Small desktop NAS supporting iSCSI

adeq1

adeq1

adeq1

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Joined
23 Mar 2008
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109
Hi Guys,

Can anyone recommend a small (and cheapish) NAS device that can also support iSCSI. Its for a home network so i'd prefer something small and quiet rather than have to build a new box to run FreeNAS.
 
Hi,

I don't know any cheap iSCSI box's prebuilt, but I would recommend OpenFiler over FreeNAS for iSCSI. You could in theory search for prebuilt "freenas" / "openfiler" box's i'm sure they must exist.

You haven't mentioned your budget or what your going to use it for. But you could buy a prebuilt ocUK box for say £230 with a single 500GB drive ... Then install openfiler which takes <5 mins, then it runs everything from a GUI interface accessed via your web browser on the same lan segment.

For more detailed answers your going need to provide some more information I think.
 
Some of the thecus boxes do iSCSI but I'm still baffled as to why it would be necessary on a home network
 
Data Robotics have recently released the DroboPro, which supports iSCSI. It's quite expensive and comes without drives.

edit: Looking at the specs, I think it has to be connected via a host server.
 
iaind said:
Some of the thecus boxes do iSCSI but I'm still baffled as to why it would be necessary on a home network
Click to expand...

Some people want locally attached / low-overhead storage, but for that storage to be in a remote location. Like in the garage.

As for the OP - take a look at Solaris. With ZFS, you get easily configurable smb, nfs and iSCSI out the box. I'd double check the support for hardware, but I don't think it'd be difficult to take a cheap white-box and just bung solaris on it. Just check that the NIC and the SATA controller is supported.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, the reason i asked was because i need a new NAS anyway and rather than run a seperate box with FreeNAS (or OpenFiler) to provide an iSCSI target for my VMWare-based lab. i thought would see if i could combine it all into one (media, photos and work VMs).

I was looking for a small "desktop" style NAS box rather than a full PC or rackmount applaince as its going to be quieter and produce less heat. There are lots of bigger appliances that do it, but they would be too big, hot and noisey, and this has to go in my office at home.

The only thing i've found so far that has it all is the Iomega Storcenter Pro ix4-200r (iSCSI, uPnP/DLNA, CIFS etc) - just wish that the same option was available in a slightly smaller package. Looks like i may have to pick up another ML115 and build something after all.
 
adeq1 said:
Thanks for the replies everyone, the reason i asked was because i need a new NAS anyway and rather than run a seperate box with FreeNAS (or OpenFiler) to provide an iSCSI target for my VMWare-based lab. i thought would see if i could combine it all into one (media, photos and work VMs).

I was looking for a small "desktop" style NAS box rather than a full PC or rackmount applaince as its going to be quieter and produce less heat. There are lots of bigger appliances that do it, but they would be too big, hot and noisey, and this has to go in my office at home.

The only thing i've found so far that has it all is the Iomega Storcenter Pro ix4-200r (iSCSI, uPnP/DLNA, CIFS etc) - just wish that the same option was available in a slightly smaller package. Looks like i may have to pick up another ML115 and build something after all.
Click to expand...
Bump [sorry]

Buffalo and Netgear do what you want - I have a Netgea ReadyNAS Business edition serving SMB for the users, and iSCSI for me, no problem. I could run it on my desk if I didn't worry about it walking off. The top end models support teamed networking [2x1GbNIC] if so need be - and if your switch supports it, obviously.

I hope this isn't breaking the rules - I'm not strictly promotiong a competitor as I don't see either of these on the OCUK site - but google for the RadyNAS pro business edition [Netgear they offer to sell it to you so I won't dare post their link!]

And here is the Terstation Pro iSCSI page:
http://www.buffalo-technology.com/p...terastation/ts-itgl-terastation-pro-ii-iscsi/

I have used both, and prefer the Netgear frankly, but put against, say, an Atom based system with a PCI/PCI-E-E SATA controller in an ATX box with minimal cooling running Openfiler [which is the nuts IMHO - have that at work too for my 'test' VMs on an old Celeron+1gb+4xIDE 80GB that I don't want to waste space on the NAS for] they suddenly start to look hideously expensive - you pay a lot for a proper, usably quiet iSCSI-out-of-the-box solution I'm afraid.
 
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