Yearbook NAS

[Maximoose]

My school is looking for a way to locally store photos for their yearbook, there would probably be 4-5 people accessing it actively at a time. I was going to order a Synology DS216J, but according to Linus, all consumer grade solutions suuuuuuck (video). So I have three options.

 

• Use used server equipment (Linus'es method) (we don't have a server rack) (probably significantly more expensive than the other options, if I get it under $250 the school might consider it)
• Use an old PC as a server (Probably 4 GB of RAM, a Pentium or Core 2 Duo and software RAID) (Cheapest method, we already have the PC, would just need new power supply and HDDs)
• Use the NAS

Which option should I go with?

 

Thanks, Max

[79wjd]

A simple prebuilt NAS is more than capable of acting as a simple file server for your needs.

[vanished]

I assume the school already has some semi-sophisticated server setup for letting teachers store files, giving each student a bit of space, etc.  They should be able to just set you up an additional folder.  Talk to IT

[Bwithnewcast]

I would go with the old pc, only 64 bit and run freenas on it

[ProjectBox153]

I'd go for the old computer as long as it's at least a Core 2 Duo (or Pentium dual core from the same era). 

[79wjd]

27 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I assume the school already has some semi-sophisticated server setup for letting teachers store files, giving each student a bit of space, etc.  They should be able to just set you up an additional folder.  Talk to IT

What high school did you go to....My high school was pretty up there with tech and we had nothing of the sort.

[vanished]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

What high school did you go to....My high school was pretty up there with tech and we had nothing of the sort.

wow, we had that even back in elementary and that was quite a while ago

[ProjectBox153]

23 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

What high school did you go to....My high school was pretty up there with tech and we had nothing of the sort.

My school system has always had decent technology, and that's going way back. We had the Latitude D610 series laptops (Dell) right when they came out, and we had a lot of them.

[Maximoose]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I assume the school already has some semi-sophisticated server setup for letting teachers store files, giving each student a bit of space, etc.  They should be able to just set you up an additional folder.  Talk to IT

We use G Suite and our internet isn't fast enough for bulk download and upload of photos to the cloud. We don't have any in-house server

[jcarter1105]

On 5/11/2017 at 3:41 PM, djdwosk97 said:

What high school did you go to....My high school was pretty up there with tech and we had nothing of the sort.

I went to Fairfax County. Each student had there own network Drive. Along with Different classes having one. 

[ProjectBox153]

3 hours ago, jcarter1105 said:

I went to Fairfax County. Each student had there own network Drive. Along with Different classes having one. 

Same, although the amount of storage was limited to 100 MB. 

[Andster29]

I would first talk to the IT department and see what they can set up. Otherwise a NAS system would be better. I am assuming you are a student, so odds are you will not be around to fix a custom system when it goes down. With a Synology they at least have a support team that someone can call. 

[dalekphalm]

On 2017-5-11 at 3:09 PM, Maximoose said:

My school is looking for a way to locally store photos for their yearbook, there would probably be 4-5 people accessing it actively at a time. I was going to order a Synology DS216J, but according to Linus, all consumer grade solutions suuuuuuck (video). So I have three options.

 

• Use used server equipment (Linus'es method) (we don't have a server rack) (probably significantly more expensive than the other options, if I get it under $250 the school might consider it)
• Use an old PC as a server (Probably 4 GB of RAM, a Pentium or Core 2 Duo and software RAID) (Cheapest method, we already have the PC, would just need new power supply and HDDs)
• Use the NAS

Which option should I go with?

 

Thanks, Max

Okay - let's get the first thing out of the way:

 

Linus is wrong.

 

He's not completely wrong, but he's still wrong.

 

He's correct in that a general purpose "Media Server" or multi-user Storage Server is a bad experience if you're using a cheap consumer NAS.

 

But for storing photos that 4-5 people will be working on? Yeah, the DS216J is probably totally fine.

 

I would only go the "custom build" or "used server" route if you have the money to spare, AND you specifically want to mess around with the equipment and do everything yourself.

[mjc4wilton]

On 5/11/2017 at 5:08 PM, Maximoose said:

We use G Suite and our internet isn't fast enough for bulk download and upload of photos to the cloud. We don't have any in-house server

Thats a lie. My district uses google suite aswell, doesn't mean that we don't have a server closet and a bunch of servers for other tasks. Talk to IT, they should have a server running ESXi or a storage server that they can let you use. Unless your school is private, super tiny, and not part of a district it will have a storage server or another server that can be used dual function. 

-Coming from someone who works closely with IT in their district.

[Andster29]

On 5/11/2017 at 4:08 PM, Maximoose said:

We use G Suite and our internet isn't fast enough for bulk download and upload of photos to the cloud. We don't have any in-house server

You still need something to act as a domain controller and house all the data that a school must hold onto themselves. There also have to be a way to store user profiles for the network and things of that nature. Something has to be onsite. 

[AshleyAshes]

How can this be done without consulting the IT department anyway?  Unless your IT policies are freakishly lax, you really shouldn't be installing your home built NAS solution onto the school's network.  You're connecting an alien computer into an organizations network in an uncontrolled manor (Unlike say, a school's student wifi network which would be HIGHLY controlled in most situations, assuming your IT team aren't total idiots.)

 

You really, really should talk to IT before you go cavalier and start building your own solutions.

[dalekphalm]

On 5/21/2017 at 0:35 AM, AshleyAshes said:

How can this be done without consulting the IT department anyway?  Unless your IT policies are freakishly lax, you really shouldn't be installing your home built NAS solution onto the school's network.  You're connecting an alien computer into an organizations network in an uncontrolled manor (Unlike say, a school's student wifi network which would be HIGHLY controlled in most situations, assuming your IT team aren't total idiots.)

 

You really, really should talk to IT before you go cavalier and start building your own solutions.

True, but they could get around that by isolating the NAS and all devices connecting to it onto an offline LAN.

 

If the OP wants to connect to the internet (or any other network resources) though, they should for sure be talking to the IT department to get permission, work out logistics, etc.

[ChalkChalkson]

On 11.5.2017 at 9:41 PM, djdwosk97 said:

What high school did you go to....My high school was pretty up there with tech and we had nothing of the sort.

that is actually pretty common. If a student can access his files from any computer on the network this is exactly what the setup is. If the students have a single login that works on all PCs, there is at least some infrastructure you can use.

And your school doesn't have that I'd try to convince ["insert title of school manager from your country here"] to A: get such a thing setup professionally or B: buy you a proper server. Schools don't have ginormous budgets, a thing like a decent server at about 500-750$ is nothing compared to other expenses. 

If your IT is as incompetent as ours was, convince him to set it up yourself. If your school is using windows and you have the single login for each student, then find the server, throw in a few HDDs and setup shares  

[Mikensan]

I'd also agree with @dalekphalm - linus is wrong. I'd say he's just over generalizing, but there are scenarios (many) where a synology or qnap would make sense. Best of all, you get warranty support incase s hits the fan, and a beautiful interface to manage the device. They're usually made easy to understand and use. I'd suggest the model you referenced, and then tack on a external hard drive you can connect to it. Then you'd be able to backup to the external disk.

 

With backups in mind, the only difference in hardware is how long you'll be down when it breaks. If you can afford downtime, then you can afford a cheaper solution.

 

Don't ever let somebody sell you on the idea of buying high end equipment means your data is safe. Shit breaks no matter how expensive it is, otherwise most of us would be out of a job lol.

[mjc4wilton]

4 hours ago, Mikensan said:

I'd also agree with @dalekphalm - linus is wrong. I'd say he's just over generalizing, but there are scenarios (many) where a synology or qnap would make sense. Best of all, you get warranty support incase s hits the fan, and a beautiful interface to manage the device. They're usually made easy to understand and use. I'd suggest the model you referenced, and then tack on a external hard drive you can connect to it. Then you'd be able to backup to the external disk.

 

With backups in mind, the only difference in hardware is how long you'll be down when it breaks. If you can afford downtime, then you can afford a cheaper solution.

 

Don't ever let somebody sell you on the idea of buying high end equipment means your data is safe. Shit breaks no matter how expensive it is, otherwise most of us would be out of a job lol.

Agreed. We buy military grade fiber cables in an effort of having them not break when someone steps on them. The ends are still very fragile and they are $800+ a piece