NAS for SMEs

[icube]

Hi, I would like to set up NAS for a small software company of mine of about 10 people. THe purpose is to have a central repository and sharing of data across our company.
I am new to this area and i need some opinions, advices, comments and recommendations from the experienced users here.

1) What is the advantage of getting a NAS rather than a normal mini server/computer connected to multiple HDDs installed with Windows/Linux Server?

2) If i want the NAS to be accessible from the internet, do i need a static IP?

3) Since NAS is using it's own OS(correct me if i am wrong), can i install Visual Studio Team Foundation Server/Git on it for my distributed software development?

4) Which model of NAS would you recommend?

5) Is it ok to have the NAS on 24/7 without air-con cooling? Because we need to switch off the air-con after office hours but leave the NAS on.

6) Do we need to get UPS for the NAS?

Thanks!

 

[davidktw]

Hi, I would like to set up NAS for a small software company of mine of about 10 people. THe purpose is to have a central repository and sharing of data across our company.
I am new to this area and i need some opinions, advices, comments and recommendations from the experienced users here.

1) What is the advantage of getting a NAS rather than a normal mini server/computer connected to multiple HDDs installed with Windows/Linux Server?

a) Turnkey solution.
b) Assorted features that you need for enterprise use
c) Easy to manage
d) Complete Warranty
e) Less technical expertise required
f) HA is available if you need it
g) Backup solution OOTB

2) If i want the NAS to be accessible from the internet, do i need a static IP?

No, you can use dynamic ip service providers that map fixed domain name to dynamic ip.

3) Since NAS is using it's own OS(correct me if i am wrong), can i install Visual Studio Team Foundation Server/Git on it for my distributed software development?

Not OOTB, but possible with hacking. Not recommended. Use another server for such purpose.

4) Which model of NAS would you recommend?

Synology, the one I know best. QNAP, Netgear, Thecus is fine too.

5) Is it ok to have the NAS on 24/7 without air-con cooling? Because we need to switch off the air-con after office hours but leave the NAS on.

No need, I have been running my Synology NAS for 2 years without aircon.

6) Do we need to get UPS for the NAS?

Highly recommended. For Business use, MUST unless you like surprises during your sleep, or when you are in the mist of an exercise with your partner

Update:

If you are getting Synology, the latest firmware also support HA, which I think is very useful for business owners to enjoy highly available service.

 

[Desmond_]

Synology or Qnap do visit their site

 

[icube]

a) Turnkey solution.
b) Assorted features that you need for enterprise use
c) Easy to manage
d) Complete Warranty
e) Less technical expertise required
f) HA is available if you need it
g) Backup solution OOTB



No, you can use dynamic ip service providers that map fixed domain name to dynamic ip.



Not OOTB, but possible with hacking. Not recommended. Use another server for such purpose.



Synology, the one I know best. QNAP, Netgear, Thecus is fine too.



No need, I have been running my Synology NAS for 2 years without aircon.



Highly recommended. For Business use, MUST unless you like surprises during your sleep, or when you are in the mist of an exercise with your partner

Update:

If you are getting Synology, the latest firmware also support HA, which I think is very useful for business owners to enjoy highly available service.

Thanks for your answers. what is HA?

 

[Gribber]

Thanks for your answers. what is HA?

High Availability

 

[icube]

for my requirement of hosting server software, it is advisable to just get a normal PC and install it with Windows Server and also install FreeNAS?

 

[davidktw]

Thanks for your answers. what is HA?

HA is for High Availability. Meaning 2 or more deployments of the same service will work in either all masters, or master/slave, or other configurations to provide highly available service for the consumers. In enterprises, we acknowledge that systems will eventually failed due to various reasons. Solutions are often design with redundancy in mind to ensure as much uptime as possible, with least disruption to businesses.

Normally HA is found in enterprise solutions, but involvement of open source technologies do bring forth such benefits to more general consumers that are equipped with the necessary skill set.

Synology is one of those pro-consumer products that recently offer HA in their solution. All you need is 2 set of the same recent units such as DS1512+. Realtime network data redundancies can be setup between these 2 units, where one will function as the active node serving. In the event of failure, the other unit will come online automatically and take over the responsibility of the previous active node. This redundancies works on top of disk redundancies via RAID.

The underlying technology as I understood is based on Linux DRBD and Heartbeat, which I have implemented years back, but definitely require niche Linux skill set to setup and manage. Here you get it as a product feature from Synology. I am not sure if other similar price range products have such feature though.

 

[Gribber]

for my requirement of hosting server software, it is advisable to just get a normal PC and install it with Windows Server and also install FreeNAS?

it all depends on your usage pattern in short.

if you have Windows Server why do you still need FreeNAS for.

My interpretation on what you need is just a FileServer (correct me if i am mistaken)
If you are gonna set up a Windows Server, just configure it as a File Server will do.

 

[davidktw]

for my requirement of hosting server software, it is advisable to just get a normal PC and install it with Windows Server and also install FreeNAS?

Do your software need to run on the Microsoft platform ? Will the Linux platform work for your case ?