Cheap NAS using FreeBSD - practical considerations?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of David Gerard
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 12:00 PM
> To: questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Cheap NAS using FreeBSD - practical considerations?
> 
> 
> 
> Let's say that, as fine as NetApps are, I can't afford their prices. So I
> set up a FreeBSD box with a whole lot of disk attached and use that as
> network-attached storage, serving files by NFS, with gigabit ethernet.
> 
> Setting up such a box is trivially easy. But what are the practical
> considerations? Have any of you done this, or know anyone who has? 

Maxtor's MaxAttach NAS 3000 products were exactly this - FreeBSD on a PC 
motherboard in a rack mounted case with a web interface to manage
them.  The rumor was that Microsoft got so upset about it that they went to
Maxtor and gave them a free license to use Windows as an embedded OS
for their MaxAttach NAS 4100.

Ted