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Epic WD personal cloud, or not?

Hammer
By Hammer
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by Captain_WD,

Thank you very much!

The reason I would like to have a setup like this is, as you suggested, to have all my data safe. And, at the same time I would have all my data available trough the WD iPhone app. (To get something close to the "Dropbox experience", but without having to pay a ton for it monthly and leaving all of my personal data to someone else.) ;D

RAID10 would definitely be the better solution on the EX4, but the reason I was thinking about RAID0 on the EX2 was because then if I have for instance 6TB saved on the EX4, it would be enough storage on the EX2 for a remote backup. (Since RAID1 would leave me with "just" 4TB on the EX2)

As for data speed, wouldn't it only be noticeable when I transfer new files to the NAS? Or is it continuously checking back and fourth?

I was also wondering if you know how much noise the EX4 would make for instance trough a night when no new files are added. Do the disks spin down to a full stop?

 

 

You can access the data on both NASes via your application. The general idea of a personal cloud is to have such an experience without worrying where your data is stored and without paying monthly fees. :)
 
The potential problem with RAID0 is that it offers absolutely no redundancy at all and in case a drive fails, you would lose all data on that NAS. Even with a full backup on the other NAS, you would still have to erase the healthy drive, reconfigure the NAS, rebuild the RAID array and restore the data over the network which could take days to complete. You could also check the JBOD option on the EX2. The RAID0 speeds on it wouldn't match the network speed that you will be using to transfer data to it, so it would be pointless when it comes to work over the internet. JBOD gives you the full capacity of both drives and they work indpendantly (even if one of them fails, you have all your files on the second one).
 
If you are doing a continuous backup, data flows always when you make a change on the EX4 as it needs to be written/adjusted on the EX2.
 
The NAS shouldn't make much noise as it indeed spins the drive down after some time of inactivity. You can check this and other features here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1170
 
 
Captain_WD.
Posted

Alright, so I believe I might have to get some input on my idea here.

The goal is to create a offsite backup solution that I can access from everywhere (phone, iPad, at a friends house, and so on). My initial idea was to build a NAS, and go from there, but I am unable to find any truly good solutions based upon affordable (and unaffordable) software.

So now I believe I might have the perfect idea, although I have not been able to find anyone trying it out.

At my house I am thinking about setting up a WD EX4 with 4x4TB in RAID1, which gives me a total of 8TB storage. And at an offsite location (parents house) I'll set up a WD EX2 with 2x4TB to get 8TB there as well. Then I want to use the built in "mirror" function of the EX4 to make it sync to the EX2. Tada! Remote backup, and easy to acces from everywhere via WD apps.

Is this even remotely possible? It would be great because then I would have redundant storage at my end, with a secure backup at a remote location. But the thing is, this seems to be way to easy, so why haven't anyone tried this out before? Have I missed something? Any inputs or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :D

...

 

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Having 4 drives in Raid 1 would still only give you 4TB usable.

 

To get 8TB from the 2x 4TB, you'd need to either use Raid0 or spanned storage.

 

Backing up data over the WAN, just remember to have realistic expectations based on upload and download speeds at each site.

Can Anybody Link A Virtual Machine while I go download some RAM?

 

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Having 4 drives in Raid 1 would still only give you 4TB usable.

 

To get 8TB from the 2x 4TB, you'd need to either use Raid0 or spanned storage.

 

Backing up data over the WAN, just remember to have realistic expectations based on upload and download speeds at each site.

Yeah, I'm not imagining it will be extremely fast, but that should not matter too much.

As for the EX2 with 2x4TB I was thinking about having them in RAID0, because I already have a RAID1 on the EX4. Four copies of the data seems a bit overkill :)

...

 

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Alright, so I believe I might have to get some input on my idea here.

The goal is to create a offsite backup solution that I can access from everywhere (phone, iPad, at a friends house, and so on). My initial idea was to build a NAS, and go from there, but I am unable to find any truly good solutions based upon affordable (and unaffordable) software.

So now I believe I might have the perfect idea, although I have not been able to find anyone trying it out.

At my house I am thinking about setting up a WD EX4 with 4x4TB in RAID1, which gives me a total of 8TB storage. And at an offsite location (parents house) I'll set up a WD EX2 with 2x4TB to get 8TB there as well. Then I want to use the built in "mirror" function of the EX4 to make it sync to the EX2. Tada! Remote backup, and easy to acces from everywhere via WD apps.

Is this even remotely possible? It would be great because then I would have redundant storage at my end, with a secure backup at a remote location. But the thing is, this seems to be way to easy, so why haven't anyone tried this out before? Have I missed something? Any inputs or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :D

 

 

Hey there Hammer :)
 
That's a very ambitious plan. Could you explain why would you like to have two backup solutions at two different houses both synced with each other? Are you trying to make a good, redundant backup of your mobile devices, your computer, etc.?
 
It is possible to make a continuous backup of one NAS on another and the idea is great, if you can afford it. 
In order to have a redundant 8TB storage our of 4x4TB drives, you would need to either build a RAID10 or RAID5. RAID1 would simply mirror all your drive and you will have 4TB of usable storage with three other copies of it. RAID10 enables you to use two of the drives in RAID0 while creating two other identical drives for redundancy and you can sustain up to two drive failures. RAID5 gives you roughly 12TB of usable storage and a good speed boost and gives you one drive failure tolerance. Here's a great simulator that can give you a nice idea of what working with WD My Cloud EX2 and EX4 looks like: http://wdnasdemo.com/
 
I would suggest using RAID10 on the My Cloud EX4 at your home for both redundancy and speed, using RAID1 in the My Cloud EX2 for a more redundant off-site backup and creating a continuous backup between the two NASes. I would eat up a huge part of your internet connection, but your data will be very safe. 
 
Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Hey there Hammer :)

That's a very ambitious plan. Could you explain why would you like to have two backup solutions at two different houses both synced with each other? Are you trying to make a good, redundant backup of your mobile devices, your computer, etc.?

It is possible to make a continuous backup of one NAS on another and the idea is great, if you can afford it.

In order to have a redundant 8TB storage our of 4x4TB drives, you would need to either build a RAID10 or RAID5. RAID1 would simply mirror all your drive and you will have 4TB of usable storage with three other copies of it. RAID10 enables you to use two of the drives in RAID0 while creating two other identical drives for redundancy and you can sustain up to two drive failures. RAID5 gives you roughly 12TB of usable storage and a good speed boost and gives you one drive failure tolerance. Here's a great simulator that can give you a nice idea of what working with WD My Cloud EX2 and EX4 looks like: http://wdnasdemo.com/

I would suggest using RAID10 on the My Cloud EX4 at your home for both redundancy and speed, using RAID1 in the My Cloud EX2 for a more redundant off-site backup and creating a continuous backup between the two NASes. I would eat up a huge part of your internet connection, but your data will be very safe.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)

Captain_WD.

Thank you very much!

The reason I would like to have a setup like this is, as you suggested, to have all my data safe. And, at the same time I would have all my data available trough the WD iPhone app. (To get something close to the "Dropbox experience", but without having to pay a ton for it monthly and leaving all of my personal data to someone else.) ;D

RAID10 would definitely be the better solution on the EX4, but the reason I was thinking about RAID0 on the EX2 was because then if I have for instance 6TB saved on the EX4, it would be enough storage on the EX2 for a remote backup. (Since RAID1 would leave me with "just" 4TB on the EX2)

As for data speed, wouldn't it only be noticeable when I transfer new files to the NAS? Or is it continuously checking back and fourth?

I was also wondering if you know how much noise the EX4 would make for instance trough a night when no new files are added. Do the disks spin down to a full stop?

...

 

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Thank you very much!

The reason I would like to have a setup like this is, as you suggested, to have all my data safe. And, at the same time I would have all my data available trough the WD iPhone app. (To get something close to the "Dropbox experience", but without having to pay a ton for it monthly and leaving all of my personal data to someone else.) ;D

RAID10 would definitely be the better solution on the EX4, but the reason I was thinking about RAID0 on the EX2 was because then if I have for instance 6TB saved on the EX4, it would be enough storage on the EX2 for a remote backup. (Since RAID1 would leave me with "just" 4TB on the EX2)

As for data speed, wouldn't it only be noticeable when I transfer new files to the NAS? Or is it continuously checking back and fourth?

I was also wondering if you know how much noise the EX4 would make for instance trough a night when no new files are added. Do the disks spin down to a full stop?

 

 

You can access the data on both NASes via your application. The general idea of a personal cloud is to have such an experience without worrying where your data is stored and without paying monthly fees. :)
 
The potential problem with RAID0 is that it offers absolutely no redundancy at all and in case a drive fails, you would lose all data on that NAS. Even with a full backup on the other NAS, you would still have to erase the healthy drive, reconfigure the NAS, rebuild the RAID array and restore the data over the network which could take days to complete. You could also check the JBOD option on the EX2. The RAID0 speeds on it wouldn't match the network speed that you will be using to transfer data to it, so it would be pointless when it comes to work over the internet. JBOD gives you the full capacity of both drives and they work indpendantly (even if one of them fails, you have all your files on the second one).
 
If you are doing a continuous backup, data flows always when you make a change on the EX4 as it needs to be written/adjusted on the EX2.
 
The NAS shouldn't make much noise as it indeed spins the drive down after some time of inactivity. You can check this and other features here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1170
 
 
Captain_WD.
Edited by Captain_WD

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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You can access the data on both NASes via your application. The general idea of a personal cloud is to have such an experience without worrying where your data is stored and without paying monthly fees. :)
 
The potential problem with RAID0 is that it offers absolutely no redundancy at all and in case a drive fails, you would lose all data on that NAS. Even with a full backup on the other NAS, you would still have to erase the healthy drive, reconfigure the NAS, rebuild the RAID array and restore the data over the network which could take days to complete. You could also check the JBOD option on the EX2. The RAID0 speeds on it wouldn't match the network speed that you will be using to transfer data to it, so it would be pointless when it comes to work over the internet. JBOD gives you the full capacity of both drives and they work indpendantly (even if one of them fails, you have all your files on the second one).
 
If you are doing a continuous backup, data flows always when you make a change on the EX4 as it needs to be written/adjusted on the EX2.
 
The NAS shouldn't make much noise as it indeed spins the drive down after some time of inactivity. You can check this and other features here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=nbECEF 
 
Captain_WD.

 

 

Thanks again! :)

 

(and btw, the link doesn't work, I only get a runtime error) 

...

 

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Thanks again! :)

 

(and btw, the link doesn't work, I only get a runtime error) 

 

You are welcome! 

Fixed the link :)

 

Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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