 2019-02-04 00:11:13 GMT from United States)
I never gave "NAS" any thought for home usage. I wouldn't see any value. Then again I know little about those systems.
2 • SystemRescueCD (by disappointed on 2019-02-04 00:18:52 GMT from United States)
So - Arch now, not Gentoo?
Can't be used to install Gentoo.
And, since it is Arch, 64-bit only? Can't use to maintain 32-bit systems. This used to be the go-to utility distribution. Now it has become just a bad joke.
Will be looking for alternatives.
3 • NAS (by Terry on 2019-02-04 00:35:24 GMT from United States)
I have Apple Mac Time Capsule working for me for 6years now handworks flawlessly and like clockwork 24 hours a day. I have a partition set up where it hosts shared files and does all my backup and restores. Can accommodate 500gb-6TB storage space.
I use Mac mini, Macbook pros, Windows PC and Linux operating machines to connect to it. Never needed anything else. Still my one and only NAS File host and backup/Restore.
4 • Filesystems (by greenpossum on 2019-02-04 00:47:53 GMT from Australia)
I prefer XFS when I don't need the encryption facility of ext4. XFS has improved a lot; articles about poor performance are out of date.
I had a NAS but since my workhorse is on 24/7 this was unnecessary duplication.
Of course you can repair the bootloader or filesystem of a 32-bit distro from 64-bit Sysrcd! Just need a 64-bit CPU. So much misunderstanding out there.
5 • Reborn Apricity OS (by Tran Older on 2019-02-04 01:06:16 GMT from Vietnam)
Condres OS is born-again Apricity OS. If you want to try an Arch-based distro which is similar to the combination of 3 Debian-based distros, Mint, Peppermint and Zorin (ICE and Wine), then Condres OS is definitely the choice.
6 • Condres OS (by rohan on 2019-02-04 02:04:57 GMT from Indonesia)
I like Arch base distro, because it was easy to install and rolling release. You can type "sudo pacman -Syyu" and you have brand new system. And it has AUR too. I like Apricity OS. I might installed it on one of my machine. Thanks for the developer to create such a beautiful distro.
7 • XFS (by bigbenaugust on 2019-02-04 02:08:47 GMT from United States)
@4 - I use XFS in an LUKS-encrypted LVM volume whenever possible, to get around any lack of on-board encryption.
8 • NAS (by Randy on 2019-02-04 02:26:42 GMT from United States)
Open Media Vault running on a Raspberry Pi is the only NAS that I have been successful in setting up and using. I'm a PC hobbist, playing with multiple OS's (currently eight on five laptops with three multiboot), but have hit a blank wall with other NAS install attempts. I even just tried Open Media Vault on a laptop and the install failed. I'm guess the "leading" setup done to the Pi version provided me success.
I removed the 2TB drive from my old home Seagate NAS unit and installed it into a Tccmebius TCC-S863 USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Disk Enclosure Case (external self powered). Network transfer speeds increased by two to three times from the old Seagate unit. The OMV web interface is not very fast, but very workable. A tutorial to show me the "odd" requirements of setting up disks, shares, users and such have enabled me to create multiple disks and secure logins. (The Seagate was very limited in share types.)
I tried the DLNA plug-in for a while, and it worked fairly well. OMV has many plug-in options.
I have had two hard drives and an USB Stick configuration, and now have the 2TB HDD for my system backups plus a separate 64GB USB Stick for my partners private data backup, and an "Public" 64GB USB Stick for sharing or file transfers.
Some Windows 10 Home machines see the network drive "natively", others need to Map a Network Drive. The Linux OS's easily see the drives. Perfect for a easy to access home system for backup and file transfer between multiple OS laptops.
9 • Filesystems (by Frank on 2019-02-04 02:40:27 GMT from United States)
I use NTFS for Windows (obviously, though I wish MS would switch to ZFS), and ZFS. Its mostly because my UNIXlike boxes are all FreeBSD or TrueOS and the capabilities of ZFS (like snapshots, deduplication, integrity features, etc) are one of those things that once you use them once and really understand them, you really don't want to go without.
Then again, the increased reliability could be just my imagination, since I switched to using SSDs for my system drives, I don't run into the same reliability problems that I used to have with traditional mechanical HDDs. Sure, its a little more expensive but its worth it.
When I was using RHEL, CentOS and Fedora I usually used either XFS, ext4 or Btrfs depending on what the individual machine's role was, they all have strengths and weaknesses. With filesystems its horses for courses, but I don't see myself going back to Linux unless I absolutely have to for a use case that FreeBSD can't fill in some way, its kind of a moot point for me.
10 • filesystem encryption (by greenpossum on 2019-02-04 03:12:41 GMT from United States)
@7 ext4 has native encryption removing one layer. Also selectable per directory.
11 • Home NAS (by Artūras on 2019-02-04 07:33:39 GMT from Lithuania)
Tried OMV.
Never installed FreeNAS due to high HW requirement.
Current NAS implementation - Ubuntu Server 16.04 with LVM (mirror + stripe arrays), SAMBA and DLNA enabled.
12 • NFS (by Marc on 2019-02-04 07:40:13 GMT from Australia)
I dont use a dedicated NAS as such, but I have proxmox setup to play with virtual machines.
It is also setup as an nfs server with a 2 terabyte removable drive and the xfce desktop for when I do some cpu intensive stuff instead of a VM. Plex is setup on a container for streaming movies, music etc
13 • NAS (by Markus on 2019-02-04 07:44:53 GMT from Germany)
FreeNAS 9.x
14 • NAS (by robbage on 2019-02-04 08:41:25 GMT from Australia)
OpenMediaVault works for me
I think the problem with OMV, FreeNAS and similar is that they assume you know what you are doing. They probably look great from the point of view of the people that created them. They are a complete nightmare for the average home/personal user that is used to clicking on the Start Button™ on the Task Bar™
15 • Filesystem and NAS (by Alexandru on 2019-02-04 09:07:21 GMT from Romania)
"Linux distributions can generally be installed on ext2/3/4, JFS, XFS, Btrfs, and Reiserfs."
Unfortunately, Linux kernel dropped ReiserFS support some time ago. So, while being able to mount, read and write to ReiserFS, Linux is not more able to install on Reiserfs (except the cases when you do some tricks and put reiserfsprogs into initramfs, but this will require to copy already installed Linux from one filesystem to ReiserFS).
Depending on what somebody usually does with his computer, different filesystems perform better for different expectations. Usually "classical" FSs (ext2/3/4) use "plain" allocation layout, which are fast on reading / writing of large files (music, movies), but don't work as fast on finding a file across very large collection of small files into a deep filesystem hierarchy (developer's use-case). On the other hand, "hierarchical" filesystems (XFS, ReiserFS, Btrfs - I don't know if also JFS) are much slower to copy / write large files, but perform much better for many small files in deep directory system. Additionally, they usually have better space allocation for small files. This means, if you have some 8GB archive with many small files, it can fit unarchived into 10GB Btrfs partition, but not fit into 10GB Ext4 partition (and this is not only about the journal size).
That being said, you are free to use more partition with different filesystems for different purpose, and *BSD world uses it this way. Something like: Btrfs for / partition, Ext3 for /boot partition, ReiserFS for /var partition, Ext4 for /Download and /Media partitions, ReiserFS for /Develop partition.
On the topic of NAS, I use it extensively for easy file sharing across different devices / OSes. I have a desktop computer with 7 OSes in multiboot: Windows, OpenIndiana, FreeBSD, OSX86, Linux, Haiku and Android-x86; MacBook and iMac with macOS, different phones and tablets with iOS and Android. All they can easily share files across them through NAS (I use NAS dedicated device with embedded default software).
16 • NAS (by Kazlu on 2019-02-04 11:13:03 GMT from France)
I set up an owncloud server at home on a Raspberry Pi which sometimes ends up being used just like a NAS. Not great for performance if I want to access files directly, but since I sync my files I have a local copy of them, so in the end the performance when accessing the synced files is better than a "true" NAS :) I added Samba for multimedia files to be accessed by a Kodi client.
17 • NAS - Gnubee PC1 (by RobJ on 2019-02-04 12:07:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
I've got the 2.5" version of the GnuBee via Crowd Supply. Open hardware, and can run different software. Mine has OMV on Debian. Takes six drives, I had a few laptop ones lying around. There's a 3.5" drive version too.
My Pi's running mpd now mount the same music folder on the NAS. It is technically possible though,to run something directly on the GnuBee, though there's a bit of tinkering involved (Mopidy rather than plain mpd, and recompiling an alternative firmware to allow USB audio, though there's a plan to include that in a future firmware).
Not played with RAID yet, or the DLNA plugin, but I'll get around to it.
18 • NAS @ home (by SuperOscar on 2019-02-04 12:35:53 GMT from Finland)
I have a four-drive QNAP NAS. That was the easiest way to get a quiet, energy-efficient file server at home.
Also, even if I *could* install four 3 Tt drives in my desktop computer, then I would have to have that one turned on all the time.
The proprietary software (on top of Linux) is not optimal but it would be too much trouble to replace it with a free one. Maybe later, when the support period is over, although backing up everything before the installation over ethernet line and an NFS connection would surely that at least days if not weeks…
19 • Do you have a NAS for home/personal use? (by lincoln on 2019-02-04 13:16:05 GMT from Brazil)
I do not have a NAS at home for sharing files among multiple devices.
For this task I use two approaches:
1-) For my tv, I use the DLNA protocol, implemented brilliantly by the Rygel command-line tool that lets you easily share audio, video, and images.
2-) For different devices (computers, smartphones, tablets etc.) and operating system, I use Woof command-line tool and the client can access the file or directory using a web browser or command-line web-client such as wget.
20 • NAS at home (by Aaron Murray on 2019-02-04 13:52:06 GMT from United States)
I use openmediavault on multiple boxes.
21 • SystemRescueCD 6 + : Post #2 (by Winchester on 2019-02-04 14:12:31 GMT from United States)
I agree completely with the second post this week.
Gentoo will become much more difficult to install without SystemRescueCD.
In my opinion,there were already quite enough Arch based distributions. SystemD. Maybe not with the rescue tools pre-installed but,still.
Similar to the Slax change,the distribution now becomes less worthwhile by the change of the base.
I am saving the SystemRescueCD 5.3.2 iso on my external hard drive.
22 • Easy multi OS boot with znx and Berryboot (by K.U. on 2019-02-04 14:45:50 GMT from Finland)
znx is certainly an interesting development. It seems to have similar goal with Berryboot in providing an easy creation of multi OS boot system. Berryboot has existed for a while and it is certainly one of my favorite tools. It provides an easy installation of operating systems on an uncounted number of ARM devices provided that there exist ready made OS image for Berryboot. A large number of third party images already exist.
I propose that Distrowatch could review both znx and Berryboot and detail similarities and and diffferences. This would create in depth understanding, and possibly facilitate development of both tools and interbreed ideas.
23 • Remote storage (by Nathan on 2019-02-04 16:05:32 GMT from United States)
I use a private git repo on my home server for text files; it's very nice to have the version control. Big and/or binary files go on my Nextcloud instance hosted on the same machine. Every night a cron job rsyncs the whole deal to a system in my office in another part of town where it's archived (the script I use is here: https://vance.homelinuxserver.org/server/backup-everything-always.html). I may consider a NAS if my storage needs change drastically, but there's no need at the moment.
24 • So long SystemRescueCD (by Steve L on 2019-02-04 17:00:59 GMT from United States)
SystemRescueCD has been a constant in my toolbox for a very, very, long time but this recent move to include the systemd virus and dropping 32 bit support just makes it utterly worthless for it's purported purpose.
I'll hang on to v5.3.2 that I downloaded in early January and start looking for a replacement... one without a built in virus like systemd and one that continues support for my older 32 bit hardware. I don't hold out much hope that there will be a decent replacement, but it is time to start looking.
And systemd IS a virus... it started out innocently enough as an init system replacement, but it has become like a cancer growing out of control, and so much worse as a result. Had it remained ONLY an init system I could at least give it the benefit of the doubt but now it's just a horrible, disfiguring virus and a blight on the Linux landscape. New and shiny is NOT always an improvement, just look at win10 for another example.
25 • Similar thoughts to other people (by Mark B on 2019-02-04 17:54:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
I, too, am disappointed that SystemRescue CD dropped 32-bit support. Older kit is likely to have issues and 32-bit works on both 32 and 64-bit. For me the change was a bad decision.
For my NAS I use OpenMediaVault with a 10GB system disk and a 3TB data disk. It works a treat. FreeNAS's insistence on ZFS might be great in an enterprise setting but it's over the top for home use. XigmaNAS seems to give the option of ZFS or UFS and also has a nice web GUI. I agree that NAS setups can be daunting for the less technically-inclined. I think something like SME server or Turnkey Linux File server might be easier to deal with for new users. The EasyNAS project looks interesting too.
What I would find useful would be a temporary NAS that would auto-mount any USB device plugged into a port and share it via samba irrespective of what filesystem was used. Some years ago there was a Live USB server project that did that AND Trinity Rescue Kit would let you file share all drives with or without a password. Imagine being able to plug in any USB drive you have lying around and get the data off it.
26 • napp-it (by simplicissimus on 2019-02-04 18:53:40 GMT from Germany)
I use napp-it on top of omnios (opensolaris fork). It’s significantly more reliable for me than FreeNAS.
27 • SystemRescue CD (by steel on 2019-02-04 18:58:01 GMT from Germany)
Sorry but No more 32 bit support and d as init, awful change to what was a very good tool.
28 • Filesystems (by Hypoon on 2019-02-04 19:00:06 GMT from United States)
There seems to be some confusion here between the filesystems included in the kernel and the filesystems that CAN be included in the kernel. Please correct me if I'm wrong. There are lots of different filesystems offered by the kernel, but most default kernel configurations only choose the most common ones. These get compiled into the kernel and can be used as the root filesystem, but there are still other filesystems which are kernel-supported but simply deselected. Support for these filesystems could be added to the distribution by anyone who is comfortable reconfiguring the kernel.
I suppose there could be distributions where reconfiguring the kernel is not possible or not practical, and frankly, I wouldn't know if such distributions did exist. I'll openly speculate that these distributions are the minority, at most.
What this would mean is that, with the exception of special filesystems where a distribution has specially patched the kernel to add support for the extra filesystem(s), different Linux distributions can all support the same set of filesystems: the set of filesystems that the kernel supports. There could still be discrepancies comparing old kernels to new kernels, of course, but I hope it's not too much to ask that distributions support recent kernels.
There's another major consideration that has been overlooked here, and it may have nothing to do with the choice of distribution. The bootloader and/or (U)EFI implementation only supports a very small subset of distributions. This is one of the reasons why many installations have a separate "boot" partition. The "boot" partition is whatever filesystem is necessary to make the bootloader or (U)EFI happy, and then the "root" partition is where the actual operating system is stored. Almost every "boot" partition I've seen is either ext2 or fat32, neither of which are popular choices for "root" partitions.
29 • File Systems Etc. (by M.Z. on 2019-02-04 19:33:45 GMT from United States)
I'm really liking the assurance of Btrfs + timshift on my LMDE system on my main desktop. It's certainly the most advanced filesystem I've used & there are so many daily snapshots taking up so little room in root! It's made filesystems fun again.
30 • SystemRescueCD (by Johnatan on 2019-02-04 19:39:43 GMT from Romania)
Another disappointed user here.... I'll have to keep the latest Gentoo-based SRCD, I guess.
31 • Virus (by Friar Tux on 2019-02-04 22:13:08 GMT from Canada)
#29 (MZ) I agree with you 100%. I don't understand this whole issue with Systemd and folks calling it a virus. Most of them probably have never encountered a real virus. Systemd seems to work quite nicely on my HP laptop. And I know a few others that use it with no issues. If you don't like it - don't use it. There are a few distros/programmes/file systems/animals/people I don't like but I don't go around beefing about it. My grandfather, bless his soul, had a saying - "Opinions are like your privates, there for your personal pleasure, not to be flaunted publicly."
32 • NAS options (by mikef90000 on 2019-02-04 23:41:55 GMT from United States)
I separate my NAS and media server. My backup desktop "NAS" is an older motherboard with a mdadm RAID 5 setup and only runs when I need it to do a full data backup.
So far my Raspberry Pi 3 is a good media server - low power and runs 24/7 with USB flash drives as the media storage with minidlna. It also has been a reliable DNS-over-TLS forwarder using unbound (surprisingly easy to configure).
Neither solution is good for a non-technical end user, so I continue to look at OMV, Plex, etc for future use by friends and family.
33 • NAS at Home (by Paul Nodine on 2019-02-05 00:04:37 GMT from United States)
I have a Synology NAS that I have had for about 4 years. Ive had it so long I dont think I could live without it now. I use it for self cloud storage as well as my media files. I can access it from any operating system and they have a Drive app (simulated drive for files) that works on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. I use Plex now for my Roku but there are native video, audio and photo streaming apps, just not as refined as Plex. I would be lost without my NAS now, thats how reliant I am on it since I have multiple Windows and Linux systems as well as Android and a iPhone
34 • systemd (by Kim on 2019-02-05 01:21:16 GMT from Austria)
Funny, first time I have read that someone is calling systemd a virus. Seems that some people don't like it, but it is here to stay nevertheless. Lots of distros are using it nowadays, no one I know has ever had an issue with it. Just the usual bunch of people whining as always whenever good ol' Linux is progressing from its state of the 90's ...
35 • NAS (by chalekorea on 2019-02-05 02:43:52 GMT from Philippines)
I have a NAS online at home. Runs on Amahi. Easy to setup and reliable. It runs on an intel atom itx motherboard 24/7 which allows me and my family access to files (media, documents, project materials, etc) from any of the other four computers (+ the tablets) from anywhere in the house. It is like having your own local 'cloud'. Don't know how i did without it before.
36 • NAS at home (by David D on 2019-02-05 03:03:49 GMT from United States)
Like @33 I have a Synology NAS (DS214) that has been working very well for about 4 years for files from Mac, iOS, Linux, and Win10. Prior to that I used NAS4Free, which met most of my needs but which was noisy, large (in my "case"), and a bit too much trouble to maintain and back up.
The internal Synology cloud feature, Synology Drive, has one major disadvantage: To work on a file, one has to pull it into another location, edit and save in that location, and then returned to it's location within Synology Drive. That process became so inconvenient that I finally moved files needing frequent attention to Dropbox, which is recognized by wp and spreadsheet applications I use.
The Synology box is small, quiet, port rich, and easy to service. In fact, if a drive fails, it can be hot swapped. I dread the day I have to confirm that feature, by the way. ;-)
I'm no expert, just a consumer regarding servers. Much of the jargon is above my level, so I struggle with whatever is out there, Synology included. But I've muddled through, and it's working well for the most part. A lot of available features I simply don't use.
37 • NAS (by Ron on 2019-02-05 03:54:50 GMT from United States)
Did I miss something along the way?
N A S ?
Do I use a NAS, maybe so, let's see:
1) I have a Network
2) I have a hard drive Attached to a Raspberry Pi
3) It stores and serves files
Someone please tell me what's this NAS all about, does it require some kind of anointment to be a real NAS?
38 • @37--WHAT?! No NAS? (by R. Cain on 2019-02-05 14:41:21 GMT from United States)
@37
Unless you have server responsibility and want the highest possible reliable operation of your _server SYSTEM_, then, no, you haven't missed a thing. Just like you haven't missed a thing if you don't have a RAID system for your personal computer (which is often used with NAS). If you don't have responsibility for a *major* server system, then not having NAS is is like not having AIDS...or like the *ordinary* user not knowing and using a powerful database program.
If you have a PERSONAL computer, used as a personal computer and not as a serious 'file server', then no: you haven't missed a thing...except being able to brag about how you "...run a NAS system...".
[Funny how this 'bandwagon' thing works: I've been using PCs since before the IBM 8088 PC, and have NEVER had the need for a NAS system even though a lot of 'with-it' acquaintances have continually kept telling me how 'behind-the times' I am...]
39 • nas (by Tim on 2019-02-05 15:45:26 GMT from United States)
I had an NAS going for a while, and didn't feel like it was worth the trouble for a home network with just a couple of people. I may revisit in a few years because my family has grown and having a simple way to back everything up from more computers might be attractive. The only thing I'd warn @37 is that external hard drives are pretty spotty- I've had some perform far beyond their expected duties and some fail instantly. I would never just have one copy.
I think much more important is off-site backup. I have several big external hard drives, and I make sure that there's another copy of data both in my home but also somewhere else, preferably at least a couple of counties away in case of wildfire, tornado outbreak, etc.
40 • 40 • @37--WHAT?! No NAS? (by Ron on 2019-02-05 15:36:25 GMT from United States)
Thanks R. Cain
Just what I thought. I do have a NAS.
"I've been using PCs since before the IBM 8088 PC, and have NEVER had the need for a NAS system even though a lot of 'with-it' acquaintances have continually kept telling me how 'behind-the times' I am...]"
I started with a little solder-it-yourself computer, a "Z80", or something like that! Then on to a CPM monster with 8 inch floppy drives in a large steel box. Then an IBM clone among hundreds like it. But now - yippee MX-Linux and Raspberry Pi.
41 • 40 • @37--WHAT?! No NAS? (by Ron on 2019-02-05 15:36:25 GMT from United States)
Thanks R. Cain
Just what I thought. I do have a NAS.
"I've been using PCs since before the IBM 8088 PC, and have NEVER had the need for a NAS system even though a lot of 'with-it' acquaintances have continually kept telling me how 'behind-the times' I am...]"
I started with a little solder-it-yourself computer, a "Z80", or something like that! Then on to a CPM monster with 8 inch floppy drives in a large steel box. Then an IBM clone among hundreds like it. But now - yippee MX-Linux and Raspberry Pi.
42 • If you only need Tor Browser then Tails will be an easier choice. (by Unknown OS on 2019-02-05 20:09:48 GMT from Finland)
https://tails.boum.org/
And it's not about which one is prettier.
43 • No NAS (by Roger on 2019-02-05 23:26:28 GMT from Belgium)
I have been thinking about a NAS for some two years but decided against one.
Now I have one TB in the cloud and it's enough for my needs, also I make backups on external SSD and HD.
I don't game, stream movies or music, so that 1 TB covers me in case of fire, theft and so on.
It works so easy from every PC, I had to take it out years ago.
44 • Home NAS (by Neil on 2019-02-05 23:33:47 GMT from United States)
Voted yes on the poll since I've been using a home NAS using OpenMediaVault for a few years now. I've been wanting to try out FreeNAS for a while, but the old machine I use for a NAS is not 64-bit so have stayed with OMV.
45 • Test of two proprietary NAS systems (by Hauke on 2019-02-06 00:19:43 GMT from Fiji)
Like your test of FreeNAS 11.2.
Could you compare the proprietary SYNOLOGY (btrfs) and QNAP (Ext4) expecially ifb it comes to the used file systems? Thank you so much!
46 • NAS OP (by dhoni on 2019-02-06 01:55:57 GMT from Indonesia)
I have NAS at home, im using it for media storage (from couple phone) and to support my 24/7 media server. its been 4 years now and i think i cant live without it..
Im using seagate gateway 2TB for now. I want to make some PC based NAS but that build is not power efficient, maybe next time ill try some SBC that support SATA.
47 • NAS (by purpleblue on 2019-02-06 17:06:45 GMT from Nigeria)
For my NAS needs, I have at various times used OpenSolaris, then OpenIndiana, FreeNAS(before it changed to NAS4Free, but not the current FreeNAS), NAS4Free, and finally now upgraded to XigmaNAS.
Have never had issues with NAS4Free/XigmaNAS, and it works seamlessly. I access it both from Windows and from Linux systems.
I use ZFS and CIFS.
48 • NAS (by Wally on 2019-02-06 18:48:26 GMT from United States)
I use a Synology DS1010+ NAS device, running probably an outdated DSM 5.2. It serves nfs to my one main storage server, and that's it. It uses Synology's N-2 raid implementation where it can tolerate 2 disk failures (in the 5-disk array). Along with my personal contents, I mirror fedora, centos, and epel yum repositories for my home network (served from the heavy-compute storage server, so apache uses the nfs).
My next computer purchase is probably going to be either the NAS expansion doohickey (Synology DX510 or DX513) or a new Synology device or else a white box for CentOS with nfs and dm-raid. I don't really care about ZFS (which shows I haven't ever used it for real; I touched a system with it once at a customer site) or slick web interfaces. Although now with my non-systemd inclinations, maybe I'll try devuan...
49 • Home NAS -- Yes I have serval nas boxes (by Painkiller895 on 2019-02-06 20:17:26 GMT from United States)
1. FreeNas
2. Open media Vault
3. TurnKey File Server
4. Synology DS918+
These I use for storage for different files.
I also use these to stream media though out my home...
works great !
50 • offsite backups (by Gary W on 2019-02-07 00:39:43 GMT from Australia)
@39 I've been saying for a long, long time that the best backup device is a bigger computer, preferably someone else's. Now called "the cloud"...
51 • Nas (by Closetgeek on 2019-02-07 14:15:16 GMT from Canada)
Been running an Open Media Vault server for years.
52 • Tried FreeNAS for a while: clumsy and slow. (by Miron on 2019-02-07 15:10:29 GMT from France)
First there's figuring out setup, forces ZFS so can't just attach existing drives, then ZFS appears very slow making new files, so with my lots of small ones, took a whole day to fill 250G.
53 • How much content do you have that need NAS? (by hypnotoad on 2019-02-07 18:41:57 GMT from Slovakia)
And how often do you access it?
Also, I notice that several seem to have several computers running at once. Nice way to go green, guys.
54 • @53 (by Justin on 2019-02-07 19:27:58 GMT from United States)
I agree with @53. I can appreciate wanting to keep data from being lost, but some setups sound like overkill. I guess to each his own if you like tinkering and such, but for most people, please KISS.
55 • @52 FreeNAS clumsy and slow (by Rev_Don on 2019-02-07 19:28:39 GMT from United States)
"ZFS appears very slow making new files, so with my lots of small ones, took a whole day to fill 250G."
I've never ran into that even with small files (like text files). FreeNAS with ZFS has always transferred or created files at nearly maximum speed for the interface. The times I've ever seen slow performance was moving files from old USB 2.0 drives. Otherwise it's within 10% of any other file system.
56 • off site (by Tim on 2019-02-08 14:04:10 GMT from United States)
@50
Nothing against the cloud, but I think an off site giant harddrive has a couple of advantages:
1.) It's cheaper. A hundred bucks for 4TB, indefinately
2.) If something happens to you, you can tell your next of kin about its location and then they have it. Sometimes if it's in the cloud it's just lost.
3.) Things do disappear from the cloud. Since it isn't your computer, you can't guard against mistakes people make.
4.) It's faster. Copying over a network for most connections takes a while
For myself, I use both.
57 • NAS for homeuser (by Svajunas on 2019-02-08 14:44:22 GMT from Lithuania)
Using OMV + docker transmission openvpn for some kind of "anonymous" torrenting. System on low budget Amd Am1 itx mobo and etc. Watching movies by network on TV w Android, keeping backups, running VMs. For me "OMV + plugin features" was most good solution after nas4free, freenas, turnkeylinux, xpnology (this was very nice looking and interesting).
58 • NAS (by Von on 2019-02-08 15:06:50 GMT from United States)
I have set up my own personal "router" with an attached NAS using Gentoo.
Makes life alot more simpler.
59 • @31 "If you don't like it - don't use it" (by curious on 2019-02-08 16:53:27 GMT from Germany)
Thats just what the other commenters are saying: *they won't use it*. Therefore, SystemrescueCD has lost them as users.
However, the insinuation that people should not complain is wrong:
Choice *is* being removed. One of the (previously) best and most useful rescue tools now uses a controversial piece of software that some people would like to avoid. And since I don't see replacements appearing like magic, this avoiding of systemD is becoming more and more difficult - unless you have the abilities to make your own distro and remove this dependency hog. I certainly don't have such abilities, and I assume that most other people don't either.
If people don't complain about this, their voices will most certainly not be heard.
60 • nothing is being removed (by Tim on 2019-02-08 19:36:00 GMT from United States)
@59
The problem with this argument is that nothing is being removed. People who don't want systemd are free to use any prior version of SystemRescueCD, which are still freely available.
61 • SystemRescueCD Disappointments (by cpoakes on 2019-02-08 23:06:24 GMT from United States)
I will miss the 32-bit support for legacy systems. And no one has mentioned that the 6.0 ISO image is larger than a CD - call this SystemRescueDVD or SystemRescueUSB. Again only a problem for legacy systems that can't boot DVD/USB. I will stick to the Gentoo version at least until I don't have legacy systems left.
Perhaps time to revisit the Parted Magic project (which last I knew also had no systemd if you're not a fan).
62 • A simple observation on NAS usage reporting. (by R. Cain on 2019-02-09 04:55:41 GMT from United States)
If one uses DistroWatch’s ‘Search Distributions’ function, and chooses the most liberal search criteria, one gets the following returns when one searches DW for a NAS Distribution:
FreeNAS, XigmaNAS, OpenMediaVault, EasyNAS, and Rockstor.
The combined TOTAL of Reader Supplied Ratings for these five are twenty-nine (29).
As of 2317 (EST) on 8 February, 2019, 633 readers had responded that they use a (some) NAS distribution at home. Even assuming that (a) a large percentage of people who use a NAS distro don’t respond to a DW poll, and (b) a large percentage of people who use these five DW ‘search returns’ don’t take the time to “vote” for their choice by responding to the “Reader Ratings”, this LOCAL result--633 readers who say they use a NAS distribution versus a grand TOTAL of TWENTY-NINE Reader Supplied Ratings for ALL FIVE NAS distributions--simply doesn’t make a lot of sense.
63 • NAS (by mmphosis on 2019-02-09 07:35:44 GMT from Canada)
I run SMB on a raspberry pi (Raspbian).
NAS, Network Attached Storage, or "File Sharing" the easy way:
I have old PowerPC Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 (darwin8) and 10.5 (darwin9), and it is way easy to turn on and off Fire Sharing with a checkbox. It has options, yes there is an "Options..." button, that allows file sharing using AFP, FTP and SMB. To save power, I have this Mac turn itself on and off on a schedule. I do NOT recommend using a PowerPC Mac as a NAS, but I do.
File Sharing the hard way:
Also, on the PowerPC Mac, I've figured out how to turn on (and off) NFS and TFTP. It requires a whole heap on incantations from the command line. I use this to network boot PowerPC Macs. I would like to set up the PowerPC network boot on Linux.
The cool thing is that Thunar can see ALL of these shares and connect to AFP, NFS, SMB, and probably some or maybe many more other types. Thank you Linux and all your useful programs.
BTW that was an awesome article about FreeNAS.
64 • FreeNas (by DevonLinux on 2019-02-09 16:57:45 GMT from Canada)
Pro; there is nothing more rock solid than BSD and FreeNAS.
Con; I used FreeNAS back when it was version 7. I had separate data and boot disks and the boot disk failed. Shortly before the failure version 8 was released so that is what I installed on the new boot drive. I was disappointed to find it could not read the old version 7 data. Also no NFS shares with Linux and I never did find out how to do updates other than to install a new version.
My production NAS has been Debian since version 7.
65 • NAS at home (by DaveT on 2019-02-09 18:56:17 GMT from United Kingdom)
NAS4Free version 9.x because it runs on 32bit hardware.
I have a nice little 32bit box with 1GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD for data and a 4GB SSD for the operating system.
It holds only audio data mainly in FLAC format for use with my Sonos hifi system.
It has been working happily for many years but I can't upgrade the OS because FreeBSD abandoned 32-bit at version 10.
No need for RAID - my backup is the CDs and vinyl that I have in my loft. If anything terrible happens to the NAS I get to rip them again! It'll be fun...
For the future? I suppose I will roll my own using NetBSD.
66 • NAS (by mw on 2019-02-09 20:23:51 GMT from Canada)
I use a Seagate GoFlex Home which has a proprietary linux-like os called FreeAgent. I has worked fairly well for the last 8 years. It is slow, but will serve audio and video. It doen't always wake when prompted but eventually come to life. I don't use it as a timed backup because it drops uploads if they continue for a protracted period.
I may try an Arch linux version that is available at some point.
67 • NAS (by Jim on 2019-02-09 22:30:24 GMT from Sweden)
My primary NAS runs Nas4Free (renamed XigmaNAS recently) on a quad-core AMD Phenom-II processor with 16 GB RAM and an Areca RAID controller card. It currently has 10 4TB drives in RAID-6. It presently has been running 24/7/365 for nearly 5 years with no trouble (except when I was fiddling with it and broke something).
I have Nextcloud running on that NAS, and an assortment of connections (iscsi and nfs) to my workstation (I do development, mostly on FreeBSD these days).
My "go to hell" backup NAS runs on an Asrock J3455-ITX. It also is Nas4Free, and runs two 6 TB drives in a ZFS mirror. This provides adequate capacity to hold all my critical stuff, though I don't download things like music files or movies to it. It is remotely located, and my main NAS (and workstation) back up to it periodically. This is my protection against a fire, an H-bomb, or a meteor strike. It does not have much horsepower, and its performance is not what I would call good, but it is adequate for what it does, which is strictly to be remotely located and hold encrypted backups of my critical stuff.
68 • @60 Tim: (by dragonmouth on 2019-02-09 23:58:23 GMT from United States)
"The problem with this argument is that nothing is being removed."
That's like saying that nothing was removed when Slax went from being based on Slackware to being based on Debian Stable. While Slackware abd Debian are both great distros, there are features and apps in Slackware that do not exist in Debian. People who wish to use the old version of Slax and SystemRescueCD may still use them. However, there will come a time when they will have to update and that is when "nothing was removed" will become "a lot was removed".
To all:
Before the usual suspects come out with their tired, old argument that "we must move on to newer and better things" let's not forget Canonical's progressive and aggressive move to "newer and better" Unity Desktop. And then, all of a sudden, going back to the archaic and supposedly inferior GNOME. Sometimes "newer" is not "better". Sometimes it is just a "newer fad".
Number of Comments: 68
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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