New NAS

NT2C · July 16, 2021, 12:48:24 PM

So, my old WD Cloud finally got too clunky and unsecure to keep on the home network. I just plopped down $1,300 for a Synology DS920+ and four WD Red Plus 6TB drives. I gave serious consideration to a Qnap TS-451D2-4G but finally went with the Synology unit over security concerns with the Qnap line of products.

Thoughts? Smacks upside the noggin for being an idiot? Pats on the back for making a good choice?

sheddi · July 17, 2021, 04:31:10 AM

That's a whole lot of storage

My 2TB Buffalo LinkStation is currently causing me problems; it works as intended but runs SMB1 and Win10 has decided to disable it for being too insecure. There's a setting in "Windows Features" to re-enable it but it still doesn't want to work ...

I'm wondering about replacing it but I'm at the $200 end of the market, not ther $1300 end!

NT2C · July 17, 2021, 10:12:30 AM

Buffalo does have some reported security issues these days which is why I skipped them.

Synology does make less expensive models that fall into your price range.

EBuff75 · July 17, 2021, 01:02:51 PM

My company changed network providers a few years back and I was the lucky guy who got to be the project manager for it. Fortunately, the company we were switching to had dedicated PMs on their side who had done this dozens of times and had extensive checklists (I'd never done it before).

We used a QNAP NAS to copy/move our data from the previous provider to the new one. The only problem was that, at the time, nobody offered a NAS which was large enough for our database. QNAP had some in the pipeline though, so we got a pre-production unit to use for our migration. The fun part was physically moving the thing to NV (the new provider has their data center at Switch in Las Vegas) in a timely fashion. I can't remember if we ended up canonballing it in a van or if we rented a plane, since both options were discussed.

One of my friends is currently running almost 30Tb for his home video collection (he uses Plex so that he and his family can all watch from their own devices). He's actually talked about getting a rack, rather than just stuffing them all into an old desktop chassis like he does right now. The 30Tb is split across four drives. I'm not sure what software he's usually to actually manage the drives though.

I've got a 4TB WD NAS, but it's not currently connected. I really despise their software and after spending a number of hours unsuccessfully trying to get it working with my new desktop, I gave up. Probably should give that another try though, as I'm relegated to manual backups on a pocket drive right now...

NT2C · July 17, 2021, 02:02:21 PM

Quote from: EBuff75 on July 17, 2021, 01:02:51 PM
I've got a 4TB WD NAS, but it's not currently connected. I really despise their software and after spending a number of hours unsuccessfully trying to get it working with my new desktop, I gave up. Probably should give that another try though, as I'm relegated to manual backups on a pocket drive right now...

That's actually what this is replacing. As you say, their software is absolute crap but once you do get it running it does work. It's also got some serious security holes, which is why this one is getting replaced (it's also pretty full) with something better that can be built on. The older WD models aren't even much supported anymore so it was past due time to retire it. I may still use it for tertiary backup of photos and music with my laptop in a VPN, or I may just take it apart and see what I can make out of it. If I can configure it just as an external RAID 1 for the laptops I take on the road that might make it worth salvaging.

boskone · July 17, 2021, 03:57:15 PM

I've used a few different NASes now (both here and at work), and Synology's been my favorite. They're not necessarily the best performance, but for any reasonable use of a NAS I just don't see that as an issue, and their support is superb. I mean, my NAS is an old DS212j, I think 12-13 years old now, and it's still getting updates.

My former boss bought some high-performance NAS (I don't remember the make nor model anymore), and while you could definitely download that file 0.7 seconds faster we also spent way more time babying that damned thing along.

My first NAS was a WD in college, and it worked fine as a backup target. I've run into a few since, and haven't been terribly more impressed. That's about all I can say for 'em.

I would like a NAS with hot-swappable bays, and rackmount. I have all my 'static' devices (desktop, switch, cable modem, NAS, etc) in a rack, which is much tidier than ye olde days when I had 'em all on shelving. The cable modem and NAS are on a shelf, but a rackmount NAS would keep my current footprint for the two (2U) while doubling my number of drives. One of these days, I have more important shit to worry about now.

(I'm also tempted to get an optical thunderbolt cable, put a thunderbolt dock at my desk, and put my server rack--with desktop--in the closet.)

NT2C · July 17, 2021, 05:15:28 PM

My NAS, router and switch are literally bolted to the wall in my office on an old bookcase. The bookcase does not touch the floor.

My UPS, modem, PC, soundbar, and analog phone adapter (VoIP) all sit on a folding table I call my desk.

boskone · July 17, 2021, 06:39:21 PM

That's my desktop (top), a bodged-up dual-mini-ITX server, modem/Hue bridge/NAS, then a Keystone 24-port patch panel (with two now-superfluous cables from when I was WFH), my router (I'm using a UDM-Pro for a switch and router), then my PDU in front of a little UPS. The UPS doesn't actually work right now, because APC put in a proprietary battery; between that and not being rackmount, I'll probably put in a new battery and give it to mom and buy a little rackmount UPS some day. Granted, 3 near-gaming-class systems is a mite excessive, but I had the hardware.

Not pictures: APs; there's one in my office, and one I ended up not needed in a box in the closet. If I really wanted to optimize signal I'd put one in the garage and the other in the living room, but the one does well enough and it's just not worth running cables in a house I want to sell.

Not pictured: APs. There's one in the office, which I decided was good enough for a house I'm looking to sell anyway. It reaches basically everywhere I spend much time except the driveway.

And a flashlight magnetted to the front, because where else would you store a flashlight?

In the intermediate term, I need to downsize power consumption to something which doesn't nearly saturate a 15A circuit's load all on it's own, but I'm still tossing ideas around about that. Leaning towards some used micro-PCs (e.g. HP ProDesks) taped to a rack shelf; chintzy, but should get the job done.

Longer-term I'd like to get the desktop into a 2U chassis (I actually have one in the dining room, I've just been too...uh...occupied to assemble it), put the mini-ITX servers in something like a Circotech RM-1171, replace my 2-bay non-hotswap NAS with a 4-bay hotswap rackmount unit (which would also reduce it's rack footprint by almost 2/3), then toss in a Cisco router and switch to pick up some Cisco certs.

Ultimately, when I build a place I'll probably have a dedicated rack closet. Run 1-2 ethernet cables from each room to a jack plate in the closet, from the jack plate to a patch panel, then physically connect everything from the front. Use front-access servers and switches. Then everything's readily accessible from only one side.

NT2C · August 13, 2021, 04:39:03 PM

Just an update on the new NAS, new UPS, and the rebuilt UPS.

So the new Synology DS920+ is working out rather nice. I populated it with WD Red 6TB drives in SHR configuration. I'm still figuring things out in it for the time being but I've already started thinking about what to use the old WD My Cloud EX2 for. If I had any empty bays in my desktop machine I'd move the drives there but I think I'm full up there. Even the M2 slot on the motherboard is filled. Might still be a way to put the drives in there if I combine some stuff... (1TB WD Blue is my C:, and I have an old 2TB Samsung in there as my D: and E:, if I replace both with the pair of WD Red 4TB drives RAIDed I'd gain redundancy and more space), or I might try formatting George (I named it George, the new NAS is named Ollie and if the old one gets wiped and reused it'll become Stanley since it's a skinny 2 bay and Ollie is a 4 bay)

I'll figure something out, maybe even look around and see if there's any way to change the OS on it.

Moving on, the CyberPower UPS that failed during our last store was replaced with an APC of similar capacity (1500VA/900W) and a new battery pack was purchased and installed in the CyberPower unit. That unit now has both NAS units on it as well as the router, modem, hubs, weather station, Flightradar24 ADS-B receiver, and VoIP phone system on it (grand total of 36W) giving me a little over 2 hours of backup on those devices while the new APC unit just handles the two monitors, desktop PC, sound system, and a phone charger (171W load) with about 25 minutes of backup. Plenty of time to get everything shut down.