Need NAS/WHS advice - PC/Mac environment

[ver]

So, I've never had/used a NAS before and I've spent a few hours over the last couple days reading over the awesome articles and reviews on this site, as well as reading through tons of posts on this forum and some in the other sections as well. I think I'm getting a pretty good idea of what I need/want, but I'm still a little confused as to what will best suit me.

Right now I'm running a Windows PC and a Macbook, neither of which is being backed up regularly/automatically (I do backup DVD burns every so often of important docs), with media just kind of arbitrarily stored on whatever system, and use an iPod Touch as a portable device. I'm looking into adding an HTPC or AppleTV or Popcorn Hour or something similar down the road, but right now my pressing concern is centralizing media storage and starting to properly backup.

I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to dump music/movies/pictures to a centralized location and stream them to any of the computers, as well as perform regular backups of all the computers on the network. I also want the solution itself (whether NAS or WHS) to be backed up. Having remote access to the stuff on the NAS/WHS box is important to me as well, and I'm interested in a well performing solution. Being able to torrent/download/etc. directly to the box matters to me too, since the other computers are often off overnight etc. I'd also like something that is as quiet as possible.

So, my basic questions are:

1) Do I want a NAS or a WHS box? I'm leaning towards a NAS, but just want to make sure that's not the "wrong" choice

2) Am I going to see any advantage going to something like a QNAP or Synology over a Buffalo Linkstation Pro XHL? (which I may be forced to do anyway because the latter is hard to find in Canada, which means ordering from the US, which probably negates most of the price advantage)

3) I know QNAP doesn't officially support Time Machine yet (though according to their forums will soon - is that kind of thing a free firmware update when it happens?) - do Synology products? Does it matter? Time Machine looks pretty interesting to me, so I guess optimally I'd like it supported but it doesn't seem like it should be a dealbreaker.

4) Single drive or multi-drive (which would be 2 I guess)? I'm not that big a believer in RAID, but will I regret not being able to expand the NAS as my storage needs increase, or is replacing the drive easy enough down the road?

5) Backing up the NAS - external drive or second NAS? I'm not too worried about 'downtime' in the external drive situation, and it seems much more economical - but since some stuff will be stored ONLY on the NAS I don't want to cut corners if the two NAS solution is significantly better.

Kind of an aside question, but when you have iTunes server running on a NAS, how does syncing with an iPod work? Do you just connect it to a computer that has access to the NAS and you can download stuff onto it like that?


Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[thiggins]

1) Do I want a NAS or a WHS box? I'm leaning towards a NAS, but just want to make sure that's not the "wrong" choice

Most NASes run Linux, WHS is just an alternative OS. WHS's strengths are automatic data redundancy without RAID overhead and complexity and a module system for customization. It is also much easier to install and use for a DIY NAS than Linux distros like FreeNAS. Look at the LX195 as an example.

2) Am I going to see any advantage going to something like a QNAP or Synology over a Buffalo Linkstation Pro XHL? (which I may be forced to do anyway because the latter is hard to find in Canada, which means ordering from the US, which probably negates most of the price advantage)

For your application, not really. QNAPs and Synologies are ultra flexible have many "server" functions. But if you don't need the ability to run a webserver you might not find the extra cost worth it.

QNAP and Synology also don't have easy to use, web-based remote access, while Buffalo does.

3) I know QNAP doesn't officially support Time Machine yet (though according to their forums will soon - is that kind of thing a free firmware update when it happens?) - do Synology products? Does it matter? Time Machine looks pretty interesting to me, so I guess optimally I'd like it supported but it doesn't seem like it should be a dealbreaker.

I would not buy a product based on a "coming soon" feature. Sometimes they never appear. Synology doesn't have a history for charging for firmware upgrades or feature additions.

4) Single drive or multi-drive (which would be 2 I guess)? I'm not that big a believer in RAID, but will I regret not being able to expand the NAS as my storage needs increase, or is replacing the drive easy enough down the road?

If your capacity needs can be satisfied by a single drive, i.e. 2 TB, I would stay with single.

Drive replacement / expansion is "easy" only in BYOD (diskless) NASes and even then, it depends on how you plan to expand storage. Online RAID expansion can take awhile (you need to replace drives one by one and let the array rebuild if you're using RAID).

WHS is easy to expand storage because of the way it does file replication.

5) Backing up the NAS - external drive or second NAS? I'm not too worried about 'downtime' in the external drive situation, and it seems much more economical - but since some stuff will be stored ONLY on the NAS I don't want to cut corners if the two NAS solution is significantly better.

I prefer a second NAS. Others are ok with an external drive. This is good that you are planning for NAS backup right from the start, especially since some files will only be on the NAS.

Kind of an aside question, but when you have iTunes server running on a NAS, how does syncing with an iPod work? Do you just connect it to a computer that has access to the NAS and you can download stuff onto it like that?

Once you get iTunes properly pointed to the iTunes database on the NAS, you sync the iPod via a computer.

 

[ver]

Thanks for the reply - there's still a couple things I'm confused about.

By what methods can computers on the network (via iTunes) get access to the media on the NAS? Like, is the "iTunes server" function distinct and different from mounting the NAS as a network drive and just referencing each iTunes client to it?

Whenever I read about an "iTunes server" function it seems incredibly limited - music only, often incomplete implementation/data display etc.

How I want it to behave is that I would like 2-3 computers on the network be able to access all the music and videos stored on the NAS via iTunes, optimally including videos bought from the iTunes store with DRM on them. I'd also like to be able to add/remove media, create/edit/remove playlists, etc. from any computer and have it reflected on the others.

If I just dump all the media onto the NAS, authorize all the computers in iTunes, mount the NAS drive, and point iTunes on each computer at it - will it behave this way?

If so, what's the point of the more limiting "iTunes server" feature? For when you want people to have less access?

Thanks a ton for any insights!

 

[thiggins]

I don't know what you mean by a "limited" iTunes feature.

At a basic level, the NAS can hold the iTunes database and music files just like any shared network folder can. Any computer running iTunes can use that single database, by pointing iTunes to it. The iTunes server on the NAS isn't involved.

The iTunes "server" in the NAS also will index the music files stored in specific NAS folders and make them available for play by any device that understands how to interact with this server. This includes iTunes running on computers.

But it can eventually support devices like the iPhone / iTouch running an app to directly access the files on the NAS via the iTunes server with no computer involved.

Unfortunately, right now, there aren't a lot of those devices.

Don't feel badly if you're still confused. I was too, when I first moved my iTunes library to my NAS. I don't really use iTunes that much since I have a Squeezebox Boom, which works via a different server, Squeezecenter. See Fun With Networked Music: Logitech Squeezebox Boom and iPeng Reviewed.