The Nas Owners Thread - A Place For All Things Nas Related

[Guest]

1 hour ago, aussievintage said:

So Synology is still the go to brand ?     I need to start looking around.

Quite a few here have the Synology. Suggest getting at least 2 bays to allow for running of RAID. 

[awayward]

I’d recommend Synology, my 5 year old 2 bay NAS running raid had a HDD failure recently, just backed it up to a usb drive first, then replaced the failed disk, ran the repair on the volume, as good as new, too easy.

[bob_m_54]

I currently have a 2 bay Synology, and recently upgraded the drives (2 X 8TB). But I might go to a 4 Bay soon, and take advantage of the best bang for buck sized drives. Then If I need to increase the size, replace them in pairs of the next current bang for buck size.

[BugPowderDust]

One thing you should all consider if buying a spare disk of the same model / spec and leaving it in a cupboard for when you have a disk failure. You might not be able to buy a disk of the same size in future and it's a waste to only use xTB of a much bigger disk so it works in your array.

 

I had a series of ugly power outages here this year and lost a disk in a 4 disk array.  I walked to the shelf, opened a new one, plopped it into the NAS and never skipped a beat.

 

I then ordered another one and it sits in the same place the old spare sat for "whenever".

[bob_m_54]

17 minutes ago, BugPowderDust said:

One thing you should all consider if buying a spare disk of the same model / spec and leaving it in a cupboard for when you have a disk failure. You might not be able to buy a disk of the same size in future and it's a waste to only use xTB of a much bigger disk so it works in your array.

 

I had a series of ugly power outages here this year and lost a disk in a 4 disk array.  I walked to the shelf, opened a new one, plopped it into the NAS and never skipped a beat.

 

I then ordered another one and it sits in the same place the old spare sat for "whenever".

That's a good idea, especially if you have recently upgraded your drives, and won't need bigger drives for a while. Probably even more useful if you only have a two bay drive.

 

I was lucky in that the two WD 4TB reds in my Synology were a bit full anyway (around 80%), and so needed to increase the size. But even luckier that of the two WD Reds, the good one was exactly the same part number as the drive in my WD My Cloud, that was also starting to fail. Replacing that drive was a bit more complicated than just swapping drives though LOL.

[bob_m_54]

On 25/10/2021 at 10:03 AM, Mat-with-one-t said:

No doesn’t seem to work

The Mac won't let you? Seems odd.. But then again, I don't use Macs LOL

[BugPowderDust]

9 minutes ago, bob_m_54 said:

That's a good idea, especially if you have recently upgraded your drives, and won't need bigger drives for a while. Probably even more useful if you only have a two bay drive.

I have 4 x WD Red 3TB drives in a single RAID array. When one started reporting errors, I ran the SMART test on them daily for a bit until I decided to just give up on a lost cause.  It took about 16 hours to rebuild the array so not a big inconvenience.

[MattyW]

Coolio, so got tired of issues on UnRAID so have a Synology DS1621+ on order + an extra 16GB RAM. Once received I'll move 4x 4TB drives across from my UnRAID server leaving just the 5TB parity drives in and copy all data across. Once done I'll move the 2TB M2 SSD across and 2x 5TG drives. Will use SHR2 for a bit more fault tolerance.

 

Hopefully its easy enough to get Roon Core up and running, and Plex should be easy enough.

[Mat-with-one-t]

43 minutes ago, MattyW said:

Coolio, so got tired of issues on UnRAID so have a Synology DS1621+ on order + an extra 16GB RAM. Once received I'll move 4x 4TB drives across from my UnRAID server leaving just the 5TB parity drives in and copy all data across. Once done I'll move the 2TB M2 SSD across and 2x 5TG drives. Will use SHR2 for a bit more fault tolerance.

 

Hopefully its easy enough to get Roon Core up and running, and Plex should be easy enough.

I’ll be a-pickin’ your brain…!

[MattyW]

3 hours ago, MattyW said:

Coolio, so got tired of issues on UnRAID so have a Synology DS1621+ on order + an extra 16GB RAM. Once received I'll move 4x 4TB drives across from my UnRAID server leaving just the 5TB parity drives in and copy all data across. Once done I'll move the 2TB M2 SSD across and 2x 5TG drives. Will use SHR2 for a bit more fault tolerance.

 

Hopefully its easy enough to get Roon Core up and running, and Plex should be easy enough.

Happy to help where I can.

[sir sanders zingmore]

I haven’t looked through the entire thread but my daughter (our resident tech guru) wants to build a NAS from scratch. 
I know nothing about what’s required, can anyone advise on what’s required?

[tripitaka]

29 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

I haven’t looked through the entire thread but my daughter (our resident tech guru) wants to build a NAS from scratch. 
I know nothing about what’s required, can anyone advise on what’s required?

Sir SZ, I don't have one, but I thought it was all about the software, to achieve the necessary backup/redundancy?

 

Long ago, when I planned to install one, I understood it was just was a matter of buying a (pretty cheap) rack from one of the main vendors (Synology?) and inserting my own hard drives. But then streaming came along, and nothing else mattered.

Of course, if you mean that your daughter wants to write her own software, then I doff my cap in her direction.

[MattyW]

Easily the best performing software I tried in terms of both performance and reliability was TrueNAS. Unfortunately I found its operation Overly complicated for home use. UnRAID is easier however poorer performance and reliability has put me off it…. So I’m returning to Synology. Building my own, was a false economy. I should have just stuck with Synology in the first place.

 

 Besides SHR and SHR2 hybrid RAID makes things easy. Can use various different drive sizes. Need more storage? Pull out one of the smallest drives and plug a larger capacity drive in.

 

SHR can handle a single drive failure and gives the largest storage capacity whereas SHR2 can handle two failed drives. I’ll be running SHR2.

Edited October 26, 2021 by MattyW

[Guest]

1 hour ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

I haven’t looked through the entire thread but my daughter (our resident tech guru) wants to build a NAS from scratch. 
I know nothing about what’s required, can anyone advise on what’s required?

There is lots of open source software to learn from.

https://linuxhint.com/best-nas-software-linux/

Building a NAS is relatively easy.  Building a noob friendly NAS is much, much harder.  This is where Synology have excelled.

[sir sanders zingmore]

25 minutes ago, tripitaka said:

Sir SZ, I don't have one, but I thought it was all about the software, to achieve the necessary backup/redundancy?

 

Long ago, when I planned to install one, I understood it was just was a matter of buying a (pretty cheap) rack from one of the main vendors (Synology?) and inserting my own hard drives. But then streaming came along, and nothing else mattered.

Of course, if you mean that your daughter wants to write her own software, then I doff my cap in her direction.

She wants to build a rack. What do you define as “pretty cheap” ?

 

I don’t understand what they do tbh but a 4 bay from synology is like $600 without any drives. That doesn’t seem cheap to me but as I said I’m not really sure what they are for

[tripitaka]

1 minute ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

She wants to build a rack. What do you define as “pretty cheap” ?

 

I don’t understand what they do tbh but a 4 bay from synology is like $600 without any drives. That doesn’t seem cheap to me but as I said I’m not really sure what they are for

 

Ah yes, I see. 

Yes $600 sounds right, but I always figured you were paying most of that for the RAID software functionality (or whatever it's called).

Maybe there are ways to save money with open access software, though $600 is usually regarded as a 'rounding error' in hifi purchases?

 

Still, I don't know why I responded actually, since I don't know the first thing about it

[aussievintage]

1 hour ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

I haven’t looked through the entire thread but my daughter (our resident tech guru) wants to build a NAS from scratch. 
I know nothing about what’s required, can anyone advise on what’s required?

 

Maybe base it on something like a raspberry pi and use linux.

 

https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-openmediavault/

 

https://au.pcmag.com/network-attached-storage/65070/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-nas-for-whole-home-file-sharing

[Hilltop Hippy]

Anyone built a system with TrueNAS?

 

Our 4 bay Synology 815 is full. We need a new one. So its either another Synology or a DIY build with TrueNAS. I like the idea of DIY as I can build it stupid quiet and I can replace parts as required. I've NFI about the software side though.

 

Thoughts?

 

I can build a PC. I'm not so good on the software side.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

I've NFI about the software side though.

 

Thoughts?

 

I can build a PC. I'm not so good on the software side.

I am software literate and use DIY Linux streamers, but have never considered going away from Synology. Its rich functionality, ease of setup and use make it such a good solution. Plus it is well supported and continuously enhanced. 

 

With your software deficit, you are likely to get very frustrated with a DIY NAS...

[cazzesman]

This is pretty old thread and I am no IT guru but my 2 cents - I have had Synology 4 bay NAS for about 12 years.   And the ease and software updates are superb.   Mine is a DS416 slim with 4 1tb HDD in Raid 5 mode.  

 

About 2 years ago the actual device did fail but I just swapped the HDD into the new model, and all was saved.  

 

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/synology-diskstation-ds416slim

 

Regards Cazzesman

 

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by cazzesman

[bob_m_54]

11 hours ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

Anyone built a system with TrueNAS?

 

Our 4 bay Synology 815 is full. We need a new one. So its either another Synology or a DIY build with TrueNAS. I like the idea of DIY as I can build it stupid quiet and I can replace parts as required. I've NFI about the software side though.

 

Thoughts?

 

I can build a PC. I'm not so good on the software side.

Does the NAS still perform OK for what you use it for? If so, why not just increase the HDD sizes? or are you at max already?

[Hilltop Hippy]

54 minutes ago, bob_m_54 said:

Does the NAS still perform OK for what you use it for? If so, why not just increase the HDD sizes? or are you at max already?

Yeah, it's maxed out, also kinda slow and loud....

[bob_m_54]

8 minutes ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

Yeah, it's maxed out, also kinda slow and loud....

OK, I checked online and yes it is an older unit, and 16TB max by the looks of it.

[MattyW]

On 10/6/2023 at 9:35 AM, Hilltop Hippy said:

Anyone built a system with TrueNAS?

 

Our 4 bay Synology 815 is full. We need a new one. So its either another Synology or a DIY build with TrueNAS. I like the idea of DIY as I can build it stupid quiet and I can replace parts as required. I've NFI about the software side though.

 

Thoughts?

 

I can build a PC. I'm not so good on the software side.

I did but grew tired of maintenance and the comparative complexity of doing pretty much anything in it. I’m now running a Synology DS1621+ and am delighted with the minimal effort required to keep things running. It emails you when any attention is required and with SHR2 adding capacity is as simple as adding a drive or removing and old drive and slotting in a larger capacity drive letting it rebuild the array.

Edited June 11, 2023 by MattyW

[Hilltop Hippy]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. A new NAS it is!