OpenSUSE Network Attached Storage (NAS) / Media Server
Advantages
- Free
- Capable of software RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 or disk spanning
- Software RAID can be configured with a GUI. This is important for users not familiar with a command line interface
- Can be configured to allow sharing over the network with Windows, Mac OS X and other Linux distributions
- Works with a wide variety of hardware
- If users install Greyhole they can get Windows Home Server Drive Extender like features.
- Can be remotely administered with Webmin
- Can setup automatic Torrent downloads with TED
- Can serve as a dedicated torrent server, so your torrents are downloading/uploading constantly
Disadvantages
- Can be hard to configure for users not familiar with Linux
Prerequisites for Setting Up OpenSUSE Home Media Server / NAS
Setting up Redundant Storage on OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE
Redundant Data Storage Comparison
| Redundancy Method | Disk Space Used for Redundancy | Works with Different Sized Hard Drives | GUI Configuration | Included with OS | Minimum Amount of Hard Drives Required | Stable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software RAID 1 | 50% | No | Yes | Yes | 2 | Yes |
| Software RAID 5 | The number of drives you have -1 | No | Yes | Yes | 3 | Yes |
| Software RAID 6 | The number of drives you have -2 | No | Yes | Yes | 4 | Yes |
| Software RAID 10 | No | Yes | Yes | 4 | Yes | |
| Greyhole | Customizable | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | Under Development |
Redundancy Options for OpenSUSE 11.3 Explained
RAID 1 (Mirrored RAID)
RAID 1, also know as mirrored RAID will increase data integrity, but requires two drives of the same size. RAID 1 makes an exact copy of a hard drive therefore using 50% of the total storage for redundancy. For example, if a user has two 500GB hard drives making their array 1TB they will have 500GB of actual storage. In most RAID setups, RAID 1 will increase the the read speed but will slightly decrease the write speed.
RAID 5
RAID 5 is my favorite level of RAID for secure storage of files. RAID 5 requires at least 3 drives to operate and will continue to work even in the event of a drive failure. RAID 5 is more efficient than RAID 1 when it comes to data storage. RAID 5 uses just ^one disk in the array for redundancy. So the more drives in the array the more efficient the array becomes. For example, if a user had three 500 GB hard drives totaling 1.5 TB and they were using RAID 5 they would have about 1 TB of actual storage. This makes RAID 5 much more efficient than RAID 1. RAID five has slower write speeds than RAID 1 or a standalone drive, but read speeds are often increased.
^ Note: this is inaccurate. RAID5 uses all discs in the array for redundancy, but does so in a more efficient way than RAID mirroring does, such that with RAID5, about (n-1) of the drives' worth of space can be actual data. If you want a RAID system that really does use one actual disc to store your redundancy data on, then you need RAID 4.
RAID 6
RAID 6 is almost the same as RAID 5 but it can sustain 2 drives losses instead of 1. RAID 6 requires at least 4 drives to operate and will continue to work even if two drives are missing. RAID 6 is best used for mission critical applications. The greater the total number of drives the more efficient the array becomes. Storage can be calculated by adding up the total number of drives in the array and subtracting two drives. For example, if there are four 500GB drives in the array there would be 1TB of available storage.
Greyhole Overview
With Greyhole you create a pool of hard drives. The drives can be any size and any interface(FireWire, USB, IDE, SATA ect.). After you have your pool established you can then set how many copies of your files you would like to be kept. Greyhole will then automatically make sure that your file is stored on at least two different physical hard drives (for more important files you can tell Greyhole to keep copies on as many hard drives as you have in your storage pool).
Redundant Storage Tutorials for OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE
- Setup and Configure Greyhole on OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE
- Setup RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 or 10 with OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE
Configure SAMBA File Sharing so Users Can Access Data from OS X, Windows or Another Linux Machine with the Webmin Interface on OpenSUSE 11.3
Following this how to will set your file sharing up so all users on the network can access all shared files. This tutorial will allow for Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 as well as other Linux boxes to access your shared files.