Business Grade NAS/Cache Server

[NeedlessBird]

I am the IT technician for my university's bookstore and after a recent security server upgrade we have three NAS grade 2Tb hard drives lying around. We are planning on replacing our current network storage solution (an archaic windows XP machine) with a more modern NAS style device. I'm putting together a proposal for my boss and I want t present him with three options. 1.) An ultra low cost (either Intel or AMD) option with software raid. 2.) A Medium cost machine (either Intel or AMD) option with either software raid or an LSI controller and 3.) A high cost option (again Intel or AMD is fine) using a hardware raid controller. From my preliminary research, machines using Intel Celerons work great as low cost NAS. I've put together a (very tentative) list here as a low cost option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Celeron G4900 3.1 GHz Dual-Core Processor	$54.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	Asus - PRIME H310M-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$64.14 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory	$44.89 @ OutletPC
Case	Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$65.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$65.88 @ OutletPC
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$114.39 @ OutletPC
Other	LSI Raid Controller	$139.10
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$594.38
	Mail-in rebates	-$45.00
	Total	$549.38
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-27 14:10 EST-0500

The LSI controller is just there so I don't loose the link. For the medium and high cost builds I'd also like to set it up as a cache server for windows updates. I still have to research the details on that, but what hardware is recommended for a cache server that also acts like a NAS. Our internal networking is only 100BASE so high performance is not super crucial. A big thing here at our bookstore is making out machines last well into end of life so reliability is key. Many of the machines we have in the store are well over 6 years old but still work great for production.

 

In summary, what general hardware is recommended for a NAS server/cache server and what are good options for software. The only real requirement I've been given is we need to run some version of Windows (either 10 Pro or a Server edition). Thanks in advance everyone, I cant wait to see your recommendations!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Have you looked into a deticated nas box like a synology or qnap. That shoudl work better here and would be about the same price, and smaller.

 

If your using windows use storage spaces for software raid, it works well and its included.

 

Are you on a domain? Are you running something like SCCM to manage systems? 

 

Id also probalby just get a cheap dell poweredge or simmilar. That way you get support so when something goes wrong there is a warranty number to call. Going diy for a buiness server doesn't make sense normally.

[NeedlessBird]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Have you looked into a deticated nas box like a synology or qnap. That shoudl work better here and would be about the same price, and smaller.

 

If your using windows use storage spaces for software raid, it works well and its included.

 

Are you on a domain? Are you running something like SCCM to manage systems? 

 

Id also probalby just get a cheap dell poweredge or simmilar. That way you get support so when something goes wrong there is a warranty number to call. Going diy for a buiness server doesn't make sense normally.

A lot of the machines we have in store are custom from a local company here in MT. The real big M.O. here is to get all of our machines for as cheap as possible (that sounds bad on the surface but we rarely have any hardware failures or general issues). We are on the university domain with our own dedicated IP range (our network is separate from the rest of the university but is routed through the data center on campus). I don't really think a HW raid controller is necessary as the file server is just hosting documents and files need throughout the book store. It would be nice to have so we can host the server as a cache for Windows. I'll look into a dedicated NAS box (even though that is much less fun). Thanks for your reply!!

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, NeedlessBird said:

A lot of the machines we have in store are custom from a local company here in MT. The real big M.O. here is to get all of our machines for as cheap as possible (that sounds bad on the surface but we rarely have any hardware failures or general issues). We are on the university domain with our own dedicated IP range (our network is separate from the rest of the university but is routed through the data center on campus). I don't really think a HW raid controller is necessary as the file server is just hosting documents and files need throughout the book store. It would be nice to have so we can host the server as a cache for Windows. I'll look into a dedicated NAS box (even though that is much less fun). Thanks for your reply!!

what do you mean as a cache for windows? What files do you want it to cache?

 

Also if you want cheap you can get a used or older desktop system.

[NeedlessBird]

Something similar to the Windows Update cache that LTT uses. I was thinking used stuff but for the proposal I'd like to stick with new hardware.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, NeedlessBird said:

Something similar to the Windows Update cache that LTT uses. I was thinking used stuff but for the proposal I'd like to stick with new hardware.

thats whats wsus is for, and you can deply this with gp. You probably want to put this on your main servers.

 

Then just push out a gp policy that forces the systems to use your wsus server for updates and your good to go.

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, NeedlessBird said:

Something similar to the Windows Update cache that LTT uses. I was thinking used stuff but for the proposal I'd like to stick with new hardware.

I have some questions:

1. How important are these files? Can you live without access to them for 1-2 weeks?

2. What's your backup strategy? How do you protect your files in case of malware infection or HDD failure?

[Mikensan]

If you're on the Uni network, they should already have a WSUS server for you to pull from and I would work with their IT to get access.

 

If you're only serving files over a 1gb network then you really don't need anything fancy. If you want to host virtual machines then your only concern is core count and RAM.

[nka]

19 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I have some questions:

1. How important are these files? Can you live without access to them for 1-2 weeks?

2. What's your backup strategy? How do you protect your files in case of malware infection or HDD failure?

 

This is what I'm thinking right now. Proposing price range solution is not the way to go. You need to propose options that fit the need and budjet. If the need dosent match the budjet, you'll have to make a point.