Just curious about what the advantage(s) are of using FreeNAS or OpenFiler over Ubnutu for a NAS box.
Is it reliability, performance, both?
I'm a photographer and I have a requirement find a better method of storing my photo library.
Currently I use a Macbook Pro and 6 external drives connected via USB2 or FW800. They are divided up in pairs, one is a copy of the other synced manually with rsync. It's slow.
I am considering building a NAS box and using two 2TB drives with software RAID to mirror the drives, and consolidating my library to one central location that I can access via 1gb lan, or Wireless network when convenient.
I would like to employ FreeNAS as I understand it supports AFP.
I don't know how software RAID works, hoping that at any time I can pull the master drive off and plug it into the macbook via eSATA so I can work with much faster speed... plug it back into the NAS box and have it sync the drives if necessary.
So, I'm seeking the best method and advise on my project. Should I consider FreeNAS or OpenFiler, and what file system should I choose for the drive so it plays nice with OSX when plugged in locally via USB, eSATA or FW800.
Many thanks