First NAS device advice

[Prognewb]

I work for a small company, and we're starting to get bigger, ergo, the amount of data we're collecting is also getting bigger, so we need a more secure way of storing/retrieving/restoring it.

I've researched SAN and NAS solutions, and decided NAS was the way to go for us. I've dug through magazine and personal reviews, but for every one good review on a particular manufacturer there is a bad review. I wanted to get some opinions or suggestions on a good NAS/backup solution from the knowledgeable people here.

For starters, we need to back up data and system states from two Windows Server 2003 machines, one with Exchange 2003, the other is our Macola/ES server with SQL databases, and also our Windows 2000 Server that is our PDC and file server.

Are most NAS devices the same animal, are there any particular models to stay away from, which backup software will work the best for our application, etc. Thanks in advance!

 

[xmsre]

NAs accesses files via a file level protocol such as CIFS or MFS. SAN accesses LUNs through block level protocols like FCP or iSCSI. A NAS device would be suitable for a file server. FOr Exchange and SQL you want SAN. If you don;y want to invest in an FCP infrastructure, go iSCSI. FOr small block IO applications like Exchange or SQL, iSCSI over 1Ge has adequate throughput.

Many SAN devices also have NAS capability onboard. You may want to start bu looking at something like the Storevault S300 or S500.

http://www.storevault.com/products/hw_overview.html

 

[LeeMason]

If your main reason for using a NAS device is to store backups have a look at the Thecus N5200PRO. It support iSCSI, multiple RAID levels (5 disks internally), network failover, and includes a remote backup facility called Nsync. It is also very flexible and can have third party applications installed on it.

For example we use Ahsay OBS (Online Backup Server) to provide an only backup service and this device can have the OBS software installed directly on it. This will provide you with the ability to perform a variety of different type of backup (inc. Exchange Mailbox level backup) direct to this device, and then if you wish you could even replicate this date offsite to another Thecus N5200PRO device for disaster recovery.

Although we use the Ahsay software ourselves to provide a service there is nothing in it for me to recommend it, other than the fact that I think that it is very good.


Lee Mason
Optimal Projects Ltd

http://www.opl.co.uk

http://www.backupsanywhere.com