TCG Geek Squad - NAS - Synology vs QNAP vs ?

SpeedSpeak2me

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TCG Geek squad please enter the chat. Looking to help a friend get a NAS solution for his home. Requirements are fairly low:

"Set and forget" for backups, both MacOS and Windows
4-8TB of storage (probably RAID 1), can be 2 or 4 drives
- platter/rust spinner are okay, Read/Write speeds are not critical
Ethernet connection as it will attach directly to router. Dual ethernet is a bonus, but not required.
Easy GUI

That's about it. He wants to be able to have his multiple computers automatically backup to a single point. For the Mac's he'll be using Time Machine, but for the Windows machines I'm not sure what the NAS Manufacturer's solution is, and if it is any good. He'd prefer to not have to get another app, like Acronis to do the backups.

Also, if any of them have a solution to where mobile devices can also back up directly, that would be great. All devices are Apple-based (iPhones, iPad's). IIRC those need to be backed up either to iCloud or to a computer via iTunes (pre-Catalina, Windows) or Finder (post-Catalina).

Anyone have experience with any of the home NAS units? In doing some reading, and in prior conversation with The Thirdgen89GTA Thirdgen89GTA the general consensus was that Synology had the better devices, software, and OS.
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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TCG Geek squad please enter the chat. Looking to help a friend get a NAS solution for his home. Requirements are fairly low:

"Set and forget" for backups, both MacOS and Windows
4-8TB of storage (probably RAID 1), can be 2 or 4 drives
- platter/rust spinner are okay, Read/Write speeds are not critical
Ethernet connection as it will attach directly to router. Dual ethernet is a bonus, but not required.
Easy GUI

That's about it. He wants to be able to have his multiple computers automatically backup to a single point. For the Mac's he'll be using Time Machine, but for the Windows machines I'm not sure what the NAS Manufacturer's solution is, and if it is any good. He'd prefer to not have to get another app, like Acronis to do the backups.

Also, if any of them have a solution to where mobile devices can also back up directly, that would be great. All devices are Apple-based (iPhones, iPad's). IIRC those need to be backed up either to iCloud or to a computer via iTunes (pre-Catalina, Windows) or Finder (post-Catalina).

Anyone have experience with any of the home NAS units? In doing some reading, and in prior conversation with The Thirdgen89GTA Thirdgen89GTA the general consensus was that Synology had the better devices, software, and OS.
Also with a NAS, once it is setup, you can choose how it backs up to it. You are not tied to any software in 99% of cases. Usually you can just share the directory and the OS can find it as long as the user accessing the files has rights to the files.
 
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radioguy6

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Synology ftw. Solid devices, their DSM software has come a long way. Look into diskstation for desk top units. DS220+ has 2 bays, format with SHR gives future flexibility or do RAID1 mirror. If he has a rack, look into the rackstation line, 1U come in 2 or 4 bay and can get dual PSUs. For drives I'd go with WD red or red+ drives, they are purpose built for NAS.

I personally run an older RS812 that's been rock solid stable for years, still spinning original 4x4TB red drives I got with it, mostly sees constant writes for camera storage at the moment. When those bite the dust I'll prob go with WD purple drives.
 
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SpeedSpeak2me

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Be sure you know what CMR vs SMR Drives. Also, RAID6 is a bit pricier but probably worth it in virtually all cases. The drives are so fucking big now that single parity isn't enough protection IMO.
Good point on the CMR/SMR. RAID 6 would be overkill for him. I'm really thinking RAID1 will be sufficient. It's just for backing up devices, nothing else. He won't be playing music or streaming from it, won't be editing video files or photos, etc. Just backing up, so as long as the read/write on the drives is equal to or greater than the network connection speed, he'll be okay.
 

Mr_Roboto

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RAID1 is more performant than 6 arguably depending on the number of spindles. It "can" also be less storage efficient but at the amount of drives he's looking at it wouldn't matter as much. The real reason to do RAID6 over RAID1 is that you get more protection for extended drive rebuild times that can happen from large disks. If you're doing say RAID1 or RAID5 I'd burn some extra bucks on smaller disks and more of them to be honest or even if technically feasible do 3 drives mirrored. It also depends on if backups being lost are acceptable to him, they may or may not be.
 
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