Small business storage solution

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nelis

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Hi there.

I'm looking for a storage solution for a small business. We store about 6TB of data and it will grow. So i've been looking at nas solutions but I dislike it as it's very limited and costly. I'm looking for a DIY solution. We need fault tolerance almost like raid. I've been looking at Microsoft storage spaces as that can scale well and able to install usb devices and scale it that way.

I need to be able to connect any drive to any windows system and be able to get data of it with no hassle. Just connect and copy data so please suggest me a solution. I need it as cheap as possible.

OK so an update. I already have the pc that I can use. got space for about 8 drives. Only think I need is the software now. I'm really leaning towards storage space but is their any other solution. it doesn't have to be free.


Thanks
 
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I know you said you dislike the NAS solutions, but I would still rather recommend a Synology or similar solution. The Synologies are priced really well, you can add package software if you want and they come in different sizes as needed.
 
bin3 said:
I know you said you dislike the NAS solutions, but I would still rather recommend a Synology or similar solution. The Synologies are priced really well, you can add package software if you want and they come in different sizes as needed.
Click to expand...

+1 - with RAID disk configuration
 
nelis said:
Ok cool unraid looks nice. has anyone tried it yet and how is it working for you
Click to expand...

I run it at work with 3 1tb drives on a HP microserver at work, it seems a bit slow first thing in the morning but that is the drives spinning up. Also it is only a 100mb network, upgraded the drives 18 months ago and that took a few days as you do parity first then the other drives 1 at a time. Ease of use is great
 
Ianf1 said:
I run it at work with 3 1tb drives on a HP microserver at work, it seems a bit slow first thing in the morning but that is the drives spinning up. Also it is only a 100mb network, upgraded the drives 18 months ago and that took a few days as you do parity first then the other drives 1 at a time. Ease of use is great
Click to expand...

cool. I have 3x2tb and 2x 4tb drives here a work but will test it at first. I see the pro version is only $149. That's cheap. Anyway. Now all i need is a case that comes with hot swap bays.


I've been looking at snapraid but the setup doesn't look as great as unraid. I like the fact that it runs on it's own version of linux or some sort so less time configuring.


this is the specs of the pc I'm going to use.

i7-2600k
8GB ram (2x4GB) can upgrade if I must
msi p67a-gd65
 
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The specs look fine, just do your tests as our network only has 2 users and is fine for us.
 
Yes will test. Actually we also only have 2-3 users mostly. I think it's a bit overkill but yeah we not using that PC. if I do this i will use something like WD green drives.

We have 1gb LAN so should be fine.

Anyone that can suggest a case with lot's of HDD bays or hot swap bays.
 
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nelis said:
So today I'm trying unraid. Any tips for me to get the ball rolling?
Click to expand...

The setup was done years ago, just read the installation instructions slowly.
The other thing is check your sleep settings on the settings page after setup right at the bottom.
Our Default spin down delay: is set at 2 hours and that works for us.

For shutting the server down do it through the web console by stopping first and then choosing power down. If you just switch off the server does a parity check, when you switch on, which takes a long time depending on your machine.
 
Ianf1 said:
The setup was done years ago, just read the installation instructions slowly.
The other thing is check your sleep settings on the settings page after setup right at the bottom.
Our Default spin down delay: is set at 2 hours and that works for us.

For shutting the server down do it through the web console by stopping first and then choosing power down. If you just switch off the server does a parity check, when you switch on, which takes a long time depending on your machine.
Click to expand...

I will leave the server on all the time.
 
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