Finally, one of the best open source NAS/SAN software now comes with local authentication. It means that you no longer need to use a third party authentication anymore. Previousy I had installed OpenFiler before I realized that a LDAP sever is needed. That was a waste of time. You can set the users and passwords locally on OpenFiler as it now comes with local LDAP service. Yes, they have understood what we need. How many of us have such a server in our home/small offices? Most of us just need a secure storage platform for several users. That’s all we need.

OpenFiler supports all the storage networking protocols like CIFS, NFS, HTTP/DAV/FTP & iSCSI so you can be rest assured that whichever operating environment you are working on, it should have no problems at all. It also comes with an easy to use web based administration interface. Thus, simpletons like me can administrate. And installing is also quite simple. All you have to do is download the iso image, burn to a CD and then boot up from your CD/DVD-ROM drive. The installation procedures are easy to follow.

And OpenFiler is powerful. It allows multi-user share and quotas with group support. For each share, you can configure to quota, access and service controls.  It supports a wide range of hardware too, so if you are thinking of setting up a high end system for your big office, you should take a look at OpenFiler. However, if you are thinking of setting up for a small office, OpenFiler can be the solution as well. Even if you don’t have a lot of experience in Linux, it should be a breeze to setup.  Or you can just buy one consumer NAS from Dlink or Buffalo. However, if you have a spare piece of PIV system with maybe 512MB of RAM, you can make use of it as your NAS. Plus it is way more secure.

OpenFiler is based on rPath Linux and it is a very stable piece of software, meant for enterprise usage. So, I guess that would mean that a lot of enterprise hardware is supported. I have downloaded the image and will be “deploying” the software on 2 servers soon. Too bad, I don’t have a Xenon server to play with but these should do. I will write my little review on OpenFiler soon.