Re: Network Storage Help

In article <492b3ca1-9b25-4255-a8b6-082e35b8dd1f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
scotv453 <scotv453@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Now for the question(s)? Should I go with a SAN or a NAS? Keep in mind

NAS.

The advantages of a SAN relate to pure performance and its ability
to share storage as block devices. That means that the SAN looks like any
other disc drive to the host so to, say, make a network share you'd need to
attach the SAN device to a Windows file server then share the file system
you create. But SANs are complicated to set up and administer, and still
more expensive than simple network filesystems.

Running a network filesystem over gigabit links will certainly provide
adequate performance, and you can most probably find a NAS device that
interacts with Unix as well as Windows. I don't see anything in your list
that requires the kind of speed or flexibility a SAN provides and so can't
see any reason to recommend one over an probably cheaper and certainly easier
to manage NAS.

If you're comfortable with Linux and want to save money there's
no reason not to buy a reasonable SCSI (or even SATA!) disc array (make
sure to plan for adequate expansion both in volume and throughput) and
use a Linux server as the NAS device. The redundancy will be built into
the array - if the Linux server dies completely it's easy enough to swap
in something temporary - and if you DO decide to experiment with SAN storage
Linux supports iSCSI just fine. And yes, you will need some kind of backup
device.

.

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