What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Have not been on Hexus forum for a while ...
:rolleyes:
My current "backup setup" is not really working.
Till now we had two key PCs with two dedicated backup HDs.
It had some sense but, as you can imagine, we were not very strict with backup schedule.
Of course it is all fine until ... something happens. And it happened ...
:surprised:
Now we have 3 PCs and ... some lessons learnt hard way ...
Going forward I aim to put in place a better system.
What I got in mind is NAS.
Assumptions :
3 PCs = 2 laptops + 1 tower, total max available HD capacity of all systems c. 2T
Main task for NAS would be to handle regular backups + potentially media storage with DLNA functionality.
NAS hardwired to gigabit WiFi router.
I am not sure what RAID config should be required / optimal.
Possibly a mix of 0 and 1 across 4 drives or is RAID 0 an over kill for home NAS use ?
Then 2 HDs in RAID 1 config, I suppose.
I need some advice re: key questions ...
Which NAS device / manufacturer would you recommend ?
As you can imagine I am looking for a best value for money product.
I do not want to spend ££££s on it but I want a reliable, well performing, easy to use solution.
From what I have read so far opinions are mixed but it seems products from Buffalo and, especially, Synology are generally preferred.
While I used Seagate and WD HDs in the past (and seem to trust WD more than Seagate which failed first and quite early) then WD's NAS products tend to be accused for failing quite often.
I understand the NAS enclosures tend to come without disks so ... What sort of HDs should I load into them ? WDs Scorpio Black or something of similar quality ? Or is it a usual gamble so I just go for something reasonably priced ?
I want to configure automatic backups over the network.
Should I use dedicated software to run backups or would Windows process suffice ? Two PCs still run XP while one is on Windows 7. On one of them I have CMS Backup software (now upgraded) that originally came with one of the external drives. I have mixed opinion about this software as it occassionally stops working while backing up key C: drive (via FireWire).
Then I thought I could use current backup HDs for "system backups" that do not need to be so frequent. Does it make sense ?
I will appreciate your views.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
I'm considering the same thing at the moment, and I think I've settled on an HP Microserver (~£120 after cashback).
It's a bit bigger than most NASs (having 4 bays) but seems to be much more flexible (and without being dependent on a particular vendors closed OS). It would also allow for other functionality at a later date - I'm initially hoping to use it for backups and media server, but may stick a DVB tuner card in it at a later date as well.
Downsides are that it slightly more expensive (but not that much), and will require a bit of effort to setup.
If you are planning on using RAID to achieve 2T+ of storage, the bulk of your cost is likely to be on the HDDs anyway.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
n40L Microserver.
Why buy an underfeatured NAS when you can have a full blown low power PC? It's a fantastic bit of kit, wonderfully packaged and actually good enough to use for a whole range of things. Love mine.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
I'd buy a couple of 3TB disks and stick them in the microserver, put them on RAID1 via hardware then use FreeNAS/Openfiler/Windows/WHS/Server 200*.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Bin the lot (or ebay it)
Pay for cloud backup, e.g. crashplan, which has no space limit.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
directhex
Bin the lot (or ebay it)
Pay for cloud backup, e.g. crashplan, which has no space limit.
I agree. JBOD for media (which can be easilly replaced with a bit of time) and a cloud-bases service (of which I'd be buying Crashplan, if I didn't have a two year deal elsewhere already) for all sensitive personal data is the ticket!
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rmaciag
I will appreciate your views.
Thank you all for your valuable replies.
Excellent food for thought.
I just need to digest it.
:)
Since my opening post I had a closer look at Synology products so I think I know much more now about what NAS solution has on offer and for how much ...
As it stands I cannot justify building RAID 0 or 5 solution as speeds achieved by RAID1 config could be more than sufficient for our low end use.
Therefore I cannot justify buying 4 bay expensive models and something like DS212+ looks like the best (still expensive) option.
What I need to check in detail is how much space I will really need. Max that I could put together as RAID 1 would be 3TB (2x 3TB HDDs) and it will not be cheap (c. 220-280 depending on what HDDs I buy and from where).
HP microserver looks like a bargain. I agree.
Immediately I see some pros and cons vs NAS like Synology.
PROS
- yes, full flexibility
- good price for the base hardware
- 4 bays
CONS
- needs HDDs as any other empty NAS case
- no OS so I will need to get hold of one, somehow
- full responsibility for server configuration on my shoulders but these days I just do not have enough spare time to do so (where do I plug the monitor to it :surprised: )
Crashplan etc
Looks good.
That will suite a household with a large bandwidth internet connection, I suppose.
I do not have one.
Price wise, OK, the cost is nicely spread vs up front expense on NAS or server.
You pay, but like with other services these days - just to point at iTunes, you do not actually own anything. The service is available today but it might be gone tomorrow. At least theoretically. This is more of a psychological barrier than anything else, I guess. I need to deal with it somehow.
One drawback I see is that while this solution addresses the key backup requirement then it does not really offer nice-to-haves like media centre ... unless your internet connection can handle that ...
Anyway this is a good starting point for me for further exploration.
Today my main concern is the cost of replacing LCD in my daughter's XPS 15Z.
:eek:
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
My N40L has no keyboard, monitor or mouse. Why would it? Once it's setup it lives in a cupboard and I remote control it from another PC, my phone or my tablet. Remote Desktop, Teamviewer. Multiple solutions.
Cloud backup.. oh please.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Agreed. But I'm not planning to put 2TB into the cloud any time soon.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dangel
My N40L has no keyboard, monitor or mouse. Why would it? Once it's setup it lives in a cupboard and I remote control it from another PC, my phone or my tablet. Remote Desktop, Teamviewer. Multiple solutions.
In "established state" surely it can quietly live somewhere under my desk ...
:rolleyes:
What worries me is how to get it to that state. Without a keyboard, without any display ?
:crazy:
I just feel I lack the necessary experience to set up the thing. On other hand that could be an interesting adventure for me.
I had a quick look at suggested FreeNAS. OK, so I have an option of a free OS. Excellent. I located some documentation and installation instructions. OK, it sounds fine. I should be able to cope with it if I have sufficient spare time.
As the key deliverable of the project would be a backup solution then ... do you know, guys, what sort of backup software would be required to run under FreeNAS ? Or is there functionality like that built into FreeNAS from the start ? Commercial products tend to have this functionality effectivelly built-in by default as it is one of their key selling points.
OK, I understand that rather than asking questions here I should really first read and then ask any questions on dedicated forums like FreeNAS one.
However at this initial stage I just need a high level picture of what will be required from me in terms of money and time to set up a working backup system based on HP microserver / FreeNAS (for example). Of course, if I go for out-of-the-shelf NAS system then all components (except HDDs, may be) are all in place ready for set up and also they are tested to be working more or less correctly in most common configurations.
With N40L I will have to, more or less, guess what components, in terms of both hardware and software, I may need.
Could you direct me to any site that actually describes how such a N40L-based NAS can be built and configured ? If I can convince myself that N40L NAS project is within my reach then, well, i may opt for it. Otherwise I will stick to one of the Synology (or similar) products.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rmaciag
In "established state" surely it can quietly live somewhere under my desk ...
:rolleyes:
What worries me is how to get it to that state. Without a keyboard, without any display ?
:crazy:
You hook it up to configure it to the point where remote control is possible then after, it's not necessary. Assuming you have another PC then you probably have a keyboard, monitor and mouse you could borrow for an hour? There's stacks of N40L info on the web (AVForums has plenty) and you've a choice of any OS (even free ones). They're very popular.
The N40L arrives as a complete working PC - it already has a hard disk, memory, graphics, cpu etc. You only need fill it with drives and setup an OS of your choosing.
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dangel
...
The N40L arrives as a complete working PC - it already has a hard disk, memory, graphics, cpu etc. You only need fill it with drives and setup an OS of your choosing.
Thanks.
I download all sorts of documents today, started to read all this stuff and it is becoming all clear now ...
I can hook up my monioor etc to perform setup and once the box is running just leave it like that and access it remotely.
It all starts to make sense.
What I read is that the AMD chipset supports RAID 0 and 1. FreeNAS documentation recommends to use its own software level RAID solution over what the chipset ("hardware") has on offer.
What I had in mind initially is something like RAID10 as the N40L has 4 bays available.
What I like about FreeNAS is that it can reside on a USB stick and the N40L seems to have internal USB port.
Can N40L be configured into RAID 10 with 4 HDDs ?
I am also looking at Windows Home Server 2011 OS.
Has anybody installed that on N40L ?
All I see are 64 bit versions for about 30-40 quid (OEM) and I cannot figure out (yet) if they are compatible with N40L.
HP site only states "Tested". Hmmm ...
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
WHS installs are quite common on it - from what i've read anyway. It's possible to fit more than four drives too seeing as it as an internal SATA port for the CDROM (which can be re-purposed with a custom bios) as well as an e-SATA port on the back (which some have looped back into the case). I just stuck Win 7 on mine but then I had the licence anyway and all i'm using it for (so far) is just to share the drives onto the network for other PCs.
Get reading, have fun!
Re: What optimal home backup setup ? NAS ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
directhex
Bin the lot (or ebay it)
Pay for cloud backup, e.g. crashplan, which has no space limit.
Cloud backup, is this your files and not the OS image itself?