Hello everyone,
There appear to be 3 specific issues that seem to be exciting people, so I’ll try to present our views regarding default gateway, user management and RAID as they pertain to NASLite.
NASLite-2 will include a default gateway option.
NASLite-2 may include support for “HARDWARE” RAID.
NASLite-2 will not include user management support.
Following is an explanation:
NASLite is not an “installed” operating system like Windows, or conventional Linux. It’s more like a Live-CD, where it automatically discovers the available resources at boot time. That makes NASLite portable, so one can boot it anywhere and share any NASLite disk at any time via any one of the available export protocols. One can add and remove disks at will. Think of a NASLite disk as large removable media one can take and share via other NASLite servers without hassle.
Alternately, let’s assume that a particular server has 3 disks in RAID-5 with a number of unique users that normally connect to that server and therefore have dedicated user accounts on it. Since the disks are a fixed part (RAID) of that server and the files contained on those disks hold permissions specific to those users, portability is no longer an option. In addition to a mandatory, hardware-specific install and configuration, the tools necessary to administer users, software RAID and alike will knock the “Lite” right out of NASLite.
We at Server Elements recognize the need for a fully capable server OS with software RAID support and user management facilities. We are working towards providing a solution of that level, but that is a totally different product, intended for a totally different target user.
There are some compromises that will be addressed by NASLite-2 such as RW, RO and DISABLE options for pertinent services as well as some other items that will provide some access control without compromising portability. Also, there is a good possibility that NASLite-2 will support hardware RAID controllers for the folks that find the need and are willing to expend the finances for the necessary hardware. Hardware RAID is usually fully managed by the RAID card BIOS and does not require any utility support from the NASLite OS. For folks whose concern is data redundancy rather than fault-tolerance, NASLite-2 will also export it’s drives via rsync, making remote mirroring and backups possible.
I hope that this clarifies our position on RAID and user management and justifies our current approach with NASLite-2.