Mac Pro/NAS/Time Machine Suggestion

[Dapness]

I've pretty much decided on the Synology DS410j for storage and media streaming. I'm running Plex on a Mac Mini and am trying out a WD TV Live Plus for the bedroom at the moment. I'm not sold on the WD TV Live and probably going to pick up a Boxee Box (more power for high bitrate MKVs) when it comes out. I'm streaming MKV Blu ray rips to these components which, from my understanding, the DS410j can handle.

I'm looking for the best RAID setup for redundancy and speed. What I have is a 4 drive Mac Pro (currently running RAID 1+0 with 4 x 1.5TB) and a NAS (as soon as I buy one).

I currently have
4 x 1.5TB (In the Mac Pro)
2 x 1TB (hooked up to the mini)
500GB
320GB

Thats 8820 total. I'm thinking about buying 2 x 2TB drives and getting rid of the 500GB and 320GB. Ripping Blu rays eats space for sure so I'm willing to spend a little extra if I have to.

If I buy the extra drives my plan was to load 7TB in the NAS (2 x 1.5TB + 2 x 2TB) and 5TB in the Mac Pro (2 x 1.5TB + 2 x 1TB). I would configure both sets as JBOD and use Time Machine as my backup tool.

Is this a good idea?? I'm a noob at this so if this is something completely ridiculous be easy on me

 

[Pressure]

One of the best JBOD NAS/Backup systems out there are the Drobo's. No fiddling, just insert drives as you go.

Although they surely aren't the fastest.

 

[Dapness]

One of the best JBOD NAS/Backup systems out there are the Drobo's. No fiddling, just insert drives as you go.

Although they surely aren't the fastest.

Yes, it seems like a slick little unit but I don't see why they're so expensive. I guess the advanced disk management software and the sci-fi design. The Drobo FS which is probably what I would need is almost twice the price of the Synology DS410j. I don't know much about Drobo and their capabilities but I'd be a little nervous about their ability to stream high bitrate MKV Blu ray rips considering they're not know for their speed.

 

[seek3r]

If I buy the extra drives my plan was to load 7TB in the NAS (2 x 1.5TB + 2 x 2TB) and 5TB in the Mac Pro (2 x 1.5TB + 2 x 1TB). I would configure both sets as JBOD and use Time Machine as my backup tool.

Is this a good idea?? I'm a noob at this so if this is something completely ridiculous be easy on me

My main storage at home is a DS409 with 4x2TB in RAID5, it's plenty fast enough for any of the uses you're talking about, and the raid config gives me some redundancy on the data. It's what I would recommend you do. JBOD is a disaster waiting to happen, especially on the device you're using as your backup (you can even raid5 your 2x1.5 and 2x2 if you wanted, the system would set it up as 4x1.5, though you'll get better performance from 4 identical drives)

 

[Pressure]

Yes, it seems like a slick little unit but I don't see why they're so expensive. I guess the advanced disk management software and the sci-fi design. The Drobo FS which is probably what I would need is almost twice the price of the Synology DS410j. I don't know much about Drobo and their capabilities but I'd be a little nervous about their ability to stream high bitrate MKV Blu ray rips considering they're not know for their speed.

1Gbit/sec ethernet should be plenty to stream your MKVs.

They use something called BeyondRaid for dual disk redundancy, so 2 drives can go bad before losing any data.

 

[Transporteur]

1Gbit/sec ethernet should be plenty to stream your MKVs.

That's the speed of the interface, not the real throughput of the system!

The Drobo can't saturate gigabit ethernet (theoretical throughput 125MB/s, real-life about 110MB/s), it is fast enough for streaming video, though. AFAIK the FS is good for more than 50MB/s read, which is way more than streaming requires.

They use something called BeyondRaid for dual disk redundancy, so 2 drives can go bad before losing any data.

The amount of drives the array can lose depends on the configuration. A 4 bay Drobo can only lose a single drive (single parity), the 5 bay version can be configured with both single and dual drive parity.

 

[Dapness]

My main storage at home is a DS409 with 4x2TB in RAID5, it's plenty fast enough for any of the uses you're talking about, and the raid config gives me some redundancy on the data. It's what I would recommend you do. JBOD is a disaster waiting to happen, especially on the device you're using as your backup (you can even raid5 your 2x1.5 and 2x2 if you wanted, the system would set it up as 4x1.5, though you'll get better performance from 4 identical drives)

Great, thanks. This is what I was looking for. Now you say JBOD is a disaster waiting to happen. Is this because it's such a pain to get back to normal if there is drive failure?

 

[cutterman]

Not sure what your budget or storage needs are, as far as the size of your video library, but consider this:

Raid card with external enclosure. Set up disks as RAID 5. This will give you excellent capacity and speed, and some redundancy to survive a drive failure. There are many helpful folks here who can get you set up with this option. You could possibly use the 4 1.5TB drives to get started.

NAS device for backup of your library and streaming to your media devices.

This type of system works well for me.

 

[Dapness]

Not sure what your budget or storage needs are, as far as the size of your video library, but consider this:

Raid card with external enclosure. Set up disks as RAID 5. This will give you excellent capacity and speed, and some redundancy to survive a drive failure. There are many helpful folks here who can get you set up with this option. You could possibly use the 4 1.5TB drives to get started.

NAS device for backup of your library and streaming to your media devices.

This type of system works well for me.

Well, I currently have about 3TB in media total. I figured if I had 5TB on my Mac Pro that would be sufficient for a while. Now for my backup I was thinking to shoot for 7TB using Time Machine. Is Time Machine a good idea for this? I've never used it before.

I'd consider the RAID card with an external enclosure if overall it worked for my setup better. The Synology DS410j is about $330 and will do everything I need it to and much more.

 

[PhoenixMac]

I currently use a drobo with 2 2tb harddrive for my blu ray rips connected directly to mac mini, i usually rip on my mac pro and have a small portable drive that i use to bring the movies to the drobo with having a large library of 100+ blu rays does the job for me.

 

[Honumaui]

Time Machine is a good bu solution

I still think its important to have 2 sets of bu one off line or off site is important incase of theft or fire etc.. just something to think about ?


if you want some speed and security ? I might say a PM case will give you enough speed and raid 10 will be secure

one thought might be get a 8 bay sansdigital PM case and I think they come with a card ? so nothing more to buy

you could load it up with 2TB drives giving you 8TB of raid 10 secure and quick
about $1100 ?

get 4 of the new 3 TB drives
put inside do raid 10 6TB worth ?
and
get a sans digital 8 bay case and put your 1.5 in their maybe add another 2TB drive and run them as JBOD for time machine some room left over for expanding your storage needs

you have lots of options for sure

me I say stay clear of drobo ? over priced under performing
they do fill a niche of easy to work with but their are better options out their

 

[philipma1957]

I have an 8 case from sans digital.

I use Tm and superduper.

superduper is 28 dollars unlocked I schedule a full clone of my osx/data raid0 7 days a week.

I use 4 x 1.5tb caviar black hdds in a raid0 in the pro. i keep the 6tb volume at about 1tb. this makes the raid0 really fast and allows 1 hdd backups of it. so my sans digital has 8 tb hdds in all in jbod. 3 of them are less important files 3 of them are clones of the first three. 2 of them are clones of the raid0 in the mac pro. then use a owc qx2 with 4 more caviar blacks . in raid0 and split into 2 volumes. one is 2tb and a third backup of the mp osx the other is 4tb and a TM. Last but not least is a seagate 2tb freeagent for mac. this is the 4th clone of the mp osx/heavy used files. the 4 copies are bootable so I can go online in minutes after the raid0 crashes in the mp osx. I have a set of offline hdds in my banks safety deposit box.

Now a lot of people say don't run a raid0 for your osx/data it can fail. well as long as I can keep it under 2tb. it is faster then a single ssd and the cost for a ssd as big as 1.5 or 2tb is over 10k. my setup is about 400+ 800+ 300+ 400 or 1900. for 1900 I get 6 tb of files and a backup.


I get a 1 tb to 2 tb ssd like raid0 with 4 backups. this may not work for all but it is working for me. when the 3tb hdds become easy to get this would be even nicer to do. as it would allow that raid0 osx/data raid0 to push 2.3tb and still clone to only one disk.

 

[Pressure]

The amount of drives the array can lose depends on the configuration. A 4 bay Drobo can only lose a single drive (single parity), the 5 bay version can be configured with both single and dual drive parity.

Yeah, I were speaking about the DroboPro and DroboPro FS, should have clarified that.

Which easily can saturate 1Gbit/sec fully populated.

 

[Honumaui]

Now a lot of people say don't run a raid0 for your osx/data it can fail. well as long as I can keep it under 2tb. it is faster then a single ssd and the cost for a ssd as big as 1.5 or 2tb is over 10k. my setup is about 400+ 800+ 300+ 400 or 1900. for 1900 I get 6 tb of files and a backup.

just a thought on this the main reason is if you make a living on the computer its not as good idea as it can put you behind $ wise quickly if a failure happens
better to do raid 10 or get a good card

also the speed while close to a single SSD ? yes and no

pulling files off yes ! I even say work on regular HDD for photo files and such

for cache or scratch it will never come close to a SSD because or the latency and seek times etc..

not against raid 0 it has its spots if its a hobby go for it good way to get more bang out of your HDD and with time machine loosing a few hours wont be to big a deal ?
but again if you are making money just be aware of the financial loss if it happens
that few hours can turn into that time lost the time to rebuild it lost and the time it puts other work behind lost

 

[philipma1957]

just a thought on this the main reason is if you make a living on the computer its not as good idea as it can put you behind $ wise quickly if a failure happens
better to do raid 10 or get a good card

also the speed while close to a single SSD ? yes and no

pulling files off yes ! I even say work on regular HDD for photo files and such

for cache or scratch it will never come close to a SSD because or the latency and seek times etc..

not against raid 0 it has its spots if its a hobby go for it good way to get more bang out of your HDD and with time machine loosing a few hours wont be to big a deal ?
but again if you are making money just be aware of the financial loss if it happens
that few hours can turn into that time lost the time to rebuild it lost and the time it puts other work behind lost

I am much more of a hobbyist. My setup will not suit a lot if not most mp users. If you are doing a lot of processing my system is not ideal. osx on a ssd and work/ data on other hdds is best.

 

[Honumaui]

I am much more of a hobbyist. My setup will not suit a lot if not most mp users. If you are doing a lot of processing my system is not ideal. osx on a ssd and work/ data on other hdds is best.

I am with ya was just giving a thought or note when to and when not to raid 0 or at least think about it

for main storage my thoughts are regular HDD I say keep working files on them SSD are only good IMHO for niche things like boot or cache/scratch etc.. not for general storage

 

[FireWire2]

Streaming MKV

Look at TVIX and DUNE for streaming MKV or H264 codec video. So far these are the best and most recognize devices out there...

I would not touch anything just come-out... that is headache guarantee

 

[Dapness]

Look at TVIX and DUNE for streaming MKV or H264 codec video. So far these are the best and most recognize devices out there...

I would not touch anything just come-out... that is headache guarantee

I feel you there. I like the Dune Lite but Netflix is a must in our family. And, I'm so use to Plex that I'd rather have a system with a polished GUI than settle for menu systems of pretty much all set top media players. I believe I've read that the new Boxee Box will scrape ImDB and other sources for movie info which would be nice. I agree, there will probably be headaches but they've been working on it for a long time so hopefully they'll have a lot of issues ironed out. Oh, and Netflix is supposed to be implemented soon after launch. Definitely wont buy it until that happens though.