ian.nas4

Members
  • Posts

    7
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Converted

  • Gender
    Undisclosed

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

ian.nas4's Achievements

Noob

Noob (1/14)

0

Reputation

  1. I've started of a bigger conversation than I thought would happen! :-) Reading all the posts above, you'll see that a number of people have had failed usb drives and they are quickly replaced. However, my initial point was that you can't know in advance that will happen, even if it is highly likely at this time - and that USB devices do fail quite readily. One of the best solutions above is using a card reader, but after thinking about it for the last few days and reading all the posts, I think my idea of having the disks READ only from over the network ( but otherwise with all the settings the same) - would be a big step in the right directing. You could then still access all your data, with the same shares, permissions etc, and also do an array rebuild ie if a disk died, you rebooted and the usb key was dead, you could plug in a backup USB key (ID not matching), and a new drive, and it would still rebuild and be readable... So you could get you 'proper' license usb key, set up your system, copy it to as many things as you want... - and I have to agree with a few of the other posts above, assuming the server has internet access is definitely a no no...
  2. I agree, I should be fired if that was the case. However, I often set things up and then it's up to other people to maintain it, and one thing I've learn't is to make it as idiot proof as possible... I've had dozens of hard disks fail on me too, but I would have had 90% of thumb drives fail at some point, which is worse.. I pretty much hate thumb drives, and would never put anything critical on them. By the sounds of it, at least some other people agree - I like the idea many people have said of using a card read as the ID - I agree that should be more robust (I've had far less of them fail than thumb drives..) Yep, that's hard thing, and why it's probably been done with a thumb drive... If you make it based on - - motherboard id - no good as if it goes (happened to me quite a few times) id will no longer match - any of the hard disk ids - no good as they are going to probably change over time - live internet activation - many of the boxes you'd want to use unRAID on might not be directly connected to the internet. Yet you have to protect the IP somehow... One of the things I've tried in the past is a crypto signed unique keyfile, with the customers name, address, email, phone number, and license number in plain text. While this won't stop a home user running a couple of copies, it tends to drastically reduce how many people they want to give it to, and does tend to stop most corporates from abusing IP. On top of that, you then tie that key to support... I agree that wouldn't be as good from a "IP' perspective as a usb key. Maybe you could also add (to the above) a rolling hardware requirement, ie do the key for the initial hardware (disks and MB) and let it keep on working if any of that hardware still existed - and update the key automatically if new hardware was added/change if some of the original was still there (ie adding some disks, taking out some of the old ones). After all, if the MB and all the hard disks all go at once, there ain't going to be anything to run anyway... Yes, that would be open to 'replicating' piecemeal, but who is really going to bother with the hassle given the price of the software... My final thought is feature based. ie make it able to run without the usb key - if previously one was present - with all the normal features (shares, number of disks, replace a dead disk etc etc) apart from that all the data is read only over the network . This would then make it easier to survive (and transfer to another solution) if it took a while (or wasn't possible) to get another key.
  3. I agree, to a degree, and try to. But often there are just too many things to do, and keep track of all suppliers is just too hard.. I agree again, and part of the reason I'm as paranoid as I am now is that I HAVE had major reinstall problems when I haven't been able to get a license activated... So I do assume disks, motherboards, power supplies, network connections etc etc can go dead at any time. However, you can get new disks, motherboards, graphics cards, memory modules etc in 15 minutes or so, assume none in the cupboard work. Internet connection I normally now do two independent ones to different suppliers, AND have a mobile solution that can directly plug into the network for at least some connectivity... To do all (or some) of that and rely on the least reliable bit of computer hardware made - a usb key - seems to be a bit silly to me.... I agree again. But recovery in place is always better (if possible) than recovery from backup. And in this case the whole box could be fine apart from the usb key! - which happens to be the dodgiest bit of hardware in it! Part of the problem is that I was thinking of getting a few of my clients onto simple NAS boxes instead of expanding their main servers, which is why I was looking at unRAID. After looking into it, the only thing that would stop me using unRAID (which looks far better than zfs solutions for quite a few reasons) is that unreliable usb key.. - and with my slightly bigger hat on, for some of my bigger clients, we have insisted (and got) from some software supplies key activation programs (and some times source code and/or file formats) placed in escrow with third parties.. Yep, that's how nervous some of us can be... Last point, I'd rate usb keys to be at least 1000 time more likely to fail as a hard disk... Ian ps thanks for all the feedback, I got a bigger response than expected!
  4. thanks for all the feedback! :-) I get what you are all saying, but my point is wider than if you can get a new key today, and that the USB key might not fail as it isn't written to often. Lets imagine that I set up a NAS with unRAID, by two license keys and put one in the emergency supplies. A couple of years go by, power goes out or some other problem, NAS reboots and the USB is corrupted - not an impossible assumption, particularly given it is know that USB drives deteriorate with age as well as with activity. Go to the cupboard for the spare key, assuming you can find it, and it to is dead. OK, you are now reliant on Lime Technology still being there, still answering emails, and still re issuing keys - all things you have no control over. In fact, if anything I have learned that generally you have to assume the opposite ie I have rebuilt quite a few servers, gone to install software that was running on them previously, and not been able to as the company owning the software has either disappeared or been bought by someone and the activation process no longer works - and even if you have a phone number (if they have been taken over) they say upgrade to a different product (for $x..). I've even seen business stuck doing that after a disaster and unable to read their backups that were in propitiatory format! (yes, I agree, poor management on their behalf). So as a general rule, you don't want to use anything that will result in getting to your data requiring a single external entity that may or may not be there... Which is why a few years ago I swapped from be expensive servers with custom parts to cheap ones with easily replaceable ones and more backups (you can never have too many backups..) Thus my issue with the very failable USB key - the uncertainty that at a future date that you can replace it if you need to (and the time it might take). Yes, today you can. In two years time in an emergency? No one can say.
  5. you should put that link on your product description page ie here http://lime-technology.com/unraid-server/
  6. I've been looking around as I'm about to build a nas, and unRAID looks good. Until I saw the license was tied to a usb key - so the whole system depends on the one bit of hardware that is the least reliable in the whole server! If the USB key goes on reboot, so does the array and you'd be pulling disks out one by one to get the data off them! That would be bad enough, but it seems that you don't allow the license key to be reissued to another (working) usb key either... I understand you have to do licensing, but tying it to the life of one crappy (they all are..) usb key is ridiculous. Which is sad, as the software looks good, but no way am I going to rely on a usb key working to access my data...
  7. it's a bit sad that shipping just a box is so expensive when I have shipped a car from japan to australia for less than $1k... Find someone who is going to the USA to bring it back for you - I used to go over from aus a few times a year and just queued everything up for each trip.. :-)