first NAS, looking for advice on selection and strategy

[capall]

Hi all, first post, great site and forum, and thanks ahead of time,

I've read loads and now ready to find a server/NAS for media serving and backups, and would appreciate some feedback

intended use...

-backup 2 laptops
-store and stream video and photos to ATV or other media streamer, and dlna TV
-store and stream audio to apple expresses (which would eliminate need to keep a PC running itunes on), use iphones then to control
-remote access to photos, music and documents from PC, iphones and ipads
-total space needed is probably 500GB, so (1) 2Tb should be sufficient for the near future


Trying to decide on 1 or 2 bay, and probably use a single 2TB drive to start. (due to HD prices)
I'm looking at the Synology DS111, DS212j, or Qnap TS112/119/119+, TS212, TS219P+
-other suggestions?

Questions;
-what specs are sufficient; 1.2Mhz/1.6Mhz/256MB/512MB?..heaviest usage will be single video streaming and audio streaming

If using a 2 bay NAS and mirroring;
-Is the only advantage of a mirror, reduced downtime if one drive fails?

-If the primary drive fails, do I reconfigure the mirrored drive as the primary drive and buy a new ‘mirror’ drive and have it rebuilt with the last mirrored backup.

-If the mirror drive fails, do I just replace it and have it rebuilt with the last backup


If using a single bay NAS and its drive fails (and using and ext. drive or NAS to backup);
-do I have it’s replacement rebuilt with the external backup
-any difference in the process if using a NAS or external eSata external drive?

-what happens if the NAS itself dies (fan, power supply, cpu etc), can I get the data into another NAS or can it be read in windows using an external enclosure


From a general usage point of view;

-if I use a NAS to backup photos, and then use the NAS to view via a media streamer on a TV, any downsides to this?

-what happens when I fill the NAS

-to protect against laptop drive failure, can I create an image of the OS and installed programs, so if the HD fails I can install the image and then do a full restore of all the data?

thanks
capall

 

[thiggins]

Questions;
-what specs are sufficient; 1.2Mhz/1.6Mhz/256MB/512MB?..heaviest usage will be single video streaming and audio streaming

Any of the above will work. See Can Your NAS Do Two Things At Once?

If using a 2 bay NAS and mirroring;
-Is the only advantage of a mirror, reduced downtime if one drive fails?

Yes,

-If the primary drive fails, do I reconfigure the mirrored drive as the primary drive and buy a new ‘mirror’ drive and have it rebuilt with the last mirrored backup.

-If the mirror drive fails, do I just replace it and have it rebuilt with the last backup

No reconfiguration needed. The NAS will automatically continue to use the remaining drive. Install a new drive and start the RAID rebuild.

If using a single bay NAS and its drive fails (and using and ext. drive or NAS to backup);
-do I have it’s replacement rebuilt with the external backup
-any difference in the process if using a NAS or external eSata external drive?

You just restore the backup to the NAS after replacing the drive. Restore process is different in mechanics but same in principle from NAS or attached drive.

-what happens if the NAS itself dies (fan, power supply, cpu etc), can I get the data into another NAS or can it be read in windows using an external enclosure

You might be able to recover some data. You'll need to use a system that can mount the drive format, which is not Windows. This can be quite involved and has no guarantee of success. This is why you have a backup.

-if I use a NAS to backup photos, and then use the NAS to view via a media streamer on a TV, any downsides to this?

No. That's one of the reasons you buy a NAS.

-what happens when I fill the NAS

C'mon, man. What do you think happens? What happens when you fill your computer's drive?

-to protect against laptop drive failure, can I create an image of the OS and installed programs, so if the HD fails I can install the image and then do a full restore of all the data?

Anything you can store on a computer folder you can store on a NAS.

 

[capall]

Thanks a lot for the response, see my responses and some more Q's below

what happens when I fill the NAS
-sorry, phrased that Q badly, what I meant was, how easy is it to port the full disk's data onto the new larger drive?

other Q's
-so is the main reason for people using a NAS over WHS's is their easy of use.

-When using a NAS as a backup for a NAS, and one fails, is the data on either NAS been formatted to that company's backup technology and does this affect your choice of the new NAS..ie are you buying into a certain company for good.

-do you generally use the NAS's own software for backup, image creation and restoring or are people installing 3rd party back up software


thanks
capall

 

[thiggins]

what happens when I fill the NAS
-sorry, phrased that Q badly, what I meant was, how easy is it to port the full disk's data onto the new larger drive?

It's not hard. But takes time. You swap in one disk, let the volume rebuild, then swap in another. You don't get more space until both drives are swapped.

-so is the main reason for people using a NAS over WHS's is their easy of use.

For some. For others, it is power savings and, in some cases, cost.

-When using a NAS as a backup for a NAS, and one fails, is the data on either NAS been formatted to that company's backup technology and does this affect your choice of the new NAS..ie are you buying into a certain company for good.

I don't know of any NAS that stores backups in a proprietary format. If you are referring to the NAS drive format, i.e. EXT2/3/4, ZFS, HFS, that doesn't affect backup.

Think of copying a file from a Windows to MacOS machine. Windows drives are formatted NTFS, MacOS HFS+. But files get from one to another by using the SMB/CIFS network file system.

-do you generally use the NAS's own software for backup, image creation and restoring or are people installing 3rd party back up software

If you are referring to client backup, some people use the programs supplied with the NAS. Others use programs they buy themselves.

 

[capall]

Thanks,

so I suppose when drive fills its just easier to add a new drive, if there's a free bay or buy bigger-bay NAS, (sorry wasn't thinking at all on that one),
.. in which case..

-if I filled the drive in a single bay NAS, and bought a multi-bay NAS from the same company, can I can just add the old drive to the new NAS (and obviously a new second drive)

-could I do this if the multi-bay NAS was from a different company?

-and yes client backup on the software Q..thanks

 

[thiggins]

If the NAS allows you to configure the drives in multiple volumes and if you have empty bays, then yes, you can expand storage by adding a drive. But it will be a separate volume and appear as a different share.

You might be able to move a drive as you describe. But differences in firmware level could prevent it. It's hard to say. I would not count on it.
Forget moving drives between NASes from different vendors.