QOTW: Do you own a NAS device?

[fail_quail]

If i was living alone, i probably wouldn't bother or at least just have some sort of cheap NAS standalone HDD...

As it's a family house with me, my mum, my brother and his wife, that's three heavy computer users of us four.

Spent a lot getting the NAS to start with, but it's so useful and has easily made it's cost price back in usefulness over the years*, not just for backup but mainly for shared access. Having the family DVD/blu-ray collection in one place and shared for all is a big thing really

Hardware currently is a Thecus N0503 NAS (1.6ghz atom, (upgraded to)2GB RAM, and 3x3TB HDDs to give us 6TB of RAID5-backed storage.

*including the mainpoint of a NAS, suffering a complete drive failure without losing data or even uptime, ordered a new drive off ebay and it rebuilt the array over the following day...
(Also with third party mod modules, it runs apache and hosts a small internet website for sending files to friends/family)

[Millennium]

I have been watching youtube topics on this and it seems it's best to configure your own device with a DISKOS and unraid
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic...server/?page=2
I don't need any storag so I just backup my main SSD to 1 or 2 external drives. I recently sold a 4gb portable external for like £45. I shouldn't havent

[Rad77]

Yes. Synology ds213j with 2 x 3TB drives configured as RAID1.

Had this for about 5 years now and it has moved house with me. Sits in the lounge behind my TV, connected to my router and I have my PC (upstairs) connected via GbE.

Run multiple backup cycles from my PC to it (photos, music, boot drive image etc) which keep it pretty full. Also hosts all my ripped films (although this is less of a thing in these days of affordable streaming).

Don't have it configured for internet access as I don't need it and don't want the extra security headache.

The DS has a lot of useful features, that I never use, but the real draw is that it can spend 90% of it's time asleep and when it is awake it is fast (the HDD speeds are the bottleneck), uses very little power and is virtually inaudible.

[Dareos]

I've been using an old (well, now it is) hp microserver for what must be 8 years now. 3 drives accessible from anywhere on my network.

well that was the plan anyways, but due to various configuration problems with Server 2008 and the different versions of windows that I have on each machine, and the fact that my even older popcorn hour wont recognise it on the network without serious prodding and then forgets it ever saw it an hour later, and the security bottlenecks it causes when accessing it from within the network (never mind from outside the network) and.... you get the idea

I'm considering a NAS or just another, newer faster HP microserver but with FreeNAS or some other simplified setup. I only put 2008 on there to learn Active Directory anyways really.

[derek2032]

A QNAP with a pair of 2Tb drives set up as RAID1 [mirror].
Just use it to backup photos and music,nothing fancy, just a folder comparison software.
Used robocopy to start it all off!

[GotKevlaar]

I own a synolgy DS416+. I love it. I host plex on it and store all my music, movies and backups. I should have bought one years ago.

[konfliqt]

Transfer speed on the basic ones like a WD MyCloud are just silly, get like 1000kbs when trying to link a file to a friend (I have 950Mbps up and down). Seems like they redirect everything via a US website, not direct. And for a decent redundancy it gets pretty expensive for the decent brands

[WilliamsLAS]

I've had an ASUStor NAS for photo backup. It's very nice to view photo stored even away from home.

[DanceswithUnix]

I'm considering a NAS or just another, newer faster HP microserver but with FreeNAS or some other simplified setup. I only put 2008 on there to learn Active Directory anyways really.

Sounds like you learnt to avoid Windows Server

I have a Linux server which acts as my home NAS.

[atomicWAR]

I got tired of lack luster performance most affordable NAS tend to have, the limited storage they provide, limited expansion and limited software I can run. So I built a dedicated server for my storage needs. Currently running a i5 3570 with 16GB of ram and a old GTX 780 should I want to game stream to a portable device or free up my primary PC for my wife to use (or vice versa). Running a server also makes it easier and certainly faster to encode audio/video without tying up my primary PC's resources. And of course the biggest reason is disk capacity. While I recently threw out a large number of old HDDs do to wear, tear and smart failures, I typically have 8-12 HDD running. Using a NAS that can become a problem if you only purchased a 4 or even 8 drive set up. Yes I know many NAS have a usb port for expansion but I refuse to use USB in regards to hard drives. To many large file transfers fail in my experience and when your backing up a 24TB data set that already takes nearly 36 hours to transfer. Failure is not an option. So I'll take a PC, some addin cards when needed and some esata enclosures when my case runs out of room. Currently I can and have housed up to 16 HDDs though after cleaning house of smart failures, upgrading to denser disks I am down to just running 9 disks...for now >

[Ballantin]

I used to have (well I still have it, I just don't use it anymore) a Synology 2 disk basic model. It was underpowered, way to small and not what I needed. After a catastrophic data loss I put it aside, and relied in just more and bigger hard disks in my computer (eATX boards can use some disks). This was not a good solution either. Not enough disks to make an big enough Raid array, and single disks die sooner or later.

So I opted for a Qnap T659-Pro, it is an Intel based Nas, with 6 disk bays, unfortunately only upgradeable in Ram terms. So I popped in 5x4Tb Nas disks and 1x 256Gb SSD to act as cache, 16Gb of SO-DIMM ram, and I can't be happier.

True, it is not the most powerful server in the world, but it is almost silent, it is easy to manage, offers some interesting options (like link aggregate the 4x1Gb ethernet ports) and gives me peace of mind witht the Raid 5+1 solution. Also, maintenance is minimal.

I though about building a more powerful system myself. but the expense was even higher and I needed something already.

[Wolfclaw]

Nope, home brew 2016 server chugging away doing it all.

[Natalia]

Yep. it use for photo backup.

[cheesemp]

Yes but its in a cupboard. Tend to use cloud for most things. Might have to dig it out though as my HDD drives are beginning to die in my ageing PC so it would be nice to have more storage...

[petrucius]

Yes.
I own a SYNOLOGY DS1815+DX513 (13x4TB @ RAID 6) & a SYNOLOGY DS414 (4x3TB @ RAID 5).
I love them. I previously owned a DS414j, it was very good too.

[Dashers]

I've been using an old (well, now it is) hp microserver for what must be 8 years now. 3 drives accessible from anywhere on my network.

well that was the plan anyways, but due to various configuration problems with Server 2008 and the different versions of windows that I have on each machine, and the fact that my even older popcorn hour wont recognise it on the network without serious prodding and then forgets it ever saw it an hour later, and the security bottlenecks it causes when accessing it from within the network (never mind from outside the network) and.... you get the idea

I'm considering a NAS or just another, newer faster HP microserver but with FreeNAS or some other simplified setup. I only put 2008 on there to learn Active Directory anyways really.

Linux ftw. Takes a lot of the pain away, but introduces it's own pain if you're not used to it.