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Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

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    Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

    Hi all,

    I'm thinking about migrating our A5 database onto a network drive rather than using a dedicated computer attached to the network.
    The drive I found is a WD 6TB My Cloud EX2 NAS which has two drives configured to mirror each other (Raid1) and a process which supposedly helps with its speed.

    I wanted to post here before buying the drive and as if there is anything I should be concerned about. Has anyone run into speed or other problems with such a setup?
    We are not big enough to implement a full server setup so I was hoping a NAS would be the better option to fit the current need.

    Thanks in advance for your advice!
    John

    #2
    Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

    First, I have car dealers with 20-40 users at random running on a semi-fast peer to peer computer.

    As long as it is windows platform, you should be able to use it.

    Others may have more experience on NAS.
    Dave Mason
    [email protected]
    Skype is dave.mason46

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

      I had to swap out a NAS I installed for a customer as it was crippling his performance on occasion. Running 4 users Network optimised and seeing response times of several seconds when filtering records. We mucked around with various network settings - frame size for one - which helped, but problem would return then disappear.

      We put in a Core I5 Windows 7 PC and now always get sub-second response times.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

        MOst people I have talked to have had speed issues with nas. Might want to re-think that one.

        Good Luck though.
        Dave Mason
        [email protected]
        Skype is dave.mason46

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

          Interesting, thanks for the feedback guys.
          I don't have a problem with using a dedicated windows PC, but then comes the issue of data back-up. The NAS mirrors itself to the other drive in real-time. If drive failure was to occur, I could switch to the other drive with zero down-time. With a PC, my back-up would only cover data since the last run, leaving a gap.
          Even if I scheduled the PC to run some kind of back-up process daily, its still not the same as having an exact clone of the drive and I would loose that days records. For some reason I've never trusted a "back-up" copy, just doesn't seem as reliable as a clone.

          I'm definately open to learning better ways so please share your experiances. Thanks!

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

            Doesn't a RAID drive on a PC do a similar type of cloning?
            Al Buchholz
            Bookwood Systems, LTD
            Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

            Occam's Razor - KISS
            Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
            Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
            When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
            "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
            Albert Einstein

            http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

              My limited experience with NAS devices and Alpha databases has been negative. I think they're optimized for writes, but not for reads. Reads are critical in our database apps. In any case I don't think they're designed for this kind of application.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                Windows 7 professional or better will create RAID arrays when given Multiple drives. I've implemented RAID 1 with 2 two terabyte drives. I haven't figured out how to get windows 7 to create a raid array on the boot drive. This may not be possible without special hardward. I would suggest get a small SSD to use as the system drive then add two big RAID 1 mirrored drives for data storage. You just need a pc with 3 or more SATA ports, not hard to find.

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                  #9
                  Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                  We use Windows Storage Server 2012, manufacturer is Buffalo.
                  I setup an RAID 0 for higher speed and make a snapshot every hour. The disk was formatted with 512 bytes / sectors. I have read that this becomes good if you have lots of small files.
                  Works pretty good.

                  Cornelius

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                    I think the NAS device could successfully be used as storage for backups. But I do not think they work well as a "file server" device for desktop apps running over a local network.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                      Some great info, thanks so much for your replies. Based on your suggestions, I will also look into setting up a simple server PC. Essentially these servers are designed to have multiple users and redundant drives so perhaps it is the best solution, just some learning curve to work with.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                        I believe Nas(Network attached storage) was set up not as a server. The market(price) is a lot less for storage systems than servers. Thus the reason they sell.

                        I checked this morning: One of my dealers is running a5v12 off an older pc that has XP3 on it. They back the data up(automatic) at 3 am every morning. It servers 53 workstations with up to 35 people at a time with a normal of 18-20.
                        drive capacity is .5T. MHz is 2400 and 4 gigs memory. They are fine on the performance part. normally around 800 new records per month and sometimes more.
                        Last edited by DaveM; 03-10-2016, 01:40 PM.
                        Dave Mason
                        [email protected]
                        Skype is dave.mason46

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                          Dave,
                          Thanks for sharing.
                          The thought of back-up worries me, maybe because of my limited experiance. In the event of total drive failure, how would files be restored from a back-up anyway. For some reason I've always been more comfortable with cloning since there no restore process is needed.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                            Originally posted by hov333 View Post
                            Dave,
                            Thanks for sharing.
                            The thought of back-up worries me, maybe because of my limited experiance. In the event of total drive failure, how would files be restored from a back-up anyway. For some reason I've always been more comfortable with cloning since there no restore process is needed.
                            John, something that is extremely important to understand is that RAID is NOT a substitute for backups. While it can be great for redundancy, availability, and/or performance, depending on configuration, it has no versioning at all and you cannot roll back. If records are changed, they are immediately changed on ALL of the drives in the array. If your files become corrupt, they will be corrupt on ALL of the drives in the array. If your data is deleted, it will be lost from ALL of the drives in the array.

                            Lenny Forziati
                            Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
                            Alpha Software Corporation

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Tips for uploading desktop database onto NAD drive

                              The thought of back-up worries me, maybe because of my limited experiance. In the event of total drive failure, how would files be restored from a back-up anyway. For some reason I've always been more comfortable with cloning since there no restore process is needed.
                              Along with what Lenny said. Most of my dealers actually copy/zip all the files in the server folder to their Linux server while the dealership is closed at night. They do not overwite the last backup. Some of the smaller independent deals do it with a tape backup where it runs late at night or just before the last person leaves. Generally 1 machine and 1 tape per day for a week and 1 extra for monthly.

                              It is a simple process to copy to a new drive if needed. The runtimes should be on workstations anyhow.
                              Dave Mason
                              [email protected]
                              Skype is dave.mason46

                              Comment

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