NAS enclosures for Time Machine backup

[sim667]

Does anyone use one? I've been struggling along with a Guardian Maximus Pro for a few years, but for some reason both drives keep failing in it at the same time, which defeats the object of having a mirrored drive, and by heck is it noisy.

So I've been thinking about moving to a NAS solution so I can use it for my mac pro and for my macbook pro...... plus I'd like to run a plex server on it, so I don't have to leave my mac pro on all the time now, its getting old and I'm worrying about it.

Has anyone got any experience of a set up like this they can help me with?

 

[interstella]

I recently bought a Synology DS215j and so far I'm very happy with it. It's the first time I've used an NAS so it's been a bit of a steep learning curve for me but apart from making a few minor mistakes setting up the system has gone very smoothly.

I have 2 x 2TB WD Red discs in a RAID1 configuration and use it for Time Machine backups and also as a media server using DLNA. I've not used Plex but Plex server software is available for the Synology NAS. If you take the NAS route it's worth noting that Time Machine will hog your entire NAS if it's given the chance. The trick here is to create a new user purely for Time Machine and, when creating this user, limit the amount of disc space it is allowed to use (I've limited mine to 800GB).

Setting up remote access has proved reasonably easy though I'm still having trouble with DDNS setup but I suspect this is an Airport Extreme problem rather than a fault with the NAS. Synology have a "quick connect" system which gets round all the hassle involved with DDNS so it's not really a problem.

I bought mine from Amazon and found it cheaper (by about £40) to buy an empty enclosure and then buy the hard drives separately.

 

[sim667]

I recently bought a Synology DS215j and so far I'm very happy with it. It's the first time I've used an NAS so it's been a bit of a steep learning curve for me but apart from making a few minor mistakes setting up the system has gone very smoothly.

I have 2 x 2TB WD Red discs in a RAID1 configuration and use it for Time Machine backups and also as a media server using DLNA. I've not used Plex but Plex server software is available for the Synology NAS. If you take the NAS route it's worth noting that Time Machine will hog your entire NAS if it's given the chance. The trick here is to create a new user purely for Time Machine and, when creating this user, limit the amount of disc space it is allowed to use (I've limited mine to 800GB).

Setting up remote access has proved reasonably easy though I'm still having trouble with DDNS setup but I suspect this is an Airport Extreme problem rather than a fault with the NAS. Synology have a "quick connect" system which gets round all the hassle involved with DDNS so it's not really a problem.

I bought mine from Amazon and found it cheaper (by about £40) to buy an empty enclosure and then buy the hard drives separately.

Good to know. Although I've read about time machines corrupting on NAS regularly, so I'm going to investigate this a bit more.

Im currently working on setting up a vpn server on my router, although I'm having problems, despite having done it before. But that would easily enable outside access for me.

 

[MinkyMomo]

I use a Netgear ReadyNAS 312 for encrypted Time Machine backups (in addition to CrashPlan for cloud backup) and have been for the most part pleased. I have experienced the sparsebundle corruption of which you speak on a number of occasions, but so far have been able to fix the archive using the directions found here.

 

[ColdCase]

I have had issues with Time Machine on anything other than an apple approved product. Some others here that love to tinker have not, but there always seems to be something to fix. What good is a backup if its not there when you need it? So currently I have two TM drives on the network, one hanging of an AEBS, the other off a mini. They have been solid for maybe 5 years now, backing up several macs. The synology NAS has been relegated to CCC backups and its been solid. If you insist in throwing money at a NAS solution, I would highly recommend using CCC or equivalent.

BTW, synology seems to use desktop type drives in their NAS boxes, or at least the affordable ones. So be prepared to replace them between one and two years.

 

[interstella]

Interesting to read of your experiences with Time Machine. I've only had my NAS for a couple of weeks so I'll keep a close eye on how it goes with Time Machine.

What hard drives are fitted in a Synology NAS is up to the end user though I guess it's perfectly possible for a store to sell them with a desktop drives rather than proper NAS drives. Clearly a false economy to buy one though!

 

[kryten42]

BTW, synology seems to use desktop type drives in their NAS boxes, or at least the affordable ones. So be prepared to replace them between one and two years.

Synology uses SATA (not SAS) for most of the consumer and SOHO devices, but you can put whatever drive you want in there including enterprise class. All Synology are shipped diskless. I have a 1511+ 5 Bay and run TM on that for 3 mac's all the time with no issues at all. The Synology NAS's are very fast, very reliable and very feature rich. I highly recommend them and then put some NAS specific drives in like the WD RED Drives or similar.

 

[interstella]

I know it's unlikely that many people will have this problem but I mentioned earlier that I was having problems setting up DDNS. It turns out that this is because I have Tooway satellite internet. Tooway block all incoming ports on home user contracts, making remote access pretty well impossible. To gain access to open TCP and UDP ports I'd need to upgrade to a business package. A ridiculous situation but it seems there's nothing I can do about it. Luckily I can still access my NAS remotely using Synology's Quickconnect system but it means I can't do everything I wanted, such as as use the NAS as my own private VPN server.

 

[kryten42]

No private VPN use hinders a lot. Can you use Back to my Mac if you have a permanent Mac at home? That at least is then a remote desktop into your home network? (or any other secure remote access tool)

 

[interstella]

Thank you for the suggestion but unfortunately back to my mac won't work either as it requires the same port to be open (UDP 500 if my memory is right) as a VPN service. MY ISP says their hands are tied and the decision to block all incoming connections is made by Tooway, not the ISP. It's not a major problem for me and as i said before I can still access my NAS through the Quickconnect system. This is a bit slower than DDNS as it uses Synology's servers but it's fine for 99% of my needs.