NAS recommendation

[mythink]

I worked for a small startup and I bought a couple QNAP's after going through the usual suspects. And they make a very robust system. I was looking to see any comments on the synology. One user made a good point on the atom processor avoid it if you can if your looking at the long view.

Only issues I really don't like I have found about the synology is stick to standard RAID arrays don't use their proprietary version Raid that allows to use mixed disk size recovery sucks.

I am looking also into getting a new NAS for HOME and after seeing the comments sticking with QNAP.
- RAID 6 (5x 3TB) this for movies, music, data etc.
- RAID 1 (2x 2TB SSD) this for VM's
BACKUP external 3TB USB Drives (DATA Volume)
1 Slot open if want to upgrade SSD to 4TB (RAID5)

 

[stevech]

That's a BIG home system. Wow.
I have yet to fill half of my 2-drive (3TB ea), 2-volume, no-RAID NAS (DS212)\, in several years' use.
But I'm not a videophobe. I do VMs, but on my PC, not the NAS. Just got Apple OS X to run on windows 7 via VirtualBox. Fun.

Synology's "Time Backup" is really valuable to me. I designate which folders on the NAS I want to be version-backed-up. No special folders needed. It then backs up every x hours/days all changed files, i.e., the last x months' of versions. Browsing the time backup has a nice UI, using a turning of pages in a book style. I can choose a certain sub-folder or file and flip through the the history of versions with one mouse-click. Then download the one I want. This has saved me many time, after I bugger-up or accidentally delete stuff.

I use Time Backup for my personal financial info, and my work-at-home professional work in soft/firmware development. As well as traditional full backup, local and offsite.

 

[Shabbir Rao]

Check out this thread

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/nas-for-small-office-iomega-px2-300d.28306/#post-219836

 

[Shabbir Rao]

I would suggest QNAP because it is easy to setup and creating packages are easy as well. Along with QNAP you can use any third-party software which gives a lot of good features like you can get remote access to your data and e.t.c. I am using QNAP along with the third party software known as Syncrify. It works great for me.

 

[stevech]

I would suggest QNAP because it is easy to setup and creating packages are easy as well. Along with QNAP you can use any third-party software which gives a lot of good features like you can get remote access to your data and e.t.c. I am using QNAP along with the third party software known as Syncrify. It works great for me.

Your comments apply equally to Synology and perhaps others.

 

[Shabbir Rao]

Your comments apply equally to Synology and perhaps others.

You mean Synology and QNAP are almost same regarding creating packages with any third party software?

 

[stevech]

You mean Synology and QNAP are almost same regarding creating packages with any third party software?

I mean the two companies' software OS and products are very similar. Most NAS users prefer to use only the NAS vendor approved and vetted list of 3rd party software that is on the distribution servers of the NAS vendor. I wouldn't take open source or privately downloaded software and put it on my NAS.

 

[vampyren]

After allot of reading and searching i finally have a winner I know i'm late to the party but i badly need to replace my Drobo FS which is getting slower and slower. I'm so tired of its speed.
First i was going for the Synology DS1815+ but reading about the CPU and other things i moved more towards QNAP TVS-871-i3.
Reading some more i thought the i5 model is a better for future proofing my NAS (considering the cost i wont change it for many years to come).
Lastly watching videos on the internal part and checking the size and noise department i ended up selecting the QNAP TVS-671-I5-8G.
The size is just right and the power supply is more reasonable and has one less fan compared to the 871 (on the power supply).

I'm thinking setting it up like this:
1 SSD for speed and catch
3 x 3TB Raid 5 (in the future might be 4-5TB when the need arises)
2 x 2TB Raid 0 for speed , this partition will be used for my videos so i can edit them from my PC and have fast access to the files. Like external drive connected directly to my PC (or maybe this will be better even considering i have a gigabit Netgear switch)

What do you guys think? Unless anyone gives me a really good reason for getting another model real soon this will arrive to me in 3 days I'm ordering from Amazon UK so i do have 30 day trial period. I love Amazon for that.

 

[sfx2000]

Amazon is pretty cool for returns... one of the best for mail-order shops.

I had to go back to the original post - the 871 is a beast, and it comes at a high premium - might consider the 853/853A as well - slower CPU, but for most purposes, might be more than enough - and the Silvermont cores positively sip power compared to a Core i3/i5/i7...

 

[L&LD]

After allot of reading and searching i finally have a winner I know i'm late to the party but i badly need to replace my Drobo FS which is getting slower and slower. I'm so tired of its speed.
First i was going for the Synology DS1815+ but reading about the CPU and other things i moved more towards QNAP TVS-871-i3.
Reading some more i thought the i5 model is a better for future proofing my NAS (considering the cost i wont change it for many years to come).
Lastly watching videos on the internal part and checking the size and noise department i ended up selecting the QNAP TVS-671-I5-8G.
The size is just right and the power supply is more reasonable and has one less fan compared to the 871 (on the power supply).

I'm thinking setting it up like this:
1 SSD for speed and catch
3 x 3TB Raid 5 (in the future might be 4-5TB when the need arises)
2 x 2TB Raid 0 for speed , this partition will be used for my videos so i can edit them from my PC and have fast access to the files. Like external drive connected directly to my PC (or maybe this will be better even considering i have a gigabit Netgear switch)

What do you guys think? Unless anyone gives me a really good reason for getting another model real soon this will arrive to me in 3 days I'm ordering from Amazon UK so i do have 30 day trial period. I love Amazon for that.

Unless you can put SSD's on each drive bay, forget SSD caching (won't help with huge video files).

I would configure it like this:

2x 1/2/3TB WD Red RAID1 for the NAS os.

4x 3TB WD Red for your storage needs in RAID5.

Alternately, you can have three, 2x 3TB RAID0 arrays for your data needs. First array is the NAS os. Second array is for work in process (wip) and the third array is for finished (archived) data.

I recommend the 3TB WD Reds because they seem to have the best balance of low noise, capacity, reliability and performance (tested 1, 2, 3, 4 TB models).

Using an SSD is wasting a drive bay for your uses. with an 8 bay NAS, it might be worth doing.

 

[sfx2000]

The SSD is only a benefit for certain use cases - most folks won't see benefit there, but for some cases (heavy transactional usage like Databases, as an example), the SSD acting as a write cache can yield very tangible results.

I agree with L&LD for general purposes...

 

[vampyren]

Cheers, i thought the SSD would help speed up the reading/writting of common used files and such. In that case i wont waste a drive bay.
Not sure what you mean about having "2x 1/2/3TB WD Red RAID1 for the NAS os"? isnt the NAS OS residing on the internal flash memory?
I can imaging the use if i for instance create a VM but not sure why else the NAS need so much space for the OS?

As you say WD Red seems to be the best options for NAS, Just not sure if i should get the regular or the Pro version which is more expensive, worth it? both are for NAS use but the Pro seems to be just a bit faster. Not sure if it will matter much though.
http://www.storagereview.com/wd_red_review_6tb_nasware_30

 

[sfx2000]

WD Reds are good enough... the WD Red Pro drives might pull more power, and with little benefit unless one is inside a data center...

Seagate has jumped into this sandbox with their Soho NAS/Enterprise NAS branded drives, but some folks have issues there with long term reliability...

 

[L&LD]

Not sure what you mean about having "2x 1/2/3TB WD Red RAID1 for the NAS os"? isnt the NAS OS residing on the internal flash memory?
I can imaging the use if i for instance create a VM but not sure why else the NAS need so much space for the OS?

As you say WD Red seems to be the best options for NAS, Just not sure if i should get the regular or the Pro version which is more expensive, worth it? both are for NAS use but the Pro seems to be just a bit faster. Not sure if it will matter much though.
http://www.storagereview.com/wd_red_review_6tb_nasware_30

If you're using them in a NAS with 8 drives or less, the Pro version is indeed overkill. The slightly faster speed is a red herring.

The NAS os resides on the first drive or array you create. At least the part that matters (your customizations). Having a large os drive or array is beneficial when moving data around on the NAS itself (through the File Station) as it is many times faster than moving them off the NAS. Your call if you want that to be 2x 1TB, 2TB or 3TB drives.

But identical drives are my preferred choice throughout the NAS. I also recommend buying at least 50% more drives than you have drive bays for (to anticipate failure and have an immediate replacement handy). Also, the larger capacities give you room to grow as your needs change. Be that for VM's, copying data off the main or secondary storage drives (to replace them with larger models and thoroughly test them before you delete those copies first, for example) or for having a third location for your very important data (VID).

 

[kng]

If you're using them in a NAS with 8 drives or less, the Pro version is indeed overkill. The slightly faster speed is a red herring.

The NAS os resides on the first drive or array you create. At least the part that matters (your customizations). (VID).

This is interesting, I wasn't aware of it.

Initially I wanted the x71 model, but as I wasn't able to find it locally in the past, so I bought myself other toys, a HiFi audio system.

As storage is a pain for me these days, I'm just about to order a x53a nas. The 453a costs half the price of 471 with Celeron CPU and it has hardware encryption. For the hard drives I'm thinking to 6TB drives, almost sure the WD Red Pro model, since Hitachi is more expensive.

 

[stevech]

I would not (ever) use hardware encryption in a NAS.

 

[kng]

I would not (ever) use hardware encryption in a NAS.

Why not?

L.E. I just ordered the 453a model, I will have it delivered this week. Now I'm trying to decide on hard drives: I'm thinking to buy Hitach Deskstar NAS v2 6TB, but unfortunately it is not on the compatibility list of QNAP.

On Qnap's website HDN726060ALE610 is compatible, but I'm thinking to buy HDN726060ALE614 .

Any thought, can this be an issue?

 

[sfx2000]

WD Reds - many folks have them, and not many issues reported...

As someone posted above - try to keep them all as a single vendor, and not a bad idea to have at least one spare of the same vendor/model on hand in the inevitable drive failure...

 

[kng]

WD Reds - many folks have them, and not many issues reported...

As someone posted above - try to keep them all as a single vendor, and not a bad idea to have at least one spare of the same vendor/model on hand in the inevitable drive failure...

It depends. If one drive fails, then the chance that another disk ( part of the same lot ) to fail, is bigger, I would say.

 

[vampyren]

If you're using them in a NAS with 8 drives or less, the Pro version is indeed overkill. The slightly faster speed is a red herring.

The NAS os resides on the first drive or array you create. At least the part that matters (your customizations). Having a large os drive or array is beneficial when moving data around on the NAS itself (through the File Station) as it is many times faster than moving them off the NAS. Your call if you want that to be 2x 1TB, 2TB or 3TB drives.

But identical drives are my preferred choice throughout the NAS. I also recommend buying at least 50% more drives than you have drive bays for (to anticipate failure and have an immediate replacement handy). Also, the larger capacities give you room to grow as your needs change. Be that for VM's, copying data off the main or secondary storage drives (to replace them with larger models and thoroughly test them before you delete those copies first, for example) or for having a third location for your very important data (VID).

Ok then i understand. So just to be sure, i could just put in 4 x 3TB and run Raid 10 and have everything on this array?
Later i'm thinking adding additional 2 x 3TB when the need for more space arises. OR is it better to have a 2x TB as Raid 1 as a standalone array for playing with VM and other stuff. This was i dont wear out the other disks when playing with VM, running backup programs and such. Am i thinking correctly even ?
I been using Drobo FS which is pretty dumb and dont let me play with these fun stuff so i'm a bit noob in this area. Actually started reading the QNAP manual now but so far it don't give me much of the answers, just showing how the QNAP works in general.