NAS Question

Black Hat

Black Hat

Black Hat

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15 Apr 2009
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264
Hi all,

Im looking at getting a NAS, in particular :

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=118

Im just wondering what the real world speed im likly to get from this when its connected to my 100mb router.

As the NAS in question has 2 LAN ports could i connect 1 to my router and the other to my main pc meaning i would have gigabit for file transefer etc and still have the internet?

Cheers
 
The speed would depend mostly on what you configured. RAID0 would probably give you more than RAID1 but a lot of prebuilt NAS boxes don't have the disk to NIC throughput for that to make much difference.
the datasheets reckon it can get 90MB/s read on RAID1 with FTP... I'd say that were a bit optimistic. Internally it probably can, but across the network not so likely.

You can't connect your PCs NIC to it and try and get internet access through it. From the features listed it doesn't mention IP routing at all.

For the price that thing goes for you could build a basic PC, stick some big Disks and a couple of NICs in and use FreeNAS. FreeNAS supports all the same features, is free and based on Monowall, which definitely WILL do IP routing. Infact you could probably build a NAS bix using an ultrasmall atom powered system for less than that box costs.
 
I've had a few "Off the shelf" Nas boxes, i've got a Lacie 2big Raid NAS here at the moment I use for backup.. I've found all of these sorts of thing very slow, as they rely on a processor of somesort to provide the network side of things, I get around 11-15-MBps on this Lacie NAS.

If yout after speed from a networked disk, build an array inside a PC, it'll be shedloads faster
 
i dont see any problem with those quoted speeds. an atom board is fully featured and would have no problem in doing so - it IS a pc at the end of the day, runnig a standard intel board & atom processor, right down to the 'reserved' port on the back which is actually a disabled vga port.
 
FreeNAS may be based on Monowall but it doesn't do IP routing.

If you're serious about transfer speeds over the network get a gigabit switch - an 8 port HP Procurve switch with proper jumbo frame support can be had for ~£50.

An Atom would be man enough, but Intel's pushing them as netbook/media centre solutions means they're limited on expansion. Unless you're looking for something insanely small form factor you could build a better AMD AM2 based box for the same money.
 
I have the Qnap 409 , speeds are pretty good ( I use single drive config mode)
Its small and the addon software you can get are pretty good
 
Daegan said:
FreeNAS may be based on Monowall but it doesn't do IP routing.

If you're serious about transfer speeds over the network get a gigabit switch - an 8 port HP Procurve switch with proper jumbo frame support can be had for ~£50.

An Atom would be man enough, but Intel's pushing them as netbook/media centre solutions means they're limited on expansion. Unless you're looking for something insanely small form factor you could build a better AMD AM2 based box for the same money.
Click to expand...

FreeNAS definitely does do IP routing. I remember it having a tab with IP routing settings on it. Even if not on the webGUI, you can press 5 or whatever it is to get at the shell and configure routing there. It will do it one way or another.
 
Sorry I should have qualified that more, I just wouldn't push someone down the FreeNAS route if they were looking for a box that also did NAT. Yes you can enable and configure ipfw via a command line, but there are no options for it in the webGUI, at least not in the latest stable version I use.
 
Daegan said:
Sorry I should have qualified that more, I just wouldn't push someone down the FreeNAS route if they were looking for a box that also did NAT. Yes you can enable and configure ipfw via a command line, but there are no options for it in the webGUI, at least not in the latest stable version I use.
Click to expand...

As i understood it he didn't want NAT just to be able to access the home network via the NAS box. Which is straight routing or bridging.
though if you have the expansion space and are building a NAS box you might aswell stick the extra nic in the PC for internet access. Though this will mean your NAS effectively becomes DAS as it's on a point to point network.
 
Thanks for the headsup guys, this is primarily going to be used for downloads and general file sharing over our network, im after a low power, small, quiet soloution. Ive been looking at a few others and i think im just going to go for a cheaper model as its just to be used for downloads and filesharing. Out of curiousity does anyone know if the ram could be upgraded in the above NAS ?

Cheers
 
I've got the QNAP 209 II NAS unit which is an older model than the one linked and seems reasonably fast, (google for smallnetbuilder as that site has bench marks on various models).

I'm not really sure why the OP is going for the 239 Pro model instead of the 219. Surely it would make a lot more sense, (and probably be cheaper), to connect the router, the NAS and the PC all to a gigabit switch instead of trying to bridge the connection through the NAS?

You normally cannot upgrade the memory in off the shelf consumer NAS's and the various consumer model do vary in speed quite a bit between OK and really quite poor.
 
memyselfandi said:
I'm not really sure why the OP is going for the 239 Pro model instead of the 219. Surely it would make a lot more sense, (and probably be cheaper), to connect the router, the NAS and the PC all to a gigabit switch instead of trying to bridge the connection through the NAS?

.
Click to expand...

Not really as it would mean id have to buy a gigabit switch aswell.
 
Gigabit switches are very cheap. A simple unmanaged 5port gigabit switch costs between £25 and £30. Even less if you buy refurb/second hand from ebay.
 
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