Network Attach Storage (NAS) recommendations

rogerg (Roger) · #1 17-03-2011, 11:32 AM

Hi all,

I’m wanting to replace my existing Lacie 1TB NAS which has had three failures over the last year (power supply and RAID controller - never HDD), and has never been particularly fast WRT data access.

Recommendations on brands? So far the best recommendation I have is for a Buffalo unit (I’d probably get a 2 disk unit).

I’m not going to spend the money of Cisco or something, but would like to go mid range.

I’m wanting reliability and fast transfer speeds. Must be gigabit and preferably good gigabit. Capacity 2TB

Thanks,
Roger.

DJDD · #2 17-03-2011, 11:51 AM

Hi,

i spent a lot of time looking for a good unit for home and work.
I used to have a Dlink but that was very very slow and unreliable.

I used the Small Net Builder site to get price/performance information in the NAS charts. the price is in US but similar comparison is possible with AU dollars.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/compo...nas/Itemid,190

Home:
In the end I bought a Synology 2-disk unit. never looked back.
It's throughput is excellent for the price.
I could not afford the QNAP mentioned below for work but teh throughput is similar for the 2-disk units, anyway.

Work:
We went with a Qnap unit

cheers!

pproctor (Paul) · #3 17-03-2011, 12:27 PM

Hello there.

Used to have a WD 1TB 'World Book' until it fell over about 12 months after purchase. The drive itself was intact, the little onboard webserver module fell over and made the thing useless. Took ages to extract the info off the physical drive on another machine due the way it mounts all the logical drives and fudges all the file names for it's own purposes.

Now use a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo with 2 x 2TB drives and it has been fantastic. Performance is about 25% quicker than the old WD unit (both GbE connected and running the same backup script).

Very easy to setup remote access through WEB or FTP, with full restrictions on which directories/logical drives are available via either and to which users.
Onboard servers for pretty much anything including photo access (IP connected Sony BluRay player found it and will do slide shows off it directly onto a TV or projector). Onboard iTunes server which means all the music now sits on it and all the machines recognise it and play directly from it (including my Yamaha amplifier).

Dual USB on the rear for adding capacity (USB2 only), one on the front that can do the same but with the addition of a dedicated 'backup' button (plug a drive in the front, push backup and it automatically runs your predefined backup jobs onto the external drive).

Super quite temperature controlled fans, email notifications for just about everything if required, and can be linked to UPS for graceful shutdown if required.

Problems I had with the unit were self induced. Namely the price of the units when they supply the drives is a bit steep, so I bought the unit without drives then added 2 x 2TB drives. Of course after you buy them and they don't work properly, you find the list of 'allowed' (read 'tested') drives and yours aren't on it. Problem manifested itself as either one drive or the other would operate, but never both together. Problem was fixed by updating the drive firmware to a new beta version, and then final version when it became available.

Apart from the initial issue, very happy. Primary reason for use was to backup Home Business data and photo's. The ability to put a portable drive in, push backup and walk away is great. Get an email when it is completed, remove it and store in fire proof safe. Other features are a bonus, especially remote access to retrieve stuff if I am working remotely.

Hope this helps.

rogerg (Roger) · #4 17-03-2011, 04:13 PM

Thanks guy's, much appreciated.

DJDD, that first link especially is great, thanks

DJDD · #5 17-03-2011, 05:53 PM

yep, very useful.
that's what led me to buy the synology unit. very happy so far (over a year now)

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #6 17-03-2011, 08:31 PM

Hi Roger,

I have a Netgear ReadyNAS NVX. 4 Drives, very fast. Buy it without the drives as said and then add your own.

The great thing about the platform is that it is more than just a NAS. There are lots of other modules that can be loaded onto it, see www.readynas.com for info.

rogerg (Roger) · #7 13-06-2011, 09:56 PM

Follow-up on this. I ended up going with a QNAP and haven't looked back. I got a QNAP TS-419P+ and it's amazing. It's a definite next price bracket up from what I previously owned, so cannot be compared fairly to the old Lacie, but really... The Lacie (in theory gigabit ethernet) transferred files at about 12MB/s (megabit speeds). I get consistent speeds of 80MB/s wth the TS-419P+. Sometimes higher sometimes lower.

I put 4 x 1TB drives in it, server grade but normal speed, giving me 3TB of reliable storage.

Accessing files on it is very similar to accessing them locally, very fast and responsive.

The administration and other capabilities are good too, an obviously more professional setup than the Lacie and Maxtors I've used in the past.

Roger.

g__day (Matthew) · #8 14-06-2011, 05:02 AM

I found this list a few days ago http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...=617&vk_sort=1

Snyology, Thecus and QNAP have good names. A lower quality NAS often has much slower speeds. The alternate to a NAS is to configure a cheap HP server with a few HDDs.

iceman (Mike) · #9 14-06-2011, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogerg

Follow-up on this. I ended up going with a QNAP and haven't looked back. I got a QNAP TS-419P+ and it's amazing. It's a definite next price bracket up from what I previously owned, so cannot be compared fairly to the old Lacie, but really... The Lacie (in theory gigabit ethernet) transferred files at about 12MB/s (megabit speeds). I get consistent speeds of 80MB/s wth the TS-419P+. Sometimes higher sometimes lower.

I put 4 x 1TB drives in it, server grade but normal speed, giving me 3TB of reliable storage.

Accessing files on it is very similar to accessing them locally, very fast and responsive.

The administration and other capabilities are good too, an obviously more professional setup than the Lacie and Maxtors I've used in the past.

Roger.

How much was it Roger, and where did you get it from?

Do you just plug it into your wireless router so it's available from any device accessing the wireless?

rogerg (Roger) · #10 14-06-2011, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

How much was it Roger, and where did you get it from?

Do you just plug it into your wireless router so it's available from any device accessing the wireless?

It was about $1400 all up from memory, which included the device and 4 disks. I think the QNAP TS-419P+ its self is about $750:

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...419P%2B&spos=3

The disks were considerably more expensive than their normal consumer counterpart. I think about $180 instead of $80 for the consumer equivalent. So you could set it up for about $1070. Still in a different price range to the others I mentioned that were models in the $300 price range (complete - including disks) but cheaper than what I did using the enterprise grade disks.

You plug it in to your LAN, so router or whatever. Via cable. I don't have anything plugged in to my ADSL router other than a switch, because those routers are almost all only megabit ethernet, not gigabit. So I have a set of gigabit switches running the network, and the router is plugged in to one of them, as is the QNAP and other computers/devices. The router does run the WiFi but WiFi is only 50 up to 100 megabit at most anyhow.

Once on the network you can configure shares and other services on the QNAP to be used by other devices, be them wired or wireless. I stream music from it using my iPad through the iTunes and the Media servers it has built in. It also has a web server built in, FTP, and a whole bunch of other capabilities for accessing files other than normal windows & apple networking.

I bought it from my friend's computer shop, www.efficientchips.com, but you can get it from lots of places, see Static Ice link above.

I was at the point that I knew we were going to be consuming many more TB in the coming years already having used 1.5TB, especially with my data acquisition in astronomy ramping up, and the solutions I had at the time (smaller individual NAS units) and various computers weren't providing a consistent reliable or fast solution. I need all the data in one place, backed up to another one place. The convoluted network of various other devices was becoming unmanageable and risky from a data backup & management point of view, as well as speed and reliability problems. With the QNAP I can easily upgrade the disks as I need more storage, up to 3TB each at the moment (giving me 9TB in RAID5 config). So there's great expansion capability there. And the computers can barely process the 80MB/s speeds of the gigabit ethernet, so I think I am safe on speed for a few years.

If you don't need all of the above, then a USB external drive (or set of), or a cheaper NAS or just internal drives in a computer are fair solutions for less $$$.

It has built in UPS connectivity, so I have a APC Back-UPS 550 which the QNAP is plugged in to and data connected to so the QNAP will shut down X minutes after on-battery.

Oh, and final note on the backup.. the QNAP has a USB port on the front and button. You plug in a USB drive of sufficent storage and press the button, it'll back up the entire contents to that. That's the less frequent more secure backup option, I do more frequent local backups in other ways. You can also plug in external eSata and other drives which can invisibly become part of the available storage, to increase it beyond the 9TB.

Roger.

g__day (Matthew) · #11 14-06-2011, 11:20 AM

Roger,

I think what you've done makes a lot of sense however I am interested in how you decided to go a dedicated high quality NAS versus a cheap server with the same disk setup - as a more versatile option that would have been the same price or a bit cheaper? Must admit this didn't occur to me originally - a thread like this openned on Whirlpool and someone said why spend $750 on an empty high quality NAS - when you can configure a HP server that is more versatile for $600 - then just add 4 disks in a RAID 5 configuration.

Is it the power draw is higher on the Server solution, or the maintenance or other factors? Curious about how you chose between a quality NAS and a reasonable, dedicated server?

Matthew

Link from Whirlpool - last entry (BTW - I don't know any of these folk myself)

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum....cfm?t=1599511

My planned setup (have used a qnap 2 bay for two years, and recently played around with freeNAS, the difference in daily usability us negligable imo)
6 sata (onboard intel ich9 controller), 2 gigabit(intel), dual core atom board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813182242
Very nice looking case, built in quiet 80+ certified psu, space for 6 3.5" plus 1x2.5" drives
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14503
Sodimm ram
2 x http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=15460
OS OPTIONS
www.freenas.org, or WHS, or Windows server 2008, or linux sterner, or unRAID, or a straight linux distro with webmin...... Lots of choices all with the usability OP asked for.
Which should give basically the same device as a qnap 659pro+ (but with 4x the ram), which retails for $1300, for around $570.

rogerg (Roger) · #12 14-06-2011, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g__day

Roger,

I think what you've done makes a lot of sense however I am interested in how you decided to go a dedicated high quality NAS versus a cheap server with the same disk setup ...

Yes, that's an age old debate that will never die

I think there's plenty of room for both solutions.

I get tired of managing lots of PC's .. be it windows updates, upgrades, antivirus, custom hardware issues (maybe a network card breaks or whatever), having to find the right PC with a quality RAID controller, etc etc etc. NAS is simpler as I see it. It's all in one. It comes together, guaranteed (warranted) to work together and does. It does one job and does it well. I don't have time to mess around with another PC and associated stuff, my wife gets tired of me spending too much time in the office as it is

So... for me, I've found NAS work well, probably the primary factors include:
- simple off-the-shelf box that has quality RAID, purpose built management/administration functionality.
- "it just works" philosophy
- lower power use than a PC
- smaller physical footprint - it sits neatly on a shelf in the office. If there's a bush fire or such emergency, it's 3 cables to unplug and the thing is under one arm out the door in the car with us.

The QNAP is nicely invisible on the network. My wife stores her photography on it from her computer, we can view it from anywhere, she doesn't need me to be home to reboot a server or boot it up if I decided we weren't using it for a while so saved power but turning it off.... if it needs shutting down for a lightning storm coming she knows where the one button is, if the emergency situation arises she knows what 3 cables to unplug and it's small enough she can grab it easily...

I think in the case of this QNAP I could build a PC for about the same price but I don't think significantly less. Thinking about what you'd need to make an equivalent:
- Decent spec CPU
- Few gig ram
- Screen
- Windows (I don't work with Linux)
- Two gigabit ethernet cards (QNAP has dual), and gigabit cards that actually can do proper full duplex gigabit.
- RAID controller (and a reliable one)
- Backup software
- Web server and media server software
- Firewall
.. I don't know ... how does that list compare to the $750 cost of the QNAP unit? I would have thought it'd be quite comparable.

Like I said.. there's room for both solutions and there'll be a comeback for everything I've said .. so it's a personal choice

I think perhaps the overriding thing is simplicity? "it just works" ? ..

Roger.

SkyViking (Rolf) · #13 14-06-2011, 12:35 PM

I have a Synology unit as well and found it to be great for my purposes. I use it mainly for backup, with an automatic mirror backup of my main computer running weekly. I also like that I can have access to the NAS from the web, and that it has so many in-built features like FTP, download central, surveillance station etc.
And as Roger mentions, if there's an emergency then it's easy to grab and go.

troypiggo (Troy) · #14 14-06-2011, 05:49 PM

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier, but I'm going through setting up a ReadyNAS at the moment. Got the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 with 3x2TB drives, giving me 4TB of RAID 5 storage. Great little box, basically it's a highly customised Debian Etch linux box inside, Intel dual core chip, 1GB RAM. Am installing a virtual machine on it and it will run my mail server, web server, DNS, web proxy etc as well as automated backups for home network. Cost me around $850 - cheaper than a desktop solution. I'm very impressed with it.

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #15 14-06-2011, 06:28 PM

I take Troy you have been to www.readynas.com?

I have an NVX Pro, love it.

troypiggo (Troy) · #16 14-06-2011, 10:11 PM

Yes, Trevor. Great resource that site. Thanks.

mithrandir (Andrew) · #17 01-07-2013, 07:04 PM

New toy picked up today. Synology 1513+ and 5x3TB Western Digital Red (ie NAS certified) drives. (The 1512+ is superceded.)

Format just finished. Now to see how it goes.

g__day (Matthew) · #18 02-07-2013, 05:32 PM

Must say - Windows Home Server is remarkably reliable - its been over a year since I've needed to administer or reboot my HP Proliant MicroServer!

Marke (Mark) · #19 03-07-2013, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mithrandir

New toy picked up today. Synology 1513+ and 5x3TB Western Digital Red (ie NAS certified) drives. (The 1512+ is superceded.)

Format just finished. Now to see how it goes.

+ 1 for a Synology I can access mine from any pc or mobile device anywhere

Poita (Peter) · #20 05-07-2013, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g__day

Must say - Windows Home Server is remarkably reliable - its been over a year since I've needed to administer or reboot my HP Proliant MicroServer!

I have one of those, and they are great. I have re-purposed it now as the home media player though, and gotten a true NAS. Much easier for all the reasons already posted, especially with multiple people in the house needing to access files seamlessly.