Thoughts on a Synology NAS solution

[ecopengi]

Hi all,

 

I've been thinking about getting a NAS for some time now, since I only own a mini itx rig and a laptop which both can only take minimal m.2 SSD storage, and I'm running a bit low on space.

I'm also looking to get away from Google for my file-storage and photos but with a similar solution to Gdrive and google photos (which synology seems to have).

I would also like to host a plex server over the internet that my friends and family can access easily (My family, friends, and myself mostly all live in separate time zones so the times of usage would be staggered and most likely not all at once).

 

Since I don't have a lot of free time on my hands to build a NAS from scratch, and set up all the security protocols and whatnot for giving it access to the internet, I was hoping to just get a simple Synology build up and running.

 

 

What I'm looking at is the DS220+ (for the price to performance) and the DS720+ for the features and m.2 caching ability (since I have extra m.2's lying around that I can't use in my own builds).

 

I'm planning to buy these when/if they come on sale at the end of the month, paired with a $100 amazon giftcard that I received a while back to reduce the costs.

 

If possible, I'm looking for thoughts on what people think about this use case and their experience with Synology!

 

Thanks!

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

I have used a couple of them for work and other uses and there pretty good generally. 

 

Id probably skip the m.2 cache here, it won't matter for a 1gbe network.

 

All of what you want should be pretty easy to setup and use.

[heimdali]

I would look out for devices that have at least one 10GB network card and can sustain more than the 100MB/sec an 1GB network link would allow.  Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but when backing up some TBs over the network it just takes awfully long, and with the m.2 storage you have fast storage in your laptop to begin with.  What are you planning as a backup solution?

 

[ecopengi]

20 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I have used a couple of them for work and other uses and there pretty good generally. 

 

Id probably skip the m.2 cache here, it won't matter for a 1gbe network.

 

All of what you want should be pretty easy to setup and use.

That sounds great to me. Thank you for the feedback!

About the m.2 cache. I've read that it's helpful for video playback with plex, especially at a time when there may be a few users watching videos at the same time. Would it still not make much of a difference on a 1gbe network?

[ecopengi]

24 minutes ago, heimdali said:

I would look out for devices that have at least one 10GB network card and can sustain more than the 100MB/sec an 1GB network link would allow.  Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but when backing up some TBs over the network it just takes awfully long, and with the m.2 storage you have fast storage in your laptop to begin with.  What are you planning as a backup solution?

 

Thanks for the feedback. My use-case wouldn't really be offloading TB's of data (thankfully), so the 1GB network link would really be just about fine for me. I'm just looking for a small file server to keep my movies, files, and photos locally that can be shared easily/accessed from my devices without taking up space on my personal systems.
I also have a lot of my data on external hard drives and whatnot that I'm looking to consolidate too. It may take a while to do, but I plan to do things as I have time here and there.

Not much of a backup plan at the moment, but I'm planning on keeping a copy of my important stuff on an external drive that will only get used when creating backups.

 

I would love to make a raid backup or something, but getting 2x high capacity hard drives is out of the budget atm.

 

Honestly not much experience in this space, which is why I'm looking for thoughts and advice

[heimdali]

Well, I don't know, I wouldn't even consider a NAS that can fit only 2 disks.  And I've always found the prices for them outrageously high.  Compared to an arbitrary used computer from the last 10 years, you'd pay less and have more options, and I've watched the holiday buyers guide linked here earlier and learned that you can even build a gaming computer for $300.  It didn't say how many disks you can put in, but I'd expect at least 4.  For a file server, you don't need much CPU, and 4GB RAM should be fine, and it's likely to have a PCI slot that would fit a 10GB network card if you decide you want one some time later.  You could even go for a used HP Microserver off ebay for this since those don't need much power, though I don't know if they have a suitable PCI slot.

 

If you were to ask what ppl would recommend for the purpose to build your own, you'd probably get good recommendations for something cost and power efficient.  Then there seem to be quite a few NAS softwares you could install on it, like FreeNAS.  I haven't tried any of those, though FreeNAS seems to be pretty well known.  Allowing access over the internet is a matter of setting up VPN access and doesn't have anything to do with a NAS itself.

 

I understand you don't have much time to build something.  However, putting the parts for a little file server together going by recommendations here can't be hard or time consuming.  Installing FreeNAS can't be too difficult or time consuming either --- maybe someone who did it can say something about that.

 

The most tedious and time consuming part will be setting up the VPN connections to your friends and relatives.  It's not like you just could click some buttons and it magically works.  Buying a NAS from some manufacturer doesn't change that.

 

Backups are basically the only use for non-redundant storage because when you loose a backup, you can make a new one which will be more up to date than the one you lost without much hassle.  That doesn't mean I'd recommend it; it's merely better than no backup at all.  Aren't you planning on redundancy for the NAS?

 

PS: https://www.serverwatch.com/storage/free-nas-solutions/

[ecopengi]

5 hours ago, heimdali said:

Well, I don't know, I wouldn't even consider a NAS that can fit only 2 disks.  And I've always found the prices for them outrageously high.  Compared to an arbitrary used computer from the last 10 years, you'd pay less and have more options, and I've watched the holiday buyers guide linked here earlier and learned that you can even build a gaming computer for $300.  It didn't say how many disks you can put in, but I'd expect at least 4.  For a file server, you don't need much CPU, and 4GB RAM should be fine, and it's likely to have a PCI slot that would fit a 10GB network card if you decide you want one some time later.  You could even go for a used HP Microserver off ebay for this since those don't need much power, though I don't know if they have a suitable PCI slot.

 

If you were to ask what ppl would recommend for the purpose to build your own, you'd probably get good recommendations for something cost and power efficient.  Then there seem to be quite a few NAS softwares you could install on it, like FreeNAS.  I haven't tried any of those, though FreeNAS seems to be pretty well known.  Allowing access over the internet is a matter of setting up VPN access and doesn't have anything to do with a NAS itself.

 

I understand you don't have much time to build something.  However, putting the parts for a little file server together going by recommendations here can't be hard or time consuming.  Installing FreeNAS can't be too difficult or time consuming either --- maybe someone who did it can say something about that.

 

The most tedious and time consuming part will be setting up the VPN connections to your friends and relatives.  It's not like you just could click some buttons and it magically works.  Buying a NAS from some manufacturer doesn't change that.

 

Backups are basically the only use for non-redundant storage because when you loose a backup, you can make a new one which will be more up to date than the one you lost without much hassle.  That doesn't mean I'd recommend it; it's merely better than no backup at all.  Aren't you planning on redundancy for the NAS?

 

PS: https://www.serverwatch.com/storage/free-nas-solutions/

Although I appreciate the feedback and thoughts, this is already getting more complicated than I'm looking for.

I had previously looked into freenas and other similar DIY solutions, -- unfortunately -- they just don't seem to fill my needs at this time.

 

Thank you, though.

[Electronics Wizardy]

11 hours ago, ecopengi said:

That sounds great to me. Thank you for the feedback!

About the m.2 cache. I've read that it's helpful for video playback with plex, especially at a time when there may be a few users watching videos at the same time. Would it still not make much of a difference on a 1gbe network?

Yea I don't see a cache helping here. Video files are pretty small compared to the hdd and network limits

[ecopengi]

11 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea I don't see a cache helping here. Video files are pretty small compared to the hdd and network limits

Awesome. Really helpful insight. Thank you!

[wseaton]

I've set up more Synology and Buffalo Terrastations than I can count. All have been popular and reliable units. 

 

A 2bay Synology can be had for less than $200. Slap two big spinners in it in RAID 1 and you are good to go. They just work. 

 

 

[Bdavis]

I'm not a fan of the Synology NAS. My issues are as follows.

 

Not as many software options as TrueNAS or unraid.

 

Proprietary hardware and file system so if it fails you can't just replace a part such as motherboard or power supply, or swap the disks into another PC that supports ZFS to access the data.

 

No upgrade options. You can't add a gpu to transcode plex, or more ram, or a faster cpu, or a 10 gb nic, or more disks by adding an HBA card, etc.

 

Synology is like the MAC of the NAS world. Upgrading is easy, you just throw it away and buy a new one. Then when your device is too old they just stop supporting it.

 

Your data storage plan is flawed also. It sounds like you want all your data on the NAS without redundancy or a backup. Any NAS with data you don't want to use should have some form of software raid such as ZFS. This however is not a backup. Any data you don't want to lose should follow the 321 rule. 3 copies of your data 2 on site on separate systems and 1 off site such as a cloud or a friends house.

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

3 hours ago, Bdavis said:

Proprietary hardware and file system so if it fails you can't just replace a part such as motherboard or power supply, or swap the disks into another PC that supports ZFS to access the data.

"Synology Hybrid RAID" is just Linux software RAID. (mdadm, not ZFS.) As long as you can boot into a Linux environment that supports btrfs or ext4, you can recover the data from a Synology RAID on a PC.

 

https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/tutorial/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC

 

3 hours ago, Bdavis said:

No upgrade options. You can't add a gpu to transcode plex, or more ram, or a faster cpu, or a 10 gb nic, or more disks by adding an HBA card, etc.

GPU? Nope.

RAM? Most models have expandable RAM.

Faster CPU? Nope.

10 gig NIC? The larger / higher end models have low profile PCIe slots.

HBA? Their solution is to buy an expansion chassis with more drive bays. (You would have to anyway.)

[ecopengi]

On 11/5/2022 at 3:30 PM, Bdavis said:

I'm not a fan of the Synology NAS. My issues are as follows.

 

Not as many software options as TrueNAS or unraid.

 

Proprietary hardware and file system so if it fails you can't just replace a part such as motherboard or power supply, or swap the disks into another PC that supports ZFS to access the data.

 

No upgrade options. You can't add a gpu to transcode plex, or more ram, or a faster cpu, or a 10 gb nic, or more disks by adding an HBA card, etc.

 

Synology is like the MAC of the NAS world. Upgrading is easy, you just throw it away and buy a new one. Then when your device is too old they just stop supporting it.

 

Your data storage plan is flawed also. It sounds like you want all your data on the NAS without redundancy or a backup. Any NAS with data you don't want to use should have some form of software raid such as ZFS. This however is not a backup. Any data you don't want to lose should follow the 321 rule. 3 copies of your data 2 on site on separate systems and 1 off site such as a cloud or a friends house.

 

 

I see and understand the issues you present. I just don't really need all of the things you mentioned at the moment. The backup situation is surely something I can figure out, but I'm down for manually making physical backups of my important data -- but the majority of the things that are going to be stored on the NAS are just data hoarding files, movies, and shows. Things I can mainly get back if all things fail.

 

Also, I always make multiple copies of my important photos and videos across multiple devices -- so that's not an issue. I really only wanted to hear about how these Synology NAS systems work as an plug and play system for allowing me to get rid of google photos/drive -- with similar app features, and run a modest plex server.

 

I certainly do hear you though and I feel the same way about lack of repairability and expansion. I'm just not in a place or necessity for a more advanced system...yet. Maybe in a few years time I'll be down for that.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback though.

[ecopengi]

On 11/5/2022 at 2:53 PM, wseaton said:

I've set up more Synology and Buffalo Terrastations than I can count. All have been popular and reliable units. 

 

A 2bay Synology can be had for less than $200. Slap two big spinners in it in RAID 1 and you are good to go. They just work. 

 

 

This is wonderful to hear! Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

All I need right now is something as simple as that.

 

Since I live in Japan, I see Buffalo products more than any other brand -- but it seems Synology has a better app ecosystem when it comes to actual interfaces and making use of the data I store in the NAS. In your experience, how would you compare the two?

[ecopengi]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:15 PM, Needfuldoer said:

"Synology Hybrid RAID" is just Linux software RAID. (mdadm, not ZFS.) As long as you can boot into a Linux environment that supports btrfs or ext4, you can recover the data from a Synology RAID on a PC.

 

https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/tutorial/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC

 

GPU? Nope.

RAM? Most models have expandable RAM.

Faster CPU? Nope.

10 gig NIC? The larger / higher end models have low profile PCIe slots.

HBA? Their solution is to buy an expansion chassis with more drive bays. (You would have to anyway.)

Although this comment wasn't replying to my post, I appreciate the helpful information!! It's good to know that it's possible to recover data from a synology raid if needed!

 

Thank you