RAID / NAS / Backup
Discussion
Type R Tom said:
As I'm thinking about a new PC, what are people opinions on a machine with an SSD for windows etc then several 3TB drivers as a NAS
Big, hot, noisy, power-guzzling, at least compared to a dedicated NASRecently picked up a Synology, as mentioned here ( DS 415play with 4 WD Red 6 TB drives in Raid 10, so 12GB of redundant storage); super piece of kit, have all my CDs on there in FLAC lossless format, now starting on the DVDs, plus data archives and backups
Also now looking at a QNAP HS-251 for Blu-ray RIPs
Crafty_ said:
What about using homeplugs ?
Would either give me the ability to stream video/music from the NAS to devices (maybe using plex).
Homeplugs work fine for me, I have the Devolo 500Mbps ones, I have the NAS and ADSL router in a cupboard in the lounge connected to one Homeplug then all the devices that stream off the NAS are attached to other Homeplugs. 1080p works fine. I personally prefer this to WiFi where at all possible to reduce contention for WiFi bandwidth.Would either give me the ability to stream video/music from the NAS to devices (maybe using plex).
The Synolocker malware only affected a number of old DSM 4.x versions. Basically, the vulnerability had already been patched months before Synolocker appeared, it only affected devices which were not up to date. Your advice is sound though, disable the cloud/remote access services if at all possible and keep the device up to date.
Type R Tom said:
As I'm thinking about a new PC, what are people opinions on a machine with an SSD for windows etc then several 3TB drivers as a NAS
Personally, that was exactly the scenario I bought a NAS to get away from. I was using Plex on the PC to transcode and stream primarily to the PS3 but got fed up with having to start the PC up and be logged in on my account. When the wife went on maternity leave I would get calls at work along the lines of "I want to watch <such and such TV show>, what's your password for the PC again?".If, like me, you're the sort of person that likes tinkering with PCs then there will invariably be times the PC is out of action for a day or two, rendering your media inaccessible...
alock said:
At least one of you backups must be offline and ideally off site.
It's not really a backup if it's attached and connected to a running machine, because that is just another drive on a machine as far as I'm concerned. A backup should be taken then disconnected, preferably offsite...in a fireproof/waterproof safe depending on how important the data is to you.8bit said:
marctwo said:
HP Microserver + UnRAID.
+ DLNA server + web server + uTorrent or similar + time + effort etc. etc.?Or does that all come as part of the download?
Yes, there is some effort to set up but once it's up it's great. For the money I think it's pretty hard to beat.
Another vote for Synology here - we've got a 110j, which is one of their smallest and cheapest models with a single drive bay as I wasn't sure how well it would work and didn't want to spend too much. It's been brilliant though. Ours houses a single 1TB drive and operates in 'sync' mode, so you do a full backup when you first get it and from then on every time a file is changed on the desktop it automatically updates it on the backup. The NAS is very small, so is easy to hide somewhere in the house, so hopefully if someone ever nicks the obvious big expensive desktop they will hopefully overlook the tiny white box in an obscure place. We also do monthly backups to a USB drive, which gets hidden somewhere entirely different (to guard against fire in the house) so the NAS just spreads the risk. The NAS also acts as a file server for my wife, who has her own laptop and also uses my desktop, so she just accesses all her files from the NAS (her backups go the other way, so I have a process that copies them to the desktop every week). It's virtually silent and doesn't generate much heat. Regarding a need for redundancy (e.g. from a RAID), I think you'd have to be very unlucky to have a drive failure on the NAS and the desktop simultaneously (not to mentiont the remote USB HDD copy), but on reflection now I know just how well the NAS works another time I'd probably go for a two bay model and run RAID 1 (mirrored pair), just to give me peace of mind if something did happen.
The only downsides of the 110j for us are as follows:
1) If there's a power cut it doesn't boot back up when power is restored, you have to crawl into where it's hidden and power it on again.
2) The sync software asks you if you want to "do a full backup before reverting to sync mode" every time you start the PC, which is a little annoying. The web's full of people getting wound up by it, but I guess it's necessary.
You get other neat features with a Synology NAS as well (or at least our one), such as web camera connectivity and the ability to host a file sharer/downloader.
The only downsides of the 110j for us are as follows:
1) If there's a power cut it doesn't boot back up when power is restored, you have to crawl into where it's hidden and power it on again.
2) The sync software asks you if you want to "do a full backup before reverting to sync mode" every time you start the PC, which is a little annoying. The web's full of people getting wound up by it, but I guess it's necessary.
You get other neat features with a Synology NAS as well (or at least our one), such as web camera connectivity and the ability to host a file sharer/downloader.
marctwo said:
8bit said:
marctwo said:
HP Microserver + UnRAID.
+ DLNA server + web server + uTorrent or similar + time + effort etc. etc.?Or does that all come as part of the download?
Yes, there is some effort to set up but once it's up it's great. For the money I think it's pretty hard to beat.
I'm not rubbishing your suggestion, just saying that there those for whom a nice, out-of-the-box solution is going to be preferable.
8bit said:
Sure, if I had the free time and inclination I'd have done exactly that but I don't so it was the Synology for me. I use the CIFS and NFS sharing, DLNA and transcoding (can the Microserver CPU handle HD video transcoding?), the Time backup app, the torrent app, the IP camera surveillance app and more besides. All of the above integrates nicely together where applicable and the system handles updates for itself and the packaged apps.
I'm not rubbishing your suggestion, just saying that there those for whom a nice, out-of-the-box solution is going to be preferable.
Yes, the micro server can cope. It does full 1080p films for me (up to about 12GB in size). I'm running Expenology (http://www.xpenology.nl/xpenology-software/) so i have all the features of a Synology device on my HP server.I'm not rubbishing your suggestion, just saying that there those for whom a nice, out-of-the-box solution is going to be preferable.
I use the cloudsync app to back up my important docs and pictures to dropbox and google drive.
Edited by scottri on Wednesday 24th September 13:05
scottri said:
Yes, the micro server can cope. It does full 1080p films for me (up to about 12GB in size). I'm running Expenology (http://www.xpenology.nl/xpenology-software/) so i have all the features of a Synology device on my HP server.
I use the cloudsync app to back up my important docs and pictures to dropbox and google drive.
That's good to know, thanks.I use the cloudsync app to back up my important docs and pictures to dropbox and google drive.
Edited by scottri on Wednesday 24th September 13:05
scottri said:
8bit said:
Sure, if I had the free time and inclination I'd have done exactly that but I don't so it was the Synology for me. I use the CIFS and NFS sharing, DLNA and transcoding (can the Microserver CPU handle HD video transcoding?), the Time backup app, the torrent app, the IP camera surveillance app and more besides. All of the above integrates nicely together where applicable and the system handles updates for itself and the packaged apps.
I'm not rubbishing your suggestion, just saying that there those for whom a nice, out-of-the-box solution is going to be preferable.
Yes, the micro server can cope. It does full 1080p films for me (up to about 12GB in size). I'm running Expenology (http://www.xpenology.nl/xpenology-software/) so i have all the features of a Synology device on my HP server.I'm not rubbishing your suggestion, just saying that there those for whom a nice, out-of-the-box solution is going to be preferable.
I use the cloudsync app to back up my important docs and pictures to dropbox and google drive.
Edited by scottri on Wednesday 24th September 13:05
Polariz said:
Be careful a bit though, the N54L is a pretty safe bet, but I had a tough time getting my N40L to transcode 1080p. The CPU in it is below the minimum spec required by Plex too. I ended up buying a cheap i5 PC from eBay and selling the N40L as it just didn't have enough grunt.
Yeah true, mine is the N54 and the cpu is pretty much maxed out on the HD stuff. Its adequate for my needs but i have been wondering whether its possible to upgrade the CPU.cornet said:
If going the DIY route I'd pick FreeNAS over UnRAID.
Just make sure you have a good amount of ECC RAM and take some time to learn how ZFS works.
I looked into FreeNAS and it just seems like overkill for my purposes. Higher requirements than a regular RAID setup but with most of the same drawbacks. I like the flexibility UnRAID has with mixing and matching drives.Just make sure you have a good amount of ECC RAM and take some time to learn how ZFS works.
marctwo said:
I looked into FreeNAS and it just seems like overkill for my purposes. Higher requirements than a regular RAID setup but with most of the same drawbacks. I like the flexibility UnRAID has with mixing and matching drives.
Indeed the hardware requirements are a little more for FreeNAS but then I wanted ZFS and all the goodness that comes with it (checksuming, snapshots, compression, etc...) 
Come across this too:
http://www.ebuyer.com/616877-hp-proliant-microserv...
The Synology does look good but they are quite pricy. Does anyone know with 4 bays NAS if you can add 2 x HD’s then when they are full add another 2 x HD’s? Running two separates RAIDS
http://www.ebuyer.com/616877-hp-proliant-microserv...
The Synology does look good but they are quite pricy. Does anyone know with 4 bays NAS if you can add 2 x HD’s then when they are full add another 2 x HD’s? Running two separates RAIDS
Type R Tom said:
Come across this too:
http://www.ebuyer.com/616877-hp-proliant-microserv...
Why did you have to go and paste that link ?http://www.ebuyer.com/616877-hp-proliant-microserv...
That said my old one is now FreeNas box, this one can be home lab/server.
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