I have some somewhat unique network storage requirements I am hoping someone can help advise me on.
I have a small LAN with about 10 users. Each week, we receive 3-4 hard drives full of data (about 1-2 TB each) that are produced on a separate network. We can control how these drives are formatted to best suit our needs (ie. to ext4 vs ntfs, etc), but we cannot directly link to that network. We need to be able to put this data on our LAN so everyone has access to these drives. We need access to each drive/data for about 2 months, then we are done with this data and it can be removed from the network. As soon as these drives are added to our network, they are processed for about 2 days. During that time, good I/O speed is very helpful. After that, speed is less important.
Doing this with a traditional NAS setup seems like a waste, since it necessitates copying all that data up to the NAS each week when I only need the data for a short period. What I really want to be able to do is just hang those drives off the network for two months, then remove them when we are done. I can’t seem to find a NAS that allows me to just serve an already populated drive. I’ve been looking at file servers, but they seem like overkill for my application – and my budget. If anyone if willing to help provide me some expertise/advice, I’d really appreciate it.
I have a small LAN with about 10 users. Each week, we receive 3-4 hard drives full of data (about 1-2 TB each) that are produced on a separate network. We can control how these drives are formatted to best suit our needs (ie. to ext4 vs ntfs, etc), but we cannot directly link to that network. We need to be able to put this data on our LAN so everyone has access to these drives. We need access to each drive/data for about 2 months, then we are done with this data and it can be removed from the network. As soon as these drives are added to our network, they are processed for about 2 days. During that time, good I/O speed is very helpful. After that, speed is less important.
Doing this with a traditional NAS setup seems like a waste, since it necessitates copying all that data up to the NAS each week when I only need the data for a short period. What I really want to be able to do is just hang those drives off the network for two months, then remove them when we are done. I can’t seem to find a NAS that allows me to just serve an already populated drive. I’ve been looking at file servers, but they seem like overkill for my application – and my budget. If anyone if willing to help provide me some expertise/advice, I’d really appreciate it.