Creating a NAS Box Using OpenFiler
In a recent walkthru we outlined the steps for taking an existing server and converting it into a NAS box. That article assumed that you already installed Linux on the server and you will maintain that installation (i.e. updates, security, etc.). This article takes examines an alternative: a dedicated NAS distribution called OpenFiler that allows you to very simply create a stand-alone NAS box that can be administered over the web.
In a recent article we saw how easy it is to take an existing server and enable NFS, effectively turning it into a NAS box (See Creating a NAS Box with an Existing System). The steps are fairly simple and nearly all Linux distributions come with NFS (excluding some of the embedded or specialized distributions). However, implicit in this approach is that you have to maintain the server distribution by keeping it up to date, making sure it is patched, and implementing your own security on the system. This can include many packages installed on the server that have nothing to do with NFS or NAS.
An alternative approach is to use a dedicated NAS appliance distribution that uses only the packages necessary for a NAS box. This would reduce the number of packages that you need to keep up to date or even monitor for security problems. This…
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