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Thanks Philip, and everyone else. This is really helpful stuff.<br>
<br>
I have some more dumb questions (I must have given the impression
that I know what I'm doing). My network is going to have at least
1 windows machine on it, so I don't think NFS only will work. I've
had some success with Samba on my home network, but I have to
disable all of the permissions to get it to work.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Out of curiosity, why Ubuntu 10.04?
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I have a bunch of Dell P4 workstations that run really well on
10.04. Plus, I like the Gnome 2 interface. I'm trying to do this
as cheaply as possible.<br>
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My poweredge 1400 server has 2 GB of RAM, which I don't think will
run FreeNas. I might be stuck with Samba if I use this current
hardware or maybe I should bite the bullet and buy a new NAS device.<br>
<br>
What does it mean to break off mirrors?<br>
<br>
How do I send data to a remote site? This sounds like a great idea.<br>
<br>
Should I use tape drive backups every week and store them off site?<br>
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Thanks again for your suggestions, everyone!<br>
<br>
Bert<br>
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<div>A friend suggested that I get a NAS device, which I know
very little about. Does anyone have any ideas/ suggestions?</div>
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<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354173,00.asp">PC
Mag: How to Buy a NAS</a></div>
<div><br>
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<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401086,00.asp?obref=obinsite">PC
Mag: The Top 8 Best NAS Devices</a> (Published 3/5/12 so it’s
still up to date.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I’d also investigate the reviews at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/">http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/</a> if
you decide to buy a NAS. I can’t recommend this site enough.</div>
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<div>Setting up SAMBA by hand editing config files is a PITA if
you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve always thought of NFS as
really easy to set up, but then I worked at Sun for years so I
guess that makes sense. :-) NFS has a zillion options, but you
normally only use the same few every time.</div>
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<div>I second the recommendation for FreeNAS if you decide to go
the DIY route. It has a very nice admin GUI and you can use ZFS
for your filesystems. (This is for a business so you do care
about your data don’t you?) ZFS’s competitor in Linux land is
BtrFS, but it is just starting to be offered as an option on
some Linux distributions. It lacks the proven maturity of Sun’s
ZFS—in particular a stable version hasn’t been released yet.</div>
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<div>One easy way to use FreeNAS would be to buy a server from
iXsystems. They’re well known in the BSD community and they are
the primary supporters of the development of FreeNAS.
Unfortunately, the nicest thing that can be said for their
pricing is that they’re not inexpensive.</div>
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<div>Also, you do have a backup and disaster recovery plan, yes?
(Backing up with ZFS by breaking off mirrors or sending to a
remote system is trivial.)</div>
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<div>Phil</div>
<div>--</div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:
separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span
class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px; font-size: medium; ">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">The world has
arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great
reliability; and something is bound to come of
it. —Vannevar Bush, “<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/">As
we may think</a>” (1945)</div>
</span></span>
</div>
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