Guardian Snap vs ReadyNAS perfomance?

[JELo]

Anybody have a sense of how the Guardian OS Snaps perform compared to the ReadyNAS NV+ units? Seems like they have comprable costs and storage capacities, gigabit ethernet, . . . but built around different technologies - disk based OS vs flash based OS, user expandable X-Raid vs basic Raid 1,5. Any opinions? Just curious, JELo

[blue68f100]

It all depends on what HW the GOS is running. Smallnetbuilder ran some test a while back with a smaller GOS unit and it still out performed the ReadyNAS. I know my 4500 has a bandwidth of 3000+MB/sec, I don't think the ReadyNAS will even fill up a 100BaseT network, besides 2 GigE ports. With flashram based hardware you are tied to ram size, besides locked like the SnapOS. With most HD based you can run most any linux based OS (and MS) you want. The software is what makes the NAS. Since GOSv4 iSCSI was available, With v5 bring Raid 6 & 10 to the table.

Things change quite fast on the hardware side. Overland is now starting to use the GOS on there HW. Personally I do not like locked hardware and software. In most cases you endup over a barrel with limited options. Just like MS users how wrote custom applications for IE to find out when IE v7 broke every thing since they elected to use advanced calls that were for IE only. The main reason most corp do not upgrade very often.

[darcy]

What processor/ram/ethernet combination does the ReadyNAS NV+ have?

Does the ReadyNAS NV+ work with Active Directory?

What Disk Config's does it get supplied with and how does it and how far does it expand?

Does it have Dual Power Supplies or is that optional?

What service options are available for the ReadyNAS NV+?

[JELo]

Originally Posted by darcy

What processor/ram/ethernet combination does the ReadyNAS NV+ have?

Does the ReadyNAS NV+ work with Active Directory?

What Disk Config's does it get supplied with and how does it and how far does it expand?

Does it have Dual Power Supplies or is that optional?

What service options are available for the ReadyNAS NV+?

Not the most knowledgeble on them but let me give it a try . . .

Processor sounds like a custom part with built in RAID capabilities.
Ram is Non-ECC PC2700 - user upgradeable to 1GB, maybe more?
OS is stored on a flash card installed in the unit, not sure if it can be upgraded.
Single Gigabit ethernet connection - other models have dual-gig.
Don't know about AD.
NV+ can handle upto four SATA drives -
Can purchase empty or prepopulated with two or four drives.
Drive sizes can be 250, 500, 750, 1TB - run at 1.5Gb speed though.
RAID 0, 1, 5, Hot-Spare, X-RAID (their expandable RAID - can add drives on the fly, does take time though) .
Can even handle different drive sizes - but not sure how this gets done.
Larger units can have more drives and redundant power supplies but not NV+ model.
Not sure about sevice options now that Infrant is owned by Netgear.

Ran similar test as done with 1000, 1100, 2000, 2200 (listed elsewhere)
using ViceVersaPro and Knoppix OS image
on NV+ unit with dual 500GB in RAID 1 with only 256MB RAM installed.
For 4GB file average Write speed was ~7.6MB/sec, Read was ~9.7MB/sec.
Not sure how this compares to something like a 210 or 410.

[JELo]

As an addendum . . .

The NV+ appears to have just short of twice the performance
of my comprably configured 2200 (but probably something less than a 210?).
My primary use here is for weekly back-ups that end up getting stored off-site.
The 2200, NV+ (with 2x500GB ~$900), and 210 (would be about $1500?)
are roughly the same size and can easily be carried from place to place.
NV+ does have built in power though, so you don't have to carry the brick to power up the unit elsewhere.

I am sure there are larger models from several manufacturers
that have better performance and would certainly be better 'live' file servers,
and external USB drives would be much more economical than anything,
I'm just investigating the possibilities.

[blue68f100]

If your storage requirements is that small, why not use a hotswap bay with 1T drives. Then make duplicates set 3-5 times a week. With the speeds of work stations on a gige backbone you should get any where from 30-80MB/sec depending on setup. Where the best you will get out of the NV+ on a raid5 is 13MB/sec. They make special carry cases if your worried about damage during transport.

[JELo]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

If your storage requirements is that small, why not use a hotswap bay with 1T drives. Then make duplicates set 3-5 times a week. With the speeds of work stations on a gige backbone you should get any where from 30-80MB/sec depending on setup. Where the best you will get out of the NV+ on a raid5 is 13MB/sec. They make special carry cases if your worried about damage during transport.

I kinda liked the idea that even the backup images were on a RAID system.
But I suppose if a person cycled through a couple hot-swap drives
you would have multiple images in different locations
that would serve essentially the same purpose.
And it wouldn't be likely that multiple drives would fail.
Interesting idea.

Do you know of somebody who makes a quality hot-swap drive bay?
I had dealt with some in the past (for swapping OSs in a machine)
but they were mostly plastic and I somehow managed to kill a drive using them.

Thansk for the info, JELo

[hyperjason]

To answer the question as to if the Ready NAS NV+ or NV work with Windows Active Directory, the answer is yes.

[darcy]

Originally Posted by hyperjason

To answer the question as to if the Ready NAS NV+ or NV work with Windows Active Directory, the answer is yes.

I am very happy to learn that the ReadyNAS supports Active Directory and I understand that the OS is feature-rich so as a total product I would agree that it is a very good entry level NAS.

I am no expert on Active Directory but Like the Iomega, yes AD may be supported but at what limitation? the Iomega for instance will only cope with Approx 40 Active Directory participants, but on some AD networks the Iomega just will not work... it coes down to testing & development.

Active Directory is an evolving beast and although supported by GOS as it changes we are starting to see some older GOS systems having issues in how it "handles" users... the latest GOS releases correct the issue but if AD is evolving, will the developers at Iomega, ReadyNAS(netgear) and all of the other cheap-ass NAS makers keep up?

I have had this happen recently at work... so before anyone tells me Active Directory is not evolving first go take a look at it.... does it have version numbers?
If yes it is evolving...

-These Specs may not be 100% accurate, but use as a guide only-

The whole starting point of the thread;

Snap2200
- 300Ghz Cel, 128MB Ram, 10/100 Ethernet, 5-7 yr old technology?
-Against-
ReadyNAS
- 500Ghz CPU, 256MB Ram, 10/100/1000 Ethernet 1-2 yr old technology?

Comparing a Snap2200 to a new ReadyNAS is a completely "spare" effort in my opinion.