First NAS: QNAP TS-451+ or...?

[aviphysics]

I would suggest one Logical volume and multiple shares instead - makes it easier for all the kings horses and all the kings men to put things back together again..

With LVM and MDADM, there's enough data security there - and one can still set quotas on shares... and you'll have some flexibility if you decide to change the splits based on needs and requirements.

Simple works... remember - with a NAS, one is working with layers at the disk level, raid level, volume and share level - it's like in Shrek - Orges have layers, and NAS's have layers - kinda like a parfait...

For the reasons in my last post, I would not do anything more than RAID 1. I have had some bad experiences and just generally found it to be a PITA. Going with separate logical drives makes it easier to pull drives to backup or transfer large amounts of data (which is what I will be doing before moving my current drives to a new NAS.) With anything more than RAID 1, you need to have a functional NAS to access your data and it can take a much longer time to do a full backup.

I know it sounds like I am just reaching for problems with RAID, but my opinion comes from a few not very fun experiences trying to recover from RAID failures. I would rather just deal with the inconvenience of separate logical partitions. At least a RAID 1 can't be as easily destroyed by a poorly timed power failure.

A caching drive isn't a bad idea, but I hadn't planned on investing in an SSD for that purpose. I might just go with 3 drives and leave the fourth bay open for that purpose later.

P.S. if you plan to go with RAID 5/6, don't forget to have a UPS and make sure your NAS shuts down correctly before the UPS runs out. Even if you have all the data stored elsewhere, it will be a pretty big PITA restoring 12 to 24 TB of data.

 

[seadan]

After a bunch more internal debate, I decided to stick it out with the TS-451+ as I originally ordered it for my first try. Can't beat the price, and I'm not sure I would really miss anything from the 451A to start. I have some hesitation about missing out on a few Synology features, but I think I can live without them and I'd rather have the QNAP HW specs (and VM capability for potential future use).

Thanks to both of you for a very enlightening and helpful discussion!

 

[aviphysics]

Sounds like a good choice. There seem to be a number of plusses to both vendors.

As for virtual machines:
I have seen instructions for installing virtualbox on Synology DSM. You can put windows on that, but the maximum 8GB RAM (if you perform an anouthrized upgrade on your DS416Play), would seem to limit the usefulness.

I believe the TS-451+ has two RAM slots, so you can install up to 16GB (though QNAP only recommends up to 8GB).

The downside on the TS-451+ is that their virtual machine software needs sole use of one of the Ethernet connections.

Just curious, what is your use case for the virtual machine?

 

[sfx2000]

As for virtual machines:
I have seen instructions for installing virtualbox on Synology DSM. You can put windows on that, but the maximum 8GB RAM (if you perform an anouthrized upgrade on your DS416Play), would seem to limit the usefulness.

I believe the TS-451+ has two RAM slots, so you can install up to 16GB (though QNAP only recommends up to 8GB).

The downside on the TS-451+ is that their virtual machine software needs sole use of one of the Ethernet connections

If I recall, DSM does containers, which for many, might be good enough...

With QNAP - they support KVM/QEMU and Docker over LXC

In QTS 4.1 (if I recall correctly), they introduced their softswitch, which negates the hard requirement for a dedicated port for a VM (although, one can still do that if so desired).

If one wants to do some work with VM's on QTS, more memory is always better - and do it in pairs - don't buy the RAM from QNAP, they charge outragous prices - Crucial has a good price on dual SO-DIMM kits, if I recall, the mem spec is DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMM, same as Mac Mini 2012 (and MacBook Pro 2012)...

 

[seadan]

Just curious, what is your use case for the virtual machine?

I don't have one, yet, but the idea of it sounds interesting I do work from home and use a few VMs for work, so perhaps I'd transfer one or more of those to the NAS. Docker is probably sufficient for what I need (CrashPlan), though. The rest is just novelty.

 

[aviphysics]

How is the ts451+ working for you?

 

[seadan]

How is the ts451+ working for you?

I'll let you know later this week It was backordered and I should finally receive it in a few days. Already have 4x 6TB WD Red drives ready to go in to it!

 

[seadan]

OK, finally got my system and got it mostly configured! So far, it's been great, though I've definitely got a lot of learning to do to make the most of it. As a file store, it works as advertised. Had some complications getting permissions setup to isolate my backups from each computer from each other, but that's figured out and it seems to be doing OK. I'm certainly not pushing the limits yet, but overall I'm happy with the purchase and haven't run into anything I wish I had from the other models (yet... ).