Archives October 2009

Welcome to the ix4-200d! This single device is a life changer for both the active home user as well as the SOHO business user who wants to take things to the NEXT Level!

If you’re not familiar with this little beast in a box, here are some of the high-lights which this brings to bear!   NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, AFP Support, BitTorrent client, Xbox Media Services, Printer, USB, Rsync, Celerra integration, dual gigabit Ethernet?!   Oh, and did I mention it’s –VMware- Certified out of the box?!?

Now, seriously! Let’s take a tour of this little system which has taken quite a step or integration in my household!

When I first powered this system up, it sat there for awhile without me doing anything to it.  Why? This thing is SILENT! I forgot I had powered it up, and as a result didn’t even bother to check what the IP address was that it assigned itself!   Well, out of the box, it came with a RAID protection I was fine with! I had options to change it, but I’m comfortable with it!

Frankly, this covers most of what you need to do with the device and you’re set! –Done!- But that doesn’t mean you need to stop there!

Most of the features in this unit can be configured by simply checking a box and poof! You’re done!

I have mine configured in the following fashion: AFP for my Macbook to backup, NFS and iSCSI for my ESX Servers, CIFS for local network file access, Media Services to interface with my Xbox360 to stream content and pictures, rsync Server to strangely replicate the box between this ix4 and an ix2 as well as to replicate over to the Celerra VSA :)   (Oh, and the Avamar Virtual Edition running in a VM backing up all of my home machines while taking up far less space with inline deduplication :))

I don’t have Video Surveillance enabled yet, but it’s nice to know the integration is built in there! (Printers also nice, but this lives in a closet, so I’m not sure I want to do that :))

So, hopefully you get the opportunity to play around with this power house in a box, and with the ix2-200d offering the same services (but with less disks and less IOPS) Oh, and if you’re interested in buying one, it’d help if you knew the “retail” costs!

So, that gives you an idea of “retail” cost, now I’d say, go to Fry’s and try not to pay more than $599.99 for the 4TB model (Fry’s is your friend! ;))

For another great review of this, check out Stephen Foskett’s review!

The day will be October 22nd, which will lead host to not only the next Chicago Windows Users Group meeting, but it’ll also be a Windows 7 Party!

I’ll have some of the prizes/giveaways for the Windows 7 party with me, but lo and behold here are the details for the Chicago meeting of the CWUG!

We had our Annual PC Recycle at our September meeting in Downers Grove.  Brian Jones arranged for ATEN to join us in the parking lot of the Microsoft Downers Grove parking lot again this year (thanks Brian!).  This was also our 2nd consumer focused CWUG – Jeri Stodola gave an example of our very first birds of a feather session and has earned her very own Windows 7 Backpack!  We’re still looking for topic suggestions and facilitators for our 2^nd Enterprise focused meeting which will be held downtown Chicago in the afternoon. Sign up information is provided below NOTE:  the date was changed to October 22^nd.

October Meeting – Enterprise Focused

Thursday, October 22^nd

12:30 – 1:30 bring lunch/network

1:30 – 1:45  meeting begins

1:45 – 4:15 Topics and Birds of a Feather sessions

Session 1:  HyperV

Session 2:  Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DART)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032424373&culture=en-US

Going forward, we will use the CWUG online group to share information, communicate with each other and schedule meetings:  http://cwug.groups.live.com

Be sure to SIGN Up for the CWUG and I will see you there!