Colorado State University

Accessible storage in today’s business environment is essential not only as a large-scale storage location but also to enable accessible collaboration from users around the world. While there are arguably better solutions when it comes to safety and security of your data (https://cnsit.colostate.edu/kb/collaboration-and-file-sharing-tools), one cost effective option for groups that require extensive storage is a local lab-based NAS appliance.

There are a few things to understand about these NAS appliances.

First, on default these appliances are NOT backed up. While they may be resistant to drive failure (number of drives is dependent on the RAID level) there is no off-site backup of this data. The RAID level will also not protect this data from a complete RAID controller failure on the NAS.

The second gotcha is that these devices need to me managed and maintained. This means that someone in the lab must be named and be responsible for scheduling regular (the recommendation is monthly) restarts and checks for app and firmware updates. This is a required operation that all NAS owners must understand in order to adhere to the CNS and CSU Network Use policies: https://cnsit.colostate.edu/kb/policies

It is VERY important for you to work with CNSIT staff when choosing and setting up your NAS initially. Please contact us as soon as possible when you are considering a NAS solution so that we can all be on the same page and make sure the NAS is going to meet your goals. Once the details have been worked out it is required that you fill out the form listed below so that we have a clear record of the how/where/why/who for this NAS device:

https://forms.natsci.colostate.edu/cnsit-nas-management-and-maintenance-form/

Thank you for considering all of these details when it comes to setting up a NAS for your area. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us with a CNSIT ticket: https://cnsit.colostate.edu/help