Need A NAS build for startup

[Mithun Fernandez]

I want to build a NAS at my new organization, mostly for the finance team for excel sheets, Size requirement is only around 2TB.

 

The main issue is that there are options to lay any network cables, so will need to able to access all the files wirelessly, also the team wants to access the files from home as well. The employees are using a mix of windows and Mac laptops. 

I have experience building a NAS earlier, but it was connected using LAN connection over a 10 gig network. 

 

What are the best options for accessing it wireless and also to access the files remotely. 

Thanks 

[adm0n]

Starting with the wireless problem:

There is no real difference for the device, if it is connected by cable or wirelessly. I'd just make sure, that the server itself gets connected to the network via a cable. But wireless bandwidth is limited and the connections are not as reliable as a connection via cable. So you might have problems with large file transfers. I'd also rather have them copy everything they need onto their local devices, edit them there and then sync them back. (You could set it up, so that this happens automatically).

 

The hardware could be anything as long as it has enough sata3 ports. A good choice in my opinion is a i3 12100, if it has to be something new. But any old PC will do.

 

Remote access is a more difficult subject. If you want it to be safe (and I think you want those company files to be safe), your best bet is using a VPN. That way, they can just mount their network drives as usual. If you really don't want to do that, you could set up something like nextcloud and use 2-factor authentication with that. But you have to be aware, that any vulnerability with nextcloud could allow malicious entities access to the company network. Also it is a bit of a hassle to set up the certificates for this, but it is certainly doable (lots of tutorials out there).

 

Do you have any more questions?

 

 

 

 

[Mithun Fernandez]

19 minutes ago, adm0n said:

s are not as reliable as a connection via cable. So you might have problems with large file transfers. I'd also rather have them copy everything they need onto their local dev

Thanks a lot for the advise. No that will be all, I think I will go the VPN route 

[wseaton]

Google Drive, Office 365.....etc. Why in the world are you building a NAS for company use in 2022 when the main function is to share office documents? This question would make sense in 2006.

 

Also, in regards to wireless, know anybody who works primarily with a laptop? Do you also work with your smartphone only tethered because 'its more reliable'.

[Takumidesh]

samba share, wireguard (or equivalent VPN) and a wifi card.

 

This can be done with a rPi if you want to be really cheap.

otherwise, pretty much any computer can do this. If it really is just documents, you don't need a lot of speed.

 

The critical information here is how much concurrent access you need to support. if this is for 2-3 people, just set up a shared google drive.

If you need to support 100 people, I would hire an IT consultant.

 

There are a lot of other factors that are excluded in your information, how do you plan to handle redundancy? how tolerant are you of downtime? do you need battery backup? will there be IT staffed for technical support for the employees? do you need concurrent access to the same documents? how tolerant is the crew for roadblocks, would they be able to handle an SMB or do they need a point and click UI.

 

if 2TB is the max you really ever need and you don't need to run additional software (like licensing software), a business level saas (gdrive, office, etc) is the obvious solution, SLA and uptime agreements, easy familiar interface, simple cross platform support, no need to worry about network security, no need to maintain uptime and troubleshoot problems.

All of the tools exist in these systems to handle revoking user credentials when people quit/are fired.

 

google workspace for business is $12 per month per user and EACH user gets 2TB.

You could pay for 500 users to have gdrive, before it would cost as much as keeping 1 admin on the payroll to ensure your server stays upright.