Backup Solutions

bdsmith63 · May 2, 2015

Update: to all you guys who have been responsive to my post.

Last night I connected my Lacie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt 3TB drive to my Mac Mini, loaded up some video content, and shared it across my network. It was spot on as far as instant replay and superb streaming. I actually tested the same file playing on my NAS side by side with Lacie and performance was about the same, however, I think the Lacie definitely won out when selecting the videos to play. I am very inclined to return my NAS and get another Lacie drive and run through the Mini for TM backups as well. I haven't really every been a large fan of the interface for configuring my current NAS, question, I have always setup permissions on who could access these documents, with the media files (music, video, etc.) being shared with the household -- can this easily be done with files sharing on the Mac? I am not totally familiar with that process.

AFEPPL · May 2, 2015

No benefits - Other than a NAS is a standalone device that's not directly attached to a computer. Most provide the options to add more drives on the fly for additional capacity, most provide the option for hot swap due to a failed drives OR scaling to larger drives. The only time DAS provides performance over NAS is to the local computer it's attached to, NiC failover or trunking for additional throughput, replication between NAS devices, built-in security, multiple protocol support. If people have the bottom end NAS products then clearly they are not going to get the full experience.

The only real plus for a mini(or PC) is if you want to run a HTPC to get around some of the limitations within the apple ecosystem.

marzer · May 2, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
Update: to all you guys who have been responsive to my post.

Last night I connected my Lacie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt 3TB drive to my Mac Mini, loaded up some video content, and shared it across my network. It was spot on as far as instant replay and superb streaming. I actually tested the same file playing on my NAS side by side with Lacie and performance was about the same, however, I think the Lacie definitely won out when selecting the videos to play. I am very inclined to return my NAS and get another Lacie drive and run through the Mini for TM backups as well. I haven't really every been a large fan of the interface for configuring my current NAS, question, I have always setup permissions on who could access these documents, with the media files (music, video, etc.) being shared with the household -- can this easily be done with files sharing on the Mac? I am not totally familiar with that process.

If you can still return the NAS, that's probably not a bad idea given your satisfaction with the minis performance as a file server. Be sure to get a drive large enough to backup all your computers with room to grow with incremental backups. You'll find the Mac much easier to work with since your familiar with OS X. And it's much easier to expand the mini over time with more storage and additional server features.

As for permissions, you can set those in OS X via file sharing, adding or removing account access to shared folders. It's pretty easy to do.

bdsmith63 · May 2, 2015

marzer said:
If you can still return the NAS, that's probably not a bad idea given your satisfaction with the minis performance as a file server. Be sure to get a drive large enough to backup all your computers with room to grow with incremental backups. You'll find the Mac much easier to work with since your familiar with OS X. And it's much easier to expand the mini over time with more storage and additional server features.

As for permissions, you can set those in OS X via file sharing, adding or removing account access to shared folders. It's pretty easy to do.

Okay -- thanks for your very helpful posts. Another one for you -- currently my Mac Mini and Thunderbolt drive is located in my office on the 2nd floor of my home, I have an ethernet also connected to my 1st level around my home entertainment system, I'd like to relocate the Mini to the 1st floor similar to your setup, however, it would be in an enclosed cabinet - between the drive and Mini there shouldn't be any issues with heat buildup I'd say? Also, the only thing I've noticed is the Lacie goes into a brief power-saving mode (blue light still on) but when I go to select a file it takes a few seconds before it resumes.

marzer · May 2, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
Okay -- thanks for your very helpful posts. Another one for you -- currently my Mac Mini and Thunderbolt drive is located in my office on the 2nd floor of my home, I have an ethernet also connected to my 1st level around my home entertainment system, I'd like to relocate the Mini to the 1st floor similar to your setup, however, it would be in an enclosed cabinet - between the drive and Mini there shouldn't be any issues with heat buildup I'd say? Also, the only thing I've noticed is the Lacie goes into a brief power-saving mode (blue light still on) but when I go to select a file it takes a few seconds before it resumes.

Things can get pretty warm in an enclosed cabinet for any electronic components. Many modern entertainment centers already have venting in the rear pressboard panel. If not, you can create convection holes by cutting into the bottom of the rear panel and the top of the panel in the space that houses the computer system. This allows hot air to vent out the top rear while drawing in cool air from below.

I prefer the drives go into sleep mode for the power efficiency and to reduce wear and tear. If this is not a concern for you, you can disable this feature in OS X, under system prefs, energy setting, "put hard drives to sleep...".

Mago · May 2, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
Okay -- thanks for your very helpful posts. Another one for you -- currently my Mac Mini and Thunderbolt drive is located in my office on the 2nd floor of my home, I have an ethernet also connected to my 1st level around my home entertainment system, I'd like to relocate the Mini to the 1st floor similar to your setup, however, it would be in an enclosed cabinet - between the drive and Mini there shouldn't be any issues with heat buildup I'd say? Also, the only thing I've noticed is the Lacie goes into a brief power-saving mode (blue light still on) but when I go to select a file it takes a few seconds before it resumes.

I have my mini and my router vertically behind an Paint in the living room (actually an small cabinet with an Paint as Door), and I have to say my router its much more hotter than the mini, the cabinet has some vents, I augumented with blower-type case fans, bejind the cabinet are Power and ethernet cables, plus the HDMI to my hometheater and a long optic fiber thunderbolt cable I to connect my WD pro duo TB on another room.

bdsmith63 · May 4, 2015

In addition to the many questions I've posted in this thread, I have one last remaining and I think my solution has been solved.

I have connected my LaCie Thunderbolt drive to my Mac Mini and have setup the media files for streaming across my network. I am purchasing another LaCie Thunderbolt drive and it is my understanding I can connected them to each other as I only have one Thunderbolt port on my Mac Mini. With this arrangement, I can still use the new LaCie to run all my TM backups to from my connected devices on my network correct?

Also, will TM on each Mac automatically create is own file structure on the drive or does it have to have a partition for each Mac I am using TM with?

marzer · May 4, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
In addition to the many questions I've posted in this thread, I have one last remaining and I think my solution has been solved.

I have connected my LaCie Thunderbolt drive to my Mac Mini and have setup the media files for streaming across my network. I am purchasing another LaCie Thunderbolt drive and it is my understanding I can connected them to each other as I only have one Thunderbolt port on my Mac Mini. With this arrangement, I can still use the new LaCie to run all my TM backups to from my connected devices on my network correct?

Also, will TM on each Mac automatically create is own file structure on the drive or does it have to have a partition for each Mac I am using TM with?

Yes, connecting the drives together is called daisy chaining and is the normal method of connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices. And each machine will create its own backup file (a sparsebundle image) on the one drive, no need to create partitions.

Did you download the server app? That will allow the mini to work like a Time Capsule on the network.

bdsmith63 · May 5, 2015

marzer said:
Yes, connecting the drives together is called daisy chaining and is the normal method of connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices. And each machine will create its own backup file (a sparsebundle image) on the one drive, no need to create partitions.

Did you download the server app? That will allow the mini to work like a Time Capsule on the network.

Yes I downloaded the server app, just haven't configured it yet. One concern I have is will the TM backups interfere with the performance of the Mac Mini particularly when I am streaming music and/or videos from the 1st connected Thunderbolt Drive?

marzer · May 5, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
Yes I downloaded the server app, just haven't configured it yet. One concern I have is will the TM backups interfere with the performance of the Mac Mini particularly when I am streaming music and/or videos from the 1st connected Thunderbolt Drive?

Not at all. Like I explained earlier, the performance of the mini is so much more powerful than what is actually needed for basic file serving, it's got plenty of horsepower to spare. The only performance hit you might notice is if you were streaming multiple HD video streams at the same time while other file access things like backup kicked off. That most reflect a bottleneck on your network than the machine itself. Keep in mind, incremental backups are small and intermittent activity.

I've been running my mini for years as a media/file/backup server and have never had the media performance impacted by anything it was doing in the background as far as other services. And it's not unusual to have multiple clients active at the same time; me watching Hulu through AirDisplay in the bedroom, one kid watching a movie from the library on the big TV, another kid streaming music from the library at a friend's house. And if it's the weekend, I've always got background music playing over the home speaker system all day long, no matter what's going on elsewhere in the house.

bdsmith63 · May 5, 2015

marzer said:
Not at all. Like I explained earlier, the performance of the mini is so much more powerful than what is actually needed for basic file serving, it's got plenty of horsepower to spare. The only performance hit you might notice is if you were streaming multiple HD video streams at the same time while other file access things like backup kicked off. That most reflect a bottleneck on your network than the machine itself. Keep in mind, incremental backups are small and intermittent activity.

I've been running my mini for years as a media/file/backup server and have never had the media performance impacted by anything it was doing in the background as far as other services. And it's not unusual to have multiple clients active at the same time; me watching Hulu through AirDisplay in the bedroom, one kid watching a movie from the library on the big TV, another kid streaming music from the library at a friend's house. And if it's the weekend, I've always got background music playing over the home speaker system all day long, no matter what's going on elsewhere in the house.

One last kicker -- I ordered another LaCie 4TB Thunderbolt/USB 3 drive today, (not Thunderbolt 2), based on what I was told I can't connect it to the MiniDisplay port on the mini - so I'd have to use it with the USB port on my Airport Extreme (802.11ac) and backup through TM. But I now see my Extreme isn't USB 3.0 - so how can I daisy-chain the two LaCie's on the mini with only one port off the mini and only one port on each LaCie? I'm going crazy now!

marzer · May 5, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
One last kicker -- I ordered another LaCie 4TB Thunderbolt/USB 3 drive today, (not Thunderbolt 2), based on what I was told I can't connect it to the MiniDisplay port on the mini - so I'd have to use it with the USB port on my Airport Extreme (802.11ac) and backup through TM. But I now see my Extreme isn't USB 3.0 - so how can I daisy-chain the two LaCie's on the mini with only one port off the mini and only one port on each LaCie? I'm going crazy now!

You can't. Daisy chaining drives requires two ports on a device one connecting to the upstream device and one connecting to the downstream device. You can operate it connected to the extreme, it'll simply run at USB 2 speeds. Otherwise, you might want to cancel that order and get the latest d2 model with the 2 Thunderbolt ports.

bdsmith63 · May 6, 2015

marzer said:
You can't. Daisy chaining drives requires two ports on a device one connecting to the upstream device and one connecting to the downstream device. You can operate it connected to the extreme, it'll simply run at USB 2 speeds. Otherwise, you might want to cancel that order and get the latest d2 model with the 2 Thunderbolt ports.

Okay, that is what I researched today. So based on your previous thread, the mini really wouldn't be hindered in any way with running it for the media server - streaming stuff and TM backups using the server app, however, being that I'll be connecting my LaCie by USB 2 on either the extreme or mac mini - which do you recommend? given that it's USB 2 now instead of USB 3 or Thunderbolt.

marzer · May 6, 2015

bdsmith63 said:
Okay, that is what I researched today. So based on your previous thread, the mini really wouldn't be hindered in any way with running it for the media server - streaming stuff and TM backups using the server app, however, being that I'll be connecting my LaCie by USB 2 on either the extreme or mac mini - which do you recommend? given that it's USB 2 now instead of USB 3 or Thunderbolt.

Connecting directly to the mini will be faster. The USB port on Extreme's and Time Capsule performs pretty sluggishly compared to direct USB connection. Besides, if you choose to use TM service on Server app it only works with directly connected drives.

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