Synology Inc. DS1512+

[coffee]

I have a client that wants to get off the cloud and do some local storage of documents that are scanned. They will also be backing up about 3/4 computers. Right now they are dropping about 600 bucks on mozy backup. I have to deliver a qoute to them and am considering something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...c=EMCPB-082012-_-PB081112-_-Item-_-22-108-112

They are very interested in expandability and this will be their first onsite storage unit. What do you think?

coffee

 

[drpcfix]

That thing will be great, we use the 411j all the time and backup 35 computers to one with 4x 2TB drives with no space concerns.. It'll move files pretty quick

 

[coffee]

Great to hear that! I hope my customer goes for it. It will be pretty fun to play with before taking it out to them!

BTW -- What drives did you go with? I was thinking seagate barracuddas. (?).

 

[Magic Miguel]

Can't go wrong with Synology.

 

[Martyn]

Great to hear that! I hope my customer goes for it. It will be pretty fun to play with before taking it out to them!

BTW -- What drives did you go with? I was thinking seagate barracuddas. (?).

They have a list of recommended hard drives that have no problems. I went with a couple of Seagates on my last Synology install.

 

[OzzyGeek]

They have a list of recommended hard drives that have no problems. I went with a couple of Seagates on my last Synology install.

Get Western Digital Red drives.

 

[coffee]

What are the WD red drives? Im kinda suspicious about them. I see also alot of the seagates (like from newegg) have 1 year warranties. My opinion is that if the drive only has a 1 year warranty then you are throwing your money away.

Thanks for all the comments everyone sofar.

 

[drpcfix]

Get the cheapest drives possible, you will have failures no matter how big the warranty

If a drive lasts 6 months, it'll probably last 3 years IMO

 

[coffee]

Get the cheapest drives possible, you will have failures no matter how big the warranty

If a drive lasts 6 months, it'll probably last 3 years IMO

The problem with that is that when the drives die prematurely it is kinda a reflection on you from the customers eyes. Also if you have drives dying all the time it ads to the cost of ownership (generates a service call and time to sync drives ect...) -- Just my opinion.

My Raid5 setup has 4 seagate 320 giggers in it and has been running strong for six years. But it seems the newer larger drives just dont last that long.

 

[Maniaman]

I have a 2 bay Synology NAS at my office and love it. The web interface is one of the best I've seen.

As for drives, WD Red drives are designed for NAS use, but they're also pretty new so I'm not sure about the stability. I used 2 1TB Samsung Spinpoint drives in mine, I know a lot of people also recommend WD Black drives. I've been told to avoid WD Green drives as theres a setting in the firmware that will make them drop out of RAID arrays.

While failures will certainly happen, you want to go with a more reliable drive. One of the most stressful times on a RAID array is the rebuilding process, you definitely don't want to lose another disk in the middle of a rebuild.

Also, always remember: RAID is not a backup

 

[coffee]

Alright, I do have another question about the NAS boxes. Is it possible to hook up a tape drive to them (external possibly) so that I can backup the raid for offsite storage?

Has anyone done this and tape drive recommendation would be nice.

Otherwise, How do you handle offsite storage?
^^^^ Im asking this because the client wants to have offsite backups plus the NAS. My experience with NAS is natta. I was just figuring a tape drive but they are pretty hefty in price. Any other ideas - feel free to share!

 

[Vicenarian]

Didn't read the entire thread, but here's my opinion:


When it comes to NAS devices for business, I'll ONLY use WD RE4s unless the customer's budget is really, really low. Fantastic drives. 5 Year warranty, great performance, just awesome overall. Yes, they cost a bit more, but they're worth it.

Regarding offsite storage, some NAS devices have cloud-based backup functionality built in, that allows you to use something like Amazon S3 or KeepVault, etc.

Most NAS also allow you to use an external USB hard drive as an offsite backup (and schedule it), which in my option, is WAY better than tape

 

[coffee]

Didn't read the entire thread, but here's my opinion:


When it comes to NAS devices for business, I'll ONLY use WD RE4s unless the customer's budget is really, really low. Fantastic drives. 5 Year warranty, great performance, just awesome overall. Yes, they cost a bit more, but they're worth it.

Regarding offsite storage, some NAS devices have cloud-based backup functionality built in, that allows you to use something like Amazon S3 or KeepVault, etc.

Most NAS also allow you to use an external USB hard drive as an offsite backup (and schedule it), which in my option, is WAY better than tape

Thank you very much for the info. I m going to check into the WD drives you mentioned. Im probably worrying too much over this but its my first nas box install and plan on getting it right the first time. Im going to order it in ahead of time to play around with it and learn it very well. Then install at customer site.

Overall, I look at it as alot of fun. Just think - They pay me to have fun! I like that! Anyways...

Thank you very much. I will probably go with the external hard drive for offsite storage.

Best Regards,

coffee

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Newegg has a promo on the Synology DS1512+ right now if you haven't purchased it yet. Looks like around $120 off. Scroll down to the peripherals section.

 

[coffee]

Thanks everyone for your input!

I delivered my quote today and elected to use the "Synology DS411 Diskless System 4-bay NAS Server for Workgroups and Offices"

With the addition of an external drive for backing up the raid data.

Im also using seagate drives (2tb) each. One setup as hotspare another as external.

If I havent said it enough already, Thank you all for your input and suggestions! This is gonna be a fun project!

Best Regards,

coffee

 

[Martyn]

Enjoy .................

 

[coffee]

Most NAS also allow you to use an external USB hard drive as an offsite backup (and schedule it), which in my option, is WAY better than tape

I like the idea of using an external drive for offsite backups. However, My customer seems to be stuck on wanting a tape drive. I really have never liked tape drives because they have so many problems.

I did call Synology and asked tech support if their units supported an external tape drive with USB. I must have gotten the wrong guy as he basically said " I dont know".

I really want this deal to go thru but I think its in trouble because of the customer being stuck on a tape drive. Thought about taking a tape drive and hooking it up to her computer and let her backup the raid from there across the network. However, Seems a bit clunky of an idea.

coffee

 

[Martyn]

The one I set up recently had a raid 1(2 x 1TB HD) with a usb hard drive for taking away along with an Amazon S3 cloud solution. Ironically I went to another business yesterday and recomended it this morning and they declined on cost(they have no backup atm). 10 minutes ago they rang me that one of their computers isn't detecting the hard drive and they have no backup, just on my way now

 

[coffee]

The one I set up recently had a raid 1(2 x 1TB HD) with a usb hard drive for taking away along with an Amazon S3 cloud solution. Ironically I went to another business yesterday and recomended it this morning and they declined on cost(they have no backup atm). 10 minutes ago they rang me that one of their computers isn't detecting the hard drive and they have no backup, just on my way now

Doesnt that seem like the norm for businesses lately?

Had one business that lost a raid and had to rebuild it. Their backups where on 5 year old tapes. They used the old DEC TLZ06 drives to boot. They kept complaining that the TLZ drives we got them would quit working. But the actual problem was that the magnetic tape was coming off and clogging the tape heads in the drive.

So if you use an external drive for remote storage what do you do if the customer passes 4tb of storage? Multiple external drives?

 

[Vicenarian]

Doesnt that seem like the norm for businesses lately?

Had one business that lost a raid and had to rebuild it. Their backups where on 5 year old tapes. They used the old DEC TLZ06 drives to boot. They kept complaining that the TLZ drives we got them would quit working. But the actual problem was that the magnetic tape was coming off and clogging the tape heads in the drive.

So if you use an external drive for remote storage what do you do if the customer passes 4tb of storage? Multiple external drives?

you can buy multi-bay external storage units. Drobo makes some (expensive) ones that have USB, firewire, etc. but a lot of other companies make them too. Drop a few drives in there, and voila.