NAS Hardware Recommendation

[NetworkGuy]

Hi,

I am currently using WHS Server to backup all household PCs (including the SageTV server). WHS has been giving me a lot of problems, so I am considering a NAS hardware device.

The NAS will be used for the following:

• General File Storage
• Backups of Household PCs
• Photo Storage
• Music Storage
• DVD / Videos
• Archived SageTV programs

Sage will NOT be writing to the NAS device. I am more concerned with redundancy of the data stored on the NAS device.

I would appreciate some suggestions. I am looking to make this as maintenance free as possible.


Thanks,
John

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Hi,

I am currently using WHS Server to backup all household PCs (including the SageTV server). WHS has been giving me a lot of problems, so I am considering a NAS hardware device.



The NAS will be used for the following:

• General File Storage
• Backups of Household PCs
• Photo Storage
• Music Storage
• DVD / Videos
• Archived SageTV programs

Sage will NOT be writing to the NAS device. I am more concerned with redundancy of the data stored on the NAS device.

I would appreciate some suggestions. I am looking to make this as maintenance free as possible.


Thanks,
John

Get the HP Proliant MicroServer instead, I've got two N36L models and they are fantastic, if you are lucky you can still get them with the £100 cash back scheme, never looked back.

Eddy

[gilded07]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Hi,

I am currently using WHS Server to backup all household PCs (including the SageTV server). WHS has been giving me a lot of problems, so I am considering a NAS hardware device.

The NAS will be used for the following:

• General File Storage
• Backups of Household PCs
• Photo Storage
• Music Storage
• DVD / Videos
• Archived SageTV programs

Sage will NOT be writing to the NAS device. I am more concerned with redundancy of the data stored on the NAS device.

I would appreciate some suggestions. I am looking to make this as maintenance free as possible.


Thanks,
John

In 2010, I bought an inexpensive CM case with PSU included on sale for <$30 and a dual core atom 4xSATA board/processor for ~$70 and added 4x1TB hdds. I found a deal on a laptop hdd with bracket for <$50 for boot drive. I didn't add an ODD but instead, installed Ubuntu via USB thumb drive. I configured it for RAID5 and it works like a charm.

It is headless and connected via ethernet to my network and sits in the corner of one of my kids' bedrooms. I have shares of music, pics, and videos on it mapped into SageTV. It was incredibly cheap to build; uses very little power; and has had no problems since day one.

[newyankee]

I use two QNAP NAS boxes, and happy with function and performance.

[tchapin]

Synology!

They have a variety of models to accommodate your budget and storage needs.

I've had mine for about a year and it's been rock solid. Synology releases updates to their OS relatively frequently. Plus they have a sweet plug-in system / App Store (all are free) for things they officially support and third party developers.

For example, they have a photo sharing app, an iTunes server (it will do home sharing, but won't serve an Apple TV). You can also hook up security cameras, create your own private Dropbox, Time Machine, network backups, music server, and even a basic DVR.

Check it out: http://www.synology.com/dsm/index.php?lang=us

Ask me any questions you have.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by tchapin

Synology!

They are one of the units that I have been looking at. And I do have a few questions:

I intend to backup all PC's onto this unit. I want to be able to restore files, drives or an entire PC. What backup software is included? Can I boot the backup software from a USB stick? Or what do you use?

What type of protection does the Synology Hybrid RAID provide? Can I lose a drive without losing data?

On the 4 bay units, are the drives hot swappable?

When you replace a drive, how long does it take to rebuild the array?

I noticed that a lot of the Western Digital Drives are not fully supported. Any idea why?

I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
John

[SteveD]

You could try unraid. There is a free version that allows 3 harddrives. All you need is an old PC capable of booting usb stick to boot the unraid os. 3 hard drives, the largest being a parity drive. See for details http://lime-technology.com/

I have the licensed version with 6 drives and a cache drive. With a combination of 2 T and 1T to get 7T of protected storage. I use acronis trueimage to create backups of my systems.

Has a very active community to add capabilities.

[Fuzzy]

Depends on how crazy you want to get with your storage how big a system you buy. Some of the AMD 990FX based boards have an insane number of SATA ports built in. I, personally, will likely be going with a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, with an ample 8 internal SATA3, and 2 eSATA3, and 5 PCIe x16 slots (2x16, 1x8, 2x4, 1x1), for the next server upgrade (need to move to something with better virtualization capability than the 785 based board I've got now). To go more extreme, the UD7 version ups the PCIe slots to 2x16, 2x8, 2x4. Compare one of these excellent northbridge based boards, with a lower end AM3 cpu, and it would be a VERY good server to handle a lot more than just NAS duties...

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Depends on how crazy you want to get with your storage how big a system you buy. Some of the AMD 990FX based boards have an insane number of SATA ports built in. I, personally, will likely be going with a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, with an ample 8 internal SATA3, and 2 eSATA3, and 5 PCIe x16 slots (2x16, 1x8, 2x4, 1x1), for the next server upgrade (need to move to something with better virtualization capability than the 785 based board I've got now). To go more extreme, the UD7 version ups the PCIe slots to 2x16, 2x8, 2x4. Compare one of these excellent northbridge based boards, with a lower end AM3 cpu, and it would be a VERY good server to handle a lot more than just NAS duties...

I have thought about that, but I already have a system that serves as my SageTV, Music, Photo, file, etc server. I am just looking for the most reliable storage solution for backup. (Including this server.)

[panteragstk]

I've got extra hardware so I'll be going the unRAID route for storing all of my video files. For music, files, and maybe backups I'll be using a Synology. A friend has one and loves it. You can do quite a bit with them and they are comparable to unRAID as far as what apps are available. The sonology would be running in mirrored mode so I don't have to worry about losing anything.

Since I want something bigger than dual disc for video storage, unRAID is the best choice for me for the simple fact that a comparable NAS would cost much much more.

[George M]

I just set up a synology 412+. I am having a difficult time getting it to work with Sage. I can accomplish it using iSCSI, but not with shared folders. I really want to use Shared Folders, but cannot get sage to see the folders or anything in the workgroup. My network system consists of all Win7 x64 computers with the synology.

Reason I don't want to use iSCSI is that no computer can use the "drives" except one. With shared folders I can connect from any of the computers to add files etc.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by George M

I just set up a synology 412+. I am having a difficult time getting it to work with Sage. I can accomplish it using iSCSI, but not with shared folders. I really want to use Shared Folders, but cannot get sage to see the folders or anything in the workgroup. My network system consists of all Win7 x64 computers with the synology.

Reason I don't want to use iSCSI is that no computer can use the "drives" except one. With shared folders I can connect from any of the computers to add files etc.

Are you using the network path name? \\synology\recordings

Can the computer that Sage is running on access the shared folders?

What type of error message are you getting?

[George M]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Are you using the network path name? \\synology\recordings

Can the computer that Sage is running on access the shared folders?

What type of error message are you getting?

Yes, all the computers on the network can see and access files on the shared folders.

Yes, using the network path name when I try to specify the location.

The error is that "No such directory exists, Do I want to create one?"

Here is what I don't understand. I have another sage setup in my other home. On that one I can browse to the Network, and then to the computers on the Network, and then to the folders on the computers on the Network. With this setup I can never get beyond the workgroup. Always get the error without ever seeing the computers.

Again, all computers are running Win7 either 32 or 64.

[NetworkGuy]

So I think I have settled on the Synology DS413 NAS. I am going to have to add a software backup solution, since theirs does not allow a restore to bare metal. Right now it is between Acronis True Image and StorageCraft ShadowProtect.

Any last thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,
John

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

...Acronis True Image...

[tchapin]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

[tchapin]

They are one of the units that I have been looking at. And I do have a few questions:

I intend to backup all PC's onto this unit. I want to be able to restore files, drives or an entire PC. What backup software is included? Can I boot the backup software from a USB stick? Or what do you use?


[twc] I use acronis

What type of protection does the Synology Hybrid RAID provide? Can I lose a drive without losing data?

[twc] Yes. Depending on the device you get, you can even set it up with 2 drive redundancy.

On the 4 bay units, are the drives hot swappable?

[twc] yes

When you replace a drive, how long does it take to rebuild the array?

[twc] that will depend on the size of the drives. I luckily haven't had to find out!

I noticed that a lot of the Western Digital Drives are not fully supported. Any idea why?

[twc] nope. Sorry.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
John[/QUOTE]

[newyankee]

For what it is worth, don't forget the built in drive image backup in win 7. Will easily image to another drive, and make an optional boot DVD. The restore process works quite well, and I use it to clone OS drives all the time.