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kamina · Aug 27, 2010, 03:27 AM

I'm trying to figure out how to move my stuff onto a NAS so that it would still be transparent to any users of my computer. My first idea was to use NFS but since the NAS will be running linux with ext3 I believe that is asking for problems. I've been trying to figure out what would be a better way, and since I'm not ready to buy an xserver or mac pro (which would allow sufficient disk) I assume iscsi would be the only way.

Looking in google it seems some people have been experiencing problems with the osx iscsi initiator, but I guess not very many will go to a manufactuers (practically dead) support forum to post succes stories...

So, have you tested iscsi on osx? What kind of target are you using? Do you put the computer with the mounted disk to sleep mode? Any problems?

besson3c · Aug 27, 2010, 10:16 AM

I would think that using iSCSI would be asking for trouble more so than NFS especially if you are using NFSv3 rather than NFSv4. NFS should be fine, there is nothing about Linux and ext3 that makes it a bad combo providing the shares are configured appropriately. iSCSI might also be fine, but it is more commonly used with SANs and other shared storage solutions. For something as simple as what you seem to need, I would start with looking at NFS.

kamina · Aug 27, 2010, 11:25 AM

Thanks for the reply. A few people and Google hits mentioned that (for example) iPhoto libraries don't work well on nfs mounts that don't have the HFS+ filesystem. I kind of took it for granted...

People mentioned using dmg files to host the library, but somehow it does not seem elegant anymore...

besson3c · Aug 27, 2010, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by kamina

Thanks for the reply. A few people and Google hits mentioned that (for example) iPhoto libraries don't work well on nfs mounts that don't have the HFS+ filesystem. I kind of took it for granted...

People mentioned using dmg files to host the library, but somehow it does not seem elegant anymore...

You are going to have that with iSCSI too on non-HFS filesystems. You might have to concede the OS X metadata if you want a network disk hosted on a non-OS X system. I've lived without it for years...

kamina · Aug 27, 2010, 04:06 PM

Iscsi will present a raw disk which will be formatted on the mac. My guess is the nas will create an LVM volume which will be shared as an iscsi lun. So from the Mac's point of view it should not differ from a local disk (apart from the driver). What worries me is that I don't think iscsi is used a lot in similar situations where a home user shares targets from a NAS (which sleeps when it can) and the initiator is on a desktop that also is suspended several times a day.

besson3c · Aug 27, 2010, 10:30 PM

Yeah, if you want to format it on the Mac side iSCSI is the way to go. Sorry, I can't tell you how well the OS X iSCSI initiator works.

indigoimac · Aug 28, 2010, 04:14 PM

I have found the globalsan iscsi initiator to be quite good. I was pretty much in the same boat as you and after a bit of experimentation it seemed to be the most robust solution. I will warn that it is complete overkill though.

I've got it connected to a Win7 machine that I use mostly for media playback (long, long story as to why it's not running linux) but using Starwind iscsi initiator it's solid.

kamina · Aug 31, 2010, 07:25 AM

Thanks for the replies. Looking further into the issue it seems that the main reason people have been having problems with iphoto / aperture libraries on network shares is issues with filenames, especially in temporary files. There seems to be a few work arounds, my big fear is just that there would be some hidden problems that I would not notice before the library is borked...