NAS/Backup solution

[draculr]

Hi,

I have a DNS-323 currently, it was my first NAS and up till now it has worked great. I have reached the limit though in terms of performance and space (I currently have 2x1TB drives in RAID1 and achieve ~10MB/s read/write speeds).

I have been looking at some 'next-level' RAID5 solutions, and was looking at everything from the DNS-343, intel entry level storage all the way to the QNAP TS-509 Pro. Even solutions such as no-raid and drobo, but they do not offer good performance.

I was tossing up between something like the intel storage and the TS-509 until I started reading on this site about backup strategies and am starting to think that perhaps RAID5 is not ideal for me. That is especially true if I implement another backup solution (belt and suspenders right..).

I have started considering a 2 or 4bay high performance NAS (such as the synology 209+) with another external drive hooked up to it as backup and no RAID at all. Can any NAS's automatically backup to an eSATA connected storage?

So, I am looking for a solution for myself to serve both current and mid-term storage requirements. Here are a list of all the requirements I can think of:
- Currently have hit the limit on my 1TB, so I need at least 2TB but would prefer some expandability options, 4 bays would offer that more than a 2bay solution. 3-4TB of accessible data should cover me for quite some time and would prefer a solution that I can grow from 2TB to 4TB or more rather than having to get 4TB from day1.
- Good Performance is a must, 10MB/s isn't cutting it for me, I would like at least 20MB/s but would consider paying a bit more for 30+.
- Not too concerned about my data being unavailable due to hard disk failure, I care much more about it being recoverable, so that is one benefit of RAID I don't need. I would also prefer to know I am not reliant on the NAS to read my data.
- I dont want anything too noisey
- I will most likely be selling my DNS-323 so there is no need to worry about finding something for it to do
- Cost? Although I would be willing to pay for something such as the TS-509, I would prefer something cheaper and that would be the absolute maximum for my budget (with 2-3 drives in it to begin with).

Any suggestions?

 

[thiggins]

Not all NASes support scheduled backup.

With two drives, if you get a two-drive NAS, max storage in RAID 1 will be 1.5 TB, maybe 2 when 2 TB drives are supported. You can expand storage with USB drives, but they will be separate volumes and slower.

If you are willing to use RAID 0 or JBOD, however, you don't lose half your space. But if you go that route, you really need to set up an automatic copy scheme to another device for backup.

You might want to consider a Windows Home Server based system. Very expandable and good performance.

Since you have your criteria, hit the NAS Charts to narrow your selections and read reviews for products you are interested in. Then come back and ask for feedback on specific products. Also read How To Choose the Right NAS for You if you already haven't.

 

[draculr]

Quick question, can the synology 207+ backup to the DNS-323 using its inbuilt backup? I want the backup to be independent of any of my computers on the network. If not, any other cheap 2 bay rsync compatible NAS's?

 

[bliko]

If you've installed rsync on your dns-323 this is possible.

Rsync is part of the funplug package and can easily be installed, see:
http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:fun_plug#transfer_using_ftp

 

[draculr]

Excellent, I just did that and it seems to work great.

If I got a Synology 207+/209+ with ~2TB JBOD and backed it up to the DNS-323 with the same storage capacity, would that be safe enough? Would JBOD or RAID0 be preferable in that setup?

The 207+/209+ seem to be the only speedy 2bay NAS devices, even though they are approaching 4bay NAS prices... are they worth it or should I be looking at a fast 4bay instead? What is the easiest way to find all NAS devices with rsync server/client capability?

 

[draculr]

Or perhaps I should just throw a 2TB drive in my main computer and rsync it periodically to my DNS-323... that would be the cheapest solution I guess

 

[bliko]

If you purchase a 4bay nas...you will also need to purchase more disks or nas for backup. If budget is a concern, then go for a 2 bay nas. Using rsync you can also backup your synology nas to an external usb or esata drive.

I'd go with jbod if I was you...if any disk in your raid0 array fails, ALL your data will become unavailable.

What kind of transfer speeds are you trying to achieve?

 

[draculr]

Well right now I am leaning towards throwing 2x1TB drives in my system in RAID0, backing up to my current DNS-323 NAS with 2x1TB drives in JBOD. With this setup, I don't see many downsides to RAID0 since everything is backed up anyway and the cost of replacing a drive without losing data is not much to me.

Most of what I want to share over my NAS to other computers is not written to very often and never written to by any other computer apart from my main, so the NAS still serves the same purpose as always, but I get to rid myself of RAID1 and have 2TB total space with performance on my main computer where I want it - with the ability to share data while my computer is off and all my data being properly backed up.

Are there any weak points to that backup strategy? Any reasons why I should avoid RAID0 in this case even though everything is backed up?