Bag's Rants

Progress on the Home Networking.

Well, built my SAN last night and configured it. Had to wait for the Raid build to complete. Just checked it built OK and now started the data copy.

I'm using a Thecus N2100 Yes box. I installed two SATA 500Gb Samsung disks and set them up as Raid 1. Which just means they are shadowing each other. So if there is a single HD failure no data is lost and the server continues to serve data. Of course you must continue to do regular backups and replace any faulty disks as soon as possible because if the other disk goes it's back to loading from backup.

This one allows me to install a backup drive on USB and make backups that way which is much quicker and easier than backup to 25 DVDs.

It's a superb system and has many additional features besides just file sharing which is the main use I will put it to. It also acts as HTTP/FTP server and can serve iTunes files and a Photo Album. It also allows backup via USB disk. The HTTP/FTP and Photo album I will be looking at over the next few months.

One niggle. Only a minor one but it really makes me mad. The initial installation requires a Windows PC and the installation of a utility and the MS .Net then the activation of ActiveX and javascript. It's that or you can't get into the system. Once you have performed the initial configuration then you discover that you could have bypassed the installation but too late now. .NET is on my system. Then to manage it beyond the initial configuration you need to use a feature rich browser as well although this one does not have to be on Windows. Just a minor issue and it won't impact 95% of those out there but it is annoying.

Nevertheless, this is the first stage in my complete refresh and this item is an exceptional bit of kit ideal for my plans.

posted by Bag @ 3:54 pm