Introduction
| At a Glance | |
|---|---|
| Product | Server Elements NASLite-2 HDD |
| Summary | Lightweight Linux-based NAS application that installs on any supported hardware. |
| Pros | • Gorgeous web-based status pages • Painless installation • Runs on anything supported by the 2.4.36 kernel • Good offering of network protocols |
| Cons | • Console only administration • No folder-level permission settings • No folder-level service export control • No software RAID options |
Why build your own NAS? Simple. Because there are plenty of great NAS applications, like NASLite, that are ready to turn an old (or new) computer into a lightweight NAS device. As NAS distros go, NASLite is extremely light, weighing in at less than 7 MB! It's Linux-based and very easy to deploy and administer.
NASLite sports the usual collection of file transfer services including CIFS (SMB), NFS, AFP, and FTP all topped off with a rsync server. NASLite runs on a pretty extensive list of hardware—pretty much anything supported by the Linux kernel 2.4.36 tree.
NASLite has a set of nice built-in status webpages but, surprisingly, is not administered via the web, but rather via Telnet. NASLite packs a few other handy features such as SMART disk monitoring and disk capacity alarms.
NASLite comes in three flavors: the "HDD" version (hard drive installed) that I'll be reviewing; the "CDD" version that boots directly from CD; and the "USB" version that boots from a USB flash stick. Each version is priced at $29.95.
Installation
NASLite uses a text based installer (Sorry folks, no fancy screenshots for this one!). As I've said before, it's not pretty, but it gets the job done.
Figure 1: Text only install
The installation process is actually as easy as advertised; all you have to do is select the right drive and start the install. The whole install process takes under 5 minutes.
Figure 2: Formatting the disks
I had a bit of trouble getting my Belkin F5D5000 Ethernet adapter working again, as I did with FreeNAS, but this isn't NASLite's fault. However, a D-Link DGE530T worked wonderfully. My NASLite system specs are shown in Table 1. To spice things up a bit, I decided to install NASLite on the same machine I had FreeNAS running on for a bit of head-to-head comparison.
| NASLite System Specs | |
|---|---|
| Model | Compaq Persario |
| Processor | 700MHz Celeron |
| Memory | 384 MB |
| Hard Drive | • Western Digital WD200AB 20Gb • Seagate U5 ST310211A 10Gb |
| Ethernet Adapter | • D-Link DGE530T |
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