UKH

My Network Storage device is getting a little long in the tooth and having little niggling problems such as being unable to update its firmware, so I want to replace it before it dies.

I would appreciate any suggestions of a sexy and awesome NAS device with loads of useful features for a home user. I'd preferably like a NAS box without hard drives so that I can use the two hard drives in my NAS box at the moment, both of which are Western Digital Red 3Tb in size.

Cheers muchly

In reply to The Lemming:

Hopeful bump.

In reply to The Lemming:

Have a look at the Synology or QNAP range, no need to look any further really.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Yep. They are on my wish list. Do you have any of these yourself that you can recommend?

In reply to The Lemming:

If your not deperate, Look out for deals on the HP Micro servers like the ProLiant MicroServer Gen8. they have been on offer around £100 in the past with cash back etc.
I dont think there are any current offers but they usually do have them regularly. Check out HotUKDeals http://www.hotukdeals.com/computers/deals/hot they will list any that come up.

These are 4 drive bays so you can rack up the TB storage and you can easily add an extra SSD too for your choice of OS.

In reply to The Lemming: I had a Buffalo link station but it gave up the ghost not long back and i struggled to recover much so went for a dual disk Syntology one with mirroring. The only doiwnside is it wont act as a iTunes server so I have to use their server music tech for playing stuff over the sonos. small price to pay for security of the data tbh.

In reply to The Lemming:

So far I have two products in my sights, but there is a huge price difference.

Would either of these two products be suitable for my needs of media streaming around the house, possibly having stuff streamed to two or more devices?

Synology DS215J
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/storage/nas-drives/1402879/synology-diskstat...

QNAP TS-251
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/storage/nas-drives/1401468/qnap-ts-251-revie...

In reply to ti_pin_man:


May I ask which Synology you have, and if it plays nicely with SONOS?

I also use PLEX and would be interested to know if you have ever installed this onto your NAS as well?

Cheers muchly

In reply to The Lemming:

I have a new question about my current NAS and any future NAS that I buy. At the moment my 2 disk NAS is set up in RAID 1 in case one of the disks goes boom. If I back my NAS up to a separate external hard drive, and keep my data on my desktop computer, is there really a need to use any form of RAID?

My data is kept in at least 3 locations of my desktop, the NAS and an external hard drive. Is RAID (1,5, or whatever) a bit of overkill?

In reply to The Lemming:

You should look at the 'Play' versions of the Synology range if you want it for streaming.

I have a 215J in the office. It's superb and has never been turned off or faltered once. It's very easy to setup. The seamless connection to dropbox is almost unique among non-server based NASs. However, I'm not sure it has much processing power for streaming and transcoding, hence look at 'play' range.

Also, get a cheap gigabit router to fit between your NAS and hard wired stuff. This makes the biggest difference to performance (movies/TV streaming etc)

Steve

In reply to The Lemming:
One thing to bare in mind when transferring drives is that most caddys will want the drive reformatting, I know mine did moving from a WD caddy to a QNAP.

What exactly are you after for your NAS? is it more a central file server or are you after all the added features for movie meta data etc?

My choice came down to QNAP and Synology. I wanted a four bay set up to give me a bit of future proofing and was looking at the QNAP TS431/TS451 and the Synology DS414/DS414j. I ended up with the TS431 as overall I believe I was getting more for my money compared to the Synology set ups, however the TS451 has a HDMI output and xmbc capability which I probably should have gone for

Edit: Both the QNAP set ups have plex capability however I am having issues trying to set it out on the TS431. Think I need to start from scratch to be honest.

In reply to The Lemming:

RAID isn't really about backup, it's about one of the versions being robust. It adds to the overall resilience and convenience.

I have my data in several places and don't use RAID. This means I have to be fastidious about backup regimes, since a local hard disk failure could otherwise lose recent changes.

If money was no object my NAS (currently a cheap WD consumer unit) would be a much more featured server with RAID.

In reply to hamsforlegs:

I personally keep to my own personal backup regimes, some are automated backups & others manual but the main stuff I back up is working files / documents (PC/NAS/Portable wireless drive) and personal photos / videos (PC/NAS).

Movies and other media I keep just on the NAS. Runs a higher risk but means less storage space is needed, especially when there are only a handful of movies I watch more than once.

Finally music, I am moving all this over to google music at the moment so it is stored on their servers. Ultimately I want to get rid of my home PC and cope with just the NAS and my tablet.

In reply to Doad13:


May I ask how and what you use to automate your backups?

Personally I use Acronis for backing up the operating system and I use SyncToy to back up all my data.

I'm sure that Acronis could automate my backups but I don't have a scooby about the jargon and how to use it beyond baking mirror images of my operating system.

In reply to The Lemming:

I have a Drobo 5N at the moment. It seems to do the job.

In reply to The Lemming:

Fbackup is the one I use its pretty basic but its enough for more. I don't have to much 'live' data so its not that big an issue (automated is simply a scheduled task on specific folders).

I use a dropbox account for some files but these are the ones I likely need on the move such as confirmation documents etc.

Is SyncToy any good?

In reply to The Lemming:

Over the last couple of years I've installed about 20 Buffalo terrastations, but I've switched to Synology as my standard device now. They're available with or without disks, the have nicer software on board than the buffalo, and they have a few key features that are important to me (automatic reboot after power failure for example)

In reply to Doad13:


I like SyncToy for its simplicity. You create a pair of folders and get SyncToy to manage those folders. One folder could be on your desktop and the other could be on an external hard drive or, in my case, a NAS.

You can make as many folder pairs as you want. The only drawback is that it is not automated.

In reply to KTC:

I like the idea of the Synology NAS rebooting after a power failure.

In reply to The Lemming:

It was one of the main reasons we moved away from the diskstation - it just wasn't available as a feature.

I've got synology drives sprinkled all over Europe now, and knowing that they're actually on and doing their job is pretty important - it could be weeks of data that disappears otherwise.

In reply to KTC:

Going off the saying 'buy cheap and pay twice', if I was to invest in a Synology 2 bay NAS device, which version would you suggest?

I'd preferably choose a NAS with no disks as I have a couple of RED Western Digital discs to put in it.

In reply to The Lemming:



Look on the web site it'll tell you what features are available for the model you pick, that way you'll get what you need.

Streaming etc.

In reply to The Lemming:

You can make it automated by setting up a scheduled task to run it...

In reply to The Lemming:


I asked this very same question on the forums relating to my NAS device and got the following reply.



The primary purpose of RAID is to acheive high availablity.

In other words, RIAD is there to minimize down time due to loss of access to the data.

The primary purpose of backup is to minimize chances of data loss, which RAID by itself cannot acheive.



In other words, if you don't use RAID on the primary storage location to minimize downtime, then there's no reason to use it on a backup storage location like a NAS.

The general 3 -2- 1 principal for data protection will include 3 copies of your data, 2 Physically discreat storage devices in your posession(RAID1 is still just 1 location), and 1 off-site(or in the cloud).



Adding redundancy to the backup device if you don't need it to expand your total storage will not, by itself accomplish the elmination of single points of failure like the 3-2-1 backup method will.


It would seem like I am slowly bumbling in the right direction with my thoughts on the purpose of RAID, and I very much would appreciate being put in the right.

Is RAID mainly for data that you actively use at the moment?
Is RAID a bit of overkill when a NAS device is primarily part of a back-up system where you have your data in several locations?

If the NAS was my primary source of getting to my data then I can see a need for RAID but I'm beginning to think that RAID is not required for backups and serving movies throughout the house.