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Get a NAS...

by bitL 12y ago

Get a NAS...

72deluxe 12y ago
I've got a NAS but these things come with gigabit Ethernet and Marvel processors that will no way be able to cope with gigabit speeds! Doing a Time Machine backup to NAS isn't fun, I can tell you. Particularly if you use VMs (which you can exclude, but why would you when it's an entire machine image eh?)
- mrsteveman1 12y ago
  HP's Microservers can cope with gigabit speeds and the AMD models are dirt cheap, both compared to poorly engineered "NAS" devices, and especially for what they can provide in terms of server level features. I've had the older N36L model, an AMD Athlon NEO II processor with 8GB ECC RAM running for years with ZFS handling a few big spinning drives for storage, it's been quite nice and trouble free.
  - 72deluxe 12y ago
    That beats my piece-of-junk NAS then! Thanks Freecom! USB3 and Gigabit Ethernet (and an always open SSH port 22 yet no responsive server on that address...)
furyg3 12y ago
This is my solution, but honestly there's a lot to be desired, especially with regard to photos. Storing Aperture, iPhoto, or Lightroom databases on the network is not ideal. Wifi, even 802.11ac, is barely usable. Gigabit means you're wired and also has issues. Apple frequently has implementation bugs on both AFP and SMB which slow things down way below gigabit speeds, and your NAS's processor also becomes a factor. Forget about using this setup if you're not actually on the local network (i.e. VPN). The result is having to manually manage your photo databases (which one's are on my laptop? which ones are on my NAS?) which works ok in Lightroom but Aperture and iPhoto are not very good at. This also creates backup stress (um, can I delete this?) and means I have to decide in advance if I want to look at those photos from two weeks ago before I leave the house. If so, grab a cup of coffee while they copy. Ideally you would have a system where a) your photos are automatically stored in the cloud b) you can select which albums are stored locally and c) there is some sort of cloud backup option that you control (computer with more storage, NAS, or other cloud provider that archives your cloud data).

Get a NAS...

by bitL 12y ago

Get a NAS...

I've got a NAS but these things come with gigabit Ethernet and Marvel processors that will no way be able to cope with gigabit speeds! Doing a Time Machine backup to NAS isn't fun, I can tell you. Particularly if you use VMs (which you can exclude, but why would you when it's an entire machine image eh?)

mrsteveman1 12y ago
HP's Microservers can cope with gigabit speeds and the AMD models are dirt cheap, both compared to poorly engineered "NAS" devices, and especially for what they can provide in terms of server level features. I've had the older N36L model, an AMD Athlon NEO II processor with 8GB ECC RAM running for years with ZFS handling a few big spinning drives for storage, it's been quite nice and trouble free.
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  That beats my piece-of-junk NAS then! Thanks Freecom! USB3 and Gigabit Ethernet (and an always open SSH port 22 yet no responsive server on that address...)

furyg3 12y ago

This is my solution, but honestly there's a lot to be desired, especially with regard to photos. Storing Aperture, iPhoto, or Lightroom databases on the network is not ideal. Wifi, even 802.11ac, is barely usable. Gigabit means you're wired and also has issues. Apple frequently has implementation bugs on both AFP and SMB which slow things down way below gigabit speeds, and your NAS's processor also becomes a factor. Forget about using this setup if you're not actually on the local network (i.e. VPN). The result is having to manually manage your photo databases (which one's are on my laptop? which ones are on my NAS?) which works ok in Lightroom but Aperture and iPhoto are not very good at. This also creates backup stress (um, can I delete this?) and means I have to decide in advance if I want to look at those photos from two weeks ago before I leave the house. If so, grab a cup of coffee while they copy. Ideally you would have a system where a) your photos are automatically stored in the cloud b) you can select which albums are stored locally and c) there is some sort of cloud backup option that you control (computer with more storage, NAS, or other cloud provider that archives your cloud data).