NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hi.

In the Installation And Administration Guide for NanoNAS, page 3, left column, about two-thirds the way down, it mentions that:



I will be using up to eight(8) 500GB drives(4 on on-board, 4 more on PCI-IDE card).

How much memory should I have?

System is Celeron 850MHz with 256MB of RAM installed - that should be enough even with all the 500GB drives, correct?

I don't know if nanoNAS supports add on cards, you may need to buy NL2.0x to get support for add on or RAID cards.

As far as memory, the more the better. 256MB will work but get more on it if you can.

Mike

Thanks.


Technically speaking, why should large amounts of RAM be needed, just because you have several large disks? The OS itself runs in a RAMdisk, and usually a NAS only streams the data over the network, so large RAM requirements should not really be needed I would have thought - we're not running Windoze here!!!


According to the manual, page 2:



...and on page 3:



I took this to mean that as well as the on-board IDE, NanoNAS also can use supported IDE controller cards which plug into the PCI bus.

I stand corrected on the interface.

As far as the RAM, it has to do with the overall performance due to increased buffers available. The more buffers the faster it seems to be able to transfer both in reads and writes.

Mike

Okey dokey - thanks(again!)


I will see if I can get a bit more RAM in there just for good luck.

Nanonas is ide only but you can have ide cards in the server. I have a box with 8 drives in it but am out of irqs for 12.

Another reason to have more memory happens during infrequent situations where user wants to run a file-system-check (e2fsck), or one is triggered by an unclean dismount (power outage, for example). During the reboot when NL checks the disk, depending on the number of files, it has happened that the file check hangs. (A frustrating experience, because on a very large disk filled with many small files you expect to wait a few hours anyway ... only to (eventually) find out it's hung up.)
My opinion: 256MB will work well for normal operations, except maybe during file check; 512MB should work better in general -- but with file check highly dependent on number of files (inodes), and memory being cheap theses days (relatively, unless you're trying to find older SDRAM), I would go for 768MB or even 1GB. (Obviously this is a cost trade-off ... you decide.)

My build is on an older P3 850MHz with SDRAM, so not really practical or cheap to run more then 512 max.

Is there anyway to turn off the file-system-check?

I'm using 500GB drives(will eventually have 8 of them), and even a "Normal" two hour(or so) check is way too long to wait to have the files back online.

I would rather take the risk, and have the files back immediately - long disk-checks are just a pain in the posterior.

The system(once ready to go into service) will run on a small UPS, so if there is a power cut, at least I can shut it down safely - provided I am here and not at work!

Yeah ... the SDRAM can get quite expensive. 512MB should be ok. And because the UPS will minimize file checks you are even less likely to run into trouble.

There's documentation elsewhere on this forum regarding minimizing (or turning off) the file checks -- I am not an expert in that -- but look for "tune2fs". I don't think it is wise to turn it off completely, especially if your data is important to you. NASLite is a fantastic product, and with a UPS you should not have troubles. But there's always the unexpected h/w issues that could cause an unclean file system (which will FORCE a file check on the unclean disk(s) on reboot). With 8 drives planned, you might also want to plan on once every 3 or 6 months to do a complete pre-emptive file check ... again, look for "tune2fs" ... here's two links I found on these forums just after a cursory search:

http://www.serverelements.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2083&hilit=tune2fs
http://www.serverelements.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=450&hilit=tune2fs

Hope this helps.

Cool - thanks for the links. Reading them now...

Would applying a journal(converting the NanoNAS ext2 filesystem to ext3) help this issue?

A few comments on the above:

A journal, once applied, will provide filesystem integrity redundancy and result in shorter filesystem check times. It will also provide a better chance of recovery in cases where the filesystem is compromised. Consulting Google will result in plenty of info on the topic.

Since you plan on using the NAS on UPS, I assume you intend to run it full time rather than on/off daily as some folks tend to do. If that is the case, then modifying filesystem parameters is not necessary (or recommended) since automated filesystem checks occur only at boot.

Since you are using NanoNAS, 256M or RAM may prove to be sufficient in the event of a filesystem check. The NanoNAS footprint is significantly lighter than NASlite.

Hope the above helps finalize your strategy.

Cool - thanks for that.
Yes, once up and running, on 24/7 via UPS, so unless there is a power-cut for more then about 30 minutes(our juice is pretty reliable most of the time!), the UPS should be able to look after the server's power requirements.

At your suggestion Tony, I WILL NOT apply the journal to the standard filesystem, due primarily to the fact that it is to be a 24/7 server and has a UPS, so me thinks(assuming I am understanding you right), that the journal is not needed in my case...

My comment was pertaining to changing the default parameters such as the scheduled filesystem check interval. The journal is generally a good idea and adds some piece of mind. In terms of performance, only very slow machines will see any measurable difference if any between ext2 and ext3, so I'd recommend applying it to all of your drives.