using Photos on NAS via iSCSI

Vestan,

When you click on the first "For a fee" link in my earlier post, the pertinent section in that article says the following:

Block-level LUN is recommended as it is much faster than a regular LUN. Unfortunately, for that setup you will need to dedicate an entire disk...

That wording indicates you COULD use regular LUN which does NOT required a dedicated disk, although the down side would be that it is slower. I don't have a NAS, so I cannot say how much slower. I suppose that would be true of any iSCSI solution, and if one wishes to put an Apple Photos library on a NAS, iSCSI is the only way to do it.

The best solution would be for Apple to modify the Photos app to remove the demand for a "local" storage solution, which in turn eliminates the need for iSCSI. In such a case, it probably would also be possible to use a HDD attached to an Airport Express (newest edition with AC protocol). The only way to nudge Apple in that direction is for you to join me in sending Apple appropriate feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

Best wishes.

I have no personal experience, nor do I own a NAS, but here is what I found...

For a fee:

http://www.theghostbit.com/2016/04/using-iscsi-to-store-your-apple-photos.html

For free (beta):

https://github.com/iscsi-osx/iSCSIInitiator

I myself am pondering either a USB hard drive attached to an Airport Extreme (AC protocol version) or a Synology NAS with iSCSI.

Photos needs its library on a local drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) connected with a fast wired connection - if you have a NAS meeting those requirements then it should work

It will not work on other formats, with wireless connections or using an intermediate device like Airport

LN

Larry, what you wrote is sound "general advice," but it doesn't appear you have investigated iSCSI and its implications on NAS and Apple Photos storage. As you pointed out, the requirement for Apple Photos is LOCAL storage. But as we investigate what iSCSI is, we see that it is the old tried and true SCSI from years ago brought back to life again over network connection. It basically makes your Mac think you have LOCAL storage when in fact you don't -- you in fact have your storage somewhere on your network, like on a NAS.

I'm by no means an expert on this in that I lack personal experience, but I must admit that I too, like the original poster, am eyeing a NAS for the ability to use iSCSI and therefore have a means of storing Apple Photos data there. I doubt I am unique among Mac users in that the bulk of what eats my internal drive storage space is Apple Photos! I value that data but I want it off my internal storage. An external local drive would accomplish that, but it's not a nice way to share that data. I have purchased an Airport Extreme (latest version with AC protocol) which allows connection of external USB2 drives, but since those drives are not "local," as you correct point out, we sadly cannot store Apple Photos data on such drives. Therefore, the only way to share Apple Photos data at home among a family of Apple device users would be to use a NAS and iSCSI -- for without iSCSI it would not be possible to use Apple Photos data remotely.

I believe the original poster knows all this and, like me, simply opening a thread in this forum to see if any other Mac users have been using a NAS (and of course iSCSI) with Apple Photos and get their personal experience. In theory, NAS + iSCSI should work fine, and from what I have gleaned from Googling, it appears so, but I still would like to hear personal experiences, as that makes a purchase safer, I think.