Backup NAS

[Sparks325]

Hello All!

New guy here (please forgive any misconceptions I may have)

Just looking for direction in choosing a “backup” NAS.


My son gave me a disk station (the other brand and quite old) I went and purchased (2) 12TB WD gold thinking this would take care of my storage issues. Found out the unit only had 128G ram and was extremely slow. (sadness) I started exploring all the things a NAS can do and decided to jump in with both feet. QNAP TVS-h1288x only populated with 6HDD and 4SSD.

One thing I realized from my experience is that, if you have NAS you will always need more NAS.

I have one storage pool of about 15TB of which I’m only using 6TB currently.

What I would appreciate suggestions on is:

I’d like to put the (2) 12TB HDD to use as cold storage backup for the main NAS.

(really want to avoid any cloud interaction/dependency)

Again, always overprovisioning I’m thinking of a 4 bay half populated running QTS.

Any suggestions as to the model for this task?


At this point I may also need a switch (of which I know nothing about).

All of my LAN ports are full on the modem router supplied by ISP.


Suggestions on a switch.


I’ve put $$$ into this so far.


Thanks for all and any help!


Brian

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @Sparks325.

I think you went a little overboard with your main NAS.

A backup NAS to me is an identical unit to the main one. If you come to rely on the features/capabilities of the main unit, buying a lesser backup NAS today is just wasted money if the main NAS blows up and the goal is to have the same features going forward.

If all you're doing is backing up the data, use (almost) anything.

If you need an actual backup of the hardware/features of the NAS you're depending on, you need the same or better as your backup.

That is why I advise my customers to get two NAS' setups when they're starting out 'fresh', it's cheaper overall and with any luck, you can sell two of them when it's time to upgrade in 6 to 10 years from now (QNAP has been very solid hardware for me and my customers).

Any $10 to $30 switch will do. I prefer Netgear unmanaged switches like the example below. Be sure to search for the lowest price in your area before picking up one (or a few) of these.

NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS308) - Desktop, Sturdy Metal Fanless Housing : Amazon.ca: Electronics

 

[degrub]

If you do, (and you do !), just need to back up the data on the NAS ( NAS is not backup !) use a couple large enough drives in USB3 (or whatever the fastest connection on the NAS), and rsync or copy out into NTFS (or whatever format you can read on your PCs) once a week/month/etc alternating the external drives. Frequency determined by what amount you think you can accept to loose between backups.

usually cheaper and faster than duplicated NAS.
If you were in a production environment where time is valuable, then duplicating makes sense. Even then, back up to tape is fairly standard.

 

[dosborne]

As already mentioned, it basically comes down to what sort of backup or redundancy solution you want and how much you are willing to spend.

I buy my personal NAS units in pairs typically although one I bought in a triple as it is critical for me.

For backup, a USB drive of sufficient space, is typically all you need.

For backup and redundancy, a second NAS setup with sync will give you both.

My primary NAS is my main repository. It syncs hourly with my backup NAS. It syncs daily with my cloud storage. As it was cheap at the time, I decided on a third unit for spare parts (some of which if had to use over the years) which mostly sits in its original box.

I have a 4th large capacity (50tb) NAS, for non-critical things (music, tv shows, movies, ebooks, etc) as well as another synced copy of my critical data.

 

[Sparks325]

L&Ld, degrub and dosborne thanks for reviewing and replying to my post.

Very good advice from both supplier and user viewpoints .

L&Ld thanks for the link to the switch, always helpful!

The reason I went with such a “large” unit was the fact that NASs are marketed as a do all unit.

So, if I wanted to try VMs, Containers, and add a couple of cameras I needed a powerhouse.



I think a 4 bay shouldn’t break me and since I already have the 2, 12TB drives that’s probably the course I’ll take.

Thanks again everyone

 

[Adooni]

hm almost no1 is going now with backup solution for NAS - if you have 1bilion $ in crypto maybe

for most people zpool is enough https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ZFS/ZPool
depends on no of HDD/SSD you go with RAID-Z group of three or as a RAID-Z2 group of four HDD etc.

 

[L&LD]

A billion dollars in crypto may be a reason to back up your NAS (but there are other issues there too), but other data is priceless to many.

NAS backups (data and hardware) are real and are increasing in use. The 'data' a family generates today is worth more than virtual coins.

 

[Adooni]

Synology for example have something like https://www.synology.com/en-global/dsm/feature/hyper_backup

 

[Sparks325]

Thanks Guys!

Yes, I’m still following things.

Adooni, thanks for the reference to the Ubuntu ZFS/ZPool. I’m always interested in seeing how others are solving similar problems.

I do agree with L&LD about the need for local storage for your “average” family or individual.

I was introduced to the concept of NAS less than a year ago. When I realized its potential (haven’t scratched the surface) I purchased the best I could afford. (should have bought two….hindsight)

I’m happy that the industry (NAS) is growing and evolving. The units are phenomenal and their performance keeps getting better.

For me, separate drives in a physically different machine will be my backup. May seem crude but it would be pretty hard to lose.

 

[Tech9]

The units are phenomenal and their performance keeps getting better.

Can your network handle this performance though and how often you need that performance? At home you may find real life usefulness of $500 NAS the same as $5000 NAS. Local storage is good, but don't over-invest in just in case.

 

[Clark Griswald]

@Sparks325
Your first NAS is a QNAP TVS-h1288x, now that is an impressive device.
My DS918+ has been more than enough for my Family (as my first real NAS).
My Wife would immediately ask "How Much Was That New Toy?", if I walked in with a QNAP TVS-h1288x.

 

[Sparks325]

Thanks “Clark”! (gotta love that character)

Actually buried somewhere in the beginning of this thread I mentioned that my son gave me an old 2 disc (something like a ds211j) in reality that was my first.

I’m not sure where my “overkill” gene came from, or possibly it blossomed out of the old air compressor adage, “if your present needs require a 3hp machine, buy a 5hp because you will soon outgrow your present needs. I don’t want to get too far off topic…..

The point that I’d like to make is the reason I chose this particular NAS was its ability to grow.

RAM and M.2 NVMe.

Just for fun I recently cloned my Win desktop and turned it into a VM and ran it on the NAS.




Not the smoothest drive but it will get you there.

 

[dosborne]

I'm in the same mindset. With hardware, the "now" is easy, but the "tomorrow" is sure to be different. It is often cheaper to spend slightly more now, and perhaps a small upgrade to it in a few years, but get 10 or more years out of something rather than a underpowered or under capacity unit that will get you through 3 or 4 years. For me, a 2-bay device that maxed out with 2tb drives served me a very long time and is still used daily, but I expect my 50tb unit to last a significant amount of time or become obsolete essentially due to cloud storage and faster internet speeds or some other new tech. I'm old school though and like my "stuff" to be physically in my house, at least for now.