Using a high performance NAS/file server for libraries - have you done this?

Thanks for the reply. 30 year net/sysadmin here.

The big issue for me here is --- I dont recall where in my NI licensing it claims I cannot use network attached, or indeed local USB or eSata storage, which should be viewed similarly from a licensing and legal perspective. This is my home network, I manage my own local storage to my specifications, and if a fully mapped network drive is not suitable per licensing and NA can't "see" it, this will be a very frustrating outcome. I will have to investigate this right away, as this will be a major non-technical issue for me if so.

There is no real performance bottleneck(for this purpose) on a fully switched network with a 10Gb backplane, I have 32GB of system memory, the NAS will have m.2 buffering, and I can't imagine accessing libraries across that connection would be a problem, even with some milliseconds of additional latency vs local spinning disks or SSDs. I dont need my sample libraries to load in .02ms, and if it takes 300ms, I am entirely ok with that.

The licensing is the big problem here, if so. I will investigate ASAP.

I understand the i/o performance of NAS systems and networks, and if the only data that is stored across the network are sample libraries, what data would need to be realtime streamed to the sampler applications? Is 32GB system memory not adequate for RAM buffers of a size that would offset/hide this? I mean this would also be an issue for people with slow spinning disks connected locally, correct? I dont really care if my sample load times get worse -- dropping from less than 1 second, currently, to even 4-5 seconds. I am ok with that latency.

Thank you for the reply! I will check out those docs and probably try to make this work on my own, if possible. This is too important for my home network, and I simply cant keep buying new local HDDs for my main workstation. Already 7TB in there, and it is overutilized.

Im specc'ing out a large NAS as we speak, and this NAS is capable of transcoding 4k video across that same gigabit link, lol. It isnt even a NAS as much as a server at this point. ; ) Hope this all works.

Oops, forgot to ask -- does NI have any future plans to support NAS on fast network links (specified by NI) for at least bulk sample libraries? Perhaps a new file system schema that is more tolerant of latency? (yeah, Im shooting for pie-in-the-sky here lol).

Thanks for that. I havent gone over 32GB in a desktop environment on windows10 yet, so I wasnt entirely sure win10 pro would even properly manage 32GB+, but if you see windows10 (you on win10?) actually reserving this for paging, and you see applications taking advantage of this, then I might consider slapping in another 32GB, even just for testing. I wouldnt mind 64GB.

Even if a library is 25GB+ in total size, each patch, kit, or group wont be loading that full file size. It shouldnt be, anyway, imo. I use an Mdrummer library that is 150+GB in size, and when loading content just grabs the current data, and not the whole library.

At some point, I will be willing to upgrade to full 10Gbit on the network and all hosts. Cant quit manage that at this moment, but some day. Someone needs to make a fully switched eSata/network controller that routes all traffic over eSata at 600Gb/sec. And make it affordable, dangit! 😁 eSata router wooooo lmao

I have avoided most symphonic libraries because 1) I dont typically need them, 2) they are some of the biggest libraries in terms of size.

Yeah, with RAM being cheaper overall these days, I'll probably go for 64 fairly soon, just for general principal if anything. Im on win10 pro and my MB can handle up 128, but I dont think I need 128 right now.

I'm going to give this a shot. I'm speccing out the NAS right now, and plan to buy sometime in March. I may buy the server itself, then buy the disks the month after so I can break up the cost. Ill come back and post my results once it is built.