NAS setups / recommendations - talk to me...

I thought I'd stick this in here, rather than in the more general Technology Chat section, as I know there are a few knowledgeable folk in here...

I'm looking into NAS solutions that would be suitable for both work and play. Whlst I appreciate that even a modest setup will be capable of sharing media files across various connected devices, I would like a solution that offers good performance and reliability as it also needs to support my work from my home office. Especially now that I've quit my job and will be working from home full-time for the foreseeable future.

Ideally I would like a silent-running solution (or as close to as possible) so that it is not too distracting (although I would be happy to consider using SSD's to keep things performing well and potentially quieter). It also needs to work well in conjunction with my Windows-based PC's and my Mac OS X environment. Budget isn't too much of an issue (within reason!) but I would prefer to keep it under £500.

I welcome and appreciate any suggestions and/or recommendations you may have, especially anyone who has first-hand experience with these sorts of setups. Cheers!

Is it going to be just for storage, or do you plan to run stuff on it too? (Server based apps like webserver, plex, etc).

What about the infamous HP ProLiant Microserver? They usually come up a good few times a year with £150 or so off, and support 4 drives.

For me personally I built another PC for it, so I have both the storage but a little power if I need it. The mobo I chose is a common chipset but supports onboard raid 5, probably not the best of ideas being onboard, but meh.

Addicted said:

Is it going to be just for storage, or do you plan to run stuff on it too? (Server based apps like webserver, plex, etc).

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Sorry, I forgot to say. I would be looking to potentially run server-based apps as well mate.

I've been running a Synology DS211 for 4 years now. Would highly recommend their products to anyone looking for a decent NAS.

It does support a huge array of features from remote access to data, VPN, AV, IP cameras, but to be honest I mainly use it just for storage.

More info here https://www.synology.com/en-uk/dsm/5.2/features

Best thing I ever bought is my Synology. Does everything you can want of it, and you'll get a great version for £500. Can airplay videos to apple tv directly from it which is one of the most useful features for me. Download a film using the NAS and download station and then stream it to the tv (or if you have a smart TV it will pick it up, inc. all your media).

10/10.

I'd say first decide if you want a project or not. There are plenty of off the shelf solutions that will suit your needs but they will command a premium of course.

I've not personally heard of people using SSDs for backup solutions, it's going to cost you quite a bit more unless you're only talking about small capacity -i.e. 1TB of usable space - in which case you might as well use a cloud based solution and completely forgo the initial cost.

Now the boring bit's out the way, I am very happy with the FreeNAS setup I've built.

ECC RAM, basic CPU and 4x 3TB in RAIDZ1. Always on and I've not measured it myself, but it's meant to be around 15-25W idle, so less than £25 a year in energy for 24/7 running.

Having never used any UNIX based OS before I had an on the job learning curve figuring out how permissions work and then getting it to play nicely with Windows. FreeNAS uses ZFS, which is, essentially, uncorruptable. There's no point using backups if your backups can contain errors caused by the backup process. Total cost including drives around £750 all in (including £400 on HDDs). Although I used an old case and fans I had laying around. Only thing I'm missing is a UPS- which I really should get round to sorting 'just in case'.

The only thing you might struggle with on FreeNAS or any other purpose built "NAS" depends on what you mean by server based apps. I just have the basics - Transmission (best torrent client ever) and Plex media server, I did have a go at Ubuntu Server- but didn't get very far before trying FreeNAS and going with that.

Edit: My setup is not silent by any stretch of the imagination. But as it only needs a power plug and a network lead going into the back it's not a big issue as it can be put in the corner of a room you don't sleep in and it won't bother you. I did have a small ITX case initially with 4x hot swap bays in the front. But running some monitor tasks I discovered my HDDs were reaching 60 degrees in some instances. This is not good.

30 degrees is the sweet spot for HDDs according to a research paper by Google. In a big case and some fans running at max the HDDs now sit between 30 and 35 degrees (they never idle, spinning 24/7 :smiley

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMC-Symme...x-200Gb-SSD-/151786561476?hash=item23572f1fc4
:wink:
Although more realistically, I like these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-EM...city-Storag-/121586313353?hash=item1c4f1be889

Cookie said:

Although more realistically, I like these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-EM...city-Storag-/121586313353?hash=item1c4f1be889

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That looks pretty similar to the case I had (but with only 4 HDDs mind you) and I wonder whether you'd get heat problems with the drives.

Another massive +1 for the Synology recommendations, my DS212j has been perfect for both home use and, all my home business needs over the last 3 years. I use it as a file server for our office, as part of an offsite backup system for various other servers around the world, and as a home media server for all the devices in the home.

Having said that, I am considering and would probably now be swayed towards a small server solution like the HP Micro to get more performance for server based software, and knowing your tech savvy you'd probably like the flexibility of that if you're happy to do a bit more work yourself setting up the software side of things.

HP Microserver Gen 8s run near silent, however to get the most out of them (Xeon, SSD, memory etc) you will end up spending more than a decent NAS, so it really depends what you want. I have two of them and a Netgear ReadyNAS which i use for daily automated replication, so i don't use any of the advanced features in it really as it all internal use only, its uber reliable but can be frustrating to setup initially. If i was in the market for a better NAS i'd be tempted by Synology also, or failing that QNAP.

As it's partly for work it's got to be Synology, but not an SE, pay the extra for the mid to top models. I'm running 2 x 3TB WD red in my 211J, rock solid, great interface, helpful community and decent phone apps. There is a "quiet" option on the fan settings but it's pretty quiet on normal TBH.

if you do want a pure nas
Qnap or Fujitsu Celvins (rebranded qnaps, and are cheaper)

Fantastic - thanks for the information folks, just the sort of feedback I was looking for. I've scraped the links posted and noted the recommendations. I'll spend some time over the weekend looking at what they can offer and how they meet my requirements.

@Jeff simply - cheers for the comprehensive reply mate. I'm probably not looking for a 'project' in this instance, hence I'm prepared to pay the premium for an off-the-shelf and ready-to-go type setup. As much as I'd like to do something along the lines of what you have done, I have to be realistic and take into account the fact that I'm going to be extremely busy over the coming months whilst the new business venture gets off the ground.

From what @The Boosh!, @Nik and a few of you have said, I'm initially drawn towards the Synology options.

Again, thanks all for your time and valuable input - very much appreciated

SharkyUK said:

Fantastic - thanks for the information folks, just the sort of feedback I was looking for. I've scraped the links posted and noted the recommendations. I'll spend some time over the weekend looking at what they can offer and how they meet my requirements.

@Jeff simply - cheers for the comprehensive reply mate. I'm probably not looking for a 'project' in this instance, hence I'm prepared to pay the premium for an off-the-shelf and ready-to-go type setup. As much as I'd like to do something along the lines of what you have done, I have to be realistic and take into account the fact that I'm going to be extremely busy over the coming months whilst the new business venture gets off the ground. :smile:

From what @The Boosh!, @Nik and a few of you have said, I'm initially drawn towards the Synology options.

Again, thanks all for your time and valuable input - very much appreciated :smile:

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Interesting.

I got accurate IO speeds for a Celvin and a Netgear ReadyNAS, celvin wiped the floor with it. Oh and it does cloud backup inbuilt on qnap/fujitsu boxes.
Synology box used on for a customer , nice boxes but the UI can be bulky and choppy i found.

rctempire said:

Interesting.

I got accurate IO speeds for a Celvin and a Netgear ReadyNAS, celvin wiped the floor with it. Oh and it does cloud backup inbuilt on qnap/fujitsu boxes.
Synology box used on for a customer , nice boxes but the UI can be bulky and choppy i found.

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I'm happy to consider various options mate; it's just that Synology caught my attention initially given the trouble-free experience Nik has had (using his for both work and play). Time to do a bit of homework

rctempire said:

Synology box used on for a customer , nice boxes but the UI can be bulky and choppy i found.

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I'd agree with you there to some extent, the current version of the Synology DSM software does run a little bit sluggish on my NAS now, but I've put that down to the software advancing pretty considerably over the 3 year age of my NAS. It was very quick on the original software at the time, and it probably runs nicely on a present day equivalent of my device.

Gareth said:

HP Microserver Gen 8s run near silent, however to get the most out of them (Xeon, SSD, memory etc) you will end up spending more than a decent NAS, so it really depends what you want. I have two of them and a Netgear ReadyNAS which i use for daily automated replication, so i don't use any of the advanced features in it really as it all internal use only, its uber reliable but can be frustrating to setup initially. If i was in the market for a better NAS i'd be tempted by Synology also, or failing that QNAP.

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I'm a big fan of the HP Microservers, they're particularly handy purely from a community standpoint and the fact you can quietly drop a desktop Xeon in there for a little bit of extra cash and have a rather powerful little machine indeed.

At this point in time I like Synologies mind.

Alternatively @SharkyUK if you're feeling frisky and fancy a microserver, Lenovo have some good deals going at the moment with a wad of cashback.
For example:
http://www.ebuyer.com/670719-lenovo...226-v3-3-3ghz-1tb-hdd-tower-server-70a50022uk

Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 4GB Xeon E3-1226 v3 3.3GHz 1TB HDD Tower Server

• CPU: Intel Xeon QC E3-1226V3 / 3.3 GHz (Quadcore minus the hyper-threading but still plenty quick enough)
• RAM: 4 GB installed
• 1TB HDD installed

£365.99 inc VAT, but £240.99 after cashback. Should leave you lots of money left over for a few quiet upgrades. :smile:

The TS140 is a good deal for sure, they can take 32GB of RAM also.

These are my two Gen8s:

I was planning on having them configured in a vSphere Cluster but 16GB just isn't enough RAM to do it comfortably, Hyper-V is very impressive with its memory utilisation (I happily run 5 VMs 24x7 off one server and can boot up more without a problem)
I also have a heavily upgraded ML110 G7 with another Xeon and of all things a revo drive in it, it can apparently take 32GB of RAM but tbh it is considerably noisier than the Microservers and therefore I don't run it 24x7.

Gareth said:

The TS140 is a good deal for sure, they can take 32GB of RAM also.

These are my two Gen8s:

I was planning on having them configured in a vSphere Cluster but 16GB just isn't enough RAM to do it comfortably, Hyper-V is very impressive with its memory utilisation (I happily run 5 VMs 24x7 and can boot up more without a problem)
I also have a heavily upgraded ML110 G7 with another Xeon and of all things a revo drive in it, it can apparently take 32GB of RAM but tbh it is considerably noisier than the Microservers and therefore I don't run it 24x7.

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What OS do they run mate ?

Jeff simply said:

What OS do they run mate ?

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All 3 servers run 2012 R2 with the Hyper-V role installed, so I can easily migrate VMs between any of them.

Gareth said:

All 3 servers run 2012 R2 with the Hyper-V role installed, so I can easily migrate VMs between any of them.

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Was just thinking as searching Google, not sure why I'm even asking that, HP is bound to be Windows.

@SharkyUK Synology hands down. Get one of the decent ones (think 1515 or 415+ from memory), as they can run docker. Take a look at the price on all the Amazon European sites, you'll get a good discount compared to buying in the UK, even from Amazon UK!

Gareth said:

The TS140 is a good deal for sure, they can take 32GB of RAM also.

These are my two Gen8s:

I was planning on having them configured in a vSphere Cluster but 16GB just isn't enough RAM to do it comfortably, Hyper-V is very impressive with its memory utilisation (I happily run 5 VMs 24x7 off one server and can boot up more without a problem)
I also have a heavily upgraded ML110 G7 with another Xeon and of all things a revo drive in it, it can apparently take 32GB of RAM but tbh it is considerably noisier than the Microservers and therefore I don't run it 24x7.

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I hope you're licensed to run those......... (I doubt it as it would be very expensive!!!!!)

The only answer here for the majority of people is synology, you never hear anyone say a bad thing about them, they just work, they're quiet, regular updates, can access from anywhere.

dk said:

I hope you're licensed to run those......... (I doubt it as it would be very expensive!!!!!)

The only answer here for the majority of people is synology, you never hear anyone say a bad thing about them, they just work, they're quiet, regular updates, can access from anywhere.

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that's my dilemma to be fair... i would prefer to go windows because it's flexible if i want to do anything with it... i could host my files/plex... add cctv... maybe add a gaming server if something comes out in the future etc etc

but to license it (properly :rasp: ) would be a bomb compared to synology but then you're locked in to whatever they say you can do (albeit sounds like most things are covered)

Indeed, very expensive to license windows server at home.

The cheapest version to run hyperv is (essentials) between £275-300 a copy (that's per VM!!!), you could run the free hyperv on the bare metal but you'd then still have to license the VM (if you use essentials you can then use 1 VM as part of that too, so no need to go for the free bare metal version).

So not a good option.

iain187 said:

that's my dilemma to be fair... i would prefer to go windows because it's flexible if i want to do anything with it... i could host my files/plex... add cctv... maybe add a gaming server if something comes out in the future etc etc

but to license it (properly :tongueclosed: ) would be a bomb compared to synology but then you're locked in to whatever they say you can do (albeit sounds like most things are covered)

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You can do all of that with Linux too (depending on the game).

You can, but if you don't know nix then why make life harder.

I even use various Linux distros, mine is still running Windows!

Addicted said:

You can, but if you don't know nix then why make life harder.

I even use various Linux distros, mine is still running Windows!

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Well, if it's hundreds of quid for a Windows licence vs a bit of time invested in some learning I suppose it comes down to whether you're familiar with what TPB stands and whether you want a project/how much you value your time.

Jeff simply said:

Well, if it's hundreds of quid for a Windows licence vs a bit of time invested in some learning I suppose it comes down to whether you're familiar with what TPB stands and whether you want a project/how much you value your time.

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True, though licenses are not an issue for me personally (and no, not illegal).

Addicted said:

True, though licenses are not an issue for me personally (and no, not illegal).

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Vague. Usually means illegal

Jeff simply said:

Well, if it's hundreds of quid for a Windows licence vs a bit of time invested in some learning I suppose it comes down to whether you're familiar with what TPB stands and whether you want a project/how much you value your time.

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I could get it to 'work' but I'm not experienced enough in nix to make things work so seamlessly that it could pass the test of getting the missus to work it herself if you know what I mean

iain187 said:

I could get it to 'work' but I'm not experienced enough in nix to make things work so seamlessly that it could pass the test of getting the missus to work it herself if you know what I mean

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I do.