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Looking for a new NAS with Raid capability

  • 27-07-2020 01:48PM
    #1
    Cyrus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 21,770 ✭✭✭✭


    My mrs has a lot pf photographs now, and they are backed up in a few difference clouds but id like to upgrade my NAS to have them all stored physically as well.

    I have an old synology DS115j which feels very slow .

    What would be worth upgrading too? ideally id like to have 4-tb or so in storage in raid config for redundancy.

    thanks


Comments

  • #2
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,055 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    Cyrus wrote: »
    My mrs has a lot pf photographs now, and they are backed up in a few difference clouds but id like to upgrade my NAS to have them all stored physically as well.

    Why are you looking for "Raid capability" Speed or Backup.

    Raid is not a form of backup, two seperate 1disk NAS units would be a better backup option than a 2Disk NAS


  • #3
    Cyrus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 21,770 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    Why are you looking for "Raid capability" Speed or Backup.

    Raid is not a form of backup, two seperate 1disk NAS units would be a better backup option than a 2Disk NAS

    well id set them up as raid 1, so if one disk failed i have another, or am i misunderstanding how it works?


  • #4
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,055 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    Cyrus wrote: »
    well id set them up as raid 1, so if one disk failed i have another, or am i misunderstanding how it works?

    Repeating my question, are you using RAID-1 to improve performance, or a backup.

    As a form of backup, RAID is a bad idea, it does give a form of high availability, so that if one drive fails, the other continues, but if the RAID unit itself fails, the drives are still good, but you might never be able to access the contents.


  • #5
    jimmycrackcorm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,370 ✭✭✭✭jimmycrackcorm


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    Repeating my question, are you using RAID-1 to improve performance, or a backup.

    As a form of backup, RAID is a bad idea, it does give a form of high availability, so that if one drive fails, the other continues, but if the RAID unit itself fails, the drives are still good, but you might never be able to access the contents.

    The Raid could be rebuilt in the event of failure though. Separate storage units are fine with software to mirror but then you have to manage failures.


  • #6
    Cyrus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 21,770 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    Repeating my question, are you using RAID-1 to improve performance, or a backup.

    As a form of backup, RAID is a bad idea, it does give a form of high availability, so that if one drive fails, the other continues, but if the RAID unit itself fails, the drives are still good, but you might never be able to access the contents.

    as backup.


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  • #7
    Tazium
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 919 ✭✭✭Tazium


    Go for another Synology, 2 Bay. 218Plus/Play or whatever the current model is. Mine is getting old it's a 214Play. Recently added 2 x 8Tb drives. Drives are mirrored for redundancy.


  • #8
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,055 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    Cyrus wrote: »
    as backup.

    Perhaps get new 2 bay unit, with RAID, and keep the old unit as your backup.


  • #9
    ED E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,094 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    Repeating my question, are you using RAID-1 to improve performance, or a backup.

    To be clear on what Ger is hinting at: No RAID is backup.


    RAID is fault tolerance, not backup.


  • #10
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,055 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    ED E wrote: »
    To be clear on what Ger is hinting at: No RAID is backup.

    It wasn't a hint, i did say RAID is a bad idea for backup.


  • #11
    Cyrus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 21,770 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus


    can i get a 2 bay unit and have the drivers mirrored in some way?


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  • #12
    ressem
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 2,427 ✭✭✭ressem


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    It wasn't a hint, i did say RAID is a bad idea for backup.

    Cyrus did state that the NAS was a backup for the existing cloud storage.

    RAID 1 is an acceptable option to have on a home storage device to add a bit of redundancy. (As opposed to striped RAID 5/6/10 etc, not-so-recoverable if the NAS itself breaks and you don't have a support contract.)

    But:
    1) Raid 1 won't do anything for performance, so might be better saving the few quid. How much space is needed, would a 1TB SSD be too small, or a faster HDD in your existing Synology?
    (chosen from the compatibility list
    https://www.synology.com/en-global/compatibility?search_by=products&model=DS115&category=hdds_no_ssd_trim&p=1
    )
    2) that the NAS alone shouldn't be considered by yourself to be to be your sole backup device.

    It's a file server, and it, in turn should be backed up; to avoid data loss from encrypting ransomware or hardware failure or accident/environment.

    Synology (or Qnap etc) will allow sync to a separate USB connected drive that can be kept offline, or to cloud storage at quiet times. And this would form your last resort recovery. You have probably seen these menu options on your existing device.


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