iSCSI and OS X, for Spotlight

[drakino]

My NAS is close to running low on space, and the problem I'm running into is that it's just painful to sort through the years worth of data I've stored on there. I've been lazy at times, and just kept kicking the can down the road for the past decade with larger hard drives and newer NAS setups. I was hoping in time some way of enabling full Spotlight indexing would come along, but at best hacks of the past were unreliable and failed to keep working.

So now I'm debating how to just address the problem head on. One idea is to take all the data off, wipe the NAS, then set it back up as one solid iSCSI disk. Then, install OS X Server (10.7, and possibly 10.8 later once a point release or two is out) on my nearly always on Mini, and let it use the NAS as one big disk, complete with spotlight indexing usable remotely from my other machines.

Anyone else in this camp, using the ReadyNAS as just solid iSCSI space? What types of issues do I need to be aware of with it? My main concerns are ensuring I can still expand the RAID later, and grow the space. I also want to ensure it's stable. Odds are, the Mini will spend a decent portion of the day asleep, any weird issues resuming from sleep and losing iSCSI access? Also, what initiator do I need to go with that will work well with the ReadyNAS Ultra 4? I'm hesitant to go with the free GlobalSAN one due to the issues reported with it, but also $200 up front for the ATTO also has me hesitant in case this doesn't work out in the end.

[mdgm]

The iSCSI target would be a file on the NAS. Expansion would still work as normal. After expanding the volume you could then looking into adding more space on the iSCSI side.

GlobalSAN is no longer free. ATTO is regarded as the best initiator for Mac, I think.

Currently I don't use iSCSI, so don't have much more to say on that.


I believe that there's a setting for Netatalk that can be changed to enable fast indexing for the share. Are you only accessing the NAS over AFP?

[drakino]

GlobalSAN is no longer free. ATTO is regarded as the best initiator for Mac, I think.

I believe that there's a setting for Netatalk that can be changed to enable fast indexing for the share. Are you only accessing the NAS over AFP?

Ahh, I missed the link to buy the GlobalSAN one for $89. I should probably see which company is already aiming to support 10.8, to get an idea of which one will try to keep up with the accelerated OS X release schedule.

Looks like the fast indexing is only for filename searching. Part of my issue is that I'm moving more data to the NAS as I convert machines from HDD to SSD based systems, and the loss of full content searching is a problem for me.