QOTW: what constitutes a perfect NAS device?

by Parm Mann on 30 July 2008, 17:10

This week's question is a collaboration from HEXUS and network-attached storage (NAS) specialist, Thecus.

The Taiwan-based manufacturer's forthcoming enterprise NAS, the N7700 is under the final stage of development and is scheduled for an October '08 release.

Thecus tells us that it's developing a product to deliver "not only jaw-dropping performance but also infinite expandability." In order to achieve its goals, it's looking for a little helping hand from the HEXUS.community forums. So, dear readers, Thecus wants to know what would constitute a perfect NAS device?

Before we get onto that, let's have a brief recap on what these increasingly popular devices actually are.

A NAS is a self-contained computer storage device which was once aimed largely at business users. Today, they're becoming an increasingly useful addition to the home.

The purpose of a NAS device to to provide file-based data storage services to a network. The NAS will generally feature a minimal operating system that offers basic functionality such as data storage, file systems and file management. Though, running other software on NAS devices is becoming increasingly popular.

As a standalone unit, a NAS requires no external peripherals such as a keyboard, mouse or display. It's controlled remotely and usually via an Internet browser.

Having began as a storage solution, NAS devices have grown to serve a multitude of purposes. Today, many NAS devices can serve as FTP servers, e-mail servers, surveillance systems and a whole lot more.

But, what both HEXUS and Thecus want to know is, what constitutes a perfect NAS device?

Is the unit's hardware specification all important? Or would you be willing to sacrifice a little performance in order to save energy? Are four or more USB ports essential? Does an LCD display really help? Do you have a preference for your NAS operating system, and what additional functionality have you found to be most useful?

Let us know exactly what you'd be looking for in your dream NAS device in the HEXUS.community forums.

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Only 3 things needed gigabit, linux and reliablity

Good lord - how long's a piece of string?

First and foremost, resilience and stability. Doesn't matter if it goes like the proverbial off a manual excavation implement if that just means it loses all your data REALLY quickly.

Next, compatibility. There are still companies chucking out kit that requires some piece of dedicated software to connect to it. Wrong. Ideally, it should support access via as many clients as possible, be they NFS, SMB, whatever. It should also not require anything more complex than a web browser to configure.

Security; it should be possible to lock down files on the system by user account, and ideally that should be possible through authentication against AD, eDirectory, NTLM etc.

Expandability - and that doesn't just mean increasing capacity with another disk. It should include the capacity to be enhanced with automated replication/backup capabilities, for instance. I have a Buffalo LinkStation Pro on one site that runs an unattended backup to a DriveStation hooked up to it via USB. Simple, yes, lots of devices do it, yes, but it's still worth emphasising.

Performance. Of course, I like fast. Who doesn't?

Beyond that, it gets a bit complex; for a NAS in a corporate environment, for instance, I expect a lot more in the way of performance, redundancy and management tools than I do from one in the home/SOHO environment. In the latter case, I might accord a higher priority to capabilities like media streaming.

Fast, quiet, gigabit networking, good support for various RAID levels, ideally 4+ drives, low power consumption, web interface, does neat things like download management, audio streaming for you (for instance on my file server I run the open source Subsonic), sends alerts about hardware failure via email at minimum.

Now a cheap linux server like mine can do all the above, so it's gotta be low cost to complete with that, and to get one up on such a machine it'd need things like hot swappable drives, small size. very, very high uptime, quick boot times, easy and quick setup.

Like the above poster it would also be very nice to have security controls, different user names to access different segregated areas, and remote authentication as well, access across many protocols (SMB, FTP etc).

I also like the idea it automatically backing up, but for me off site would be the only really good way as it's RAIDed already to another drive attached via USB seems superfluous… so it should have remote sync capabilities with online storage providers or with another NAS in another location, and use your internet bandwidth sensibly, during off peak hours - if necessary to build up the backup over several days.

Here's my NAS wishlist:

Modular WebUI Interface.
A simple package manager to offer new services.
Document the WebUI API and packaging system to allow end-users to add their own services not offically supported.
One or two USB ports would be nice to add printing services, but not hugely important.
A few eSATA ports for external storage expansion.
Allow 3rd party firmwares (obviously make the user aware of garentee issues by using 3rd party firmwares), foster community development around your device, nothing makes an embedded device more popular for enthusiasts than good ole fashioned openness. One only needs to take a glance at the Linksys WRT-series routers for proof of this. And embedded hardware companies benifit from recieving bug reports and patches from firmware developers. Kernel developers always loves kernel patches from professional hardware manufacturers, so they'll maintain the kernel for you so you don't need to bug wrangle with internal patchsets breaking with new kernel releases.
More CPU and memory horsepower to allow multiple services and reasonable responsiveness, maybe use a CPU supported by the Linux cpufreq sub-system. Even silly cheap x86 CPUs can achieve this and DDR2 chips are silly cheap.
More drive bays, 8 would be nice
More flexible disk management, i.e. use mdadm to swap in larger disks, reassemble, and grow the array as the disks are been replaced. Pretty straight forward using the raid456 kernel module.
More competitive pricing, right now it's cheaper to build a new NAS with PC hardware to attach 6 disks than to buy an embedded 5-bay NAS with less disks space, memory, and horse power, a bit silly really. Sure you don't get the backplanes, but they're not hugely expensive either.
Maybe UPnP AV on-the-fly transcoding to save the hassle of manual transcoding media for dealing with multiple target clients, maybe do a deal with AMD for a condensed variant of ‘AVIVO converter’ circuits to mitigate the CPU usage. Although this may be costly to develop, so it wouldn't be a dealbreaker to be without this feature.
Dropbear is a tiny SSH daemon and can make secure transmission of files over the internet really easy and let power-users dig around.
Offical support for common network data services like OpenLDAP and Squid proxy server would be hot, most NAS devices already have MySQL support so it's clearly already an easy task.
Dual-gigabit NIC bonding is a must.

Basically it would be great to have network-in-a-box functionality from a NAS, rather than running a fully-fledged server eating more power, even if it ends up using nearly the same amount of power, the obvious convinence and space factor from an embedded device would still win me over. I have tons more ideas about the ‘perfect’ NAS, as well as implimentation ideas. I'd only be too happy to discuss more of them if Tecuas is interested.

something really easy to use but cheaper than a Drobo

QOTW: what constitutes a perfect NAS device?

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