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It's the NAS (Network Attached Storage) Thread, yo.
- Thread starter Jill Sandwich
- Start date
DirtyLarry
Member
Nice, thank you for the recommendation. Both of these sound super useful especially since I do a decent amount of both. Will for sure check this out.
I've been looking into ways of making my media collection more portable and it seems a NAS would be a good solution, but I'm not sure which is best for my needs.
I mainly want to store my music files on a network drive and make them as accessible as any local file. I want to be able to play and edit them through MusicBee with no hitches.
I'm also thinking of moving my Blu-ray collection to the network. Like the music files I want to be able to easily access the .MKVs and stream them with MPC-HC (so I can use madVR).
I want something that can essentially act like a regular drive with regular folders. I've been looking at the 2/6TB WD My Cloud but I'm not sure if it's a good fit for my needs or not. I also see in the Q&A section that it can only be accessed over the network and not directly through USB which may be a problem when copying large files. Should I go for it? Are there better options?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KU686L4/?tag=neogaf0e-20
I mainly want to store my music files on a network drive and make them as accessible as any local file. I want to be able to play and edit them through MusicBee with no hitches.
I'm also thinking of moving my Blu-ray collection to the network. Like the music files I want to be able to easily access the .MKVs and stream them with MPC-HC (so I can use madVR).
I want something that can essentially act like a regular drive with regular folders. I've been looking at the 2/6TB WD My Cloud but I'm not sure if it's a good fit for my needs or not. I also see in the Q&A section that it can only be accessed over the network and not directly through USB which may be a problem when copying large files. Should I go for it? Are there better options?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KU686L4/?tag=neogaf0e-20
MultiCore
Member
"Regular drive"?PSY・S;228516990 said:
Have you ever used a network share before? They can be assigned an drive letter, and behave like a "normal drive", for the most part.
Moving a NAS around is asking for disaster.
Ethernet isn't a problem for even the largest files.
I'd strongly suggest a 2-5 bay Synology, and run RAID 1 on a 2 bay, or SHR on a 5 bay. You can read/write at over 100MB/s, which should be plenty. If you need faster speed, you need to get into 10 gigabit Ethernet.
Look at Qnap or building your own via unRAID or freeNAS.
Don't buy NAS solutions from WD or Seagate.
DAS from them is fine.
If you need it to be even more like a normal drive, Synology products can host iSCSI volumes.
Thanks. I've briefly experimented with network shares before but I wasn't sure if a NAS would any different.
I know what a NAS is but everything else flew over my head :x
Valkyr Junkie
Member
Absolutely. Aside from being a way to get back to your home network without opening up a ton of ports for each Synology service you want to access remotely (you'll just need to open up ports for VPN) it's a nice thing to have to protect yourself when using public WiFi assuming you don't already have a VPN service you can use.
D
Deleted member 12837
Unconfirmed Member
How secure is Synology's implementation? I've always been hesitant to open up my home network to the outside world in any way, shape or form for that reason.
Valkyr Junkie
Member
They offer 3 common VPN standards: PPTP (bad), L2TP w/ IPSec (good), and OpenVPN (good, but not as widely supported from a client perspective).
As long as you have strong passwords for your DSM accounts I wouldn't worry too much as long as you don't use PPTP. Modifying the VPN Server app to listen on ports other than the defaults (never done it myself) would offer additional security by obscurity since it won't be obvious that your IP is hosting a VPN server, which will get you indexed on sites like Shodan.
MultiCore
Member
PSY・S;228542178 said:
Yes, just add your favorite drives. I'd recommend WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf drives. For 2 drives, you just mirror them. For 3 or more drives, run Synology Hybrid Raid. It's flexible, and will give you as much redundancy as you want.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator
I'd absolutely run Synology or Qnap over WD or Seagate.
Synology's software is awesome. You can check out a free online demo of it:
https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/live_demo
They have great apps for your phone so you can access your music, photos, videos or files anywhere you have wifi or cell data. You can host a minecraft server, Mumble server, VPN server, POP3 server, security camera center and more. It's a great platform, and is always being updated.
Don't think I'm being a Synology shill, really check out Qnap as well. They have an equally great platform.
It's reasonable, it usually takes them 2-3 weeks to backport patches for the more urgent security bugs (like the roundcube remote execution and dirty COW ones), it's web GUI supports google auth. which should service most home use cases.
Other services like (s)ftp(s), imap and SMB lack this safeguard, so using strong passwords is always recommended (and can even be enforced as admin). SSH does not support passwordless login out of the box, a few pointer on how to harden it can be found here.
Lastly it's package manager, -even though pretty robust- is known to screw up at times and mess up aliases for it's terminal applications.
Got a decommissioned Dell R310 from a buddy. After a bunch of weirdness turned it in to a FreeNAS. I only had four 1tb drives for it so did it as a 3tb Z1. When I replace the drives eventually I'll do it as a Z2. Everything is currently backed up on an external drive anyway. Nice to have the convenience of my files and Plex.
just make sure those drives are in JBOD mode, and not using a RAID controller.
Yep, seems to be the case. Just the motherboard SATA, pool setup through FreeNas with redundancy.
Have an old DS211j in raid and are looking to upgrade to a DS216(play) since it's rather cheap atm and then giving the DS211j to my parents for their millions of pictures.
Question: are the DSM menues (over the browser) any faster on the DS216? That's something that always bothers me in the DSM.
Question: are the DSM menues (over the browser) any faster on the DS216? That's something that always bothers me in the DSM.
Avoid the Play, they have no upgradable ram, a shorter support term and the smallest support for additional software.
Barring media decode, you're better off with an older plus model.
As for the menu, i have tested a 112j, 213 and 415+ and it does seem to scale with CPU speed, with the J series menu only being usable for configuration, and "file station" being unusable especially in contrast with the Samba server it has.
Barring media decode, you're better off with an older plus model.
As for the menu, i have tested a 112j, 213 and 415+ and it does seem to scale with CPU speed, with the J series menu only being usable for configuration, and "file station" being unusable especially in contrast with the Samba server it has.
Oh, the 216play is not upgradeable with ram? That's strange. Thought it would be possible in all the newer models (with loosing warranty). Ah just read that only + models can do that.
DS216+II is 100 € more (330 €
... -_-
Maybe the DS216j is enough after all. The black cases look so much better though.
DS216+II is 100 € more (330 €
... -_- Maybe the DS216j is enough after all. The black cases look so much better though.
Just picked up some WD Reds after my Samsung desktop HDDs just died in my 2-bay Synology. Lasted a good 6 years, as others were noting for the same drive. Should have gone with RAID-1 instead of 0 from the get-go since one of the drives failed and I have no idea if the data I was able to salvage was on the one drive or just corrupt.
Please don't tell me you were running a RAID0 without a backup.
I were running RAID0 without a backup. This was my media NAS, which I haven't kept up to date now since everything's available online. Nothing critical was on it fortunately. I use multiple USB HDDs for various other backups.
CPU is at 100% while downloading at 2MBit, so a bigger CPU will def improve, but will it go up to 100 Mbit?
I discussed recently with someone working with a lot of NAS. He was wondering why, when you ran RAID1, you often had both discs dying at the same time...
He got the answer. Apparently, the way RAID 1 works, it hides failures for as long as he can, unless you perform specific verifications... but those verifications are disabled on almost all NAS.
So be warned, RAID 1 is hardly a security. When it works, it's nice, but chances are high that it fails.
On a totally different matter, I'm happy to find this thread, there must be nice suggestions inside.
I'll throw one, that I discovered recently (and wish I knew for longer):
SSHFS IS GREAT
What do you use it for/when? Why not NFS/CIFS/Samba? Much more stable from what I can tell after some cursory googling.
More stable? I don't remember having stability issues with sshfs.
I love it because as long as you can ssh to the NAS, it's a one-line command that mounts a remote directory as if it was a local one. Dead-easy, no deamon required on NAS (except sshd).
Each time I need to access NAS data from outside my flat, I really find it convenient (I wouldn't expose a NFS or Samba this way, so alternative would mean activating a VPN, and is far heavier setup, and I don't want to spend the time to configure everything on my NAS for a couple uses a month at most).
In fact, even inside my flat, I've started using it. Granted, there's an overhead because of encryption, but since I can still stream the HD videos from my camera, it's not a problem.
Myoclonic Jerk
Member
Hey guys,
Not sure if anyone can help me here, but I've given up on Synology's support and forums.
Here's the issue, I have DS1513+ with two 4TB (WD red). I have got a new 3TB (WD red) and added it in the third bay. I tried following the instructions but the "Manage" button under the Volume section is greyed out, and I really don't know what to do
Anyone knows what could be the problem?
Screens
Not sure if anyone can help me here, but I've given up on Synology's support and forums.
Here's the issue, I have DS1513+ with two 4TB (WD red). I have got a new 3TB (WD red) and added it in the third bay. I tried following the instructions but the "Manage" button under the Volume section is greyed out, and I really don't know what to do
Anyone knows what could be the problem?
Screens
Marty Chinn
Member
Myoclonic Jerk
Member
Ouch. Is there any way I can utalise it?
Marty Chinn
Member
You could use it a separate storage pool, but you won't be able to add it to your main storage.
Myoclonic Jerk
Member
WorldofMiku
Banned
Hey I have a normal WD My Cloud 2TB, but I want to upgrade to WD EX 2 Ultra (Diskless). Ordered a 4TB WD Red.
First, I've been looking at this thread and people have said don't get a WD NAS. Why? What's wrong with them? I know they specialise on Hard Drives, not NAS but I had a normal WD My Cloud for 2 years+ and I have not got a problem with it.
And what's so good about Synology DiskStations that makes them the best in the business compared to WD EX 2?
EDIT: Looked back at this thread and now I get the reason why Synology's better. Now, just need the right model. I wanted Play, but someone here said RAM is not upgradable. Don't know which one to pick. Urghhh.
First, I've been looking at this thread and people have said don't get a WD NAS. Why? What's wrong with them? I know they specialise on Hard Drives, not NAS but I had a normal WD My Cloud for 2 years+ and I have not got a problem with it.
And what's so good about Synology DiskStations that makes them the best in the business compared to WD EX 2?
EDIT: Looked back at this thread and now I get the reason why Synology's better. Now, just need the right model. I wanted Play, but someone here said RAM is not upgradable. Don't know which one to pick. Urghhh.
WorldofMiku
Banned
In the end, I said...screw Synology, screw WD...
And went for QNAP.
My model: https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/model.php?II=195
Hope I made the right choice. Sending hours looking for the right device isn't easy. Hope I don't regret it.
And went for QNAP.
My model: https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/model.php?II=195
Hope I made the right choice. Sending hours looking for the right device isn't easy. Hope I don't regret it.
I'm looking to upgrade my network storage. I'm currently running an older computer circa 2007-ish that has Windows 7 and about 3.5TB with folders shared to network accounts, but it is full and the network card is a pos. I use it for storing 1080p footage, but we just got a new camera that records in 4k, so file sizes are only going to get larger. I'd like to invest in a dedicated NAS system that is about 3+ years future proof. I have a few things that I know I need such as 10+ TB, Gigabit connection(link aggregation if possible), 4 bays minimum. The primary one I've been looking at is the QNAP TS-451 and 8GB upgrade of RAM along with 2 Ironwolf HDDs. I'd probably go with 2 of the 10TB drives which satisfies my 10+ TB requirement.
My questions are:
-How reputable are Seagate's Iron Wolf drives?
-Does anyone here have the TS-451 and how do you like it?
-Can anyone recommend an alternative that has 4(or more) bays and the unit itself is in the $400-500 price range?
My questions are:
-How reputable are Seagate's Iron Wolf drives?
-Does anyone here have the TS-451 and how do you like it?
-Can anyone recommend an alternative that has 4(or more) bays and the unit itself is in the $400-500 price range?
WorldofMiku
Banned
As said in the post above, I got a TS-251+ and so far, I am loving it. It's a massive upgrade from the WD MyCloud I had. Fast at transferring files, great transcoding with Plex (and qVideo), downloading torrents...not regretting my purchase so far.
Why not get the TS-451+? (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015VNLGF8/?tag=neogaf0e-20) It's basically the one I've got, except yours will have 4-bays instead of 2. And it is within your price range.
If you want to read more about it: https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/model.php?II=196
Choppasmith
Member
So I want to turn my old W7 PC into a NAS with its USB connected hard drives. What's my best and easiest option? I thought I'd follow the steps for running NAS4Free on a virtual box, but I'm ashamed to say doing all those Non-DOS related commands is so overwhelming, I'm hoping for an easy solution.
Thanks
Thanks
Anton Sugar
Member
Hey all, question from a relative newbie. I have a Mobius 5-Bay RAID enclosure w/4x 3tb WD Red drives. It's in a RAID 5 setup for my video production work.
I'm hoping to purchase another WD Red 3tb and use the fifth bay.
What is the safest way to do this? I don't want to assume I can just power off, pop the fifth drive in there, and everything will be hunky dory.
I'm hoping to purchase another WD Red 3tb and use the fifth bay.
What is the safest way to do this? I don't want to assume I can just power off, pop the fifth drive in there, and everything will be hunky dory.
I got a Synology 916+ myself, the 8gb ram version. Might be just a bit above your stated budget tho, but it seems to fir your requirements. I've been really happy with it so far, but I mostly use it as a Plex Media Server and personal 'cloud' storage.
Anton Sugar
Member
Still hoping for info on how to safely add more storage/drives to a RAID5 setup--but in my search, I found a thread about why RAID5 is horrible: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/356486-why-is-raid5-so-bad
Thoughts, gaffers? Is RAID5 a horrible decision? I chose it because it sounded safe (on paper) and gave me the most storage/price out of any other setups.
Thoughts, gaffers? Is RAID5 a horrible decision? I chose it because it sounded safe (on paper) and gave me the most storage/price out of any other setups.
The issue with RAID5 is that when you rebuild the array after a single drive failure, you run the risk of the entire array being corrupted due to an unrecoverable read error on one of the remaining drives. The likelihood of an URE increases exponentially with larger capacity drives. If you have good backups it's not that worrisome, but it's not something to be used in enterprise environments anymore (with drives over 600GB at least). RAID10 would be the safest option.
Does anybody here use their Synology/QNAP NAS as a iSCSI/NFS datastore? I'd like a shared datastore to play with vMotion/DRS across multiple ESXi hosts, but I dunno how good the performance would be
Thanks for the responses! I think I'm going to go with the QNAP 451+ 2GB version and upgrade the RAM at a later date. I was looking at the Synology 916 for a while, but like you said the price is a bit more than I allotted for.
Valkyr Junkie
Member
If you intend on using PMS for transcoding, then go with a DIY NUC solution.
Otherwise any Synology should do nicely.
Otherwise any Synology should do nicely.
Thanks buddy