Advice - Mac and PC Network

[jonsamson]

Am in real need of good advice here. Have scoured the internet and if anything, am more confused than before as to what to buy.

We have two Mac desktops and two Windows laptops in this small home office. Currently we use a server, but it is really only used for file storage and access and no real "server" activities. I should also There are also 2 other laptop users in the home part of the home office that just use the wireless internet and have no access to the server. The server has run out of room and we are looking to replace it. (We have a wireless router that takes care of the DHCP).

Since we do not really need a full server, but more of a central file storage system where everyone can access files, save and write to and search for files that are needed, we feel that a NAS will fulfill the role perfectly.

It should have RAID1 and if possible, remote access. It should be compatible with Mac and PC and I also want to be able to backup the drive to an external source - DVDs?

Can you give ideas and suggestions on what would be the best setup for us. The Macs are the real power users of the network and the file server. The laptops rarely work on the files.

I've looked at LaCie, Drobo, D-Link. They all sound great!

Thanks for your input.

Jonathan

 

[thiggins]

Start by reading How To Choose the Right NAS for You.

Many products can meet your needs. You need to decide on how much storage. You also need to consider backup of the NAS itself since RAID is not backup.

 

[venture996]

I have a similar environment

I have the same mixed Mac and Windows environment and I went with the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. Having had my prior network backup die with a dead hard disk, I really like the idea of having a mirrored backup device. And you can back it up externally (or even convert it to a single large drive, if that is your preference). It works very well with my Mac and Windows devices, and I recently started using it with Time Machine on one of the Macbooks. I've had it almost a year and am very happy. Good luck.

 

[jonsamson]

Tim,

From your articles - you seem to suggest that for a SOHO person like myself, I should focus on two single NAS drives as opposed to RAID? You feel that it is a more reliable and secure setup? You wrote the article in 2007. Do you still feel the same even with what products are out there today?

Furthermore, even if I use a single NAS to NAS backup system, would you also advocate a further backup in case of a corrupt backup? I used to have a NAS that had two drives which were not RAID setup (did not have RAID capability). Before the scheduled backup (which was midnight), the first drive somehow got corrupted (after business hours, but before midnight evidently) and then when it did the scheduled backup, it actually made a copy of the corrupted drive which led to a essentially blank second drive. It took $$$ and weeks to get a hard drive recovery company to recover most of our files, but taught a valuable lesson. We've since used a RAID system and I back up manually onto DVDs. At least I know I can go back to any of the hundreds of DVDs I have and recover the file (call it a manual Time Machine if you will). We've run out of room on this and need to setup a new system, but my biggest concern is reliability, stability and backups!!

Jonathan

 

[thiggins]

Yes, I still recommend single-drive NASes with automatic NAS-to-NAS backup. Each should be on a UPS and in physically separate locations. RAID 5/6/10 should be used only when storage requirements exceed that possible on a single drive (2 TB) currently. And, even then, you might think about adding another pair of drives vs. going to multi-drive systems.

Backup corruption is an issue, no matter what method you use. Using RAID 1 might help mitigate the risk, but file level corruption is always a possibility. Nothing is foolproof.

That's why it is important to check/test your backup periodically and use incremental backup.

If you are backing up PCs to a NAS and the files remain on the PCs, then you already have backup. Backup of files on the NAS is only necessary if the NAS is the primary file store.

 

[jonsamson]

Any thoughts on Synology vs QNAP?

 

[thiggins]

Any thoughts on Synology vs QNAP?

Both have similar products aiming for similar buyers at similar prices.

 

[jonsamson]

Thanks Tim for your input. So I'm either going with two single drives from QNAP or Synology. I'll have them in two different locations to mitigrate risk and have backup schedules between the two. The NAS IS the primary file store, so I'm extremely nervous and need to ensure that these files are backed up as best as possible.

What I would really like is somehow to have an offsite backup of the NAS drive as an extra precaution. I do NOT want to use these internet backup storages because I do not want my files floating around somewhere. Currently my file store is housed in a computer, so it was easy to just have an automatic schedule for backups to DVDs and I just simply swapped DVDs as they completed. Literally I have DVDs going back and obviously can access ANY file at any time.

But it seems to me that none of these drives allow backup schedules to a DVD drive. So is there any way around this? Or am I being overly cautious and a NAS to NAS backup is good enough?

So I have some more questions:

1. How often should these backup schedules be set for?
2. How does it work - full backup vs. incremental? And should it be staggered?
3. Should the second NAS drive be bigger than the first to allow the incremental backups?

Thanks for your patience. It is a home office and we have no "experts" here other than our own research and common sense.

Regards

Jonathan

 

[thiggins]

But it seems to me that none of these drives allow backup schedules to a DVD drive. So is there any way around this? Or am I being overly cautious and a NAS to NAS backup is good enough?

When it comes to backup, it's hard to be overly cautious!

Both Synology and QNAP can back up to USB disk and flash drives.
I don't know that they can't also back up to a DVD. I guess it would depend on what the writeable DVD looks like to the OS.

I'll ask my contacts @ QNAP and Synology. What DVD writer do you use?

1. How often should these backup schedules be set for?

My rule of thumb is that your backup frequency should be equal to the amount of work that you want to recover in the event of a drive failure.
Note that for both Synology and QNAP, the smallest time interval between backups is one day.

2. How does it work - full backup vs. incremental? And should it be staggered?

It's up to you. A full backup each time might not be practical, depending on the size of your data store.
Not sure what you mean by "staggered"...

3. Should the second NAS drive be bigger than the first to allow the incremental backups?

I think you mean multiple versions, not incremental. At any rate, I don't think either QNAP or Synology support versioned backups.

 

[jonsamson]

As far as I could find out, none could backup to a DVD. Please let me know if you find otherwise.

As I would be replacing the "server", I will no longer have a DVD writer, so either I would buy a new one or just use the one in any of the existing computers via the network. Again - any ideas?

I did mean multiple versions, but I guess it is not possible. would be great if these guys had "Time Machine" backup capability. I don't mean Time machine Compatible. I mean that backups work similar to how Time Machine works. It is brilliant and easy in my opinion.

Again - thanks for all your input. Now only if I could make up my mind on a drive. And reading through other posts, I've added in Buffalo's technology. So I'm worse off than before, but I'll figure it out.

Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

I confirmed with both Synology and QNAP that their NASes do not support writing to DVD's.