Which Nas and Raid set up is right for me..

[TheDrift-]

I currently have a Qnap 410, two of the drives needed replacing so I have just invested in 4 x 2gb drives...

..during the process of copying the files and replacing the drives my 410 has become pretty temperamental, & I think it has reached the end of its life..

I found the qnap pretty high maintenance and wanted something with more plug and play functionality...I was looking at synology, but I understand they have had some recent malware problems with users having their data encrypted and held to ransom.

My ideal solution would be 3 2xtb drives in raid 1 (mirrored, and maybe a spare) It need to be accessible on my local network (I do not want it to be accessible from outs tide my local network)..but I would do a raid 5 and hot spare if needed.

I will back up anther copy monthly and keep off site...its mostly just photo's but they have a high sentimental value to me, so I want to ensure there is a lot of redundancy.

Any suggestions?

 

[glenthompson]

RAID is not a backup so,union, it is a high availability solution. Use it when you need to keep running in the event of a single drive failure. If the NAS fails, you lose both drive. Same thing in other disasters like fire and theft. I would rather have two backups of a drive than one backup,of a RAID 1 drive.

I have an older Synology and have no problem with malware. I haven't installed any additional software on it and have limited access allowed. Good solid appliance available in a variety of sizes and configurations.

 

[TheDrift-]

RAID is not a backup so,union, it is a high availability solution. Use it when you need to keep running in the event of a single drive failure. If the NAS fails, you lose both drive. Same thing in other disasters like fire and theft. I would rather have two backups of a drive than one backup,of a RAID 1 drive.



I have an older Synology and have no problem with malware. I haven't installed any additional software on it and have limited access allowed. Good solid appliance available in a variety of sizes and configurations.

Thanks, I will have a separate off site back up.

Can you limit your synology to local network only?

 

[ColdCase]

Thanks, I will have a separate off site back up.

Can you limit your synology to local network only?

Thats how it works by default (and I think most NAS and servers), just don't set up remote access (and port forwarding in your router).

 

[ColdCase]

I have used a synology SYDS212JK2 for years, its a solid product.

Three drives mirrored seems to be excessive. The problem with a single NAS for backup is that it is a single failure point regardless of the number of drives installed.

I ran my two bay synology with two mirrored drives for backups and have another drive in a USB enclosure plugged into the synology for file sharing. I also backup to another drive hanging off a computer. There is also off site backup.

So should the NAS fail, I still have a local backup. The NAS backup is still there, but I won't be able to update or use it until the NAS is replaced (same brand/model). Should one of the NAS drives or the separate drive fail, I still have dual local backups. Replace the failed drive and recover.

For a number of performance reasons, I moved on to a computer instead of NAS. I have external drives hanging off of the computer and use Disk Utility to mirror a couple drives for redundancy and stripe a couple drives for performance. One advantage is that, should the computer fail, I can plug those droves into any MAC and use them. No need to wait for a NAS repair.

 

[TheDrift-]

I have used a synology SYDS212JK2 for years, its a solid product.

Three drives mirrored seems to be excessive. The problem with a single NAS for backup is that it is a single failure point regardless of the number of drives installed.

I run my two bay synology with two mirrored drives for backups and have another drive in a USB enclosure plugged into the synology for file sharing. I also backup to another drive hanging off a computer. There is also off site backup.

So should the NAS fail, I still have a local backup. The NAS backup is still there, but I won't be able to update or use it until the NAS is replaced (same brand/model). Should one of the NAS drives or the separate drive fail, I still have dual local backups. Replace the failed drive and recover.

I don't have a lot of data so 2tb is probably enough for now and for the forsable future..the 3 drives I figured would give me some peace of mind, because it would be a pretty extreme failure to take out 3 drives..raid 1 should mean I could take out any drive and it would work in another unit..the other thing is I have 4 new drives sat around anyway!

That together with an off site backup should keep me sleeping safely..

 

[ColdCase]

I don't have a lot of data so 2tb is probably enough for now and for the forsable future..the 3 drives I figured would give me some peace of mind, because it would be a pretty extreme failure to take out 3 drives..raid 1 should mean I could take out any drive and it would work in another unit..the other thing is I have 4 new drives sat around anyway!

That together with an off site backup should keep me sleeping safely..

NAS's use proprietary crap on their drives, and you just can't remove a drive from one enclosure and use it in another without reformatting. Using the same brand/model NAS may be OK if you move the entire three disk set, but if removing a mirrored drive from a NAS and reading it by another device is your intent, then you may want to looking for something else, like a JBOD and software RAID.