Suggest a NAS setup for backup?

[Tazz 316]

I've been looking at a NAS by synology for my PC back up. I have 4 PC's that would need to use it just for file access. I only have about 1TB of files to backup MP3, Photos, Videos etc

 

I'm not sure what RAID type i should use, i want more than 1 hard drive back up as i have photos from 20 years ago that can't be replaced.

 

Any suggestions? or is a NAS the wrong idea.

 

My current backup is all manuel, i have around 8 hard drives and SSD drives that i simply dock and put the data i want to keep on them then i put a post it note with the date on it and store them in a fire proof safe. 

[Mmore]

Any NAS will do, make sure it has at least 2 bays so that you can insert two drives of the same size, say 2TB (or 3/4/6/8/10/12) each, and run them in "Raid 1" (mirrored). This way if either of the drives fail you can replace it without data loss. If you end up going with Synology and all you're interested in is network shared storage then the DS218play or DS218+ would be the model I can recommend. Synology have a tool on their website to help you pick a model for your use case. 

 

During setup you can choose either Synology's "Hybrid Raid" (SHR) technology or traditional Raid. I personally prefer the later since it will allow you to use the drivers in other, non-synology systems, but both will allow for 1 drive failure. More on this on the Synology website.

 

Also understand that Raid is not a backup, make sure you have a plan in case the entire system fails (think power surge, fire, theft). In business a "3-2-1" strategy is often recommend. 3 copies of your data on at least 2 mediums (different devices) and at least 1 off-site copy. So a viable strategy would be to have a copy of your data on your PCs, on the NAS and somewhere with a cloud provider or on a drive you keep off-site. Synology (and other NAS brands, too) have  tools to backup data on it to an off-site provider. 

[Tazz 316]

What about using SHR-2 and 4 drives? There site says i would have 2 HDD redundancy using it. I've never have had more than 1 hard drive fail at a time so maybe 1 HDD redundancy is enough? I can only see multiple hard drives failing if there was a fire, power surge, hardware fail etc

 

I also want a NAS to stream videos and maybe to try out it's VPN. Not sure how a VPN works on a NAS but i need a replacement VPN since my netgear routers firmware still uses MD5.

 

I would still store my photos on a SSD someplace else even if i did have a NAS. I will never use the cloud.

[geo3]

18 hours ago, Mmore said:

make sure it has at least 2 bays so that you can insert two drives of the same size, say 2TB (or 3/4/6/8/10/12) each, and run them in "Raid 1" (mirrored).

No, RAID with only 2 drives is a bad idea, he won't have any left over for a backup.

 

With only 2 drives you should run backup 1 to the other. Back up is important if you care at all about your data. RAID is not a backup. For safe data storage don't ever even think about RAID until you already have your backup planned out. When you have 3 or more drives RAID becomes feasible. 

[Allan.Oliveira]

Nice tip! Thank you

[Radium_Angel]

RAID 5, you can lose more drives that way and still be ok.

[Dark]

For roughly 1TB of data, I would recommend Amazon Drive.  Pictures are stored for free and 1TB is ~$60/yea.

 

Regarding RAID, you should always consider RAID6 over RAID5 due to the likely chance of losing another disk during a rebuild.

[DogKnight]

It sounds like your needs are fairly basic.

 

Synology systems have a great UI that is really easy to understand for those not experienced with NAS systems.

 

I would recommend going a 4 bay NAS to allow you more RAID choices. Even if it is their entry level model - https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS418j

 

As long as you aren't needing to transcode 4k media, this should do just fine. This happily plays back 1080p content over my network. 

I picked it up to play around with as I had some spare drives and wanted a new toy to put them in. So I am running 4 x 1TB drives in the unit. 

Streams media over DLNA just fine and supports a few different backup methods also. 

[Dark]

I don't see how backing up pictures and MP3s are worth $500 in hardware when there are simpler, cheaper, and safer solutions available.