Moderator: E.J. Peiker

All times are UTC-05:00

  
« Previous topic | Next topic »  
Reply to topic  
 First unread post  | 10 posts | 
by bradmangas on Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:44 pm
User avatar
bradmangas
Forum Contributor
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Time to upgrade my image storage and backup. 

For the last 8 years or so I have implemented the JBOD scheme which I prefer. Always working with 3 hard drives. One as the main working drive which all images get uploaded to and what I work from. This drive is then backed up to my back up drives #1 and #2. The backups never stay connected to the computer but are stored in safe places. This is a manual process that I do monthly or whenever a considerable number of new images of importance are added.

I started out with 3ea. 500gb drives, then 3ea. 1tb, 3ea. 2tb, 3ea. 4tb drives. I now am needing to increase my storage once again.

I would really like to do this in a more efficient and more long-term manner. I don’t want to just purchase three 8 or 10tb drives. I am considering purchasing a NAS device, minimum 4 bay unit. My thought is I would then use my existing 3ea. 4tb drives, purchase a 4[sup]th[/sup] to fill the NAS device #1. I would then purchase a second NAS and populate it with 4ea. 4tb drives. The second NAS would be my actual backup unit. I would connect this monthly or whenever needed and back up the main NAS, the one I would be working from to this second unit. It would then be removed and stored in a safe place.

My consideration as of now is with a Synology DS918+ unit. This would be configured as a raid 5 device. I am not very knowledgeable on raid or the functionality of it. From what I have gathered so far, this 16tb NAS system configured as raid5 would give me 12tb of working storage. Is this correct? And can you backup one NAS to another identical NAS?

I would appreciate any real world experience anyone has had using such an image back up scenario, pros, and cons. I am not set on Synology but have read some good things about them and user-friendly software Synology uses. They also have something they call SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) which sounds like some type of proprietary setup, which I would avoid. So, any experience on NAS, in general, would also be appreciated.

For these last 8 years, I have used Syncback as my backup/clone software. If that has any bearing on anything.

Thanks for any advice.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:44 am
User avatar
E.J. Peiker
Senior Technical Editor
Posts: 86761
Joined: 16 Aug 2003
Location: Arizona
Member #:00002
Synology is a great way to go. You can generally configure them as RAID 5 or RAID 5+1, In RAID 5 you just add up all of the disk capacities and then subtract out one disk for your final storage amount. In RAID 5+1, one disk is always in the unit as a standby in case of a failure so automatic changeover occurs. In this scenario your total capacity is adding all disks and then subtracting 2 of them.

Unless you have 10Gb ethernet, which most don't, data transfer isn't fast enough as working storage. If you are like most people, you have 1Gb ethernet so in that case I would recommend an internal HD that you do your active image processing with and then storing it to the NAS. If you are lucky enough to have 10Gb ethernet at your location, that is plenty fast to make the NAS a working drive.

The way I am configured at home is a computer with SSD for programs and OS, a fast internal HD for and then two Synology NAS boxes for dual backup in RAID 5 configuration. My Synology boxes have 5 bays and I have 8TB disks in them so my capacity is (5x8)-8=24TB.

Hope that helps
 

by bradmangas on Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:00 pm
User avatar
bradmangas
Forum Contributor
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Thanks for the info E.J. I hadn't considered the speed which is needed for working drives using a NAS. Helpful info, I appreciate it.
 

by bradmangas on Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:16 pm
User avatar
bradmangas
Forum Contributor
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Feb 2013
If I could pick your brain one more time on this E.J. If I used a 10gb switch and plugged the NAS into it and then Ethernet the switch to the PC, is this a feasible way to achieve the speed necessary to use the NAS as a "working" drive?

My thought is to acquire a 10gb switch which would be connected Ethernet to PC and then plug my existing router and the NAS into the switch. (Also may require a 10gb network card for PC as well if necessary). 
 

by DavidSutton on Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:45 pm
DavidSutton
Forum Contributor
Posts: 142
Joined: 13 Jun 2009
Location: New Zealand
Whatever you decide on, I'd avoid having all your back up drives connected at the same time.
This year the PSU failed on my Windows computer and burned out every attached drive.
I recall seeing a video by Seth Resnick where he talked about a possible power spike re-setting the passwords on the raid array attached to his Mac, turning them into expensive door stoppers.
David Sutton
Website: http://davidsutton.co.nz/
 

by bradmangas on Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:19 pm
User avatar
bradmangas
Forum Contributor
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Yes, your right David. My plan is to have two NAS devices. One that would stay connected to the network and one that would be used to back up the first. Then the second (backup) NAS device would be removed and stored in a safe place. Only connected when backups are done.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:35 am
User avatar
E.J. Peiker
Senior Technical Editor
Posts: 86761
Joined: 16 Aug 2003
Location: Arizona
Member #:00002
bradmangas wrote:If I could pick your brain one more time on this E.J. If I used a 10gb switch and plugged the NAS into it and then Ethernet the switch to the PC, is this a feasible way to achieve the speed necessary to use the NAS as a "working" drive?

My thought is to acquire a 10gb switch which would be connected Ethernet to PC and then plug my existing router and the NAS into the switch. (Also may require a 10gb network card for PC as well if necessary). 
You would need more than just the switch, all of the infrastructure in your network from cables to connector to the ethernet port in your PC, everything has to be rated at a true 10Gb/s.  If any one thing in the chain is not, you revert back to 1GB/s.  Think of it the same way as USB, if even the cable in a USB 3 chain is a USB cable, the whole thing reverts back to USB 2 speed - it's the same thing.

For your offsite storage, why bother with an expensive NAS box.  All you need is a RAID enclosure that can take the capacity that you need.  Direct attach storage is a lot better for offsite purposes unless it is connected to a network offsite which would allow you to direct backup to your offsite location.  But for most people that just take their off site storage to another location and store it there, just get a direct attach RAID box like something from OWC or others.
 

by bradmangas on Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:00 pm
User avatar
bradmangas
Forum Contributor
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Understood E.J., thanks again for the good advice.
 

by Wildflower-nut on Thu Sep 27, 2018 11:50 am
Wildflower-nut
Forum Contributor
Posts: 825
Joined: 4 Mar 2008
Something NAS connected with eihernet faster than direct connect raid using the latest usb or apple connections? Don't need access from multiple computers.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:00 pm
User avatar
E.J. Peiker
Senior Technical Editor
Posts: 86761
Joined: 16 Aug 2003
Location: Arizona
Member #:00002
One thing that's cool about NAS is that as long as I can get on WiFi, I have access to my entire library of images anywhere in the world...
 

Display posts from previous:  Sort by:  
10 posts | 
  

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group