Looking for a NAS, advice please


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We are going to upgrade all of our systems, and our network, and really want to add a physical NAS, instead of USB attached hard drives to the router. I need some advise as to what to look for and what brand(s) are the best. @BudMan I need your help here! :D

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8 hours ago, Circaflex said:

Do you want a prebuilt unit, or something you piece together?

Either way, I don't have a preference.

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This is work right?  That to me rules out DIY anything to be honest..

 

I am happy with my DS918+ from synology... But then QNAP makes some good stuff too - I was torn between the 2.. Went with synology because 2 other guys at work run them at home.. 1 thing would of kind of wish I did was was getting 1 that could add 10ge too.. But Currently rocking smb3 multichannel and seeing 200+MBps transfer from pc to nas.. using the 2 gig connection in the nas and 2 on the pc...

 

What kind budget you thinking, what sort of storage do you need.. Any other features?  I run some Vms on mine - which is very handy.. And the packages are great, plex running on mine - and docker makes it easy to add stuff as well.

 

Really comes down to budget and what you actually want..  I got a 4 bay... And kind of wish would of gone with something with more bays..  But currently sport 12TB in 3xRaid 0 and then 8TB in the other bay.. So 20TB is lot of freaking space ;)  I had started with SHR array, but didn't have need for what I store on it - just media for plex, etc.. When I get to where running out of space either delete some old media out of the library.  Change over to HEVC the bigger files, or just switch out the arrary for bigger disks..

 

Happy to walk you though making the choice.. Just need some details..

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OK, so I have currently 2 drives (USB) attached to the router that combined are 7 TB, but are limited to USB speeds. We are looking to use the NAS for storage and backup, and also a mini media server (some streaming). As for budget, we do not know, but we are able to invest in a good NAS. We have 3 desktops that will be using the drives.

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Are you looking to leverage the current drives and their data - or new drives and then move/copy the data over to the nas.  What do you currently do for backup?  While you can backup your data to different disk/array in the nas - this is not a very good idea in general since what if the nas catches fire, or stolen even?

 

Or are you talking about user of some PC will backup their files to the nas, and also have them local to the PC.. And then there will be files on the nas that are shared by all, etc.  Have you thought of off site backup.. Glacier, Backblaze, etc.  What kind of internet connection do you have?  How fast?

 

Your 7TB is how full currently?  How did you get to 7TB.. Is this like a 4 and a 3?

 

To your media server - so you want to run say like plex on it?  What sort of file storage will you be using say in a couple of years.. What size of files to you move back and forth currently.. Are they LARGE.. Say in the Multi GB size.. What is your local network all wireless, 10/100, gig - 10ge? etc..

 

What OSes are your PCs running - Would you looking for central user management, like AD running on the nas via samba, etc..

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10/100/1000 network (soon, eta > 1 week ,https://www.amazon.com/Tri-band-AiProtection-Accelerator-Compatible-GT-AC5300/dp/B071DPCKQ6) 3 of the PC's are wired, one wireless laptop, plus 3 cell phones, file size: most files are ~2 GB, some may push 4 GB. We do not do video encoding. Most file access will be media files (music and video). Our ISP is Comcast, current speeds: http://speedtest.xfinity.com/results/JNRWSQM2YNBABQQ

We are paying for 150 Down /10 Up, and we have the most critical files stored in the cloud. The current drives are a 2TB iosafe drive, plus a 5TB. both drives are about 50% full. We are running Windows 10 X64 Pro on the desktops, home on the laptop. After some discussion we do not need a dedicated media server.

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OMG - you didn't get that did you??  What a WASTE... That what your buying for a work setup? 

 

Can you return that - and we can by something actually appropriate..

>one wireless laptop, plus 3 cell phones

Why would you need tri band monstrosity? 

 

How big is your office?  That is NOT a work device... That is a toy for someone that has too much money and no understanding of how any of works - and wants something shiny with marketing numbers on it, etc.  Does the thing even do vlans on the ports... You know you can get a 8 port gig switch that does vlans for like $50...  Then say a real firewall/router and then AP.. or multiple..

 

###### my 24 port fully managed gig switch cisco sg300 was less than half the cost of that nonsense..  You could get a sg3100 for your firewall router that has 2 router interfaces and 4 port gig switch at oonly $350..

 

Do you actually want help or you want someone to point you at the shiny thing?  And in the case of that the most UGLY thing...

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8 minutes ago, BudMan said:

OMG - you didn't get that did you??  What a WASTE... That what your buying for a work setup? 

 

Can you return that - and we can by something actually appropriate..

>one wireless laptop, plus 3 cell phones

Why would you need tri band monstrosity? 

 

How big is your office?  That is NOT a work device... That is a toy for someone that has too much money and no understanding of how any of works - and wants something shiny with marketing numbers on it, etc.  Does the thing even do vlans on the ports... You know you can get a 8 port gig switch that does vlans for like $50...  Then say a real firewall/router and then AP.. or multiple..

 

###### my 24 port fully managed gig switch cisco sg300 was less than half the cost of that nonsense..  You could get a sg3100 for your firewall router that has 2 router interfaces and 4 port gig switch at oonly $350..

 

Do you actually want help or you want someone to point you at the shiny thing?  And in the case of that the most UGLY thing...

No I did not order that router, I was thinking about it at first, but decided against it. What would you recommend for a decent router?

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So you could do something like

 

USG $110

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Security-Gateway-USG/dp/B00LV8YZLK

 

us-8-60 POE 8 port gig switch - smart does vlans, etc. etc.. $110

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Switch-60W-US-8-60W/dp/B01MU3WUX1

 

UAP-NanoHD-US $163

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Compact-802-11ac-Enterprise-UAP-NanoHD-US/dp/B07DWW3P6K

 

For like same PRICE as that nonsense...   You could be under it for sure if you didn't go with the nanoHD accesspoint and say the lite AC ($80)..  But something like that is what I would suggest for a small business setup.  Allow you to expand with more AP, does firewall can do dpi and reports on what bandwidth being used, etc. etc.  Easy to manage.. And that little usg can for sure push way more than what your doing now if need be... It was pushing 500Mbps when I got one to play with..  Until my sg-4860 came in.  Now it sits on the shelf..

 

Get a decent NAS with room for growth, you can run your unifi control on the nas even..  Be a rocking little office setup for small budget.  Now if you have more money to play with?

 

As to the NAS... I would say 4 bay min to be honest.. Allows you to grow.. Throw in say 2x8TB to start.. And you can add more 8TB to it if need be for a total of 24TB in a SHR array..   Might want to wait until the new models of synology drop... New 5 bay DS1019+ might be good choice..   But comes down to budget... With your 7TB currently only 50%. you could get by with say a 2BAY... But leaves no room to grow, etc.  4Bay with 2x8TB or 10 or 12s give you your current space..  And ability to add 2 more drives, etc.

 

IF you can spend more money - then we go with way better stuff... But prob not really needed.  The above would get you all the features you would really need for a small office.. 

 

If you need to shave a few bucks.. I would get the 4Bay with only 1 8 or 10TB disk.. Since you could then move your data there.. And expand it as you have money or need space, etc.

 

 

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Swooping in w/ my requisite Synology recommendation...

 

Are you looking for a rack mount unit or a desktop unit? We have several rack mount units here at work, and theyve been amazing over the years.

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Not sure where the OP went??  If he was looking at that whatever it was for a router/AP I doubt he cares if it rack mounts ;) hehehe

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I ended up grabbing a dual bay synolgy from Newegg, and figured it would be good enough for what we need. I am also going to grab a new router as well, still shopping for it.

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3 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

I ended up grabbing a dual bay synolgy from Newegg, and figured it would be good enough for what we need. I am also going to grab a new router as well, still shopping for it.

I'd recommend purchasing a gigabit router along with an access point, or two if the budget allows for it. That way you can easily add additional access points as you need, upgrade to the new wireless standard when something is released, etc. If you are on a limited budget, I'd recommend the edgerouter-x and an ac-ap-pro. Those two are still under the price of the ASUS from earlier. Beware, the ER-X isn't just plug and play, however they have new utilities that make setup much easier now. If you have fiber internet, or plan to get it, I would go with a router one class above the ER-X, Ubiquiti has many solutions. I've heard good things about their MESH devices as well, however I don't have personal experience with them, but that is another option for you.

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We have no need for any AP's, we have a small mobile home, and we can easily get WiFi signal in the back of the house. I ended up getting a Linksys Max-Stream AC2200 MU-MIMO Tri-band Wireless Router, it seems to be the best choice in the router field.

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On 10/27/2018 at 3:56 PM, jnelsoninjax said:

one wireless laptop, plus 3 cell phones

So you got a TRI band router... You each going to use your own band for the 3 devices?

 

A dual bay does not really allow for expansion.... 4 Bay would of been better choice if you ask me.. If you wanted an all in 1 device.. Prob would of went with something like the synology RT1900ac - it runs their SRM product that provides DPI for application based qos and IDS... etc etc. Content control - monitoring of bandwidth usage, etc..  and would tie in nice if you got a synology nas that runs basically the same OS they just call it DSM..  $99 on amazon.  Can do dual wan for failover, vpn access, etc..

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18 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

We have no need for any AP's,

That makes zero sense. The AP is what provides the WIFI signal, if you go with a quality router that doesnt have wifi, adding the AP is what gives you wireless.

18 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

I ended up getting a Linksys Max-Stream AC2200 MU-MIMO Tri-band Wireless Router, it seems to be the best choice in the router field.

That thing is hideous and for the price, you couldve done much better but it seems you have your mind set.

 

 

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this is a strange topic - asking specific (obviously quite knowledgeable) person for advice, then doing just the opposite of what he suggested.

 

Also usb3 ports on routers tend to interfere with 2.4Ghz

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billy: hey bob you work with widgets right?

bob: yup been working with widgets for 30 some years.

billy: Great I need one that does abc and cost around x can you help me out

bob: Sure the red one does abc+xyz and cost only about 3/4 of x

billy: Thanks I went with the blue one that doesn't do abc or xyz, it does Q only and cost 3x...

bob: <rolleyes>

 

ROFL!!

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