Small Buisness NAS and Backup NAS

[SpecialTwinky]

Budget (including currency): $2000 each USD IDK?

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Storage for small files that everyone in the office has access to. I also want to back everything up weekly or so.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Currently the small company that I work for keeps all of the files that the office works on, on a single drive that everyone has access to via a network share. The drive is located in a workstation that is used by someone every day. I think this drive is supposed to be backed up to a cloud service but I am not sure how often or if it even works at all. I pitched him the idea of moving the drive into a seperate machine so it is not dependent on anyones workstation. I also pitched the idea of having a local backup in the second building that we own. All of the files total to about 500GB right now but it will increase over time. I am looking for some advice on just about everything from the hardware I should buy to the software I should run. Leaning towards Truenas but not married to it. Haven't done a NAS setup before but I am a computer science major so I am not scared to learn. Also do I need something with IPMI?

[BentleyOwen123]

will it be used for ANYTHING but a nas, like will videos be stored AND edited on it?

[SpecialTwinky]

No videos. It will just be a NAS for everyone to work off of. These are all small files like Autocad DWG, word, excel, pdf, etc. Some of these files have been around in the company since the 1990's so they need to be able to be searched for pretty quickly is all. 

Edited April 7 by SpecialTwinky
more info

[BentleyOwen123]

try this

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YQBZ34

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($158.00 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Extreme ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory  ($108.22 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory  ($108.22 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ Western Digital) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($191.89 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($191.89 @ Adorama) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent ATX Mid Tower Case  ($189.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 850 - V2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($95.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1267.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-06 20:23 EDT-0400

 

 

cpu should be more than fine and if you have 500gb of data right now...... 16tb should be fine haha, case has good airflow add some fans if you want

 

 

 

edit: boot your os off the ssd

[BentleyOwen123]

if you want to use your budget all the way, you could get 50+tb but sounds like you wont need that for 15 years haha

[SpecialTwinky]

1 minute ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

try this

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YQBZ34

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($158.00 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Extreme ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory  ($108.22 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory  ($108.22 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ Western Digital) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($191.89 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($191.89 @ Adorama) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent ATX Mid Tower Case  ($189.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 850 - V2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($95.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1267.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-06 20:23 EDT-0400

 

 

cpu should be more than fine and if you have 500gb of data right now...... 16tb should be fine haha, case has good airflow add some fans if you want

 

 

 

edit: boot your os off the ssd

So another question, one of the reasons that I want to do this is because sometimes we will have coworkers accidently delete files and we won't know for years because once a job is done some files don't get looked at for a long time. I wan't to be able to keep a backup somehow of things every so often so that we can find it later if it has been deleted. Would you just have the backup nas keep that and have the primary nas be smaller? Does that make any sense?

[BentleyOwen123]

yea, i didnt realize you said 2 haha, yes the backup could just have the same exact files but they would only get deleted from the primary, i believe truenas has that ability

[Blue4130]

17 minutes ago, SpecialTwinky said:

Budget (including currency): $2000 each USD IDK?

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Storage for small files that everyone in the office has access to. I also want to back everything up weekly or so.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Currently the small company that I work for keeps all of the files that the office works on, on a single drive that everyone has access to via a network share. The drive is located in a workstation that is used by someone every day. I think this drive is supposed to be backed up to a cloud service but I am not sure how often or if it even works at all. I pitched him the idea of moving the drive into a seperate machine so it is not dependent on anyones workstation. I also pitched the idea of having a local backup in the second building that we own. All of the files total to about 500GB right now but it will increase over time. I am looking for some advice on just about everything from the hardware I should buy to the software I should run. Leaning towards Truenas but not married to it. Haven't done a NAS setup before but I am a computer science major so I am not scared to learn. Also do I need something with IPMI?

For that small of data, honestly just get two of these. Put a couple drives in each that are mirrored.

 

https://www.newegg.com/asustor-flashtor6/p/N82E16822225068

 

Way under budget and with nvme it will be lightning quick to search for files.

[BentleyOwen123]

fair

[BentleyOwen123]

you could upgrade your workstation and right it off as storage improvements

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/N8CLXk

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($378.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($109.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING Z790-PRO WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($279.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory  ($169.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($289.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent ATX Mid Tower Case  ($189.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2118.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-06 20:43 EDT-0400

[Blue4130]

13 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

you could upgrade your workstation and right it off as storage improvements

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/N8CLXk

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($378.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($109.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING Z790-PRO WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($279.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory  ($169.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($289.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent ATX Mid Tower Case  ($189.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2118.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-06 20:43 EDT-0400

Pretty sure one of the main points is to get the nas OFF of the workstation. It's bad practice to have others connecting to a workstation for networked files. In a business, there should be seperation between servers and workstations.

[Electronics Wizardy]

I'd probably just setup cloud storage like onedrive or g suite here. Likely connected with the email provider if your using microsoft or google. Then its much more reliable, and easier to setup and manager.

 

If you really want a nas, I'd just get 2 premade nas units. Make sure to have plans in case of something like ransomware. 

 

 

 

[BentleyOwen123]

14 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Pretty sure one of the main points is to get the nas OFF of the workstation. It's bad practice to have others connecting to a workstation for networked files. In a business, there should be seperation between servers and workstations.

ik just messing

[SpecialTwinky]

58 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd probably just setup cloud storage like onedrive or g suite here. Likely connected with the email provider if your using microsoft or google. Then its much more reliable, and easier to setup and manager.

 

If you really want a nas, I'd just get 2 premade nas units. Make sure to have plans in case of something like ransomware. 

 

 

 

We have tried ondrive in the past and it has done some funky things like creating multiples of the same file but with seemingly randmom characters at the end that are just copies of the same file. I have also had sync issues with it. We will have a backup to some cloud service though. My main problems that I am trying to solve is to 1. get the shared drive off of the workstation, and 2. Be able to have a backup of the shared drive so that if an important file gets deleted we can find it 5+ years down the road. These files that get deleted are usually by accident years after they are done being worked on. Usually by someone looking for things years later and somehow deleting a file. I don't know how you accidentally delete a file like that but it has happened multiple times. 

 

I've been looking at premade nas units but haven't found one that has impressed me. ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR 6 looked kinda cool but I'm worried about performance down the road with that processor. It's probably fine but my work does not upgrade computers very much unless they die or show signs of dying. I'm also kind of taking this as a chance to learn more about NAS machines and everything to them. Never touched a nas os before so I thought that it would be fun. I won't deploy anything until I have tested it to make sure it will works correctly though.

[SpecialTwinky]

Just now, SpecialTwinky said:

We have tried ondrive in the past and it has done some funky things like creating multiples of the same file but with seemingly randmom characters at the end that are just copies of the same file. I have also had sync issues with it. We will have a backup to some cloud service though. My main problems that I am trying to solve is to 1. get the shared drive off of the workstation, and 2. Be able to have a backup of the shared drive so that if an important file gets deleted we can find it 5+ years down the road. These files that get deleted are usually by accident years after they are done being worked on. Usually by someone looking for things years later and somehow deleting a file. I don't know how you accidentally delete a file like that but it has happened multiple times. 

 

I've been looking at premade nas units but haven't found one that has impressed me. ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR 6 looked kinda cool but I'm worried about performance down the road with that processor. It's probably fine but my work does not upgrade computers very much unless they die or show signs of dying. I'm also kind of taking this as a chance to learn more about NAS machines and everything to them. Never touched a nas os before so I thought that it would be fun. I won't deploy anything until I have tested it to make sure it will works correctly though.

With trying to do backups like this, what is the easiest way to do that? Do I have to save everything? Can something like truenas do some kind of snapshot that I can restore only a single file that was deleted?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, SpecialTwinky said:

We have tried ondrive in the past and it has done some funky things like creating multiples of the same file but with seemingly randmom characters at the end that are just copies of the same file. I have also had sync issues with it. We will have a backup to some cloud service though. My main problems that I am trying to solve is to 1. get the shared drive off of the workstation, and 2. Be able to have a backup of the shared drive so that if an important file gets deleted we can find it 5+ years down the road. These files that get deleted are usually by accident years after they are done being worked on. Usually by someone looking for things years later and somehow deleting a file. I don't know how you accidentally delete a file like that but it has happened multiple times. 

 

I've been looking at premade nas units but haven't found one that has impressed me. ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR 6 looked kinda cool but I'm worried about performance down the road with that processor. It's probably fine but my work does not upgrade computers very much unless they die or show signs of dying. I'm also kind of taking this as a chance to learn more about NAS machines and everything to them. Never touched a nas os before so I thought that it would be fun. I won't deploy anything until I have tested it to make sure it will works correctly though.

DO you have microsoft 365 here? I'd really try onedrive again.

 

CPU shoudln't matter for a nas, it takes very little CPU for a NAS. I'd probably go synology for better software if it was me though, but all the big nas makers will work fine. You should be able to get away with HDDs here too.

[SorryBella]

2 hours ago, SpecialTwinky said:

performance down the road with that processor.

Unless youre ingesting high bandwidth file the processor throughput is not going to matter at all. Next time - besides redirecting people to just getting out of the box ready made NAS - i would concern myself more about the raw idle wattage on the system than the raw performance, especially in this OP case where its mainly office document backups.