Need help with NAS style settup.

[MrWazoo]

I need to have a way to have ~1/2 to 1 terrabyte of storage, preferably in raid ten hooked up to one computer, preferably with fast transfer speeds, and a way to connect that storage to another computer ina different location altogether. If anyone has any solutions or ideas they would be much appreciated, thanks.

[MrWazoo]

To clarify 1 computer will be sitting in the same room as the storage, the other computer will be Ina completely separate location 10 minutes away.

[Vitalius]

I need to have a way to have ~1/2 to 1 terrabyte of storage, preferably in raid ten hooked up to one computer, preferably with fast transfer speeds, and a way to connect that storage to another computer ina different location altogether. If anyone has any solutions or ideas they would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

Easy mode:

• Get WD Red 2TB Drives (4 of them). You'll end up with 4TB total storage and RAID 1 ofc with read speeds of ~150 MB/s (highly depends on drives & other hardware), and write speeds of ~120 MB/s (again, highly depends on a lot of variables).
• Download Amahi OS & Install on PC (the server) via USB or CD.
• Use Amahi's guides to set up RAID 10 environment with storage using mdadm (linux raid cmd line tool): https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Software_RAID
• Share out your files from the storage once they are on it via Samba or wtv you wish (NFS for Linux, and AFP for Apple).
• Download SoftEther VPN Server (https://www.softether.org/) and install on same server PC.
• Configure SoftEther to have a VirtualHub (the GUI is super informative and straightforward if you have any basic experience dealing with networks) and create a user to connect to the hub.
• Port forward on your router (Soft Ether has a guide for this on their website IIRC).
• Install Soft Ether VPN Client on the PC you wish to use to connect to the network remotely (i.e. your laptop, or you can use the VPN feature on most Android phone, IDK about Apple). Configure it accordingly with the settings you set for the user account for the Virtual Hub.
• Now you are connected to your local network remotely, as if you are actually local. Either use Samba, NFS, or AFP depending on OS type.

• Note your upload from home is most likely your bottleneck.

Expert mode:

• Get WD Red 2TB drives (4 of them).You'll end up with 4TB total storage and RAID 1 ofc with read speeds of ~300 MB/s (highly depends on drives & other hardware), and write speeds of ~150 MB/s (again, highly depends on a lot of variables).
• Have or get a PC with at least 8GB of RAM (if going full server, make sure it's ECC RAM, either unbuffered or buffered & registered, many lower tier consumer AMD CPUs support ECC for some undiscernible reason).
• Follow MG2R's guide on installing & setting up Debian NAS: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/6398-howto-create-your-own-linux-home-server-using-debian/
• Install ZFSOnLinux: http://zfsonlinux.org/ (there's a guide on that website, fairly simple)
• Configure ZFS using cmd line to have a zpool with striped, then mirrored drives (aka RAID 10).
• Mount said zpool on wtv location you prefer (/media/<nameofpool> is what I'd do personally).
• Share out said mounted point with wtv file system you prefer (Samba, NFS, or AFP), but do realize you need to install certain packages for that on Debian as Debian only supports NFS by default.
• Download and install SoftEther Linux VPN Server (look at link in Easy Mode).
• Use the guide on their website to configure it accordingly. May take some reading as it is command line (unless you install a windows manager/GUI on Debian Server). 
• Follow steps from the step 6 in easy mode onward. 

They may have a similar number of steps, but Expert mode summarizes a lot by linking to other guides.

Notes:

• I say easy vs expert modes, but these are the ways I'd choose to do this. There are easier and more expert-y ways. Just port forwarding your router after making a special share off your PC is doable.

   

• I chose WD Reds because, again, that's what I'd personally go with. I'd go with 4TB final storage space because: future growth (unless you just discount that, in which case, get 1TBs). WD Reds aren't the best. Just what I know, have used, and trust. Other brands can be just as good.

   

• If you are buying a NAS on your own, it will probably come with everything  you could possibly need to do this already. I know the Synapse DiskStation has a feature that lets you directly connect to it remotely built-in and free. It also has apps and such for managing drives. The one I used only had 2 drive slots tho.

  My guides are for people who custom do things, which I assume you to be one of them.

[MrWazoo]

also preferably low priced

[Vitalius]

also preferably low priced

Everything on my guides is free except the drives. If cost is a concern, you can get by with 4 of these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005T3GRNW

 

If you want a suggestion on a cheap-o NAS build, and don't already have a PC to hook them to, then I can do that too. Just ask, as I thought all you wanted was a way to connect remotely and a setup that would handle RAID 10 well in a NAS environment.

[braneopbru]

RAID 10 is an array of four disks; two in a stripe for speed and another two in a stripe mirroring the first two. Why are you looking for RAID 10 when you only need 500GB - 1TB ? That means you'd be running four 250GB - 500GB hard drives. Is that what you actually intended?

 

It's all fun and games trying to hack something together or build your own solution from scratch, but sometimes it's better to just buy something and have it work.

 

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108163&cm_re=ds214-_-22-108-163-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236342&cm_re=wd_red-_-22-236-344-_-Product

 

 

Buy an empty Synology NAS enclosure for $150 and two 1TB WD Red drives for $65 each and for a grand total of $280 you'll have 1 TB of redundant network attached storage that can be accessed either locally or from anywhere with internet access.

 

I don't own any Synology products, but from everything I've seen, their software is SUPER easy to use with a crap ton of awesome features.

 

Cheap, easy and good enough for most uses. You really can't go wrong.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there MrWazoo

 

Are you planning to expand that amount of storage? There are a few ways of doing that:

 

- @Vitalius gave you a really good suggestion and explanation so that would be one good option

- Having a standalone NAS at the place of one of the computers that is connected to the router, accessed through the internal network by one of the computers and over the internet by the other computer would be another solution. I could suggest checking out WD My Cloud Mirror. It has two drive bays and is pre-configured in RAID1 which gives you redundancy and keeps your data safe even if one drive fails. Here's a link with more info: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=499LgO

- Another thing that you can do is configure a shared folder across the internet from one computer to the other and put two NAS/RAID class drives in that computer, configure them in a Mirrored volume and you should be all set I can recommend using WD Red drives: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Le8s7k

 

Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions

 

Captain_WD.

[MrWazoo]

 

 

 

- Another thing that you can do is configure a shared folder across the internet from one computer to the other and put two NAS/RAID class drives in that computer, configure them in a Mirrored volume and you should be all set I can recommend using WD Red drives: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Le8s7k

 

Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions

 

Captain_WD.

 

First, off thank you all for the support, now for my questions. (Also yes I was planning on have four 250-500gb drives)

1- Would something like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BWPWXK?keywords=250gb%20drive&qid=1449637455&ref_=sr_1_5&sr=8-5 work as opposed to the WD Red drives (im on a verrry strict budget)

2. Regardless of which drives I get, is there a point in getting a RAID card for just a simple raid 10 array. How about a raid 1?

[MrWazoo]

Also Vitalius , thank you very much for the suggestion, the only problem i have is that I just realized I may not be able to use another pc as the server.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hello again You are most welcome! 

 

As a Western Digital representative I can't really recommend or comment on other brand's products. I could suggest reading some reviews and opinions on other products and thus get an idea if they are good or not. 

 

It is recommended to use NAS/RAID-class drives in such environments and in RAID arrays because these drives have additional features (such as TLER) that enable them to work safer and smoother as they are under more and a bit specific pressure from the workloads. Generally any drive would work but at a higher risk of data loss or drive failure. 

 

Hardware RAID is generally considered more stable and easier to manage but at a higher cost. For general home usage I would say that the built-in motherboard and OS RAID features are enough.  

 

Feel free to ask if you have further questions!

 

Captain_WD.

[Vitalius]

Also Vitalius , thank you very much for the suggestion, the only problem i have is that I just realized I may not be able to use another pc as the server.

Seagate drives have a much higher failure rate than Western Digital drives, based on Datacenter statistics. 

Note the little writing under HGST that says "a Western Digital company".