[clug-talk] Suggestions: DIY NAS Box

[TekBudda]

I have recently acquired some extra computers that were going to be
binned from work & as a result I have some new equipment that will be
used daily & some that will need to be repurposed or disposed of.
Because of all the stuff moving around I thought it would be
interesting to play around with stuff a bit & maybe
consolidate/simplify things a bit in the process.  One of the things I
was thinking of was creating a NAS/SAN box.

I have a small form factor dell box (from VFXWeb.com) that was a
dedicated Linux box, but was then going to be a WIndows XP box...but
since I picked up a 2.8 Ghz box I will be making that into a Linux box
with virtualized XP (about 80% convinced at this point).  So now I was
thinking, maybe this SFF box (700 Mhz Celeron I believe) would make a
neat little NAS.  I may also toss in a Gigabit NIC, but havent decided
yet.

What I am looking for is suggestions on a NAS software.  I have been
some research, bugging others, ect & have tentatively short-listed to
the folowing:
* FreeNAS
* Openfiler
* NASLite

>From what I can tell they have very minimal requirements & may suit
the purpose.  If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know.

Incidentally, I am currently running Server 2003, but will soom be
adding a CentOS box that I want to sync with AD, etc. & the clients
will be Win2K, WinXP, Linux, MacOS (9 to start & possible OS X).  I
will liley have a couple PDA's to throw in as well...LOL...just to
complicate matters.

I have 2 160 GB (IDE) disks and was going to try & RAID them in teh
SFF box (if they fit), but optionally would have one disk in teh box &
have an external USB drive for backup of teh main disk.

So am I nuts.....on teh right track???

Comments, suggesstions...taunting geers!