Data storage for occasional use

[mkhornet]

Gday!

Recently my mom asked me for a solution for data storage for her files. I am quite decent with PCs but I came here seeking for a solution proposals, maybe you will come up with something that fits and I didn't recognise as a solution. Straight to the topic: My mom runs a Lab. They store the "experiment" results, video files mostly, on a server. Due to some political stuff at the university she wants to create a separate "backup" of those results. So now I need to come up with "possibly cheap" storage solution, that will not be used frequently, by a single user (in 99% of cases). This for me sounds like just an external USB drive would be fine if not for the volume. The raw files are around 54TB. For me building an entire NAS just for one user seems like an overkill but some safety (i.e. RAID5) would be lovely. For now I thought about just buying like 5x14TB drives and putting them into a drive cage, but the issue is she is only using a laptop so no easy way to have them configured and running.

 

I would appreciate any ideas you have, 

 

BR

 

Mk

[shoutingsteve]

I really like FreeNAS.  I use it at home and it uses ZFS file protocol, which is basically raid5 on steroids.
I set mine up with all the SATA connections going to storage drives and a USB stick as the OS boot drive.  It's been going strong for 3 or 4 years now.

https://www.freenas.org

[mkhornet]

Yeah, FreeNAS was my choice if I were to go with the "home build NAS" approach. But on the other hand what I really need is basically an "oversized" USB drive, with some kind of failure protection (be it RAID of ZFS or any other). It can even be accessible only via USB, as there will be only one user with a notebook finally. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can get a usb das here, so all the data is connected over usb. There either pretty pricy, or pretty cheap(id stay away from these). How about something like this https://www.lacie.com/products/big/6big/

 

But id just get a nas from the likes of Synology or Qnap if you can. Normlly about the same price, and the software included is nice.

[TargetDron3]

54TB means nothing you do will be cheap or easily portable.

you will need 6x 14TB drives to contain the data you have now with a buckup.

If this data is critical and you don't want loss, RAID is not backup.  

Meaning you will need two NAS devices.  

 

Next you need to think about the legal ramifications of storing University data?  Not sure about where you are, but in some places, if you do work for a business or entity, that business or entity owns the data you create and you cannot make backups on personal devices.

[mkhornet]

9 minutes ago, TargetDron3 said:

Next you need to think about the legal ramifications of storing University data?  Not sure about where you are, but in some places, if you do work for a business or entity, that business or entity owns the data you create and you cannot make backups on personal devices.

Don't worry here. I was just asked to propose a solution and the legal part is out of my scope (some kind of a "deal" has been made but I am not sure about the details).

 

I know 54TB is quite the size and it quickly gets out of hand to get a decent reliable solution here. I was thinking about a single NAS or a DAS solution but it seems the size is out of home-user level devices and enterprise level solutions are not cheap. That was the main reason for my question

[Blue4130]

40 minutes ago, mkhornet said:

Don't worry here. I was just asked to propose a solution and the legal part is out of my scope (some kind of a "deal" has been made but I am not sure about the details).

 

I know 54TB is quite the size and it quickly gets out of hand to get a decent reliable solution here. I was thinking about a single NAS or a DAS solution but it seems the size is out of home-user level devices and enterprise level solutions are not cheap. That was the main reason for my question

QNAP ts-873 is an 8 bay unit that is arguably a home unit. It's not cheap, but you get the ease of use that comes from a pre-built set-up. 

[tikker]

12 hours ago, mkhornet said:

I was thinking about a single NAS or a DAS solution but it seems the size is out of home-user level devices and enterprise level solutions are not cheap. That was the main reason for my question

Yeah because 54 TB isn't exactly home-user storage requirements anymore. I currently repurposed my old PC into a NAS using Unraid, which is now happily running a 20 TB storage server for a while. If it needs to be less of a hassle then a premade box like a Synology or QNAP one may be the better way. Either way this will not be cheap just from the drives alone.

[TargetDron3]

Buy 2, bump to 16GB stuff with drives to fullfill storage requirements.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chenbro-NR12000-1U-1x-8m-QUAD-CORE-E3-1220-3-1GHz-8GB-RAM-NO-HDD/283647606276

 

Set up replication of one device to another and you have the cheapest way store the dat and have a backup.

 

The drives will be the most expensive part of the whole thing.