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[iamnemo]

Edited to add details:

My setup:

I have six (6) DNS-323 (v1.07 firmware) and a XP Pro computer connected to an 8-port unmanaged gigabit switch which is itself connected (for internet access) to my router which is the DHCP server for my network.

Everything works fine except for the "wake-up" problem mentioned below.

Now my question is:

I would like to see the six DNS-323 units as a single file system in XP Pro, i.e. one drive letter with each NAS as a folder under root.  I believe this is known as NAS/file aggregation/virtualization.

What are my options for doing that (preferably software only). Thanks!

Wake-up problem:

Sometimes one of the DNS-323 doesn't "wake up" when accessed and I have to reboot it.

Thanks! Iam

[iamnemo]

FYI:  http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=36&threadid=2328661&FTVAR_STKEYWORDFRM=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

[ttmcmurry]

The DNS-323 doesn't offer any kind of faculty to do this.

NDAS devices, however, do to a certain extent.  Through personal experience, however, I wouldn't use one of them under a wireless network.

If you were running Linux of some kind and *if* D-Link gets NFS working correctly in 1.09 or later, you would be able to mount any of your 323s in a folder(s) of your choosing.

AFAIK, if you were using Windows Server 2003 or higher, you could deploy DFS and achieve one source of network shares from multiple devices, of which you could mount into one drive letter on WinXP. 

As your post in the other forum indicates, iSCSI would also be an option, but you're never going to see that on the DNS-323.  Keep in mind, the 323 only has 64MB of ram in it to run the OS and all of the utilities it comes with.  D-Link offers this on the high-end and this on the entry level with the features you're looking for.

You're requesting an enterprise-class feature in a device that is destined for Home/SoHo.  With 6 NASes it's probably time to "grow up" your storage solution and have a talk with a Tier 1 provider about inexpensive storage servers.  For example, a Dell PowerVault NF500 running Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 (64-bit) with 6x 1TB SATA Hot Plug drives costs around $6,000.  It's expandable with up to three  MD1000 disk array enclosures for a total of 52 drives of capacity if you need it.  Compare that to an EqualLogic or EMC SAN and you'll see the huge cost savings of an entry-level enterprise storage server.  PLUS you'll get the features you're looking for and get a huge speed boost.

[iamnemo]

Thank you for your very valuable input.

I found the following statement about NDAS in the Wikipedia entry:

...environments in which multiple machines wish to access the networked device or in a RAID configuration can result in data loss or corruption.

which is troubling to say the least.  As I know nothing about NDAS I cannot verify this information.

With DFS can the storage devices use a non-NTFS file system?

I'm still wondering if any software technology would enable these capabilities in an heterogeneous where PCs, PS3 and other devices need to access the aggregated storage resources.  Maybe if a relatively inexpensive UPnP hardware switch-like device could play this role of presenting a unified storage landscape with a unique file system to the other devices in the network...

I agree that I might be asking a bit much from my simple DNS-323 devices.  I would have opted for another solution from the beginning if I had known.... but the NASes were added one at a time with this result.  I still like the DNS-323 which, IMHO, has the best features/price ratio but I might be a bit past that now.

Thanks again for your reply!  Iam

[ttmcmurry]

You're right, the DNS-323 is a great value for what you get.

IIRC, NTFS is required for DFS to work with multiple windows servers.  FAT32 lacks the security permissions, ACLs, metadata, etc, that is required to control permissions, access, & replication functionality of DFS. 

In all likliness, if you want a reliable, tested, secure (as in data integrity, not access control) solution, by adding client-side software to aggregate multiple points of storage into one view you add another complex layer of software between you and the hardware.  That would introduce many new points of failure or risk to your data integrity.  That's probably why we don't see anything on the market like that after all of these years networked storage has been around.

[iamnemo]

A little update:

I found this software to be useful to manage concatenated listing of files from all NAS units :

FileBoss http://www.theutilityfactory.com/

Excellent tech support too!
iamnemo

[AKFubar]

RE:  DNS-323 Wake up

I have found that on my box with Caviar Green drives the hibernation function causes this wake up issue.  I have disabled hibernation on the 323 and set a static IP for the NAS.  The Caviar Green drives have their own power save mode anyway.  Problem solved for me.

[iamnemo]

Thanks AK.  Same here: no hibernation and fixed IP but still doesn't work all the time.