Synology NAS questions

[Donut417]

Ive been doing some more research on how to expand my storage on my plex server. As my current drive is half full and I dont even have half my movies digitized and my dad has films he wants digitized and my mom has shows she wants to DVR.  At first I was just going to convert my gaming computer in to a server, but I like using my two 23" monitors too much and the laptop I have thats the current server doesnt do two external monitors. I also looked in to building a Free NAS box, but with the recommended system requirements and the lack of Mini ITX cases with hotswap bays I decided against that. So now Im looking at NAS's. 

 

Ive been looking at 4 bay NAS's by Synology. Specificaly the DS418, DS418Play, and DS918+. To make things clear. I WILL NOT be putting plex on the NAS. After reading the faq's page over a Plex.tv its not a good strategy. The Laptop should be able to handle transcoding duties for a while. Im just going to store my libraries as well as other things on the NAS. I figure I could build a better box in the future for the "server software" if I need to do more transcoding. What I need to know:

 

1) Which model? Im open to other suggestions, as long as they have at least 3 to 4 bays or more, I dont want to spend more than like $550 if I dont have to. 

2) How would this work with a UPS? In terms is there a way for the UPS to tell the unit to turn off if a power issue happens? I have a APC UPS connected to my desktop, can I use this one too or should I look at a dedicated one? Not worried about the laptop as it has a battery and I can adjust the power settings to turn off on battery. 

3) RAM, the first unit has 2 Gigs, the second has 2 Gigs but can take another 4 Gigs and the 918+ has 4 gigs but can handle 8. So I get more ram with the units that can be upgraded? Any benefits to more ram? 

4) The 918+ has NVMe slots, what are these for? Cache? 

5) File system, Internal drives can use EXT4 which Im familiar with or btrsf which I have no clue. I just know I want to use this NAS with multiple OS's types. I might still install Linux on the laptop as it needs a clean install.... And I might purchase an Apple computer in the future if Microsoft doesnt get its head out of its ass. 

6) What kind of RAM do these use? I noticed that Free NAS suggest ECC memory, do these use ECC as well? 

7) Can I put access restrictions on drives or files on the NAS? For example if they are my files that I dont want others accessing? The NAS could be used by others. 

8 ) Any other info you want to supply. 

9) The NAS support page shows they can do a VPN server? How well does this work? Im not looking to play Plex content, but in case I need to access data from a remote location? 

 

Other thoughts: Im waiting for the WD Easy Stores to come down in price again. Im also going to look for a switch, probably a 5 to 8 port, Im running out of Ethernet ports on my router, I figure I can put the Plex Server, NAS and HD homerun on the switch. 

 

[scottyseng]

Just posting this as a warning:

 

I think Qnap was the brand recommended by @leadeater before.

 

I don't know too much about these prebuilt NAS units, but I'm also curious how a UPS would work with one of these.

[leadeater]

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

The NAS support page shows they can do a VPN server? How well does this work? Im not looking to play Plex content, but in case I need to access data from a remote location? 

Normally it's just OpenVPN so fine. Not too hard to find out which NAS OS is actually using what VPN package.

 

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

File system, Internal drives can use EXT4 which Im familiar with or btrsf which I have no clue. I just know I want to use this NAS with multiple OS's types. I might still install Linux on the laptop as it needs a clean install.... And I might purchase an Apple computer in the future if Microsoft doesnt get its head out of its ass. 

It's not really going to matter since the client computers don't see that or need to know, they will just see an SMB share.

 

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

How would this work with a UPS? In terms is there a way for the UPS to tell the unit to turn off if a power issue happens? I have a APC UPS connected to my desktop, can I use this one too or should I look at a dedicated one? Not worried about the laptop as it has a battery and I can adjust the power settings to turn off on battery. 

Many NAS's support UPS shutdown from USB or 12v relay.

https://www.rootusers.com/setting-qnap-nas-to-shutdown-on-ups-battery-power/

 

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Can I put access restrictions on drives or files on the NAS? For example if they are my files that I dont want others accessing? The NAS could be used by others. 

Yes, either folder permissions or just create different shares and restrict which users can access them.

 

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

The 918+ has NVMe slots, what are these for? Cache? 

Data or cache, Synology and QNAP support cache/tiering using SSDs. Not worth it though, network will limit you and running 10G puts you more in the DIY area anyway but that is an option for Synology and QNAP.

 

7 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Which model? Im open to other suggestions, as long as they have at least 3 to 4 bays or more, I dont want to spend more than like $550 if I dont have to. 

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/performance#4bay Anything over 100 MB/s will be fine, any more and you're network limited.

 

Synology DS418 $370

QNAP TS-451+ $375

QNAP TS-431P $260

 

The QNAP TS-451+ is the fastest (in write performance by ~80MB/s) and the other 2 are about the same so I'd say get the TS-431P. Software on all of them is excellent.

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, leadeater said:

QNAP TS-451+ $375

 

I think this is a good option. I might even run my Plex Server on it, or at least test it out. Any way, there are two models of this NAS one with 2 Gigs and one with 8 Gigs of memory. Im guessing the one with 2 Gigs is upgradable? I only assume this because Qnap has ram sticks listed on their site, so would it I be ok buying the 2 gig options and upgrading it if I feel I need extra memory? 

 

Besides that this NAS seems like it will do everything I want and more. Which is kinda cool. 

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

so would it I be ok buying the 2 gig options and upgrading it if I feel I need extra memory? 

Yea, and cheaper if your source your own ram rather than QNAP SO-DIMMs

[Donut417]

7 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yea, and cheaper if your source your own ram rather than QNAP SO-DIMMs

Ill take it that any SO DIMM will work as long as its the specs are the same. I ended up ordering the NAS and a hard disk as well as a 8 port switch. 

[dalekphalm]

Good choice. Synology vs QNAP are near identical in terms of both quality and software features, these days. I wouldn't read into GN's 2 Synology failures too much though. We've got 2x Synology and 2x QNAP NAS's at work. Both work very well.

 

QNAP tends to have a bit better value though, so there's that.