Need help: NAS on a switch + computers + another switch (NO INTERNET / NO ROUTER)

cm0scm0s · Jul 13, 2015

Hello,

I have a problem and i was hoping someone could advise me on this.
I have a project and it looks like this :

x amount of computers that connect to a switch, that switch also connects to another switch that then connects to x amount of computers and a NAS.

All this is done without a router or modem.
None of the computers have internet.
All the computers should be able to retrieve data from the NAS (small files)

Here is a picture of the architecture how i planned it.

My questions:
Is this possible?
How do i do it ?
Which NAS is compatible?
Anything i need to keep in mind?

bill001g · Jul 13, 2015

It all works fine if you can find a way to get ip onto all the machines. If you manually set them statically it will work. Otherwise you need some device either a server or router running DHCP to make sure all devices have ip addresses.

cm0scm0s · Jul 13, 2015

bill001g :

Thank you for your reply.
Giving them all static 192.x.x.1 - 192.x.x.100.
A router or server is not an option at this point.

Is there any specific NAS that would be easy peasy with this ? i was looking at the Western Digital MyCloud.

kanewolf · Jul 13, 2015

As drawn your implementation will work without any issues.

All the PCs in Room1 are going to be limited by the connection between the rooms when accessing the NAS. If you choose managed switches for the two switches you can use link aggregation to connect the two switches. That will improve the performance of Room 1 access to the NAS.

Take a look at Synology, Q-NAP, Thecus for your NAS. With 10 simultaneous users accessing it you will probably want a small business grade NAS rather than a home NAS. Synology identifies that level with a "+" at the end. The other vendors are similar. All three of those vendors sell "BYOD" devices. You purchase the chassis and disks separately.

You will need to decide if you want a DHCP server on the network or use static IPs for all devices. You should also think about whether you want a Windows server to simplify user administration and security policies.

cm0scm0s · Jul 13, 2015

kanewolf :

Thank you for your reply.

The files will be very small and only uploaded / downloaded to / from the NAS a few times a day.
Considering this would you agree that a Home NAS and no Link Aggregation should suffice?

Also all people should have equal access to the NAS and only the nas should/could optionally contain a password, so in the regard i think the server would be overkill. Especially since this project will only be for 6 months +/-. and 300kbps would be more than enough.

That said, do you guys think the MyCloud would be a good choice?
I have 0% experience with NAS.
Basically all it needs to do is store & share small documents for 6 months with the option of a password.

kanewolf · Jul 13, 2015

I have not used a MyCloud so I can't comment on it. I have purchased several Synology units and they are top shelf. You need to decide what the backup strategy is going to be for these files. You can setup a dual drive NAS with two volumes and backup between the two volumes. You can get an external USB drive for backups, you could designate the PCs to be backups (#1 on Monday, #2 on Tuesday, etc) ...

This project may only be 6 months, but the NAS can be reused on future projects. Don't under-buy on your infrastructure (switches, NAS, etc) they are durable goods and should be assumed to be reused.

jsmithepa · Jul 13, 2015

How refreshing someone actually posted a diagram with the question, and not from a "drive-by!"

That's is just straightforward, zero issues.

For maintenance sake, just throw a DHCP in there, static-ing so many pieces would give me an headache. Any old router, WIFI AP blah-blah would have a DHCP, your old 802.11B router sitting in the junk box probably has one. Disable its WIFI radio and use it as a dedicated DHCP.

No experience with NAS, but I would love if it talks Microsoft-native and requires no client driver to be installed. Am all about low maintenance.

kanewolf · Jul 13, 2015

jsmithepa :

I generally concur that a DHCP server makes life much easier. You will want a static IP address on the NAS, just to make access more consistent. You don't HAVE to have the router plugged into anything except one of the switches for it to function as a DHCP server. You can just leave the WAN port disconnected.

Search

Need help: NAS on a switch + computers + another switch (NO INTERNET / NO ROUTER)

cm0scm0s

Distinguished

kanewolf

bill001g

Titan

cm0scm0s

Distinguished

kanewolf

Titan

cm0scm0s

Distinguished

kanewolf

Titan

jsmithepa

Polypheme

kanewolf

Titan

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page