General NAS Questions

[Chubby]

Hi, I'm looking to purchase either a QNAP TS-410 or a Synology DS410 and had a couple of questions regarding NAS in general.

1. Am I able configure RAID at a share level (forgive my RAID ignorance). The reason I ask is because I very little of my data will need to be recoverable in the event of disk failure. The majority of data will be CD / DVD rips which can always be done again. Things like documents and photos will need to be recoverable - however this only is currently 20GB of data, and I don't want to have to tie up two drives participating in this - leaving me only two drives left for big capacity drives. If this is fundementally wrong - then can anyone suggest another strategy for backup (I was thinking about a S3 backup for the 20GB of critical stuff).
2. Do I need an eSATA connection - what does this allow me to do? Can I attach an eSata enclosure like this for instance http://www.shop.bt.com/products/startech-com-esata-raid-external-enclosure-6PDK.html: I appreciate that the expanded space wouldn't be RAID'ed or managed by the NAS box. I'm really looking at affording myself upgradability for the inevitable day that the unit becomes full. If you are able to expand, how does the storage appear - as a single share or are you able to create seperate shares?
3. If you are able to expand and add storage via eSATA, what kind of degradation of speed can you expect from the expanded storage? 1/2 as fast, 1/4 of the NAS speed.
4. The QNAP cites power usage of 16/20W compared to the synology's 56/20W - this seems a large difference for two similarly matches units?

Thanks everyone.

 

[jam3ohio]

RAID <> Backup

Chubby--

IMHO, RAID is not a backup strategy. It only gives you protection against drive failure. What I would do if you buy one of these is RAID5 the whole array and then do offisite backup using a USB or eSATA external drive every week or so. Copy critical files to the external drive and keep it in your work desk, your Mom's house, your buddy's place, anywhere other than plugged into your NAS. That way, if you lose the whole shebang, your data is backed up. Since you own the DVD's that you've ripped, there is no real need to back up that data in this fashion as long as you are willing to re-rip. That means that you can probably get a good offsite backup with one 3TB external drive.

eSATA speeds are very fast. eSATA with a port multiplier support means that you can add a 8 bay enclosure and expand your unit using it.

Let us know what you decide! But remember RAID <> Backup.

Jim

 

[Chubby]

Let us know what you decide! But remember RAID <> Backup.
Jim

Absolutely - I'll probably go with an off-site (S3) backup for a particular share which will hold all the critical stuff I wan backed up. This will allow me to use the remaining storage for non-critical stuff which can be replaced (audio / dvd rips). Both Qnap and Synology seem to support S3 backup at the share level.

As for expansion - I can't find if either the Qnap or Synology 410 support port mulitplier on the esata expansion. Does anyone know? Is anyone actually runnin either with expansion?

Thanks again.

 

[thiggins]

Am I able configure RAID at a share level (forgive my RAID ignorance). The reason I ask is because I very little of my data will need to be recoverable in the event of disk failure. The majority of data will be CD / DVD rips which can always be done again. Things like documents and photos will need to be recoverable - however this only is currently 20GB of data, and I don't want to have to tie up two drives participating in this - leaving me only two drives left for big capacity drives. If this is fundementally wrong - then can anyone suggest another strategy for backup (I was thinking about a S3 backup for the 20GB of critical stuff).

RAID is configured at volume level. Shares then live on the volume.
Backup should be done to a physically different device. Either attached backup or networked store.

Do I need an eSATA connection - what does this allow me to do? Can I attach an eSata enclosure like this for instance http://www.shop.bt.com/products/startech-com-esata-raid-external-enclosure-6PDK.html: I appreciate that the expanded space wouldn't be RAID'ed or managed by the NAS box. I'm really looking at affording myself upgradability for the inevitable day that the unit becomes full. If you are able to expand, how does the storage appear - as a single share or are you able to create seperate shares?

eSATA will provide 2-3X the throughput of USB 2.0 for attached backup.
You cannot control/configure individual drives in a multi-drive eSATA box. But if the box handles volume configuration locally, the NAS should be able to see it as a single volume. I have not tried this, however, and you should ask the vendor or check its Forums.

If you are able to expand and add storage via eSATA, what kind of degradation of speed can you expect from the expanded storage? 1/2 as fast, 1/4 of the NAS speed.

Check the eSATA backup charts. Speed can be similar to internal SATA volumes.

The QNAP cites power usage of 16/20W compared to the synology's 56/20W - this seems a large difference for two similarly matches units?

Correct. That's probably a typo. The drives alone would probably consume 16W. If the processors and drives are same/similar, power consumption will be similar.

 

[Chubby]

Correct. That's probably a typo. The drives alone would probably consume 16W. If the processors and drives are same/similar, power consumption will be similar.

Thanks for the response Tim - although QNAP Comparison charts suggest that it doesn't get up past 30W in operation - even at the high end. I think you are right it must mean without drives, a bit abiguous. http://www.qnap.com/images/products/comparison/Comparison_4BayNAS.html

I've started another thread to do with the eSata expansion issue. I'm confused because I can't find anything that says what the possibilities of use for the expansion ports are. http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=4569

I mean, am I limited to the official vendor expansion boxes - or can I use a 3rd party box?

 

[thiggins]

You can attach any third party eSATA drive or cabinet. But the NAS will not be able to configure the drives individually. It will see only one volume.