SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » Review: Quick, Cheap and Dirty Shared Storage

November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Review: Quick, Cheap and Dirty Shared Storage

TAGS: SMB Hardware

If you're hosting out email and maybe CRM and accounting, too (ala Microsoft's Office Live concept), you may suddenly realize that all you're missing on your local area network is some shared storage space and maybe a few printers.

For small businesses--and even some medium-sized ones--that's easier and cheaper than you might think. Just close your eyes to the server ads and skip over the NAS propaganda; then just check out a network hard disk. Sure, they're good for the home, but if you've got 20 employees or less and just need a place to share files, they're made to order. I got Iomega and Western Digital to let me check a couple of theirs out.

Iomega sent me a StorCenter 500 quite some time ago, and I've been chugging on it for months with no hassles. She starts at about $440 and for that you get 500GB of storage spread across two disks in a single enclosure that can be configured as RAID 0 or RAID 1. Setting the StorCenter up is as simple as running an installation CD on each client. Run the full install and you'll get access to the StorCenter via a local drive letter or as a network share, and you'll get a full install of EMC's Retrospect Express backup software. Easy enough for users to configure. All that worked great under Windows XP, with the only trouble being that the StorCenter and Symantec's firewall didn't like each other.

My new Gateway notebooks both came with Symantec pre-installed, and this had to be temporarily disabled not just to install the StorCenter, but every time you wanted to access the drive as well. The desktop running ZoneAlarm didn't have that problem after it configured rules for the StorCenter and the Acer TravelMate 4062 running the straight Windows XP firewall didn't have a problem, either. My only ding under Windows XP.

Vista is actually a happier story. The Gateway 255E that I rebuilt as a Vista RC1 machine, the Dell M90 that got redone as an RC2 box and the HP DV9000 that Microsoft sent with Vista RTM pre-installed--all of these saw the StorCenter as a network share and simply granted access via the Networks tab. No client software required. Cool.

The StorCenter also comes with a couple of USB ports that act as print servers or as ports for additional storage expansion. I stuck a Toshiba 100GB USB hard disk into one USB port and this immediately became visible as additional space. Then I stuck an HP Photosmart D5160 inkjet printer on the other port and was able to configure it as a color printer share after playing around a bit with Iomega's config screens. I yanked the Toshiba and replaced with Iomega's own REV 70 drive and was able to configure that as a separate network share. So, in effect, you can build your own REV backup to your StorCenter shared drive, in essence mirroring the capability that Iomega builds into its higher end NAS boxes. The REV was a little tricky because it wanted a workstation, but it's doable with a little tinkering.

For $440, that's a lot of stuff.

The Western Digital NetCenter 500 is almost a clone of the StorCenter--but not quite as juicy. Basic package is 500GB of networked storage with a free copy of EMC Retrospect Express included. But it lacks in several areas: For one, it's a single 500GB drive, not two in a RAID config for redundancy. For another, it supports only 10/100, not 10/100/1000 like the Iomega. It also doesn't have two USB ports, just the drive. Then again, it costs about $400 so it's a little cheaper.

Differences include (apparently) the CIFS file system. The StorCenter seems to be NTFS. The NetCenter uses CIFS. What that means is that Vista was able to see and install the StorCenter with no help, while it couldn't do that with the NetCenter. XP runs everything but needs the included setup utility to work--that'll probably need to be upgraded for Vista. However, after running the right utility, I was able to let my sister's MacBook and my desktop Xandros Linux box see the NetCenter, while neither of those was able to see the StorCenter--though I think I could have gotten the MacBook to see it if I wasn't a chronically lazy layabout.

I haven't uninstalled either drive off of OliverNet. Right now the clients use EMC to backup to the WD, and then EMC also runs an evening job that backs up the WD to the StorCenter. Then once a week that backs up to the REV. Hey, I'm covered.

Overall, I like the Iomega better, though the WD was by no means an ineffective peripheral. They both offer gobs of shared storage with about 25 minutes of setup time for five clients. The Iomega is more versatile for Windows-centric networks, while the WD is a good bet for small shops using Linux or the Mac.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 21, 2006 01:25 PM

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