This post was written by Kim Windmiller
Linksys NAS200 a compact little unit that’s only offered diskless and can accept up to two SATA hard disks of your choice. The NAS200 is neat little NAS appliance with a reasonable range of features for the price and a smart backup software package as well. Installation won’t take long with Linksys’ Setup Wizard on the case as this guides you gently through every step of the way. However, it’s real shame that it only has a Fast Ethernet port as this does hit performance hard.
Nexsan Assureon uses Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as its operating system and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to maintain the indexes. Initial configuration can take time and it is likely that you will initially end up keeping more data than you want. Data is acquired by the Assureon through the use of File System Watchers. With careful planning at the start, ongoing maintenance of the Assureon is almost non-existent. Making backups of data, monitoring logs, adding new classifications and retention rules is not overly burdensome and this looks to be a light touch security solution.
Nexsan SASBoy is aimed at applications such storage of X-ray or MRI images. The SASBoy on review came kitted out with a pair of hot-swap RAID controllers each equipped with 2GB of cache memory plus battery backup packs and providing support for RAID0, 1, 10, 4, 5 or 6 arrays. IP and FC SANs are on the menu as each controller has a pair of 4Gbps FC ports and two Gigabit iSCSI data ports. Simple volumes are not supported but you can choose from any supported RAID array, dedicate hot-standby drives to specific arrays.
Nexsan’s SATABeast is a storage monster. Fully loaded with 42 SATA 750GB drives, this storage behemoth delivers 31.5TB of storage over iSCSI or Fibre Channel. The SataBeast has two 760w redundant power supplies and supports two controller boards. Each board has dual iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. This is a truly impressive storage array and with a street price of under £1/TB for enterprise level storage, is worth investment. The small annoyances of the drive and case fitting as well as the software to add to an iSCSI SAN are just that, small.
Adaptec AHA 39,160 Cards offer a range of solutions to adapt to specific applications for the PC-level and enterprise servers. 39160 Adaptec SCSI card offers all the high-performance server series. The combination of a 64-bit PCI interface with two Ultra160 SCSI channels, the map moves with the speed of data as quickly as possible. The Adaptec 39160 SCSI card supports up to 30 devices, making it ideal for connecting external drive and the reflections of the groups and combinations of SCSI disks to a maximum of performance in environments with the highest standards.
Adaptec SCSI Card 29160 is the ideal solution that effectively meets out the increasing demand of band-width application and designed in a way that suits for entry level to mid-range server environments. It includes Cyclical Redundancy Checking(CRC) and Domain Validation as the two additional feature that ensures data integrity and high performance ability.64-bit PCI adapter performs upto 16 MB per second and facilitate connection of fifteen SCSI devices. It is perfectly tested with many systems which assures that the device offers compatibility and reliability.
Adaptec SCSI Card 39320A-R supports many storage devices which can tandem to build an array. It can be accessed through RAID type 0, RAID type 1 or RAID type 10. You can expand server capability storage with this PCI-X card that can boost data transfer rate up to 320 MBps. It is simple to install and stable to use in any environment, including single server or data bank. Like another SCSI card, it can connected up to 30 device in link through D-sub 68 pin HD (internal) or 68 pin mini centronic VHDCI connector.
HP 8 Internal port SAS HBA with RAID allows customer to store data using the latest serial attached storage technology which effectively satisfies the end-users need for continuity in the data centre. It is known to deliver 2.4 GB/s maximum bandwidth which is estimated to be 4 times greater than the speed exhibited by dual adapters. It has been tested completely and successfully integrated into numerous HP servers for consistent result. It is ideally suited for customers who demand for inexpensive SAS connectivity, external storage capability as well as RAID and non-Raid storage applicability.
One of the best desktop NAS appliances on the market just got even better. There’s little to touch the Thecus N5200PRO for features and performance and the new iSCSI target capabilities make it quite unique. The appliance delivers a fine hardware specification as it sports a low voltage 1.5GHz Intel Celeron processor and 512MB of DDR memory. It’s easy being green with Thecus as you can schedule the appliance to power itself off and on and use WoL (Wake on LAN) to start it up when next accessed.
Thecus i5500 is a pure IP SAN appliance so there’s no NAS support as its hard disks can only be accessed as iSCSI virtual volumes. The i5500 uses pretty much the same chassis as the N5200PRO so you get a very well constructed appliance with room for up to five SATA hard disks. The only competition to the i5500 comes from Buffalo’s TeraStation Pro II iSCSI. Thecus is a clear winner for presentation, performance and features but if you want iSCSI on the desktop be prepared to pay for the privilege.