SAN vs. NAS

2. More on SAN vs. NAS - FAQs

After I published my article "SAN vs. NAS - What are they and how do you manipulate them in Exchange" (please see here), I received a lot of feedbacks. Most of them are asking for opinions,  I can't reply them one by one, so I publish them there:

  Q:   I am a network administrator and my main file server is almost out of disk space. There is no extra slot in the server so I can't put more hard disk in it. I have been looking for a solution until I saw your article. I believe the NAS is the right one I am looking for. Could you please tell me more technical details about it? Thanks a lot!

   A:  If you are looking for just plain more disk space, NAS is the right solution. Let me use Dell 705N Snap Server as a example here ( I am not associated with Dell in any ways, they don't pay me. Its NAS is actually OEM of Quantum) as I am using it. You unpack it, mount it to the server rack, connect it to your switch via Cat.5 network cable, power it on. Wait 5 minutes, you will see a computer named "snapxxxx" in your DHCP server. It comes with built-in web interface, so you open your Internet browser, type in the "snapxxxx:, then you are prompt for a user name and password, you must be a Domain Admin to configure it. After you log in, you are in the Admin interface. Here you can do whatever you want - it is easy and self-explained - you can change the computer name, give it a IP address, create network share. The security model is very interesting: If you have access to the parent share folder, you have access to the children share folders; but if you don't have access to the parent share folder, you can still have access to the children share folders as long as you have the permission assigned.
       Then you can move some folders (particularly the Applications folder) from your file server to this NAS server and change your logon script, so users next logon, they are automatically pointed to the folders on the new server.

   Q: (more are coming ...Please come back next week)

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