Server/NAS Suggestions

[bobo0246]

Hello everybody!

I do a lot of video/photo editing and have terabytes of videos and i was thinking of building a NAS/Server to hold all my data. Therefore, what software/operating system would you recommend? and what do you think my plan of attack should be? I don't want to spend over $1000, but i am flexible up to that price point.

[Electronics Wizardy]

This is what id get https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ

 

Its cheaper than most prebuilts, lower power, smaller, quieter than most. 

[Rohime]

20 minutes ago, bobo0246 said:

Hello everybody!

I do a lot of video/photo editing and have terabytes of videos and i was thinking of building a NAS/Server to hold all my data. Therefore, what software/operating system would you recommend? and what do you think my plan of attack should be? I don't want to spend over $1000, but i am flexible up to that price point.

Need more information to really answer the question ... key questions are

1 - what level of I/O performance do you need?

2 - what is your backup / recovery strategy for the data itself?

 

If you are just using the NAS as the single repository of all data that you've used before (ie: you have the data on the PC while you edit it, and you only want to store the stuff somewhere accessible for later) then the NAS Appliance (as @Electronics Wizardy suggests above) are a great choice.

- BUT remember you might want two of them, in different locations (buildings) for backup/recovery purposes.

 

Alternatively if you are using the NAS as the main file share and do all editing and rendering to/from the NAS, then the above is probably two slow.

 

Can you give us some idea of your workflow?

[GDRRiley]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wrH33F 12tb of storage if you use a raid 5 or 8 if you use a raid 10

 

[bobo0246]

1 minute ago, Rohime said:

Need more information to really answer the question ... key questions are

1 - what level of I/O performance do you need?

2 - what is your backup / recovery strategy for the data itself?

 

If you are just using the NAS as the single repository of all data that you've used before (ie: you have the data on the PC while you edit it, and you only want to store the stuff somewhere accessible for later) then the NAS Appliance (as @Electronics Wizardy suggests above) are a great choice.

- BUT remember you might want two of them, in different locations (buildings) for backup/recovery purposes.

 

Alternatively if you are using the NAS as the main file share and do all editing and rendering to/from the NAS, then the above is probably two slow.

 

Can you give us some idea of your workflow?

Currently i have all the files that i am editing/using on my computer and then transferring old files to portable hard drives. My main goal is to have all the files on the NAS when i edit them and just access them over the network. And i currently can't afford an offsite or a second location for the files, so this one unit would house the only copies of the files so i definitely would want redundancy within the unit.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, bobo0246 said:

, so this one unit would house the only copies of the files so i definitely would want redundancy within the unit.

You need a backup. Redundancy won't help at all. What if you delete a file?

What if you get a crypto locker? What if the unit craps all over its self and you lose your data.

 

Id edit the data on the local drive in your system, then copy it to the nas when your done, the nas will be a good amount slower than a internal hdd, 

[GDRRiley]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QQV4JV slight change went with a dual 1g network board 

[Rohime]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You need a backup. Redundancy won't help at all. What if you delete a file?

What if you get a crypto locker? What if the unit craps all over its self and you lose your data.

 

Id edit the data on the local drive in your system, then copy it to the nas when your done, the nas will be a good amount slower than a internal hdd, 

Agree... +1

 

For the price point you are looking for, recommended workflow would be

1 - internal disks in your working PC.   Do all your editing / rendering inside the PC with high performance disk.

2 - use a NAS as the 'archive' of all content (and backup of the PC).   MOVE stuff here when you are done with it.

3 - get a second NAS of some type as backup, ideally off-site.   Cheaper (instead of second NAS) this can be a high capacity external disk enclosure instead (like re-use your current external disk enclosures) to act as backup disk.    Cycle the backups offsite (like to parents / grandparents house or something).

 

My config (for similar purposes)

1 x PC with internal RAID0 (performance) and RAID1 (for safety) - does all the working stuff.

1 x QNAP TS509 Pro with 5 x 2TB in RAID5 (8TB effective) connected via Gigabit ethernet - the NAS archive.

2 x NexStar MX 2 bay enclosure - 2 x 4TB each in JBOD config.   8TB effective each -  2 x Backups.

            These are the backups of the NAS, and i cycle them week about with my brothers (off-site).

            connected via eSATA they are pretty fast to re-sync as a backup.

 

 

[Dark]

Or you can just get two appliance NAS devices and run RTRR between them (which is what I do).  No hassle of swapping disks around and the remote files are easily accessed whenever/wherever I need them. 

 

Specs are in my sig but you can get away with a TS-415 as a primary unit.

 

I no longer run a raid array on my desktop, I just use crash plan which copies my data to a network share (located on my local TVS-EC880, which has a resundant array and is also on an UPS) and from there an RTRR job copies data to my off site TS-415+.

 

I share out crashplan to family so that they are all backed up to the same media. 

[transposedmessenger]

Oh and if you get gigabit ethernet make sure you don't get bottlenecked by your router. I of course am going to vote for build your own so you can save files and retrieve them quickly and easily.