Maybe I’m over thinking this… I guess that’s for our IT wizards to tell me.
I’m starting a business in just over a month and I’m looking for a simple file server solution so my team will be able to use, copy, and transfer files from one central location. Doesn’t have to be extremely complex and (of course) I’d prefer low cost (say, under $1,500, preferably under $1,000) solutions for this.
I plan on my team to connect with the thing via a wireless router as I would prefer not to have to dick with a bunch of wiring… but if this is a bad idea, please let me know why.
I’ve been researching this all weekend and, frankly, my head hurts. I’ve looked at everything from buying a used desktop and installing Filezilla to rack mounted solutions. Right now I’m leaning towards a Western Digital Sentinel DX4000, but that’s likely because I saw one in a local computer store this morning and liked the looks of the thing (and the price - $769, including 2 2tb drives and whatever the hell else is listed on the Newegg site above.)
Here are my specs:
Relative ease of installation
My peeps will be connecting to it using Windows-based computers/laptops, so if that matters, there it is.
I’m not hiring an IT guy so I can’t buy a server that requires constant babysitting.
I’m open to all options - using Dropbox, converting an old desktop to use as a file server, buying something like the above WD Sentinel
Won’t be using this for heavy duty computing - it’s not like my sales people will be watching videos through the server (they’d better not!) Programs to be used are standard Office apps, Quickbooks, web browsers.
Advice, recommendations, biased opinions… anything up to outright lies are welcome. Like I said… my head hurts reading all these specs.
Of course, please feel free to ask more questions. Hell, for all I know I don’t need a server… but I’m pretty sure I do as I don’t want to have company records scattered among 5-odd computers.
There are a shit ton of solutions out there, but there are four questions that anybody who’s going to recommend one should ask you first:
[ul]
[li]What kind of files will you be exchanging? (you answered this one already)[/li][li]How critical will the files be to your business operations?[/li][li]How many users are we talking about here? [/li][li]How’s your Internet connection?[/li][/ul]
I just helped a fried set up a cheap file/print server for his 3 man office this past spring. I ended up re-purposing an older desktop machine he had laying around and installing SME Server.
Hardware-wise, I kept everything stock on the desktop but installed 2 WD Red drives and installed SME which auto-configured the drives for RAID mirroring for redundancy. Setup is dead simple and the server runs headless and can be easily configured via web-browser.
We might have gone for a new hardware solution but saving money was his chief priority. So far, so good. He’s only called me a couple of times since March with a few questions that were easily answered.
For your budget, take a look at a Drobo 5n.
It’s a fairly no-fuss NAS device that has good performance and can be expanded very easily.
When you get into the 4+ bay NAS device arena, many devices offer all kinds of fancy extras that may or may not be useful to you.
For example, one common feature is a built in Plex server; another is built-in personal cloud storage; yet another would be built-in SFTP server, and so on.
Drobos support some of these, but not nearly as well as the competing products.
If you want lots of spiffy features and fairly standard disks you can pop into a Linux box should your device explode, go for a QNAP or Synology 4-bay server.
If you want no fuss, and you can always add any random sized drive and it just works, go for a Drobo 5N (the N is important; other Drobos are direct USB drives).
Downside of Drobo is that their format is totally proprietary, so if it blows up, you need to get a replacement Drobo to pull your data off.
Make sure your drives are up to the task. Standard consumer desktop drives are not made to run in NAS devices—A typical desktop drive is designed with the expectation that it has the luxury of pausing for several seconds, or even a minute or two, to recombobulate itself in times of trouble (e.g. bad sectors), by which time most RAID devices will have simply dumped it and called it bad.
Western Digital Red drives are designed specifically for NAS devices, so you can give them a look.
ETA: I bought a Drobo 5N and put three 3-TB WD Red drives in it in January, and I love it.
With regard to what m7b5 said, another name for the more reliable drives is “enterprise class.” Supposedly, the MTBF is greater and they are made of beefier stuff.
I have two Drobos, a 5-bay (5 x 3TB) and an 8-bay (not fully populated), and so far, none have failed on me. I’m a little disappointed in their performance in some areas (deleting a file is a slow process), but I’m glad to have the redundancy.
Look into a cloud server. I don’t know what kind of storage you get for the low cost contracts, but this is a good way to avoid the costs of an IT guy, which will be you if you don’t hire one.
Let me +1 this. I have been running flavours of SME for 13 years. It is simple (15-20 minutes basic setup time, max), extensible (if you want to), reliable (I set up a system for a school that ran for over 4 years with no maintenance), and fully featured. It just works, and can use just about any working hardware you have lying about. I used an old Dell desktop for years, and recently upgraded to a dual-core AMD m/b that is passively cooled and draws 35 watts. I can access it remotely (including a VM solution that allows full management and slightly slow linux desktop access), get files, email, etc. Just really, really good.
Just sign up for a Dropbox account. All shared files go there. For example have a folder MyCorp/ with folders under it for Finance, Marketing, Sales, etc. Share those folders as needed with the team. Done.
Programs such as Office, Quickbooks and web browsers have nothing to do with this, they just run on people’s individual laptops.
I think both the Drobo 5N and the Synology servers are good options. I recently bought a server for home use, and I did a lot of research and finally settled on a Synology DS-413. I understand the Drobo is easier to set up, if all you want is a file server. The Synology is more work to set up, but it doesn’t require any specialized knowledge - anyone comfortable with tinkering with new computer equipment can do it easily. It also has a lot more features - you can connect a printer, you can have it monitor a security camera, etc. I believe both have the ability to do an automated off-site backup.
The Synology DS-413 is a 4-bay server and sells for about $500, so you can add two 2TB drives and still come in below the cost of the Western Digital you mentioned, and have 2 empty drive bays for future expansion. (Make sure you set it up as Synology Hybrid RAID, otherwise you can’t expand the storage without reformatting the existing drives.) Synology also makes smaller models (DS213 has 2 bays and costs $300), as well as much larger models.
How much space do you use with your Dropbox account? I see that they offer flat rate pricing of $795/year, unlimited storage - is this what you currently use? Or do you do Dropbox Pro ($99/year for 100gb) and then share the account with multiple people?
I didn’t think the programs had much to do with the server, I just wanted to give an example of what type of files/programs we’re using. I would think that some of these suggestions may be different if I said that we’re running a CAD program or other large-scale enterprise software, complete with terabyte-sized databases.
Like the sound of the Synology, especially in regards to the “more features” that you listed. I used to crack open my computer case with ease, installing new video cards, hard drives, etc… I assume I would have to install the HD’s with the Synology? (Stupid question alert!) Is there documentation on how to do this provided with the server?
I’ve had good luck with FreeNAS and a cheap desktop with 4 bays and gigabit ethernet. I’ll typically use 2 bays to mirror the 2 working drives with either software raid or an rsync job. FreeNAS has a pretty simple web interface for management but a lot of features if you want to dig a little deeper. If you look on newegg for budget refurb desktops you could probably pull this off for under $200 plus the cost of the drives.
Yes, but it’s quite simple. It has removable caddies that slide out. You install a hard drive in the caddy with screws, then insert it.
It’s even simpler on the Drobo - you just insert a bare hard drive into the slot. But I don’t think it’s as secure. (I had a first-gen USB Drobo, and the manual said not to transport the device with the hard drive installed.)
By the way, some of the Synology servers have Intel CPUs, and some have PowerPC based CPUs. The Intel-based models have a lot more software available, like the popular Plex media streaming software. The PPC based servers (like my DS-413) still has a good set of software available though.
Guy who installs EXACTLY the kind of thing you are looking for here. If I was the guy you hired, here would be some of my response to your OP.
#1 It may be helpful to hire an IT guy even for an hour or two even if it is just to pick his brain, most do not mind this as you will be calling him later if things go sideways.
#2 You really do not NEED a true server OS in your environment however getting Pro versions of windows will be helpful if you find yourself in need of one in the next couple years. The home versions cannot join a domain.
#3 Drobos are dead sexy and great file sharing tools but they cannot effectively act as a quickbooks host. You will need a windows PC to do that. You could in theory have the files stored on a drobo with another machine acting as the host, but this will generate ugly levels of network traffic.
#4 Do not even think about trying to host quickbooks via dropbox unless you enjoy emotional suffering.
#5 QuickBooks HATES wireless networks, plan on constant slow performance and annoyance, even if its just for the people using quickbooks all the time, hardwire it, you will thank me later.
#6 If you want a server Essentials Server 2011 is at least in my experience a rock solid little bugger, childs play to manage, and can handle up to 25 users with no muss or fuss. It is pretty much designed for your scale of business. I installed one 8 months ago and all I have had to do is add/disable users. It can run on dirt cheap basic boxes.
#7 Good call on offsite backup, I run such a service, perhaps I can help :D.
I was thinking of doing that anyway to assist with the setup, cabling, etc. Should I advertise via Craigslist for one (even though I hate Craigslist with the rage of a thousand suns?)
That’s the OS the WD Sentinel used. However (stupid question alert!), does this mean that the two servers mentioned above (the Synology and the Drobo) don’t usually come with software/OS upon purchase?
Commercial off-the-shelf products such as Synology and Drobo boxes are appliances that you plug in, shove in a bunch of drives, and they just work.
They often have a built-in web-based administration tool, where you set up file shares and users. The Drobo has a small administrator tool that you need to install on a Windows or OS X machine on the same network. These devices normally are used to provide network drives that people can access in your office.
On the other end of the spectrum are computers that are running server software and provide a huge amount of fancy functionality, usually including network file storage, but also including such things as printing, authentication, and network software deployment to desktop machines. These typically are running some sort of Windows Server software.
The lines do blur between these devices: Appliance devices nowadays can do much more than they used to, especially the ones that include everything but the kitchen sink. Also, to answer your question directly, devices such as Drobo come with their own OS installed. They usually are running some form of Linux, but you don’t need to know a thing about it since all you do is plug in drives and interact with the administration tool.
I like the Drobo particularly since once you first set it up, you never need to look at the console again. The device has lights on the front that show how full it is, blink when you need to replace a drive, turn on when you need to plug in a new drive, and so on. If a drive dies, you can hot swap it with a new one and the Drobo will automatically heal itself over the next few hours.
