Is the DS220j a good option for simple home backup?

[mith_y2k]

I currently have a USB drive attached to my Orbi that serves as file storage for movies and photos. I'm thinking of upgrading to a simple NAS with redundancy and better performance than the basic Orbi implementation. While I'm doing this for movies and photos I'd like to also use it for Time Machine backups for 1 Mac and backups for 1 Windows PC.

I'm thinking the DS200j as it has redundancy, I think I need the j version for Time machine and I can pick a wide variety of SATA HDD.

Am I on the right track and missing anything?

I'm thinking of two WD or Seagate of 4 or 8TB.

Any thoughts # questions or suggestions would be welcome.

 

[dosborne]

With any Nas device, be sure to read about the various attacks (QLocker and Deadbolt) particularly for QNAP devices, bit potentially any unit.

Synology and QNAP provide reasonable quality, fairly simple to use units good for the home market.

My only suggestion is to buy as large a capacity drive as you can afford to extend the life and usefulness of the unit. Also, although you specified only vendors (WD, Seagate) please be sure to consider a NAS-rated drive (WD Red or Seagate IronWolf) rather than a PC-rated drive. I've had excellent results with both products, and lately the Seagate Exos, without going for the more expensive "pro" versions as I didn't need the performance.

 

[bbunge]

I have a DS220j that works very well for me. I use two WD Red 4 TB drives, the older ones with CMR. Recommend to avoid drives with SMR recording technology. I also do not allow access to the NAS from outside my LAN for security reasons.

 

[degrub]

The NAS only gives you a little more availability of you files or client backups if you use raid 1 (mirroring of the disks). You still have to use external drives to backup the NAS. While a little more inconvenient, using 2-3 USB drives in rotation to make backup images of your clients will be faster. The main advantage of using a NAS is you can schedule automatic snapshots of the clients when they are running. You still have to back up those images from the NAS. So either way can work. If you use a NAS, make sure you can directly read the files ( use a compatible disk format to the clients) after pulling the drive from the NAS if the motherboard fails. Otherwise you need a duplicate NAS chassis.

 

[mith_y2k]

Thank you everyone for the helpful thoughts. @dosborne the ironwolf is what I was thinking about. I saw Synology lists the Exos among the supported devices. I’ll keep my eyes open.

about the security issues, my plan is to keep the NAS within my lan and wasn’t planning for any port forwarded. Aligned with what @bbunge said.

@degrub I’m not sure I get it. First the drive format, I’m planning to use Ext4 and if anything goes wrong I am planning to use a Linux box. Anything else I need to worry about?

with regards to backups, isn’t the RAID 1 and the redundancy giving me peace of mind that if one drive fails I can use the other one, buy a replacement drive and swap it?

 

[dosborne]

with regards to backups, isn’t the RAID 1 and the redundancy giving me peace of mind that if one drive fails I can use the other one, buy a replacement drive and swap it?

I believe the common point people try and pass on, is that RAID is not a backup. It protects against some hardware failure, but does nothing for you if a) you delete a file or folder by accident, b) you have multiple drive failures, c) you are victim of ransomware, virus, etc

A NAS, and RAID, can be a part of a backup strategy, but is not a total solution.

 

[degrub]

Thank you everyone for the helpful thoughts. @dosborne the ironwolf is what I was thinking about. I saw Synology lists the Exos among the supported devices. I’ll keep my eyes open.

about the security issues, my plan is to keep the NAS within my lan and wasn’t planning for any port forwarded. Aligned with what @bbunge said.

@degrub I’m not sure I get it. First the drive format, I’m planning to use Ext4 and if anything goes wrong I am planning to use a Linux box. Anything else I need to worry about?

with regards to backups, isn’t the RAID 1 and the redundancy giving me peace of mind that if one drive fails I can use the other one, buy a replacement drive and swap it?

raid 1 only protects against single drive failure. motherboard/controller fault is not protected. NAS power supply or other electrical event can damage both drives in a single shot. That is why we say a nas is not backup. Hence the need for additional external backups/copies that are offline and not connected to anything.. Use of a linux box for ext4 is good. Not clear what your skill set was.

 

[jea101]

The DS220j only has 512 MB memory. Synology recommends at least 1GB for Diskstation 7.0 and 7.1.
I would not buy another Synology NAS with
The DS420j does have 1GB as well as 4 drive bays.
The DS 418 for a little mor money than the 420j has 2GB, 4 drive bays and two ethernet ports.
I bought a 218j and regret not buying a 218 or 418.
I would not buy another Synology NAS with less than 1GB memory.

 

[dosborne]

.
I would not buy another Synology NAS with less than 1GB memory.

It really comes down to what you are using it for. I have 3 x NAS with 512MB of ram that perform perfectly well, as a simple file sharing NAS. I agree though, if you plan to use it for all kinds of things, a couple GB is definitely a minimum (I upgraded my main NAS from 2GB to 16GB for example).

 

[coxhaus]

I have a small Synology NAS DS120j on my network that I backup pictures and music to every 6 months or so. I keep it turned off after updating. It is on version 7 something. I don't know as it is turned off.

 

[mith_y2k]

Thank you. Feedback and real life stories are helpful

 

[bdub76]

I started out with a 2 bay Synology. Cheap way to get started. My upload speed is only 10, so cloud storage isn’t practical for me. I now run a 4 bay Synology. I have three drives in a RAID, and I back up to the 4th drive. This provides me redundancy even though
have onsite risk since I have no cloud back up.

If you get one, I’d go with their plus models. And then stick with wd red plus or pro drives. I’ve had no problems with those drives.

From a security perspective, I don’t expose my NAS to the Internet.