Kampmeier’s Blog

Accessing NAS Server Files from Linux Using NFS

Since I recently reconfigured our Macs to use NFS to access data housed on our home NAS server, it was time to start using NFS from Ubuntu to do the same.  Functionally, the use of CIFS to access the QNAP NAS server worked without a hitch, but I knew we weren’t getting the best performance by using CIFS.  I covered the CIFS set up in an earlier blog entry.   In this example, I had to configure our new home server system to access our NAS server.

In the following excerpt from an Ubuntu system’s /etc/fstab file, “network-disk” is the host name of the NAS server.

network-disk:/share/HDA_DATA/Qdownload /mnt/network-disk/downloads nfs _netdev,auto,user 0 0
network-disk:/share/HDA_DATA/backup       /mnt/network-disk/backup      nfs _netdev,auto,user 0 0


New Low Power Home Server

In the interest of saving power I decommissioned our old home server system several months ago.  Initially my grand hope was to migrate our home monitoring system to out existing low power consumption NAS server machine.  Unfortunately, that vision didn’t pan out and I ended up building a new home server.

Continue reading New Low Power Home Server…

NFS on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

I recently acquired a MacBook Pro 15″ laptop for work.  What a nice machine!

We’ve been using SMB to connect our other Mac and Linux computers in the house to our NAS server, but I wanted to give NFS another try given that it’s much better performing.  The QNAP NAS server had a bug in that its QRAID-1 feature wouldn’t work properly when NFS is in use.  Since that issue was present in the QNAP software more than a year ago, I am crossing my fingers that they have fixed it since then.

Setting up access to NFS shares on Mac OS X has become a lot easier with 10.5 (Leopard).  I used the following advice to get my MacBook set up properly:

NFS on Mac OS X 10.5

I ended up modifying my Unix user ID on the NAS server to match the ID used on the MacBook such that permissions and ownership would work properly.  As I retrofit our iMac to access the NAS server via NFS, I’ll need to rework our other user IDs too.  Using “chown -R userid:grouid” is a godsend on the NAS server to make these adjustments.

Perl, CPAN, iPKG and thermd on QNAP TS-109 Pro

Update: November 3, 2008: I gave up on trying to migrate my thermd deployment to the NAS server and instead assembled a new low power home server.

Continue reading Perl, CPAN, iPKG and thermd on QNAP TS-109 Pro…

Accessing NAS Server Files from Linux Using CIFS

Updated November 5, 2008:  Since I recently reconfigured our Linux clients to use NFS to access our NAS server, the following instructions no longer apply to our home network.  Although they may still be of use to you.

Although I started out using NFS to access the files housed on our QNAP TS-109 Pro NAS server, I ran into a QNAP bug that forced me to revert to using CIFS (the new and fancy name for SMB).  Since I wanted to automatically mount the network shares, I had to do some investigation to figure out the best way to do it.  I also wanted to perform the auto mounting from both my Ubuntu workstation and my Ubuntu laptop.  Of course with the laptop, it’s often not connected to our home network.  Thus the solution needed to be flexible and not too bothersome when I’m traveling with the laptop.

The following approach has worked like a charm for the past 9 months or so.  It’s great  that when I’m using my laptop, these mounts don’t adversely affect boot up or ongoing operations when the home network is not available. Continue reading Accessing NAS Server Files from Linux Using CIFS…

Cost Effective Universal Remote: Harmony 550

One of the next steps in our Kitchen Sound and Video project was to find a cost effective universal remote. Based on a bit of research, we homed in on the Logitech Harmony 550 remote:

Continue reading Cost Effective Universal Remote: Harmony 550…

Kitchen Sound and Video

Although we moved into our new home a year ago, I didn’t get around to addressing the kitchen-dining area-sun room-deck sound and video hookup until the the past month or two. This post describes what we did to connect the following components together:

• iMac kitchen computer (which is already connected to a home NAS server that houses audio files, pictures and documents)
• 2 pairs of Polk Audio RC6i ceiling speakers in each of the following adjacent areas: kitchen, dining and sun room (in the future, we’ll be adding speakers to our deck)
• 23″ LCD kitchen TV
• Dish Network Satellite receiver

Continue reading Kitchen Sound and Video…

TS-109 External Drive Swapping: Initial Results

I’ve been experimenting with the Q-RAID 1 feature of the QNAP TS-109 NAS server in an attempt to better understand how long it will take for an external drive to sync up with the NAS server’s single internal drive. One scenario outlined in our home network storage and backup strategy is the case in which two external drives are rotated on a monthly basis between the NAS server and an off-site storage location. This is done to avoid a complete loss of our data in case of a major home disaster or theft.

The rotation approach is simple: We disconnect the external drive from the NAS server, take it to the off-site location, retrieve the other external drive, bring it home and connect it to the NAS server. Continue reading TS-109 External Drive Swapping: Initial Results…

Accessing Data from Q-RAID1 Drive

Several of my colleagues are using the same TS-109 NAS server as we are using at home. We recently discussed how you can access the user data from a mirrored Q-RAID1 external drive after the drive has been ejected and disconnected from the NAS server. For example, let’s say that the NAS’ internal drive experienced a severe error and you want to install a new replacement internal drive. As opposed to trying to rely on the Q-RAID1 sync process, can you just copy the content from the Q-RAID1 external drive to the newly installed internal drive? Continue reading Accessing Data from Q-RAID1 Drive…

Mac OS Client Access to NAS

Updated November 5, 2008:  Since several of our Macs are running Mac OS X 10.5 in which it is simple to set up access to NFS shares and a prior bug in the QNAP NAS server implementation of NFS and its QRAID-1 backup feature was fixed, we’ve switched to using NFS to access the NAS server. Therefore the information below is out of date.

Earlier this week we finally installed our new NAS server. We published a blog entry describing our initial set up experience. One of the next tasks was to get our Mac OS laptop configured to automatically mount the shares from the NAS server.

A key requirement for share access from our clients is that we don’t want to repeatedly execute commands to mount and access the shares. Ideally, once a folder of interest is accessed, the supporting share would be automatically mounted. Continue reading Mac OS Client Access to NAS…