Which NAS Drive? Which Wall Mounted Data Cabinet?

[Gone_Away]

Hi folks.

I've looked and I've looked and I've looked... Still don't know which is best so I'm hoping you smart techy peeps can help.

As part of my new build I'm fleshing out the home network. I plan on tying everything into one data cabinet to keep things nice and clean. So far I'm looking at:

Switch:
http://www.ebuyer.com/407267-tp-link-24-port-gigabit-smart-switch-with-4-sfp-slots-tl-sg2424

Wireless Access Point (to be situated high up in the vaulted ceiling):
http://www.ebuyer.com/697896-tp-link-eap120-300mbps-wireless-n-gigabit-ceiling-mount-access-point-eap120

Data Cabinet:
http://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/450mm-deep-wall-mounted-data-cabinets/88-6u-450mm-deep-wall-mounted-data-cabinet-.html

I think 6u should be plenty of space for my requirements. However in terms of features for the cabinet over and above the space requirement, cooling and dust filtering I'd like but not sure where to start. The only other device I want to stick in the cabinet would be the VM modem. The rack above has a slot for a fan but not sure there's one in there? Also, what about power? Can I get a cabinet that plugs in with a power bar of sorts that I can plug devices into or is cheaper to simply use one of my own and plug it into the wall?

I'd like to keep the cabinet around £100 and no more than £125.

The NAS drive is where I get lost. But here's a rough outline:

1u (to fit into chosen cabinet)
4 Bay (I plan on starting with 4tb possibly 8tb but I'd like to be able to go up to 16tb)

I'm not sure about RAM, CPU speed etc. Like to keep the NAS itself under £450 if at all possible (excluding drives).

Let me know if I've missed any pertinent info and I'll provide it.. Thanks in advance and happy shopping!

[Gorion]

Take a look at this AP:
http://www.eurodk.com/en/products/unifi/unifi-long-range

It's a ubiquiti long range AP (there's non-long range on the website), its cheaper and more reliable than TP-Link.

As for the switch, you could try and find a second hand HP, or Cisco one.  Perhaps from someone who was doing some course and has no need for it anymore (Kreg?).


I stay away from TP-Link like its the plague, they are pretty much in the rubbish category.

[TeaLeaf]

The NAS drive is where I get lost. But here's a rough outline:

1u (to fit into chosen cabinet)
4 Bay (I plan on starting with 4tb possibly 8tb but I'd like to be able to go up to 16tb)

I'm not sure about RAM, CPU speed etc. Like to keep the NAS itself under £450 if at all possible (excluding drives).

NAS:
This will probably not help as it is not a 1U solution, but I'd like to give a huge recommendation for the HP ProLiant Gen8 G1610T MicroServer range.   I have a previous generation HP microserver (mentioned in this thread) and it is bullet proof.

They take 5 or more drives (by using optical bay space or double trays) and you can buy one for £120 after cashback.  It can also take up to 16GB RAM.   I'd recommend the full 16GB RAM as it is a cheap upgrade and worth every penny in operation.  I have Nas4free installed on a £5 micro USB flash drive from which it boots very happily.   I run 5 x 3TB HDDs running ZFS raid and it sits there running 24/7 and gives excellent and high transfer speeds.

From the linked thread, DrunkenZombie also has one and has had similar experience - in fact he was the one who put me on to these servers in the first place!   They're not 1U, but they are massively cheaper and more upgradable than than 1U hardware.

My 15TB NAS has been running now for over two years solid without any faults or failures.  Performance continues to be excellent.   If you can sit one on top of your rack you'll not regret it and you'll save a bunch of money in the process too compared to the price of 1U equipment.  If you went for a five drive 15TB NAS like mine then you would have a total NAS spend of £600 including disks.  Try and find a 1U 15TB NAS with the functions and services of Nas4free for that price!

The original HP Microserver NAS thread:
http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?37226-Nas

Wireless AP:
You may as well go AC for future proofing.   If you are on Virgin and getting a big fat fibre/cable connection and have loads of people raping music and video from your NAS then you'll be grateful for it!

Switch:
Final point, I'm not a massive fan of TP-link stuff, I've had a lot break.   I'd go Netgear or something else in that budget range.  A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my central switch to this which is similar and would do the job nicely along with some basic traffic management capabilities.


Hope this helps.

[Gorion]

The problem with a good ac AP is the price.  A ubiquiti one starts at $264, when in comparison a b/g/n is around the $58-77 range.

[TeaLeaf]

True, they are more expensive, but then I guess it also depends on the budget for it and the speed requirement and there would be no point going AC if the speed was not needed or predicted to be needed in the near future (or if the virgin router can't handle it).    I run N in my home wifi at the moment and have not yet felt the need to upgrade.

[kregoron]

Cabinet, looks fine, if you plan to implement fans, make sure it has the required circuitry

If you wanna go NAS, take a look at Synology, they build quality stuff. Stay clear of the cheap ones like Asus, Netgear, Dotlink, Qnap and so forth.
If you want performance i would probably look at what TL's suggests, as it delivers a buckload of performance at the pricepoint, just load it up with NAS4Free, if  you don't wanna hand configure everything.

Its almost like religion if you look at the ever ongoing NAS vs Microserver vs built server. All has advantages and downsides.

(Note: myself made the grave mistake of buying a Qnap /sadface)


Wireless AP and switch..... Now my the network engineer part of my brain starts screaming at me... You get what you pay for tbh..
TP link is the worst piece of kit money can buy, their popular cause they look shiny -.- Netgear, ive had a quite extensive experience, they do look good on paper, just hold off enabling advanced features. As performance just gets hammered ( there is a reason a enterprise grade switch costs so much at the same feature set)(and their datasheets promises way more then they could possibly accomplish and their filled with completely wrong statements) That in mind, if you don't expect running multiple giga clients at full speed at once, no QoS, you should be fine
Not saying you gotta buy enterprise kit like Comware, H3c, Cisco, Aruba, Aerohive or whatever.

Ubnt, makes a stuff at a pretty decent quality, if you were living nearby i would have shipped you a Ubnt picostation to play with (got like 200 in the basement collecting dust)

AC wifi, yeah it promises great speed specifications, yet most (even enterprise equibment like Cisco, Meraki, Aruba) fails in their implementation. As its not the speed bump with the AC specification that rox, its the feature sets that make it rock. Which requires some basic knowledge, and the fact the rest of your gear needs to support it. A properly configured N AP should serve your needs for years to come.


Not knowing your programming skills nor network experience. Maybe a Second hand Cisco 1142 converted to autonomous mode and a refurbished procurve switch.

[kregoron]

T

As for the switch, you could try and find a second hand HP, or Cisco one.  Perhaps from someone who was doing some course and has no need for it anymore (Kreg?).

Mind the current lab im got up in the exchange forum, is old but fast, yet limited to 100mbit only replaced due to the need and urge to play with multi vendor setups, and more advanced features

[Gone_Away]

NAS:
This will probably not help as it is not a 1U solution, but I'd like to give a huge recommendation for the HP ProLiant Gen8 G1610T MicroServer range.   I have a previous generation HP microserver (mentioned in this thread) and it is bullet proof.

They take 5 or more drives (by using optical bay space or double trays) and you can buy one for £120 after cashback.  It can also take up to 16GB RAM.   I'd recommend the full 16GB RAM as it is a cheap upgrade and worth every penny in operation.  I have Nas4free installed on a £5 micro USB flash drive from which it boots very happily.   I run 5 x 3TB HDDs running ZFS raid and it sits there running 24/7 and gives excellent and high transfer speeds.

From the linked thread, DrunkenZombie also has one and has had similar experience - in fact he was the one who put me on to these servers in the first place!   They're not 1U, but they are massively cheaper and more upgradable than than 1U hardware.

My 15TB NAS has been running now for over two years solid without any faults or failures.  Performance continues to be excellent.   If you can sit one on top of your rack you'll not regret it and you'll save a bunch of money in the process too compared to the price of 1U equipment.  If you went for a five drive 15TB NAS like mine then you would have a total NAS spend of £600 including disks.  Try and find a 1U 15TB NAS with the functions and services of Nas4free for that price!

The original HP Microserver NAS thread:
http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?37226-Nas

Wow.. Not a bad entry point. Slight concern about the OS and NAS4Free. I need to have something that will be compatible with Serviio so looks like more research is required..

Wireless AP:
You may as well go AC for future proofing.   If you are on Virgin and getting a big fat fibre/cable connection and have loads of people raping music and video from your NAS then you'll be grateful for it!

Just "slightly" out of my budget. Given that everywhere will have a wired connection, I think I'll be fine with something basic what will sit on the ceiling and has good range. Need to remember psu as I've seen quite a few that are POE.

Switch:
Final point, I'm not a massive fan of TP-link stuff, I've had a lot break.   I'd go Netgear or something else in that budget range.  A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my central switch to this which is similar and would do the job nicely along with some basic traffic management capabilities.

I like. Will get.

Thanks TL.

[albert]

I always recommend quiet gear , home networks don't have to be full blown 4 fan Ciscos. I've been picking up Cisco Linksys E2500 and E4200 routers from eBay for £10 second had. They have a full feature set and with dd-wrt mega on there they can do anything you need on most networks.

[kregoron]

Looks like the switch TL linked contains the same ASIC as HP Older 1800 switches, which can handled a fair amount of trafic. Rated @ around 42Gigabit wire rate stock set.

I always recommend quiet gear , home networks don't have to be full blown 4 fan Ciscos. I've been picking up Cisco Linksys E2500 and E4200 routers from eBay for £10 second had. They have a full feature set and with dd-wrt mega on there they can do anything you need on most networks.

not sure what network cisco gear you have been buying my friend, as they got tons of passive equibment, and their enterprise gear only contains 1 which is rarely audible except their 4000/6000 series catalyst and nexus and ofc their PoE range can be audible. Their AP's contain no fans whatsoever.

On a side note, ofc you can buy a Linksys for a 10£, but then again, you give up some brilliant performance features, which is what costs.
Show me a linksys, that can do QoS, which performing @ 100% promised throughput. Yet just performing promised through at raw datarate can be a issue.
Think about it, lets take a the big 4200, it has a simple Broadcom BCM4718 downclocked to 480 (probably to stay within a certain thermal envelope)
That tiny little cpu, has to run the shiny bloated Linksys UI, while handling routing (on a highly simple level ofc) switching engine claiming to do excess of 5+ gigabit, firewall engine, QoS engine and a simple set of wireless features (even with DD-wrt installed.)
It contains 64mb of ram, having to handle the OS, and all l2 forwarding both wired and wireless as they run in the same instance. And right now, its just datarate were talking, which is just 1 of a 100 performance metrics when talking performance switching.


There is a reason why Cisco/HP (H3C/Comware) cost just that much more.  That said they are overkill for a simple 5-10 computer home setup and the Netgear, Linksys, Belkin or whatever should do fine. When reaching a certain point you hit the limit, most people won't for a while.

But comparing enterprise equibment to SOHO gear is like comparing a ferrari to a VW Beetle, they can both drive to the supermarket for some grocery shopping, but when pushed just a little, you see the big difference.

[albert]

I'm satisfied these do what I personally need. Of course enterprise gear is leagues above this, I just opened a new DC with â,¬4 mill of (Juniper and Arista) equipment so I think I know the difference between Soho and service provider or enterprise network technology ;-)
I just don't like or need to spend lots of additional money on over capacity gear for home.

[Gone_Away]

Went for this...

Hewlett Packard ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T
Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC HP Server - Qty: 2
2 X WD Red 3TB for NAS 3.5-inch Desktop Hard Drive - OEM

£375 including the £80 rebate from HP

I figured that I can add more drives when funds permit..


Netgear 24 Port Gigabite Plus Switch £106

Not sure on the WAP as I need to get my head around the POE bit... The models I looked at didn't have a simple PSU option. Not sure I can convert one of the ports on the Netgear switch at source to supply the POE. I looked at the Cisco WAP321 but I want dual band and not something that I have to select.. the Cisco GUI / setup looks really good however.

Bought the same data cabinet referred to above..

Not a bad day's shopping tbh.

[TeaLeaf]

Went for this...

Hewlett Packard ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T
Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC HP Server - Qty: 2
2 X WD Red 3TB for NAS 3.5-inch Desktop Hard Drive - OEM

I think you'll be happy with that set up.   Have you decided which OS you'll be running to handle NAS duties?

[Gone_Away]

Not yet. Will try nas-free to see if serviio works with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kregoron]

Went for this...

Hewlett Packard ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T
Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC HP Server - Qty: 2
2 X WD Red 3TB for NAS 3.5-inch Desktop Hard Drive - OEM

£375 including the £80 rebate from HP

I figured that I can add more drives when funds permit..


Netgear 24 Port Gigabite Plus Switch £106

Not sure on the WAP as I need to get my head around the POE bit... The models I looked at didn't have a simple PSU option. Not sure I can convert one of the ports on the Netgear switch at source to supply the POE. I looked at the Cisco WAP321 but I want dual band and not something that I have to select.. the Cisco GUI / setup looks really good however.

Bought the same data cabinet referred to above..

Not a bad day's shopping tbh.

try looking for a used cisco 1142 or something, they can be converted to autonomous AP with ease, and grab a POE injector cheap off ebay.