NASLite Network Attached Storage

NASLite-2 v2.6 is scheduled for release sometime this fall.

v2.6 will update it's OS subsystem to use Server Elements Core3 OS to take advantage of the latest Linux kernels as well as expanded hardware support.


We will periodically be posting information on this release as work continues, below are links to the preliminary Network/Storage hardware support.
The new hardware support guide format should be easier for the end user to understand with vendor and model information included.

Questions and Comments are welcome.



http://www.serverelements.com/NL26/CORE3-Storage.pdf

http://www.serverelements.com/NL26/CORE3-Network.pdf

Looking forward to this and presumably M2 v1.6.

Maybe it is too early to ask but as you have the hardware list already out... What about software RAID? Will it be supported ?

Regards.

We've updated the hardware reference guides again.



Yes.

At the conception of NASLite we felt software raid under linux via raidtools/raidtab was not realizable in our environment for a number of reasons and it was not included.
With the maturity and robustness of MDAdm we feel NASLite can benefit from software raid and still provide the same level of ease and stability everyone has enjoyed.
Current plans do not have it being included in the initial launch of v2.6, so we can evaluate the Core3 environment, however this may change if we feel there is no significant issues with the new core.

NASLite-2 v2.6 will include a hardware detection/mem test tool available at boot.

The hardware detection tool will give you complete details about the hardware in the machine, this will aid in irq conflicts, unsupported hardware, memory size/speed/slot configurations, system bios versions, pretty much the whole ball of wax.


Video demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPVy76KXg3Y


Questions and Comments are welcome.

Hi,
what I would really like to see in the new release is a user management, where access to directories is permission based.

The only problem with that is that different export systems handle the file share permissions differently, this rapidly becomes a total nightmare. I think that you would be better served if you started to look at setting up a real server that was purpose built for the task in the case of a need for user access control.

Mike

Granted: Nightmare - no thank you. I like the simplicity of NASLite.

As a professional photographer, I have all my images residing on the NAS Boxes. But I would also like to make the great performance of the file servers available to other family members. At the same time, for obvious reasons, I am unwilling to compromise the safety of my own data. That's why I'd really like to see share permissions sooner than later.

I guess allowing share permission features based on the export system in use would not really work, right? (For example, I only use the SMB/ CIFS services)

Right now, I am using the NSLU2 from Linksys and another NAS harddrive for personal files as a workaround, but they are slow. But somehow they, also being Linux based, can handle permissions - as can most other readily available consumer NAS on the market today.

1. Fast, stable and reliable with a limited set of those features only necessary to the task.

2. A bloated, slow and semi-stable server loaded with features seldom used, but by a limited few, with complicated access controls and configurations.

Personally I like number one. Again, in your case, you might be better off to bite the bullet and roll your own with the features you feel are needed. If Tony and Ralph added personal access controls and the like I would not be upgrading.

Mike

I like the first part of option 1 also better.
But I would think it's debatable what "is necessary to the task".

Tasks and Requirements naturally differ from user to user.

And since there are a gamut of differing versions of NASLite already offered anyways, why not offer one that does allow for user management/ share permissions.

Seeing what Tony and Ralph have been offering thus far, I have full confidence that they'd be releasing a superior OS again, even if it had additional features (that can be switched off, if not needed).

All of the various versions are based on a core OS build that they have tuned to needs and constraints. For all intents and purposes these are the same. The differences are in the scripts and modules that are packaged in the build. Here again I would suspect that there is allot of common code involved. Having "rolled" my own in the past I can tell you that as soon as you enable all the user and group access policy options that the configuration starts to get out of hand in a hurry. Add to this the security patches that must be heaped on top to try and maintain access control. The added interaction of the new daemons with those in the present distro and unforeseen compatibility issues that are sure to arise. And on and on and on.....

A to am sure that they could do this and the resultant product would be one of the best on offer. But I also know that they are only a company of two and that they would not have the manpower needed to address the added user problems that would come with such an offering.

Again my advice is that you roll your own if you feel that this is a must have feature set for you. There are plenty of tutorials, the OS is free for DL from an almost endless number of sites around the world as is SAMBA.

Mike

Well, I am not a programmer, but I can start to see from your hints, that this does seem to be an easy feat.
I am curious to see where serverelements sees things going. Maybe a sort of a roadmap might be helpful here.

It's not to hard from the DIY stand point. You become your own tech support and have to figure it all out if there is a problem. Considering the general customer of their products and baring those like me that can and have dabbled in this stuff. They are likely not to offer anything more than incremental improvements and added hardware support in the general products.



Agreed, Tony or Ralph, comment?

I think it may be safe to say NASLite-2 v2.6 will be ready for testing very soon. The installer is complete and so is the migration of the existing NASLite-2 resource management code. If you've been following the development of v2.6, I'm sure you already know that the official name of the OS core is CORE3. Our intent is to use CORE3 as the bases of a number of products in addition to NASLite-2.

For the curious, CORE3 is based on the latest Linux kernel. The kernel itself is mostly stock with minor tweaks to suit our purpose. The system root however is a different story. The boot sequence, module loading, core resource management and alike are all developed from the bottom-up to best suit the purpose. Compared to the 1.9M monolithic kernel used by NASlite currently, CORE3 uses 1.5M modular kernel and 5.5M of drivers. Hardware support is vastly improved and performance has been outstanding.

Ralph was brave enough to install NASLite-2 v2.6 on his production NAS about 3 weeks ago and has yet to report any problems. I'm pretty confident that beta testing would be uneventful and with minimum of issues.

As always, Ralph and I would like to thank you all for your patience and support.

I was wondering if it would be possible to get a beta copy of v2.6 for testing. I'm having a problem with a raid controller (see my post in this forum about NASLite-2 not seeing a raid volume). My fault for not researching hardware compatibility beforehand. Being new to Linux-based software, I thought it would be possible to just install drivers as needed, like in Windows. Oh well, live and learn.

Regards, ljames.