I would like some additional, shared disk space for my home network (two laptops running SUSE). How to achieve this easily?
Can I just buy an out-of-the-box NAS solution, such as, say, “Western Digital MyBook World Edition” or “Buffalo LinkStation Pro”.
Will such devices work with Linux at all?
Are there ready NAS devices for sale that will work with Linux?
(What features/protocols should I look for?)
How difficult are these to use?
Any specific recommendations?
Ideally, the storage space should be automagically mounted as a directory whenever the laptops are connected to the home wireless network. Is this realistically achievable without much network knowledge?
Also, I heard that there might be problems with filename restrictions?
PS: I do not want and old desktop running all day, but an NAS device which can power itself up/down according to need.
AFAIK, most NAS devices are running an embedded Linux of some sort. They all use SAMBA to serve up the storage space.
Because the storage is on the network, it should show up in the Network connections as a NAS. You will need to configure the device (most run through a web browser interface, some might have to be connected through USB to configure), the device will have the instruction to do this. The instruction will more than likely be directed toward Windows users. Some will include instructions for Mac users.
A couple of years ago I got a generic NAS box. It didn’t have a hard drive or anything, I had to supply that. I was able to just hook it up to the network, configure it to use my DHCP and it was done. It worked great in Linux. Windows Vista on the other hand, locked up everytime I tried to access it.
If you have an idea of the brand you want, do a google search and see if there are any problems connecting with Linux.
A NAS is often just a Linux box with Samba running for windows sharing,
and many of them also offer NFS sharing, and some now provide other
options (iSCSI, SSH/SCP, etc.). I haven’t researched your MyBook option
but if it really is a NAS (and not an external hard drive like my MyBook
things I’ve seen) then chances are Linux will support whatever you want to
do as far as file protocols are concerned as it supports SMB, NFS, SCP,
and iSCSI. Having it magically work for any laptop that just happens to
jump on your network is, to me, a bit unrealistic with any OS (an OS that
actively scans for anything and mounts it is a nuisance), but if you use
something like SMB you could at least browse the network and double-click
on the SMB share and access files after entering (possibly optional)
credentials.
With a little configuration you can add your share to a bookmark in Linux
so that when you click on it then it is accessed. You could also use
automount so anytime you go into your mount directory it tries to access
the share even if it was not available a few seconds earlier.
Good luck.
STurtle wrote:
> I would like some additional, shared disk space for my home network (two
> laptops running SUSE). How to achieve this easily?
>
> Can I just buy an out-of-the-box NAS solution, such as, say, “Western
> Digital MyBook World Edition” or “Buffalo LinkStation Pro”.
>
>
> - Will such devices work with Linux at all?
> - Are there ready NAS devices for sale that will work with Linux?
> (What features/protocols should I look for?)
> - How difficult are these to use?
> - Any specific recommendations?
>
> Ideally, the storage space should be automagically mounted as a
> directory whenever the laptops are connected to the home wireless
> network. Is this realistically achievable without much network
> knowledge?
>
> Also, I heard that there might be problems with filename restrictions?
>
>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve had very good results with Synology DiskStations; most recently a DS409+. It’s a “supply your own disks” box. It includes Samba, NFS, and whatever the heck the Mac’s protocol is (AFP?) by default, and there’s a simple switch in its web interface to enable SSH, which opens up the option of using SSHFS, which works very nicely for me.
Another solution, if you build your own PC’s and especially if you have some spare parts laying around, is to build your own NAS box using FreeNAS. It’s really quite versatile if you just need/want a network storage solution and you won’t have the 2-4 HDD limit most of the pre-built NAS boxes do. I had one going for a while until my wife decided she wanted to turn her photography hobby into a part time job and thus needed a full blown web server. I have no Networking experience other than very basic home stuff and once I got past my ego and did the basic FreeNAS install and only made small changes at a time it worked a treat. Check out their forums and look at the tutorials to see if it’s an option. Of course if you’re comfortable with openSUSE it would work just as well and without some of the idiosyncrasies of FreeNAS.
I’ve had an Edgestore NAS400 running on my network for a couple of years now without any major issues (no issues at all unless you try to get access from a M$ box).
It’ll take 4x1.5TB drives, all usual raid options, nfs, ftp, samba, mac (whatever protocol they use), a slew of config options, and a print server aswell. It cost £350 plus the drives.
It is quite noisy so it lives in a cupboard and rarely gets looked at, only downer is that the initial config needs to be done on a windows box as the linux options are not enabled by default.
