RAID 5 NAS - best option

[gsusser]

I'll preface the following by saying I am not at all savvy about this stuff. RAID 5 NAS was recommended by the IT guy at work for my situation, but no specific recommendations. That's why I'm here.

I have about 12TB of data between music and videos which is expanding. I will be purchasing a new iMac. I'm looking for a 16TB - 24TB setup, preferably 24TB, for around $1000 or so.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[As an aside, another tech guy who I don't know very well insists Dropbox can meet my needs. I thought it absurd but he's so insistent that I wonder.]

 

[Chancha]

It is possible that you misheard him, he probably meant "Drobo" when "16-24TB" is among the discussed requirement. Drobo is one of the brands that offer 4+ bay enclosures with RAID ability.

If the direct attached speed is of no concern then pretty much all modern 4 or 5 bay NAS can suffice this task. There is quite a sea of knowledge in finding the right NAS but then you can't get that wrong if you stick to the bigger named brands like QNAP Synology etc.

BTW if you don't specifically need the network prospects of the NAS, you can consider a TB2 / USB3 enclosure that goes a lot faster and costs less.

 

[chicagofan00]

If you just want a direct attached storage (DAS) that you can expand on the fly and up to 64TB you can check out a Drobo 5D3 that supports Thunderbolt 3. I just purchased one and it's been super easy so far and with the mSATA drive for hot cache I have obtained pretty good read/write speeds from it.

If you are looking for more of a storage solution that allows more flexibility with accessing everything over the network and away from home check out some of the solutions from Synology or QNAP.

Tons of information out there already on all the various solutions. Take a look at the websites of each of the brands I mentioned or of others that people provide and just decide upon which meets most of your "must have" options.

 

[gsusser]

Thanks for the comments and I'll do some research, though I'd love a few more specific recommendations.

Some of the terms mentioned are new to me but I think what I need is a DAS solution. My needs are very basic except that I need a lot of storage. I don't need to access the data remotely nor do I think speed is important, though I'm guessing on that. I simply want it for media storage and backup. I don't think I received ideal advice from the 2 guys I dealt with.

The tech guy definitely recommended dropbox... he texted me and mentioned a cloud solution was my answer.

The IT guy is very knowledgeable but I think what he recommended is overkill - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1244354-REG/wd_wdbnfa0160kbk_nesn_my_cloud_pr4100_16tb.html. I do like the idea of RAID 5 though.

 

[Feek]

My suggestion is a Drobo 5C for DAS.

 

[joema2]

....RAID 5 NAS was recommended by the IT guy at work for my situation....I have about 12TB of data between music and videos which is expanding...I'm looking for a 16TB - 24TB setup, preferably 24TB...

NAS on gigabit ethernet can deliver about 100 megabytes/sec, or roughly the speed of a cheap USB bus-powered portable drive. If you have very specific needs for NAS such as household networking, or extreme low noise requirements, it might be worth considering. If you don't have those needs, direct attached storage is a lot faster.

 

[niteflyr]

A little bit over your $1000 target, but this setup will get you around 22TB storage with single disk redundancy or 14.5 TB with dual disk redundancy and very expandable later on. I just put a similar system together for myself.

Drobo 5C DAS $299 after discount on Drobo website. (use code SARA50)

https://www.drobostore.com/products/drobo-5c

4 x WD Red 8TB NAS Drives on eBay $217.99 ea.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222573149339

These drives on eBay were pulled from WD Easystore 8TB external hard drive enclosures. On sale now at BestBuy for $199. It's not that hard to do if so inclined. How to videos on YouTube.

 

[Chancha]

I'd advise going back to the drawing board and outline your priorities. From the gist of your reply it seems everything mentioned here are overkill. Particularly on whether or not you need all those drives in the same enclosure.

You primarily just need a lot of storage for static media. They take a lot of capacity, but they are not mission critical, and they don't necessarily have to reside on a singular voulme. You don't need to access the files remotely, or even wirelessly between computers in your network, they are just serving the one machine. If that's the case:

- DAS over NAS, no network is invovled and then you get better speed;
- no need to use RAID5, or even RAID1 as you don't need immediate redudency;
- no need to use RAID5, or even RAID0 as you don't need striped config for ease in single volume nor maximum performance

Conclusion, just get a few USB3 WD My Book 8TB (single 3.5" drive). Manage your media files across them manually.

 

[chicagofan00]

He's also looking for backup capabilities so I think a solution such as a Drobo is sound advice as it will provide redundancy and the ability to swap in a new drive if one fails. He can also setup a portion of it to be used as a Time Machine backup for other data on the Mac. Lastly it provides one central location for the data. I think managing across multiple external drives would be a pain in the ass.

 

[gsusser]

Thanks for all the feedback, it's been very helpful.
I ordered the Drobo 5C. It seemed to make the most sense. Not to press my luck, but would anyone care to recommend hard drives? I'm looking for 6TB.

 

[niteflyr]

For a RAID type storage device (i.e. your Drobo C) , I strongly recommend a NAS Quality HDD. Not Desktop.
From reading many forums and websites during my research recently, I personally feel, the WD drive is a superior to Seagate. The 8TB WD Red NAS I recommended in my above post, is the most bang for the buck I could find. However, here is a 6TB option:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01LZDFMWQ/ref=dp_cerb_1

 

[Chancha]

WD NAS Red 6TB is the overall best GB/dollar ratio on average, unless you can find deals on 8TBs.

And I must stress, be careful when referring to a Drobo 5C as having "backup capabilities". It creates immediate distributed parity where old file is gone as soon as it is rewritten, it is more like prolonger for recovery when disk failure occurs. You still need something else to back this unit up, in the archival sense, if the data on it is of importance.

 

[OS X Dude]

Synology all the way compared to a Drobo (in my experience).

 

[BlueTide]

I know that this is gonna be a costly opinion... But recently, I've been looking at QNAP TVS-882TS3 - a SSD raid 5 with good performance. I've not read too many extensive reviews yet about different units, but I would hope that this one would be a) really fast of foreseeable future, b) reasonably quiet with SSDs and large fans. To me, it's not just a matter of space, speed and cost - quietness comes to play as well. Perhaps one day I can have a bespoke home and then I don't need to care about 16 HDDs running at full speed.

 

[gsusser]

I received the Drobo a few days ago. Chalk it up to lack of knowledge, but the thought never crossed my mind that the Drobo wouldn't be able to read my present drives. It seems it requires a unique format. Is this typical?

 

[hfg]

Yes ... and if your hardware RAID enclosure/controller fails, you will probably have to buy another one just like it in order to recover your files.

Unfortunately, hardware RAID enclosures often immediately format the disks the first time they start up, causing new users to lose their data unexpectedly.

 

[niteflyr]

I received the Drobo a few days ago. Chalk it up to lack of knowledge, but the thought never crossed my mind that the Drobo wouldn't be able to read my present drives. It seems it requires a unique format. Is this typical?

Yes. You will need to install new or different drives into the Drobo and then copy your existing data into the new device.