Direct-connect NAS via ethernet?

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Level 2

404 points

Direct-connect NAS via ethernet?

Hi,

I'm trying to add storage to a Mac server and was wondering whether it's possible to direct-connect a NAS device (via ethernet) while simultaneously keeping the computer attached to it's main network. Basically this amounts to connecting the Mac server to two networks: the "real" one and a very simple one that just includes it plus the NAS box.

I had a couple of questions about this:

How would I configure OS X to handle this? (Mac Mini running OS X Mavericks + server. LAN via Wifi to Airport router using DHCP, NAS via Ethernet direct connect)
Would the server be able to "bridge" the two networks? That is, could computers on the LAN directly communicate with the NAS -- or similarly, could the NAS access the internet via the LAN? (I'm hoping the answer is "no.")
Would the direct connection use a standard or crossover ethernet cable?
Is there a way to do this using iSCSI that makes things easier or more stable?

(The reason to consider this less-than-ideal configuration is that most enclosures that take larger numbers or more-flexible drive sizes are NAS-only (e.g., Synology), but I'd like to avoid the complexity or security issues that come along with all of the stupid bells-and-whistles that are glued on to these boxes. The storage needs are: high capacity, low bandwidth, and the ability to productively use a pile of old hard drives I have lying around...)

Any advice?

Thanks!

Mac mini, OS X Server, OS X Mavericks

Posted on Apr 28, 2014 4:23 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MplsEE08

Level 1

65 points

Apr 28, 2014 6:16 PM in response to Mike G.

Hey Mike,

What kind of Mac do you have? Plug your NAS into the ethernet port on your Mac. You should be able to use just a regular ethernet cable. A crossover cable will most likely not be necessary. If you are already using your ethernet port, you can huy a USB or ThunderBolt ethernet adapter to add an additional port for the NAS drive.

The NAS and Mac will need to be assigned IP addresses manually in system preferences. Use a range that is different from your WiFi network; i.e. if you're using 192.168.x.x on your WiFi, don't use that range for the NAS drive. If you do not setup IP addresses, and the NAS is setup for DHCP, it will be automatically assigned a link-local address which may suffice.

OS X will not "bridge" the connections unless you tell it to.

Hope this helps.

Taylor

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Answer 2

Apr 29, 2014 3:35 AM in response to Mike G.

You can get an encosure like the Promise Pegasus range which directly connects to a Mac via Thunderbolt but still provides RAID and lots of storage. This is one option.

See http://www.promise.com/promotion_page/promotion_page.aspx?region=en-global&rsn=1 00

Otherwise yes you can connect the NAS to the Mac via a separate connection. A Mac Pro has two Ethernet ports built-in so this is straight forward, you would have a small network of the Mac and the NAS. The Mac would mount the NAS and then re-share it to the clients. Some people would connect the server to the NAS via iSCSI for this (requires buying an iSCSI initiator) some people use NFS however it is also possible to use AFP. You can still re-share via AFP no-matter which method the server is talking to the NAS.

You don't need to set up any routing for this, the clients just talk to the server as normal and because the server is connected to the NAS and has re-shared it, it all happens automatically. You would only need to route or bridge the connection if the clients were directly going to talk to the NAS but they would not need to do so as the server is what they talk to instead.

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Answer 3

Mike G. Author

Level 2

404 points

May 3, 2014 2:39 PM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks! I would much prefer a direct-connect but here's my problem: I've got a pile of old hard drives of different sizes / mfgrs that I'd like to pool into useful storage space. This seems -- conceptually at least -- like an ideal application for RAID. (I get some redundancy to offset older drives that may fail, and I get a speed boost from the parallelized I/O, right?)

However, the high quality RAID enclosures out there typically require identical drives and the standard RAID protocols require same-sized drives. As far as I can tell, this leaves proprietary protocols like Drobo (which receives terrifying reviews, re its reliability) and Synology (which is NAS-only, hence my original question)...

Any advice?

Thanks!

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Answer 4

Mike G. Author

Level 2

404 points

May 3, 2014 2:44 PM in response to MplsEE08

Thanks! It's a Mac Mini -- connecting to LAN via WiFi and to the NAS via its one ethernet jack. The LAN (which is run by an Airport router) uses DHCP. The second "network" would have no router (because it consists only of the mac-mini, the NAS box, and the ethernet cable connecting the two).

Please forgive the naive question, but will the mac mini have the same IP address on both networks? If not, then how do I configure this separately? If so, then will there be problems on the computer-and-NAS network when the dynamically-assigned IP address from the LAN changes?

Thanks!

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Answer 5

May 3, 2014 2:59 PM in response to Mike G.

For a mix of different size drives Drobo seems to be the only choice but I have also seen the same negative comments.

Microsoft did introduce an interesting solution for Windows Home Server 1.0 which was not exactly RAID, what they did was put a copy of each file on more than one drive and the drives could be any mixture of sizes. If one drive went off-line the file was still available via another. Being that it was not RAID each drive would still work individually. Unfortunately not only was this only for Windows but they also killed it off in Home Server 2.0.

I seem to recall ZFS might have a similar facility and it is possible to use ZFS on a Mac although it is not supported by Apple.

By the way many of the Drobo problems I believe relate to their networking in your case you don't want to use the Drobo networking anyway, have a look at http://www.drobo.com/storage-products/5d/

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Answer 6

Mike G. Author

Level 2

404 points

May 3, 2014 3:07 PM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks. (The windows solution is interesting, but I don't think it will help in my case!)

(The Drobo reviews on Amazon are full of drive failure issues -- even for the DAS models. Whereas Synology seems to be using a standard RAID on partitioned disks.)

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Answer 7

Nov 3, 2016 9:11 AM in response to MplsEE08

you can connect directly using a crossover network cable and mapping the disk by using the command connect to server

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