Any Techies Here Familiar With Disc Stations

[shanez]

I'm looking at setting a multi-purpose home server disc station. Some of my questions are probably too specific to the equipment I'm looking at but maybe not.

Things I'm interested in:

File Sharing (Family Pictures, etc.)
Media Server (Streaming A/V)
Surveillance (Replace my current NVR. License costs may inhibit this.)
Home Automation (Access/Control Home Bluetooth Items)

I'm not sure how much or little I'll utilize these things but options are nice.

I'm looking at a Synology DS224+ and putting in WD Red 2TB SSD plus upgrading the Ram with Kingston DDR4 4GB SODIMM.

The ease of use and available apps for Synology is a big part of why I'm choosing the brand/model. I'm also choosing 2TB SSDs as this is more space than I'll ever need. I could upgrade to 4TB though.

Now for some questions.

I'm considering setting up as RAID 1 vs RAID 0 so I have the backup I want in case of failure. Can I truly just swap out a failed drive in RAID 1 and wait for the machine to rebuild it? Does anything in SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) offer a better solution?

Synology lists the RAM as upgradable to 6GB (2GB factory plus 4GB added) but I see lots of references to 8GB (replace factory 2GB with 4GB plus 4GB added). Is this possible? Considering the cost of RAM it might try it just to see what happens.

Synology only lists their own brands of drives and RAM in their compatibility lists but I know many other brands work just fine or better. I would like to make sure what I order is the right type/model from any particular manufacturer and compatible with the machine. Can anyone tell me if I'm choosing the right stuff? Here are direct links to what I'm looking at:

Disc Station

Solid State Drives

RAM Modules

Any input is welcome.

 

[beefeater33]

I read this twice and I still don’t understand a word of it. I guess it’s true……… I am old now

 

[woodsroad]

I’ve been relying on Synology to store, retrieve and back up my work for many years. They work, they are reliable. In the past several years they have moved to proprietary drives with proprietary firmware in their servers. They cost more than other drives. Yes, you can use other drives (in some machines) but it voids the warranty. Any other drive is untested and unknown.

Using approved and tested devices is, for me, part of the cost of reliability.

 

[woodsroad]

SHR siffers from traditional RAID in that it allows drives of different sizes without wasting space. Not a big deal for units with only two drives, but a real game changer for multi-bay devices. You may start using your NAS with 2TB drives, but in two years be able to afford 4TB drives. With SHR, you could add new 4TB drives and use their full capacity without having to upgrade the old drives.I believe SHR may be dependent on drive firmware, so it may not function on un-approve drives.

Synology offers a lot of very good info on their products, compatability and configuration. I suggest taking the time to read through all of the stuff that pertains to your unit. There is also a good Facebook support group.

Hot drives:
A hot spare is a drive that sits empty and ready to copy on to, should a system drive falter (or show signs of faltering). It is not part of the RAID array, so you can’t have both RAID and a hot spare on the two-drive unit that you are considering.

Remember that RAID is not backup. RAID is designed for high up-time. It is still vulnerable to all forms of catastrophic failure, especially when rebuilding a small array, like the two bay unit that you are considering.

 

[brian64]

I’ve been relying on Synology to store, retrieve and back up my work for many years. They work, they are reliable. In the past several years they have moved to proprietary drives with proprietary firmware in their servers. They cost more than other drives. Yes, you can use other drives (in some machines) but it voids the warranty. Any other drive is untested and unknown.

Using approved and tested devices is, for me, part of the cost of reliability.

SHR siffers from traditional RAID in that it allows drives of different sizes without wasting space. Not a big deal for units with only two drives, but a real game changer for multi-bay devices. You may start using your NAS with 2TB drives, but in two years be able to afford 4TB drives. With SHR, you could add new 4TB drives and use their full capacity without having to upgrade the old drives.I believe SHR may be dependent on drive firmware, so it may not function on un-approve drives.

Synology offers a lot of very good info on their products, compatability and configuration. I suggest taking the time to read through all of the stuff that pertains to your unit. There is also a good Facebook support group.

Hot drives:
A hot spare is a drive that sits empty and ready to copy on to, should a system drive falter (or show signs of faltering). It is not part of the RAID array, so you can’t have both RAID and a hot spare on the two-drive unit that you are considering.

Remember that RAID is not backup. RAID is designed for high up-time. It is still vulnerable to all forms of catastrophic failure, especially when rebuilding a small array, like the two bay unit that you are considering.

Aren't you the guy who still uses a rotary phone?

 

[woodsroad]

More info on SHR vs RAID 1

 

[shanez]

Aren't you the guy who still uses a rotary phone?

I thought it was 2 empty soup cans and some string....

 

[brian64]

I thought it was 2 empty soup cans and some string....

That's just his intercom from the front door to the basement.

 

[woodsroad]

That's just his intercom from the front door to the basement.

We have Thing for that.

 

[shanez]

I read this twice and I still don’t understand a word of it. I guess it’s true……… I am old now

It's just fancy talk for "build your own cloud". Reality is there is no cloud, it's just someone else's computer.

What I'm essentially trying to do is create my own computer/server at home that I can access (and share/control access) anywhere through the internet (my own personal "cloud") for the following purposes (as listed above):

File Sharing
Meaning: My wife and I can save/store pictures and what not that we can each readily access through the internet. Access could even be extended/shared with other family members and friends.

Media Server
Meaning: I (or whoever I give access to) can store and access media files including audio (including my beloved bought and paid for narrated ghost stories) and video (including home videos of my daughter's first ever school concert or any other video).

Surveillance

Meaning: Access my home surveillance cameras through the internet as well as compress and store video from them.

Home Automation

Meaning: Access and control anything automated thing in my home that normally requires I be close enough for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Anything including my front doorbell camera to the digital on/off control for my pool pump and potentially many more items.

 

[shanez]

In the past several years they have moved to proprietary drives with proprietary firmware in their servers

Sad that they do that considering there is no need other than corporate greed, especially considering how many other great and better brands there are out there. To me, it is an unsustainable business model. Sooner or later someone like TerraMaster will equal or surpass them in ease of use and apps which will substantially damage their market share.

SHR siffers from traditional RAID in that it allows drives of different sizes without wasting space. Not a big deal for units with only two drives, but a real game changer for multi-bay devices. You may start using your NAS with 2TB drives, but in two years be able to afford 4TB drives. With SHR, you could add new 4TB drives and use their full capacity without having to upgrade the old drives.I believe SHR may be dependent on drive firmware, so it may not function on un-approve drives.

Synology offers a lot of very good info on their products, compatability and configuration. I suggest taking the time to read through all of the stuff that pertains to your unit. There is also a good Facebook support group.

Hot drives:
A hot spare is a drive that sits empty and ready to copy on to, should a system drive falter (or show signs of faltering). It is not part of the RAID array, so you can’t have both RAID and a hot spare on the two-drive unit that you are considering.

Remember that RAID is not backup. RAID is designed for high up-time. It is still vulnerable to all forms of catastrophic failure, especially when rebuilding a small array, like the two bay unit that you are considering.

Now we are getting somewhere.

Warranty is not a concern I have so no issues there.

Amount of storage, vs cost or otherwise, is not an issue for me either.

RAID is the issue. My understanding of RAID 1 is that the hot spare does not sit empty but is a mirror image of the first drive (and useless if there is no failure). Is this not the case?

My thought is in the case of 1 drive failing to simply move over to the other drive and keep on moving while getting a new empty drive to replace the failed one. A scenario that doesn't work if both drives fail simultaneously but I'm betting against the odds of that happening.

 

[Briar Lee]

Things like this remind me of old Ted Williams.

Alcor Life Extension Foundation - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I suppose given enough artificial intelligence and all of a persons computer tracks and fancy software and cutting edge hardware all of us might be somewhat immortal.

But as for me, I just want to be sweethearts in heaven with my wife and see my parents dance again when Buck Owens and Susan Raye sang this song.

When we are gone, our computers will all go dark.

 

[woodsroad]

Sad that they do that considering there is no need other than corporate greed, especially considering how many other great and better brands there are out there.

Wait! You haven’t bought it and you’re already complaining that you could have done better? Synology needed their drives to work differently and better than other OTS products. If that concerns customers, there are, as you noted, other NAS hardware providers.

To me, it is an unsustainable business model. Sooner or later someone like TerraMaster will equal or surpass them in ease of use and apps which will substantially damage their market share.

So far, so good. It seems to be working for them.

Now we are getting somewhere.

Warranty is not a concern I have so no issues there.

Amount of storage, vs cost or otherwise, is not an issue for me either.

Then get a 4-bay unit. Or, better yet, buy one of the “better” brands that you said we’re available.

RAID is the issue. My understanding of RAID 1 is that the hot spare does not sit empty but is a mirror image of the first drive (and useless if there is no failure). Is this not the case?

If it’s in use, it’s not a a hot spare, it’s part of the array.

My thought is in the case of 1 drive failing to simply move over to the other drive and keep on moving while getting a new empty drive to replace the failed one. A scenario that doesn't work if both drives fail simultaneously but I'm betting against the odds of that happening.

Fact is, if both of your drives are identical and new when installed, the chances of the surviving drive failing while rebuilding goes up dramatically. Rebuilding an array is quite drive intensive. Yes, it’s rare, but it happens.

Multiple drive failures do happen.

Either way, RAID isn’t backup. And please read all of the Synology support pages on choosing RAID, SHR etc. Synology has some of the documentation.

 

[renfield]

Plan on adding more space later, you’ll find a need for it.

Definitely add RAM, a really cheap way to improve performance above what most NAS boxes ship with. They generally are a bit lacking in order to meet a price point.

I use RAID 1 and have swapped out a failing drive with no drama. I run QNAP hardware but Synology will be painless as well. Everything is backed up on other devices.

I run backups and a Plex server in addition to storage on my box. I currently have 64Tb of WD Reds on board.