Small office LAN, 4 Drive, Hot-Swap, Media

[Tiberious]

Hey all,

I was all set to go with the WD Smartstore but read enough negative to avoid it, thanks!

I am looking for a good solid NAS, easy to use for after I leave, for our church office. There will be about 6-8 users on this peer-to-peer network, my hope is to provide 3-4 drives with Raid 5, preferably hot-swap to avoid them destroying it if I'm not there. Some decent, but easy to use auto-backup client since they don't back up anything.

I'm just filling in as I'm between jobs but want to get them something affordable and reliable. The pastor wants it under $500 with at least 2 drives/500gb initially.

Thanks for any advice!

Tib

 

[thiggins]

Why not consider a Windows Home Server system like the HP EX series or LX195? Comes with bundled backup client. Handles up to 10 users.

 

[Tiberious]

I agree in general

Thanks Tim,

But both these solutions require someone who is at least a little smart on server maintenance (antivirus, etc) and neither support hot-swap from what I could tell.

Also, the Pastor wants this to be a pretty darn small, quiet box out of the way with little (read: no) maintenance required.

Any further thoughts? I'm in no way against the servers but I don't think they'll fit his requirements. I'd love one at home though!

Jim

 

[Osamede]

if they are not technically proficient shouldnt they simply be instructed to NOT touch the hard drives, under any circumstances? I mean anybody who dont know much about cars is perfectly capable of understanding that if the car stops they must call a mechanic instead of opening the hood and start randomly pulling wires.

The same should be applicable here. And if they cant understand that much it isnt a technology problem, its a behavior one.

So is hotswap really a must here.

 

[Tiberious]

I don't see hotswap as a must so much as something I can trust them to do when I'm not around. A good failure indicator alarm and a simple drive swap keeps things from getting broken 'til I can get in and deal with it.

For now I'm going with Tim's suggestion but long term I really want a dedicated NAS solution.

Thanks!

Jim

 

[Tiberious]

Thecus N4100 Pro - Wow what a nice device

This may be my answer (though it'll cost more than my $500 limit once I put drives in it.) seems to have it all.