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It's the NAS (Network Attached Storage) Thread, yo.

I like my Synology DS413 a lot but recently am growing tired of headaches with the Crashplan packages, low memory, lack of a Git server package (like gitlab), etc.

I've been thinking about building a custom NAS server but my one issue I'm constantly running into is... I love how easy it is to swap failed / bigger drives when using Synology's Hybrid RAID.

From what I'm reading using something like FreeNAS would make that sort of thing much harder? Is that correct? Is there any options available like Synology's Hybrid RAID?
 
With ZFS you need to keep disks in the same vdev the same size to expand, so if it was a RaidZ2 (Raid 6) you would need to increase the size of all the drives. Or if you had a Mirrors, you would need to increase 2 drive sizes.

Lots of software defined storage solutions can do similar to what you want, FlexRAID.. Drive Bender. With unRAID believe you just have to have your parity drive be the largest drive.

SHR is just Synology's implementation of LVM, if you really want you could look into a linux box that does the same thing... it wouldnt exactly be user friendly though.

Windows 10 or 2012 R2 with Storage spaces is another option.

look em up and i'll answer any questions you have about them
 
I've been researching NAS's for a few weeks now and I was wondering how often HDD's actually fail. I understand that if you were using raid 5 or 6, and you were rebuilding the data because of a failed drive, it puts a lot of strain on the other drives.

I've been looking into NAS's, both Synology's and custom-made, and they are just so expensive! It makes me just want to buy a WD My Book and call it a day.
 
dIEHARD said:
With ZFS you need to keep disks in the same vdev the same size to expand, so if it was a RaidZ2 (Raid 6) you would need to increase the size of all the drives. Or if you had a Mirrors, you would need to increase 2 drive sizes.

Lots of software defined storage solutions can do similar to what you want, FlexRAID.. Drive Bender. With unRAID believe you just have to have your parity drive be the largest drive.

SHR is just Synology's implementation of LVM, if you really want you could look into a linux box that does the same thing... it wouldnt exactly be user friendly though.

Windows 10 or 2012 R2 with Storage spaces is another option.

look em up and i'll answer any questions you have about them
Click to expand...

After doing some research I think I'm going to try building my own with FreeNAS, 4 drives and using RaidZ2 (Raid 6 - as it sounds like that's the preferred option for 4 drives?).

Had a couple questions - everyone always talks about 1GB memory for 1TB of storage. If I do that would I still be able to run things like Plex, etc comfortably?

Also, Is there a 'preferred build' for 2016. I'm thinking a case like the Silverstone ds380 or Fractal Design R5 might be nice for space to work. However I like the form factor of the Fractal Design 304 too. And for motherboard not sure what to do. For CPU I'll probably go with an i3. Power supply 650w. Memory probably 8GB for now.
 
My QNAP 212 recently alerted me that one of my HDDs needs attention. I've checked every diagnostic for the drives, but every test and analisys comes back as 100% okay. Does anyone have any idea what this could mean?
 
WoolyNinja said:
I like my Synology DS413 a lot but recently am growing tired of headaches with the Crashplan packages, low memory, lack of a Git server package (like gitlab), etc.

I've been thinking about building a custom NAS server but my one issue I'm constantly running into is... I love how easy it is to swap failed / bigger drives when using Synology's Hybrid RAID.

From what I'm reading using something like FreeNAS would make that sort of thing much harder? Is that correct? Is there any options available like Synology's Hybrid RAID?
Click to expand...

For a custom NAS unRAID will let you mix and match HDDs of different sizes while letting you use their full capacity. The Parity drive will always be the biggest or tied for biggest size. You can easily swap a failed drive with one of the same size or bigger. I've been using it for years and been adding bigger disks as I've needed with ease.

It's not free though. A license that supports 6 drives is $60, 12 drives is $90 and 25 drives is $130.
 
Where do you guys usually keep your network storage systems? I currently have mine in the kitchen, connected to the house router because I couldn't find anywhere else to keep it, and as things in the house tend to....'disappear' here and there, I get worried that one day I might wake up to my pi and enclosure just gone.
 
WoolyNinja said:
After doing some research I think I'm going to try building my own with FreeNAS, 4 drives and using RaidZ2 (Raid 6 - as it sounds like that's the preferred option for 4 drives?).

Had a couple questions - everyone always talks about 1GB memory for 1TB of storage. If I do that would I still be able to run things like Plex, etc comfortably?
Click to expand...

You might want to do a stripe of two mirrors (like raid 1+0) you would get twice the write IOPS and it easier to expand by added 2 more drives.

The 1GB for 1TB rule is kinda inaccurate, it really all depends on your usage. 8GB should be fine but definitely don't go lower. I would recommend getting a C-series chipset and ECC RAM to go with that i3. 650 watt PSU is probably overkill.
 
shagia said:
Where do you guys usually keep your network storage systems? I currently have mine in the kitchen, connected to the house router because I couldn't find anywhere else to keep it, and as things in the house tend to....'disappear' here and there, I get worried that one day I might wake up to my pi and enclosure just gone.
Click to expand...

Wut, what kind of place do you live in?

I keep mine in a corner of my living room. It's pretty big, not going to be able to lose it in my home.
 
dIEHARD said:
You might want to do a stripe of two mirrors (like raid 1+0) you would get twice the write IOPS and it easier to expand by added 2 more drives.

The 1GB for 1TB rule is kinda inaccurate, it really all depends on your usage. 8GB should be fine but definitely don't go lower. I would recommend getting a C-series chipset and ECC RAM to go with that i3. 650 watt PSU is probably overkill.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So to make sure I understand Raid 1+0...
If I have 4 drives I'd have 2 stripes... Disk 1 + 2 (Stripe A) and Disk 3 + 4 (Stripe B)
Stripe A and Stripe B would be mirrored.
If each disk was 2GB I should have a total of 4GB of usable space
If I wanted to add 2 more drives then it would still be 2 mirrored stripes but each would consist of 3 drives each?
 
Basically other than your stripes and mirrors are backwards.
Disk 0 and 1 in a mirror make vdev 0. Disk 2 and 3 make vdev 1.
vdev 0 and 1 in a stripe make a zpool.

If you wanted to add more space, add Disk 4 and 5 to make vdev 3, and expand zpool to include it.

The GUI makes it pretty simple.
 
vityaz said:
Wut, what kind of place do you live in?

I keep mine in a corner of my living room. It's pretty big, not going to be able to lose it in my home.
Click to expand...

sadly I live in a place where people steal things, and no one can seem to get to the bottom of it. So I've been trying to think about ways to keep my own stuff from not going missing.
I'm sure no one would give a hell for a Raspberry Pi and an enclosure sitting in the kitchen, but I said the same thing about my iPad sitting in my room. :(
 
I have an older, full ATX desktop that I have been using as an htpc and I need to replace it. I like the idea of having a NAS for data backup purposes, but I am thinking of getting one with multimedia capabilities and have it pull double duty to replace my huge htpc.

I only have local media files and I won't be streaming to any other PCs in the house and I won't need to do any transcoding.

Do any of you have any experience using a NAS as an htpc? Are there any concerns that I should have? I am leaning toward the QNAP TS-451 or TS-451+. I think I can get by on the 451 if I increase the ram, does that sound about right for my needs?
 
So I'm finally getting around to ordering a NAS, went with a Synology DS216play. I noticed DSM 6.0 is out now, do Synology units still ship with 5.0? And if so, is it worth updating to 6.0 right off the bat before setting up the HDDs?
 
XiaNaphryz said:
So I'm finally getting around to ordering a NAS, went with a Synology DS216play. I noticed DSM 6.0 is out now, do Synology units still ship with 5.0? And if so, is it worth updating to 6.0 right off the bat before setting up the HDDs?
Click to expand...

I'd probably update right away, in my experience (on RS815+) it goes pretty quick and painless.
 
Hello peoples, would anyone be able to tell me if I can use two different sized hdds in my synology ds215j. I currently have two 3TB drives but am running out of space. I don't use any RAID so they aren't backing up and I would like to swap out one of the 3TB and put in a 6TB along side the other 3TB. Id then stick the left over 3TB in my pc. I cant find out if its possible to use two different sized drives without RAID. Anyone know? Cheers.
 
Joe Spangle said:
Hello peoples, would anyone be able to tell me if I can use two different sized hdds in my synology ds215j. I currently have two 3TB drives but am running out of space. I don't use any RAID so they aren't backing up and I would like to swap out one of the 3TB and put in a 6TB along side the other 3TB. Id then stick the left over 3TB in my pc. I cant find out if its possible to use two different sized drives without RAID. Anyone know? Cheers.
Click to expand...
If you are running SHR(Synology Hybrid Raid) or JBOD, yes you can.

If the drives are just in there independently, then definitely yes.


Be careful with that much data without redundancy, btw.
 
Joe Spangle said:
Hello peoples, would anyone be able to tell me if I can use two different sized hdds in my synology ds215j. I currently have two 3TB drives but am running out of space. I don't use any RAID so they aren't backing up and I would like to swap out one of the 3TB and put in a 6TB along side the other 3TB. Id then stick the left over 3TB in my pc. I cant find out if its possible to use two different sized drives without RAID. Anyone know? Cheers.
Click to expand...

MultiCore said:
If you are running SHR(Synology Hybrid Raid) or JBOD, yes you can.

If the drives are just in there independently, then definitely yes.


Be careful with that much data without redundancy, btw.
Click to expand...

Plus, if you are using SHR and have drive redundancy, remember you will not see a size increase until you add more drives than your redundancy count. Example, my Synology is an 8-drive setup and I would need to add at least 3 x 6TB drives before I see my storage go up by 1 x 6TB.
 
hipbabboom said:
Plus, if you are using SHR and have drive redundancy, remember you will not see a size increase until you add more drives than your redundancy count. Example, my Synology is an 8-drive setup and I would need to add at least 3 x 6TB drives before I see my storage go up by 1 x 6TB.
Click to expand...
It's only a 2 bay unit, I don't think he has to worry about that, lol.
 
WoolyNinja said:
Finally going to actually start building this thing - any issues with my part list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/woolyninja/saved/#view=nRKLrH

EDIT: would appreciate feedback on the case too... its my first build in a loooooong time and i'm wondering if a bigger case (like a Fractal R5) might be easier for a first go
Click to expand...

Looks like a good build - might want to check clearance on the CPU cooler. Are you going to stick with the stock fans?
 
Shit, one of my HDDs seems to be dying. DSM reports the volume as "degraded" and the HDD as "crashed". There's one bad sector. Is there a chance to repair this somehow or do I have to replace the HDD for sure?

edit: I had already tried the Repair option in the Storage Manager when I posted this, but it didn't help. I tried it again, and now it actually removed the HDD from the volume. Its status is now Normal/Initialized for some reason, but the volume is still degraded. Fucking hell.
Well, I was about to run out of space at some point in the next few months anyway. Gonna replace it with a bigger one.
 
MultiCore said:
It's only a 2 bay unit, I don't think he has to worry about that, lol.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I should probably invest in more bays so i can have redundency. I only have all my blu rays ripped so i still have the physical discs. Also i havent compressed any so they are all like 20-30 gigs.
 
hipbabboom said:
Plus, if you are using SHR and have drive redundancy, remember you will not see a size increase until you add more drives than your redundancy count. Example, my Synology is an 8-drive setup and I would need to add at least 3 x 6TB drives before I see my storage go up by 1 x 6TB.
Click to expand...

Hi Hipbabboom, I have a Synology DS410 with 4 x 2TB drives in a Raid 5 using SHR (for 6TB total storage). I want to upgrade the capacity on the array, would I be right in saying that if I started replacing one drive at a time with a larger (say, 4TB) drives and allowing a raid rebuild for every drive swap, by your reasoning I would only see the additional capacity when after the 4th and final array rebuild?
 
WoolyNinja said:
Finally going to actually start building this thing - any issues with my part list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/woolyninja/saved/#view=nRKLrH

EDIT: would appreciate feedback on the case too... its my first build in a loooooong time and i'm wondering if a bigger case (like a Fractal R5) might be easier for a first go
Click to expand...

What OS/filesystem will this be using?

i might actually go with a E3-1220 V5 and a X11SSL-F, and of course ECC DDR4.
 
Dan27 said:
Hi Hipbabboom, I have a Synology DS410 with 4 x 2TB drives in a Raid 5 using SHR (for 6TB total storage). I want to upgrade the capacity on the array, would I be right in saying that if I started replacing one drive at a time with a larger (say, 4TB) drives and allowing a raid rebuild for every drive swap, by your reasoning I would only see the additional capacity when after the 4th and final array rebuild?
Click to expand...

That's correct. See https://www.synology.com/en-global/...eManager/volume_diskgroup_expand_replace_disk
 
I don't even want to use my NAS until the replacement disk arrives. It's probably not particularly likely that another one would die just shortly after the first one, but I really don't want to take my chances. The data's too valuable.
 
Thinking of selling my QNAP TS-412 and upgrade to TS-251. Running various web apps that require python and mysql are killing the 256 MB of RAM it has. TS-251 can upgrade all the way to 16 GB of RAM.

Anyone have one?
 
Hi again, Ive gone an bought a 6TB drive which I am going to stick into my DS215j. Currently I have two 3TB drive in it, I have backed up all the data (on about a million separate drives and sticks) and so my next move will be to remove one of the 3TB drives and replace it with the 6TB.

My question is......will I need to re-format both the drives? or will some of the data remain on the single 3TB drive left in it? I cant see any way to find out what data is stored on which drive (I don't have raid set up, I think the DS215j is just treating the two drives as one volume?)

Am I ok to just stick in the new drive and sinology will guide me through setting up? I don't mind starting fresh, would be nice if some of my data would be recoverable on the remaining 3TB. I hope that's all clear enough for someone to comment.
 
So I hit a little snag with my NAS drive. Ive been backing up my data onto external usbs and I went to plug in one to the 3.0 port at the back and the drive just wouldn't show up on the file manager, but it would show on the control panel external devices list. I found that it was an issue with earlier versions of the DSM (maybe 2.0) but couldn't find any recent info or a fix. I had to re-format the external drive on my pc and then it was picked up. I'm going to swap over my HDDs this weekend.
 
Looking at a second server for a personal cloud. I have a DS413 with 4x 3TB WD Reds that I use as a local media server. Looking to get a supplementary setup for photos, music and documents. Initially was thinking a 216 is my best bet, but now I'm not sure. I'll be getting 2x 6TB WD Reds and swapping them into the 413 which is filling up. At this point my options are:

DS216. Likely good enough?
DS216+. Is this a good idea if I have multiple users? It's an extra $100 CAD.
DS716 or some other expandable unit. In hindsight I wish I had gone with a 5 bay that was expandable 3-4 years ago.

Any advice? Newegg.ca puts my total for drives and DS216 at $1008.00 CAD taxes and shipping in.
 
I think I've read Synology is good with file systems in terms that your stuff is easily recoverable in case of an enclosure death. Anyone know if other brands, such as QNAP, are good with that too?
 
Now that my FreeNAS box is humming along nicely I want to back it up to a service online. I've been using Crashplan on Synology for years but am growing tired of the constant struggle to keep it running.

So is there a good place for offsite backups that is easy to get going with FreeNAS?
 
Dumb question, but what's the point of a NAS? Why not just dump more storage drives into your main PC (assuming you have storage bays available) and stream everything through Plex? I've only learned about NAS systems recently and I just don't understand their purpose for home use.
 
JoeyJungle said:
Dumb question, but what's the point of a NAS? Why not just dump more storage drives into your main PC (assuming you have storage bays available) and stream everything through Plex? I've only learned about NAS systems recently and I just don't understand their purpose for home use.
Click to expand...

A NAS can be running 24/7 with relatively low power usage compared to a desktop PC (and nearly silent). Nobody in the house will be interrupted if you say have to restart your PC, or are maxing out the CPU with some other task.

True next-gen self healing filesystems with bitrot protection won't really run on Windows.

Commercial NAS from Synology/QNAP and the like just make things really easy.

This is of course just the reasons for personal use, there are obviously more for enterprise use.
 
Howdy folks,

I'm looking for a four drive NAS solution that will let me back up my work and also serve as a streaming box. I'd also like some sort of integrated cloud backup solution that will keep my work safe off site in the case of a burglary or natural disaster. I'll only be using two mirrored volumes at first but I'd like the ability to eventually upgrade to a 4 drive striped solution.

I'm a little lost at where to begin with all of this so I'd like to ask for some recommendations please. Thanks.
 
Aurongel said:
Howdy folks,

I'm looking for a four drive NAS solution that will let me back up my work and also serve as a streaming box. I'd also like some sort of integrated cloud backup solution that will keep my work safe off site in the case of a burglary or natural disaster. I'll only be using two mirrored volumes at first but I'd like the ability to eventually upgrade to a 4 drive striped solution.

I'm a little lost at where to begin with all of this so I'd like to ask for some recommendations please. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Something like a Synology DS415play? Or the 416play if you need more ooomph for 4k transcoding. Various cloud backup services provide native apps that support the Synology platform.
 
I have a question regarding Synology NAS'.

What is the difference between the DS216J and the DS216play? I want to use it as a streaming device so my nephew told me to get the play version because that's made for streaming?
 
Alpende said:
I have a question regarding Synology NAS'.

What is the difference between the DS216J and the DS216play? I want to use it as a streaming device so my nephew told me to get the play version because that's made for streaming?
Click to expand...

The "play" versions just have a faster SoC and hardware encoding capabilities for trans-coding. Get that version if you need it, don't if you don't.
 
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