Two-bay or four-bay Synology NAS

[Atlplasma]

I have three to four Macs on my home network. My Mini is a dedicated music server. The two iMacs are for work and personal use. I use external enclosures (two single bay and one dual-bay RAID) to back up files. I'm weighing whether to stick with this point strategies or go with a central NAS. Opinions? For the NAS approach, I'm considering Synology (DS214play with JBOD or DS414 with SHR). Thoughts? I recognize that I would also need to back up the NAS to keep the data safe®.

[Allan F]

I recognize that I would also need to back up the NAS to keep the data safe®.

 

Very important, and I would remove the ®. Redundancy and backup are not the same thing.

[DavidL]

The answer to your question depends almost entirely on how much storage you are likely to need. As a conservative guidline I'd suggest 3 times your current storage requirement. Allowing for RAID taking an extra 25% how many 3 (or 4) TB discs will you need?

If you can do this with 2 then that's the way to go otherwise a 4bay.

[jtwrace]

This should easily help you decide what you need/want.

[unsleepable]

Well, the one with four disks can provide more storage space. And should be faster—but through the network you'll likely not notice.

 

The one with two disks is cheaper. And there is the added advantage that if you set it up as mirror, you can add a third disk to rotate the disks and store one off-premise just in case something ever goes very wrong.

 

I think at the end the day it comes down to how much space you really need.

[Atlplasma]

I will try the 3X rule and then the Synology configuration tool. I'm also thinking that I don't want to go overboard on the storage since these devices don't last forever. I've owned a number external enclosures, and the boards always seem to crap out eventually. Something that would last three to five years is probably acceptable. Of course, drives nowadays often seem to die after just a year or two of use.

[tianweiji]

good,And there is the added advantage that if you set it up as mirror, you can add a third disk to rotate the disks and store one off-premise just in case something ever goes very wrong. thanks

[fritzg]

And there is the added advantage that if you set it up as mirror, you can add a third disk to rotate the disks and store one off-premise just in case something ever goes very wrong.

 

Say more about this. I have a 2-bay Synology and have thought this would be a simple backup solution. Is it that simple? Just rotate one out every few days?

 

How does it work when the data changes? Can one "restore" from the third disk?

 

Thanks in advance.

[unsleepable]

In a mirror, any of the disks contains all the data so you can always recover from that. When you remove a disk, the RAID is degraded but it works—that's what it's designed for after all.

 

So you remove a disk, put another in place and add it to the volume. The NAS will restore the redundancy by copying the data from the working drive to the new one.