Netgear SC101 NAS

[Paul L]

I've just bought a Netgear SC101 NAS to use for additional back-up for my Mint 10 / 11 system. It looks like a toaster - and at the moment performs similarly. I've searched the internet and installed a program sc101-nbd.0.03. I've followed instruction from the internet and managed to get it to recognise one of the two discs inside. However, I don't appear to be able to mount the drive (nbd0).

Has anyone managed to get this product working in Mint?

Any help gratefully accepted.

Many thanks


Paul L

[DrHu]

However, I don't appear to be able to mount the drive (nbd0).

I would be guessing the reason is because that is the base OS installation, and it needs that mounted (supported on windows OS) in order to run the Linux overlay driver file

• However as I read some of the documentation for that device, it seems that Netgear (Zetara SAN software protocols supported with windows OS drivers) provides no file recovery methods , suggesting that it is not able to mount the drives except under its own translating software, not likely a complete OS process.

It is not a NAS device, and that is part of its problems..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netgear_SC101

• The SC101 is a home networked storage product manufactured and distributed by Netgear using networking storage technology (ZSAN) licensed from Zetera Corporation . The device is capable of sharing data stored on 1 or 2 internal disks (either IDE PATA or SATA depending on model) via Ethernet links. The SC101 has been poorly received by the public in general due to poor advertising and misinformation by retail outlets selling the device as a NAS. The inherent file system in the device is quite fragile when used as a full-function file server, limiting the device's effective uses. It has also been known to suffer from overheating issues

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... NMTl9fU3Rr

• SAN disks run as an extension of a computer's operating system. Therefore connected computers must have operating systems and software that are compatible with the SAN to be able to use it. NETGEAR's SC101 and SC101T are such SAN devices
  A NAS is a more complicated device that has its own, small operating system. Sometimes computers that have been converted just to be file servers are referred to as NAS devices.

• I would call that advertising blurb
  --Not an accurate assessment of SAN vs NAS. SAN's can be quite complicated to configure in that they usually involve multiple RAID device setups..

The file you used is a kludge to provide some Linux support
http://code.google.com/p/sc101-nbd/
And have you used the latest version of that driver file ?
http://www.dknss.com/data/sc101-nbd-init/
--you used this howto guide ?

I don't have that software and in fact I would probably, if I needed a NAS device, just setup an old computer with a bunch of drives as a NAS server, probably using something such as freenas
http://freenas.org/
the free OSS product line
http://www.serverelements.com/?target=Products
A commercial product line..

[Paul L]

DrHu,

thanks for the response.

I bought the SC101 as I had a couple of spare IDE drives and no space within my case for any more (got 6 installed). I wanted to use it as an additional storage / backup system using two 80Gb IDE discs.

I have downloaded the latest install program and can currently communicate with one of the two discs. I tried to follow the instructions but got lost on the init scripts section - the instructions are written for Fedora not Mint and I didn't understand how to carry out this part.

At the minute I'm still looking for a How to install SC101 for Dummies!

Thanks for your help.

[DrHu]

Do you even get to this part, running the Netgear software ?
http://www.dknss.com/data/sc101-nbd-ini ... .htm#AEN87

• Create Partition
  First go to the sc101 GUI, and create a partition for the linux servers to use. Make sure you note down the label you gave the partition.

If there are only .rpm files available for that installation, you can use Debian alien to convert the .rpm to .deb package format and see if the install works..

http://www.dknss.com/data/sc101-nbd-ini ... htm#AEN111
--that part, create the partition in /etc/fstab

If you are kludging this device together for yourself, I would probably stop twiddling with it, pick up a cheap computer case with a power supply, and add your bunch of hard drives into that, or possibly stop trying to use the SC101 SAN software (if that is possible with that device), and create a real NAS device, ignoring their specific SAN software, and running your own NAS server..