Hi -- first time poster here...thinking about using NASLite-2 USB for a home NAS setup. Been doing a lot of on-line research, and I'd really value your feedback/advice on whether the following makes sense.
A. Problem Statement/Design Objectives:1. For home use, where 2 adlt/2 teens have ~5 PC's (desktops/laptops, mostly running XP, soon Vista) for all sorts of uses -- school projects, photography, light video editing, media streaming, LP-> mp3 recording, etc...all pretty standard stuff. I want to centralize storage on a single server to simplify access to files, and to facilitate backup and disaster tolerance.
2. Current storage needs once I consolidate our current data storage onto the NAS device probably about 150GB today. I want to design the system for growth 2x/year over 5 years, so roughly 5TB.
3. Without being ridiculously paranoid, I want to be able to handle recovery from hardware failures fairly quickly, be able to handle disasters (house fire, and we live in California, so forest fire, earthquake, and flood not uncommon). So I want to be able to easily and regularly move a complete archive copy of critical hard-to-replace data to off-site storage. I also want to be able to encrypt data easily -- either entire NAS, or select disk volumes, in case the NAS is stolen, or in case a backup copy is stolen.
4. Other -- I want to build a high value system, do not mind spending a little extra, but I want to be efficient about it. Definitely want to keep costs including initial disks, under $1,000...prefer $500. I build my own PC's, so willing to take on some challenges. I also view this as an opportunity to learn more about Linux, RAID, networking, media streaming, etc.
B. My draft plan is as follows:1) Build a system using the following: a) Mid Tower case, b) ~350-500W 80%+ Efficient Power Supply, c) Socket LGA 775 motherboard w/1Gb/s NIC and on-board video & SW RAID 0/1/0+1/5), such as
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127037 d) Low End Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, f) 2x1GB DDR2 memory, e) 4-in-3 3Gb/s S-ATA hot swappable enclosure like this one (
ttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332010).
2) Install NASLite 2 as current first choice(or possibly FreeNAS, Ubuntu Linux, etc.).
3) Initially install 2 500GB disks, in a RAID 1 (Mirror) configuration. The mirrored copy would serve as a local backup, and monthly, I would pull the mirrored copy out, replace with a new disc, and take the backup copy off site (to relative's house, safe deposit box, or work desk). I am hoping the hot swap capability means that I can simply pull a drive, and pop the new one in before going to sleep, and have the mirror rebuild itself over night.
4) Set up disk encryption, using a package like TrueCrypt:
http://www.truecrypt.org/5) Eventually, I would add another pair of 500GB disks to accomodate growth in the 4 slot enclosure, and then I would migrate to 1TB or 2TB disks. I would use RAID 5, but concerned that this does not give me a disaster tolerant solution.
C. My List of Questions For You1. Does my overall system architecture and approach to scaling, encryption, and disaster tolerance make fundamental sense?
2. Will my encryption approach work?
3. Will I be able to hot swap disks in and out, having the new one re-synch, while having the removed one available as an offsite copy? Does anyone have a better disaster tolerant solution that has a better balance of cost, convenience, and reliability?
4. Will I be able to mount the NAS disk volume(s) easily on XP, Vista, and int he future, possibly Linux, or Apple clients?
5. Will I be able to easily feed a Media PC/cleint from this NAS setup?
6. Should I consider hardware RAID for RAID 1, instead of the on board SW solution?
7. What is the protocol used by NASLite and XP/Vista to mount the NAS volume(s) on my client PCs?
8. Does NASLite seem like the right product for this job, or should I consider FreeNAS or building directly on top of a Linux distro like Ubuntu?
9. What am I missing? What would you change? Anything not make sense?
Really trying to do this right, and would appreciate any and all input!