Small Business NAS - Issues to Consider?

[NhBre]

Hello all,

First-time poster here. I'm the new sole IT person for a small business, looking to replace our toasted Linux file server. I'm hoping to get some help understanding the tradeoffs involved in NAS vs. file servers and how to evaluate potential NASes.

We really only need to have a shared drive with quick file transfer, for 10+ people, which sounds like a good fit for NAS instead of a whole server. Is an NAS device a good solution, or are there gotchas that would mean a full tower server is a better idea? Are there any general performance or feature comparisons of NAS vs. tower servers?

My priorities are, in order:
1) Reliable & quick firmware and hardware
2) Easy setup of a shared folder so the office can keep our current workflows
3) Straightforward interface in case I can't come in (this is one of my reasons for looking at NAS vs. another Linux server)
4) Good tech support

It seems like QNAP can have better hardware for the price, but firmware isn't always the best, and Synology has good tech support and devices at a higher cost?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

ETA: I'm hearing that either a NAS box or a tower server might work. I'm trying to identify what the decisive factors are. When would you use a NAS box over a tower server and vice versa?

 

[stevech]

Hello all,

First-time poster here. I'm the new sole IT person for a small business, looking to replace our toasted Linux file server. I'm hoping to get some help understanding the tradeoffs involved in NAS vs. file servers and how to evaluate potential NASes.

We really only need to have a shared drive with quick file transfer, for 10+ people, which sounds like a good fit for NAS instead of a whole server. Is an NAS device a good solution, or are there gotchas that would mean a full tower server is a better idea? Are there any general performance or feature comparisons of NAS vs. tower servers?

My priorities are, in order:
1) Reliable & quick firmware and hardware
2) Easy setup of a shared folder so the office can keep our current workflows
3) Straightforward interface in case I can't come in (this is one of my reasons for looking at NAS vs. another Linux server)
4) Good tech support

It seems like QNAP can have better hardware for the price, but firmware isn't always the best, and Synology has good tech support and devices at a higher cost?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

#1 priority: Security
#2 priority: Security
#3 Automated backup per the 3-2-1 strategy. Don't skimp.
#4 Know why RAID is not a backup.
#5 Know that the mostly likely data loss is from human error and backups fix that.

Synology and QNAP are your viable choices.

 

[thiggins]

NETGEAR is also a decent choice. If your storage requirements allow, use a two-drive NAS in RAID 1. Easier recovery when a drive fails.

Be sure you have automated backup. NETGEAR has an unlimited snapshot capability that could come in handy.

 

[NhBre]

#1 priority: Security
#2 priority: Security
#3 Automated backup per the 3-2-1 strategy. Don't skimp.
#4 Know why RAID is not a backup.
#5 Know that the mostly likely data loss is from human error and backups fix that.

Synology and QNAP are your viable choices.

Thanks for your response. Do you have any information about NAS performance vs. a tower server? Our old file server had an i7 processor and 4 GB of memory, and all of the NAS boxes I'm seeing have worse specs. Will that impact performance noticeably for the end users when opening and working with files?

 

[NhBre]

NETGEAR is also a decent choice. If your storage requirements allow, use a two-drive NAS in RAID 1. Easier recovery when a drive fails.

Be sure you have automated backup. NETGEAR has an unlimited snapshot capability that could come in handy.

Thanks for your response. I was already planning on RAID 1 across 2 drives - the recovery does seem much easier with RAID 1 than other RAID configurations.

Unlimited snapshots sound nice. Are there any other brands that do this also?

Also, do you have any information about NAS performance vs. a tower server? Our old file server had an i7 processor and 4 GB of memory, and all of the NAS boxes I'm seeing have worse specs. Will that impact performance noticeably for the end users when opening and working with files?

 

[thiggins]

Unlimited snapshots are not a common feature. NETGEAR has it due to its use of BTRFS. But BTRFS requires lots of RAM to run fast.

NASes are Linux servers with a user-friendly management interface. You can get quad-core Xeon models and rackmounts if you like. Add 10GbE interface too.
http://www.qnap.com/useng/index.php?lang=en-us&sn=862&c=355

 

[mervincm]

NAS over server for small IT shops it a natural IMO.

Yes you can do MORE and FASTER for X dollars on a generic tower server IF your time is worth nothing. These vendors simplify the use of the most common features, and streamline ongoing maintenance, that's the value they offer for the extra cost. If your IT time is worth say 50$ an hour to the company, its really easy to justify the investment in a NAS over a roll your own.

Netgear BTRFS snap shots are really cool, I have a diskless Netgear 104. performance is great for the money, it's 1/2 to 1/3 of what a fast synology or qnap 4 bay unit costs! Of course the performance is about 1/2 as well but sometimes that doesn't matter.

On the other hand, for a business, you also may want to have encryption or the ability to host a virtual machine. In that case one of the newer QNAP x51 or x53 would be a great choice.

for 10 users I don't think you are looking at 10GBE, but if you are Netgear has some great high performance units as well.

Whatever you buy, make sure to add something for a backup target. It can be a lesser unit, and you don't need raid necessarily in your backup target. It's often easier if you get the same brand for your backup target. Make sure one of your backups is normally offline!