Thoughts before purchasing...

[JustJackBlack]

I have an aging WHS2011 which I am outgrowing the case. I have been doing a lot of research on NASs and have more-or-less decided to go with one versus messing with a rebuild to WHS (no further support) or even Windows Server (which for me adds a whole layer of complexity).

I have built a few computers before, and thought at first about building a FreeNAS unit. However, I have next to zero experience in LINUX, and have recently read some articles about the woes of FreeNAS unless you have a solid understanding of the system and the differences between vdevs, zpools, zils, and l2arcs.

I then started to seriously look at commercial units and took some time to compare the QNAP and Synology units. At first I was looking at a 4-bay unit, then quickly moved to a 6-bay unit. More recently, I am leaning towards an 8-bay unit to fit my needs.

Given this, I think that I would be best suited by going with a QNAP TS-853A. Here is what I'm looking to accomplish with it.

First goal - First drive pool:
Move existing WHS2011 to NAS:
* Drive with home pictures, documents, home videos
* Drive with music
* Drive with daily snapshots (backups) of 4 clients (3 household + 1 HTPC system drive).
With this move I want redundancy in the event of errors. I am considering using 4 x 4TB drives in RAID10 to achieve this and get me a total of 8TB. I will also use an external drive to backup the most important pieces (home pics, docs, home videos) and possibly music.

Second goal - Second drive pool:
Move HD movies from i3 HTPC to NAS. This way I can serve movies across more clients fluidly and move them off the aging i3 which struggles when I am crunching SAB + watching movies. Additionally, move SAB directly on NAS (if possible). I am considering using 2 x 4TB drives with no redundancy. I don't care much if I loose the data and can always re-rip the movies.

Third goal - Third drive pool:
Utilize QNAP Surveillance for my 4 house IP cameras. I plan to use either a single 2TB or 4TB drive for this. I'm not really that worried about redundancy of the data. I only put the cameras up around my house to keep the neighborhood kids from playing ding-dong-ditch at 11pm at night.

This would leave me one drive space, so if necessary I could either increase the size of the first or second pool. I have also read that it is possible to upgrade the memory on the unit and plan to buy either a 2 x 4GB memory kit or a 2 x 8GB memory kit. I have heard a report where even though only 8GB is supported that 16TB will run on these units. This hopefully would help with SAB if I can get it running.

So, I am hoping that some may offer some insight to my proposed plan above and let me know if there are holes or problems in this. I appreciate any and all comments.

 

[sfx2000]

Sounds like a reasonable plan - I would confer with QNAP's presales team just to double check as the TS-853A is a big investment..

There is a significant charge for RAM if you buy the pre-configured SKU's, so better to go with a 2GB model and add some decent quality RAM (Crucial, Kingston, Corsair are all good choices) - the unit itself can take two SO-DIMM's, so you should be fine.

 

[JustJackBlack]

Thanks for the input. Great idea about calling QNAP. I'll try giving them a call soon to discuss. I also do plan to buy the 2GB model. NewEgg has 10% off all laptop memory today with email coupon.

 

[JustJackBlack]

I did email and subsequently call QNAP pre-sales and explained my situation as described above. I spoke with Cliff who was very helpful and told me that my plan sounded solid. He commended me for thinking ahead and said many people buy small (2 or 4 bay) at first and then upgrade to the larger units later. I found out a bit more about user set up and also configuring a VPN if I want.

Cliff did note that the unit will support 16GB as I had previously read another user had attempted. He said that he has his personal NAS set up with 16GB, for first hand experience. He noted that QNAP states 8GB because that is the Intel spec, but the unit will handle 16GB.

I went ahead an purchased the QNAP TS-853A and will hopefully receive in the next days.

Any advice as to steps to take in setting it up or when I first get it?
Additionally, as expected I will need to fill this thing with NAS HDDs. Preferably I would like to test each and every HDD before putting them in the NAS. Can someone recommend a USB disc toaster to buy? Also what tests (besides the manufacturer's) optimally should be run on the disks?

 

[sfx2000]

Any advice as to steps to take in setting it up or when I first get it?
Additionally, as expected I will need to fill this thing with NAS HDDs. Preferably I would like to test each and every HDD before putting them in the NAS. Can someone recommend a USB disc toaster to buy? Also what tests (besides the manufacturer's) optimally should be run on the disks?

QTS has drive testing built-in, so use it vs. trying to use USB3 or other...

Drop the drives in, do a quick storage pool, and run the drive test from there before you finalize your configuration...

 

[JustJackBlack]

Thank you sir. That makes it tremendously easy.

 

[L&LD]

QTS has drive testing built-in, so use it vs. trying to use USB3 or other...

Drop the drives in, do a quick storage pool, and run the drive test from there before you finalize your configuration...

I run daily and weekly (quick and thorough) disk checks on a schedule on every NAS unit (mostly QNAP's) I use or deploy for customers. Along with the emailing of critical events, many catastrophes were caught ahead of time (just had a spare drive waiting and told customer to replace drive 'x' with the new drive).