NAS direct to Mac?

[ric0ric]

Is it possible to connect a Mac directly (thru a Thunderbolt to 10Gbe port) to a 1621+ and use another port on the NAS to connect up to the router / switch. The aim would be to get a fast direct Mac to NAS and 'normal' speed NAS to net?

 

[EAZ1964]

That should work.
Be aware that it is not possible to reach internet from your macbook via this route. To do this you need to put a switch in between.

 

[ric0ric]

Hi and many thanks for your reply. If, as well as the directconnection between mac and NAS, I have another ethernet cable from my mac to the router/switch would that work for me to also reach the internet. Maybe tge double connections would conflict?

 

[EAZ1964]

Yep, that will conflict. Not sure how to solve that, somehow you have to tell the mac which traffic should use a specific nic.

 

[fredbert]

Provided that the direct Mac <-> NAS connection has been setup to be a completely different subnet than that used for the man LAN interfaces then it should work. You'll have to access the NAS using this dedicate subnet's IP, or have some name/IP data added to the Mac's /etc/hosts file.

I've not got dual homing enabled on my NAS but it may be possible to select which interfaces you advertise [a] service[s]. So I would be looking for any file sharing and network interface options to make it easier for the Mac to find services on the dedicated interface.

Plus in the Mac's System Preferences for Network make sure that the main LAN interface is at the top of the list*, otherwise you'll end up sending all traffic down the dedicated interface.

*or at least above the dedicated interface in the priority order.

 

[ric0ric]

Many thanks for your reply. Apologies but I'm not really sure what you mean by "Provided that the direct Mac <-> NAS connection has been setup to be a completely different subnet than that used for the man LAN interfaces then it should work. You'll have to access the NAS using this dedicate subnet's IP, or have some name/IP data added to the Mac's /etc/hosts file."

I think that is due to my lack of knowledge rather than your explanation. It's the 'different subnet' part that really I don't understand....

 

[fredbert]

We had a thread about 10G Mac and NAS before. Not sure if it will help or not.

NAS and iMac defaulting to 1gb not 10gbe when both plugged in...

This is beginner's question, probably! I have recently started using a Synology DS1618+ NAS with my 2013 iMac Pro. I have installed a Synology E10G18-T1 10 gbe PCI card into the NAS and am connecting to my iMac using a Sonnet Solo Thunderbolt2-10gbe adapter. The NAS is also connected via LAN1...

www.synoforum.com

Your home LAN will likely be using one of these subnets: 192.168.0.0/24 or 192.168.1.0/24. Just be sure not to configure the 10G-10G direct connection use whichever subnet is being used to get to the Internet router.

 

[ric0ric]

Great and many thanks - I'll take a look now at the NAS iMac thread. Brilliant to have such helpful people as yourself