Image Storage & Backup Solutions
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:44 pm
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.
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.