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Is Synology 215j enough for me?

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giorion83

New Around Here
Hi everyone,
I'm considering to purchase the first NAS.

I'll use the NAS to backup our 4 notebooks, as a photo/media providers to all pcs and as a permanent music source for our Sonos play.
I need also a USB 3.0 port as i want to back up to an external HDD.
I'd also like to have remote backup support as I want to get a 2nd NAS to store in a different location over time.
I also like Synology Time Machine like backup software and this lead me to favour Synology compared to QNAP.

Budget is tight and I was planning to get 6 TB storage (WD red) and then adding a second one (No RAID) later. This would come out at around 400€.

Is this model good enough for me? Or should I switch to the 216 (but with would come out at 100€ more?)

Thanks in advance.
 
Budget is tight and I was planning to get 6 TB storage (WD red) and then adding a second one (No RAID) later.
6 TB of your digital life data and no backup/RAID? Hmmmm.... ...does not sound like a good plan to me? :rolleyes:
I would never give all my digital live into the hand of one single hard drive! What if this HDD fails? All your digital live will be gone... :eek:

I run RAID with 2 parity disks (plus 4 data disks) - to avoid that up to two failed disks will impact my digital life - plus I have a regulare external backup of my NAS, which is stored outside of my home - just in case! ;)

By the way: I have 36 TB disk space gross - currently formatted (minus Parity Disks) to 20 TB net space! :D
 
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6 TB of your digital life data and no backup/RAID? Hmmmm.... ...does this sound like a good plan? :rolleyes:

I would never give all my digital live into the hand of one hard drive! I run RAID with 2 parity disks - to avoid that disk failure will impact my digital life - plus I have a regulare external backup, which is stored outside of my home - just in case! ;)

I agree. I didn't explain it well enough.
I plan to backup all media and important files on Blu-rays to store off-site and to regularly (daily/weekly) backup the NAS on an external HDD.

Later placing a second NAS at parent's house (about 30 kms from here).

I just think I don't need mirroring as I can simply get by with the external HDD backup of the NAS and the Blu-Ray for media.

I just don't want to fork out immediately €1000 in mirrored drives, blu-rays and external HDDs + secondary NAS.. more thinking of a slower build-up.
 
Blu-ray - not. Never heard anyone trying to do this... likely no drivers for the NAS to do that.
Most of us backup to USB3 or eSATA external drives. Also backup only VIP files to SD card or some such.

I'd buy a 2 bay, setup as two volumes, each 3-4TB, non-RAID. Automate the backups so they WILL get done every day or so.
Backup is not mirroring as you mention.
I use one $80 2TB 2.5 in. USB3 drive to backup all my irreplaceable files and folders. I don't copy the entire NAS since many of the files are themselves backups from PCs in my house, and other large and non-critical files.

I also use volume 2 to backup most of volume 1, and to do a time backup (file versions, for selected folders, for last 10 versions).

So it's not as rough as you think.

I would go one step up from the DS215j... drop the j. A bit more expensive. I did that with the DS212 I've had for several years now, problem free.
 
Blu-ray - not. Never heard anyone trying to do this... likely no drivers for the NAS to do that.
Most of us backup to USB3 or eSATA external drives. Also backup only VIP files to SD card or some such.

not really a big deal, one can always write the Blu-ray before putting everything on the NAS.
I think blu-rays are great for cold storage archiving of media. Photos, videos and the like can be burnt and stored in the garage or at a relatives house and retrieved when needed (read: when the HDD on the pc/NAS dies and the backup can't be restored somehow).

Facebook is trying something similar:
http://m.theinquirer.net/inquirer/n...ses-blu-ray-arrays-for-cold-storage-prototype

I like this discs:
http://www.mdisc.com/mdisc-technology/

While I don't think they'll last 1000 years, 20-30 years without worrying of data decay are enough for me, just to be remastered when something better will be available.

SD cards are the fastest decaying archiving support it seems
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2014/06/29/keeping-data-for-a-long-time/

I'd buy a 2 bay, setup as two volumes, each 3-4TB, non-RAID. Automate the backups so they WILL get done every day or so.
Backup is not mirroring as you mention.
I use one $80 2TB 2.5 in. USB3 drive to backup all my irreplaceable files and folders. I don't copy the entire NAS since many of the files are themselves backups from PCs in my house, and other large and non-critical files.

Do you think it's not necessary to backup PCs images on NAS on an external HDD? You are probably right as if the notebook HDD/SSD dies chances are the NAS HDD will still be ok... It may be only needed from time to time to store an off-site backup of PCs images to cover against thefts (which would probably steal both the NAS and the notebooks)

I also use volume 2 to backup most of volume 1, and to do a time backup (file versions, for selected folders, for last 10 versions).
Are you using any specific software for this?

I would go one step up from the DS215j... drop the j. A bit more expensive. I did that with the DS212 I've had for several years now, problem free.
Yes, I'm puzzled between the 215j (which is an 800mhz dual core with decent performance according to what I found around the web) and the 216/215+ which are faster but costs almost 2x the 215j in my country.

So.. maybe the 215j would last less, but could be replaced faster as it pays for itself should its performance be enough for these basic tasks.
 
Aren't blu-ray writer drives rather costly as compared to a 1 or 2 TB hard disk drive (USB3) on a $/GB basis?

I don't backup backups, e.g., PC drive images stored on the NAS. Seems an overkill.

My 2 bay with 2 volumes... I use the NAS backup software and just choose the folders/shares to backup and specify drive 2's volume as the destination. For time backup (Synology's file version backup), I run that also, and also target Volume 2. So Drive 2 stores about 20% more than drive 1. The time backup is wonderful and is a great CYA that's rescued me.

SD card is plugged into the NAS all the time. Auto backup to SD for VVIP files. It's another medium.

My DS212 is more than adequate for my needs. It's just single core and 1.6GHz. Sometimes backup takes the CPU to 100% but I don't see degraded admin user response time, and the gigE LAN PC to NAS and vice versa are 20-70MB/s, limited I think by the LAN and SMB overhead, not the NAS CPU.

Did you look for a DS214 rather than 215? Maybe cheaper. My '212 still runs the latest software/OS, but Synology could drop new OS support after 5-7 years based on history.
 
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Optical discs are quite cheap. 25gb blu-ray best offer range from €0.5 to €0.6 for each disk online, which comes out at around €24/TB, while best price on caviar green is about €33/TB for me. You have to add the burner cost, indeed. It depends on how much you plan to burn.

M-discs are actually costlier, coming out at around €160/TB.

DS214 is actually 1,6x DS215j cost and the two seems pretty similar to me:
https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/compare/DS214/DS215j
 

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