Running AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS on NAS Devices

This document was last updated on 5-May-2008.

Introduction

We have been asked by our customers many times whether AhsayOBS will run on lower cost NAS devices or not. With the growth in storage capacity of today's NAS devices, it is obvious that NAS devices are ideal platforms to run AhsayOBS because they possess the storage capacity required by AhsayOBS but cost only one fraction of the cost of a standard server. This is why we have conducted some studies on the feasibility to run AhsayOBS on various NAS devices recently. We managed to find a couple of ways to running AhsayOBS on various NAS devices. However, the performance of AhsayOBS running of these NAS devices varies. After many testings and investigations, we can conclude that the bottleneck of running AhsayOBS on NAS devices is the memory available. Most small NAS devices (e.g. 1 - 2 bays NAS devices) contain no more than 128MB and AhsayOBS requires at least 256MB (512MB recommended) to run smoothly. Therefore, we rule out all NAS devices that cannot have their memory easily upgraded by users. This leaves us only a handful of NAS devices suitable for AhsayOBS and out of all these NAS devices. Recently we have tested and successfully installed AhsayOBS on the devices of Thecus N4100+, Thecus N5200 and Buffalo LinkStation Pro.

In order to further simplify the installation process, we have combined AhsayOBS and AhsayRPS into a single software. The codename of the combined software is now called AhsayOBSR.

General limitations of using NAS devices

The disadvantage of running AhsayOBS on a NAS device instead of on a full server is that NAS device is much less scalable than a PC server. It is because it has limited memory and much less CPU power. If you expect to have large number of users (e.g. more than 200 users) on your AhsayOBS running on NAS devices, it is recommended to use a more powerful standard server instead. Since different NAS devices have different limitations, please check the "Limitation" part in the installation instructions before making your choice of which supported NAS devices to buy.

Before Installing

Before installing, please make sure that:

  • Your NAS device is supported. Currently, only the following NAS devices are supported: Warning: Please do not apply the instructions in this document to any other unsupported NAS devices, including Thecus 1U4500, unless you are absolutely sure that you fully understand the device and are absolutely sure of what you are doing. If you are interested in adding AhsayOBSR support of other NAS devices, please contact Ahsay customer service representatives.

  • Your NAS device has been configured to meet the minimum requirements for the specific model (please read the Supported Models section).

  • You are accessing the NAS device plugged onto the same subnet. If you are not a network specialist, you are recommended to use the factory default IP address or enable DHCP on the NAS device.

  • The NAS manufacturer web administration console is running on default TCP ports (i.e. 80 and 443) and no other modules/applications on the NAS device are using port 80 and 443. After installation, AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS will use ports 80 and 443 for their web administration console and the NAS manufacturer web administration console will be relocated to ports 8080 and 8443.

  • The NAS device is connected to the internet. This is important. AhsayOBSR requires internet connection to activate its evaluation license. (i.e. when you press the [Manage System] -> [Software License] -> [Update] button)

Install AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS on NAS Devices

Please follow the steps below (in order) to install AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS to one of the supported NAS devices.
  1. Download AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS installation wizard for NAS devices
    1. Download the aobsrnas.exe to your computer.
  2. Open the wizard
    1. Double-click the "aobsrnas.exe" to open the wizard.
    2. A message will pop-up to ask for confirmation. Press [OK] to continue.

    3. Wait until all files are extracted to the system temporary directory. Please note that it can take up to 2 minutes to extract all files on slow computers.

    4. The installation wizard will start and search for supported NAS devices available on the network automatically.

  3. Select and access the NAS device
    1. If the NAS device is connected to your network, you should be able to see the NAS device on the list. If you have more than one NAS device on the network, you can identify each of them by the information displayed on the right hand side. Please select the correct NAS device and press the [Next] button to continue.

    2. For some NAS devices, the installation wizard has to login as the administrator to access them. If you have not changed the password before, the default password will be entered into the field provided for you automatically. Otherwise, please enter the correct password in the text field provided. Then press the [Next] button to continue.

      For those NAS devices that don't require authentication (e.g. Buffalo LinkStation), the installation wizard will skip this login page and jump to the next step automatically.

  4. NAS Device Settings
    1. The wizard will now bring you to the [Network Settings] step. The following settings are available:
      • Host name of the NAS device
      • Static IP or Dynamic IP
      It is highly recommended to use the [Dynamic IP] option and specify "OBSR" (without the quotes) as the hostname if you have a DHCP server (or Windows Domain Controller) on your network. This simplifies the steps required for configuring AhsayOBM and AhsayACB to connect to AhsayOBSR in the future if you don't know much about AhsayOBM and AhsayACB.

      If you prefer to use a static IP for your NAS device, please supply the correct [IP address], [Subnet mask], [Gateway] and [DNS] settings to the fields provided (please drop down both the IP address and the hostname of the NAS device you have entered on this page on paper). Also, when using [Static IP], please make sure that the IP address of the computer running the installation wizard and the IP address of the NAS device is on the same subnet.

    2. Under the [Disk Configuration] step, the information of hard disks installed on the NAS device will be displayed automatically.

      For some NAS devices, RAID has to be built before the installed hard disks can be used. In this case, if RAID has never been built, please select your desired [RAID Level] (RAID5 recommended) in the [RAID Information] section and press the [Next] button to build the RAID file system. The time requried for building RAID varies from different NAS models as well as the RAID level you have chosen. On some systems, it can take up to 10 hours to finish building a 1TB RAID 5 file system consisting of 5 drives.  Please be patient when building  RAID. After the RAID file system has been built, the [Status] field under the [Raid Information] section will be changed to "Healthy". You can then press the [Next] button to continue.

      For those devices that do not support RAID (e.g. Buffalo LinkStation), all [RAID Level] options will be disabled. You can simply press the [Next] button to continue.

    3. (optional) If you want to change the administrator password of the NAS manufacturer administration console for better security, just check the [Change Password] checkbox and enter your new password.

      For those devices that do not require authentication (e.g. Buffalo LinkStation), the wizard will skip this page automatically.

  5. Install AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS
    1. Now you are ready to install AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS to the NAS device. Since the NAS device will be rebooted automatically after installation, please make sure you have nothing important running on the NAS device before you press the [Yes] button to start the installation process.

    2. The installation process can take up to 5 minutes. The NAS device will be rebooted upon completion. After rebooting, it will take another 5 minutes for the NAS device to startup the AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS service. Please note that NAS device is not as powerful as standard PC server and be patient with this.

    3. When the installation is complete and AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS services have been started successfully, a summary report containing what have been done by the installation wizard will be displayed. You can now press the [AhsayOBSR] button to open the AhsayOBSR web administration console.

    4. If you can see the AhsayOBSR web administrator console, the installation has completed successfully. Both AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS are now ready to use.

      AhsayOBSR login

Backup to AhsayOBS running on NAS devices

To get started, please follow the steps below:
  1. On the menu of the left panel of AhsayOBS startup page, select [Getting Started with AhsayOBM] or [Getting Started with AhsayACB] (depending on whether AhsayOBM or AhsayACB you want to use) and click on the link provided. Clear instructions of hwo to install AhsayOBM / AhsayACB will be given in a pop-up window (please note that loading this page for the first time can be slow).
  2. After installing and configuring AhsayOBM / AhsayACB, start the software and enter "OBSR" (if you have chosen to use DHCP) or the IP address of the NAS device as the backup server URL. By default, both AhsayOBM and AhsayACB use "HTTP" as their protocol. If you want better security, simply select the "HTTPS" option.
  3. You can now backup all your files / databases using AhsayOBM / AhsayACB to AhsayOBS running on the NAS device as if AhsayOBS is running on a standard PC server.

Upgrade / Uninstall AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS

Please follow the steps below to upgrade / uninstall AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS. Assuming that you were using all the default settings during installation,
  1. Follow the instructions of how to install AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS until you have reached the installation step.
  2. If AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS are installed, the wizard will ask if you want to [Upgrade AhsayOBSR], [Uninstall AhsayOBSR but keep all users' data and settings] or [Uninstall AhsayOBSR and delete all users' data and settings]. Running any of these options here will reboot the NAS device upon completion, please make sure there is nothing important running on the NAS device when you are doing this.
  3. To upgrade AhsayOBSR, select [Upgrade AhsayOBSR] and press the [Next] button. AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS will be upgraded automatically. This process is similar to the installation process.
  4. To uninstall AhsayOBSR, select [Uninstall AhsayOBSR but keep all users' data and settings] to uninstall the program files of AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS from the NAS device but it will retain a copy of all users' data and system setting for later use. If you are sure that ALL data and settings are no longer wanted and you want to remove them altogether, please select the [Uninstall AhsayOBSR and delete all users' data and settings] option.
  5. After uninstalling AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS, the NAS manufacturer administration console will be relocated back to port 80 and 443 automatically. 

Supported Models

  • Buffalo LinkStation Pro
    Appearance:


    Requirements:
    No special requirement for this model.

    Hardware Specification & Limitations:
    The followings are the limitations of Buffalo LS-Pro which will affect the performance of AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS.
    • RAM: Max. 128MB and it is not upgradeable, 
    • CPU: Marvell Orion 5182 500MHz (ARM-based)
    • Storage: Max. 1 hard disk and no redundancy
    • User: Stress test of concurrent backup from 10 users has been conducted.
    It is recommended to run AhsayOBS Business Edition, Starter Pack / Free Pack on this NAS device.

    Other information:
    • Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo is NOT supported by this NAS installation wizard because it has only 64MB of RAM and it would be difficult to run AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS with only 64MB of RAM.
    • RAID is not supported for this model
    • By default, AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS are installed with the following settings:
      • System Home = /mnt/disk1/.obsr/system/obsr-system
      • User Home = /mnt/disk1/.obsr/system/obsr-user
    Related links:
  • Thecus N4100+
    Appearance:


    Requirements:
    • Upgrade Thecus N4100+ firmware to v2.0.03.
    • Replace the 256MB DDR2 memory module with 512MB DDR2 memory module if you plan to use AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS on Thecus N4100+ in a production environment with more than 10 users, though AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS should still work with 256MB RAM.
    Hardware Specification & Limitations:
    The followings are the limitations of Thecus N4100+ that will affect the performance of AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS.
    • RAM: Upgradeable to 512MB (default 128MB)
    • CPU: Intel(R) 80219 600MHz (ARM-based)
    • Storage: Max. 4 hard disk bays
    • User: Stress test of concurrent backup from 25 users has been conducted
    Other information:
    • For building [RAID5] on 4 hard disks, it spends about 10 hours to complete the process.
    • By default, AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS are installed with the following settings:
      • System Home = /raid/module/obsr/system/obsr-system
      • User Home = /raid/module/obsr/system/obsr-user
    Related links:
  • Thecus N5200
    Appearance:


    Requirements:
    • Upgrade Thecus N5200 firmware to v2.00.04 (you must be at least on v1.00.06 already, see N5200 module list).
    • Replace the 256MB DDR2 memory module with 512MB DDR2 memory module if you plan to use AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS on Thecus N5200 in a production environment with more than 10 users, though normally AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS still work with 256MB RAM.
    Hardware Specification & Limitations:
    The followings are the limitations of Thecus N5200 that will affect the performance of AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS.
    • RAM: Upgradeable to 1GB (default 256MB)
    • CPU: Celeron M 600MHz
    • Storage: Max. 5 hard disk bays
    • User: Stress test of concurrent backup from 100 users has been conducted
    Other information:
    • For building [RAID5] on 5 hard disks, it spends about 10 hours to complete the process.
    • By default, AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS are installed with the following settings:
      • System Home = /raid/data/module/obsr/system/obsr-system
      • User Home = /raid/data/module/obsr/system/obsr-user
    Related links

Further Information

  • AhsayOBS Version Embedded = 5.5.0.0 pre-release
  • AhsayRPS Version Embedded = 5.5.0.0 pre-release
  • AhsayOBM/AhsayACB Version Embedded = 5.2.6.0
  • Official release of AhsayOBS/AhsayRPS/AhsayOBM/AhsayACB 5.5 will be bundled into the package (aobsrnas.exe) when available.
  • The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) embedded to the package will expire within 90 days, and AhsayOBS & AhsayRPS will stop working at the same time. If you are interested in using AhsayOBS and AhsayRPS on the NAS device, please contact Ahsay sales representatives for a quotation of Java royalty fee required.
  • For more information on AhsayOBS, AhsayRPS, AhsayOBM and AhsayACB, please refer to the document section of our website.

Disclaimer

Ahsay Systems Corporation Limited will not have or accept any liability, obligation or responsibility whatsoever for any loss, destruction or damage (including without limitation consequential loss, destruction or damage) however arising from or in respect of any use or misuse of or reliance on this document. By reading and following the instructions in this document, you agree to accept unconditionally the terms of this Disclaimer and as they may be revised and/or amended from time to time by Ahsay Systems Corporation Limited without prior notice to you.