Structure for Media/Time Machine/Windows Backup

[haggis999]

Hi,

I recently purchased a Synology Disk Station 218+ with 2 x 3Tb HDD, and a 6Tb External HDD. I'm looking for thoughts on how to structure these drives to accomplish my goals.

My goal is to setup a network drive that hosts all of our family's media (pictures, music, videos) so that they are accessible by everyone and useable by 2 laptops and through other devices, and which is backed up, and a network drive that our 2 laptops back up to.

5 structures that I can think of are as follows:

1) Setup one disk on the DS to host the media, and then setup the ext HDD to backup that disk. Then, set up the other disk on the DS with 2 volumes, one to take the time machine backups from my mac, and the other to take the backups from my pc. Downside is no redundancy, only backups. I'm not really sure that redundancy is a problem for me, so much as protection of data is. As long as the data is backed up, I could probably live with the downtime needed to set a new drive backup.

2) Setup the DS in Raid1, with media stored on the DS, and ext HD plugged into DS to backup media. Then use another ext HDD connected to wifi router for the computer backups, again splitting the ext hdd into 2 volumes, one for each computer

3) Setup the DS in Raid1, with media stored on the DS, and ext HD plugged into DS to backup media. rpurchase second 1 bay NAS for computer backups

4) return ext hdd and DS 218+, and purchase 4 bay nas (418?), structure 2 hdd in raid 1 for media, one to backup the media, and one split into 2 volumes for computer backups. downside is this will cost probably $200 more.

5) setup DS in raid 1 with 3 volumes on a drive, one for media, one each for the backups, ext HDD backing up the whole thing. in this setup i would have redundancy and backup, my concern with this setup is the potential for malware in the media files volume polluting the backups, but i'm not sure if using structure 1 and physically isolating the media drive from the backup drive even solves this issue, so maybe this is a moot point.

4 is probably the more conventional approach, but interested in your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[kab]

Are you opposed to any form of cloud backups or archives? It can simplify and greatly reduce costs for your overall plan. I go for encrypted "cool" storage, expecting it to be write-only unless the house burns down (but I still test it every month).

Also, beware any RAID that makes the NAS itself a single point of critical failure: If the NAS board pops, can you still get to the data? RAID1 (mirror) on bog-standard fs (ext2 or similar), and that only if needed for performance (which it isn't needed for just streaming video and similar). Beware anything like Synology's Hybrid RAID - fine technology, but only if you've got several more identical Synology boxes to drop orphaned disks into.

Finally, you didn't mention actual amounts of data, but unless you've got >1TB disks on those laptops or some extraordinary data flow, you probably don't need **or want** an entire 3TB disk just for those laptop backups. Also, you're option #5 makes me think you don't have anywhere near 6TB of actual data, but more like ~2 for the foreseeable future?

So, what I would do:
* "reasonable" size partition (1.5 x active PC disk) on Syn disk 1 for PC backups
* same/similar size partition on Syn disk 2 for Mac backups
* Don't forget phones, tablets and such - can probably toss into one of the above.
* Mirror remainder Syn partitions for media on 1 and 2.
* Offsite backups/archive of the media partition, either cloud or that 6TB drive (or better, a rotating pair of 3-4 TB drives). an offsite level 0 of your laptops/phones/tablets every 3-6 months. Could do both cloud and disk if you're really paranoid, but I'd probably skip the rotating drives since that's more hassle than it's worth, error prone, and likely to fall by the wayside.

One cost you have to weigh is that the NAS disks will have to be replaced every ~20k hrs (2-3 years of continual op, 3-4yrs if offline 8hrs/day). Negligible cost in your case, but I have 9x4TB disks in 2 NAS and 14TB offsite storage (cool incrementals + glacier archives). It makes cloud storage much, much cheaper than buying/storing disks.

 

[haggis999]

Are you opposed to any form of cloud backups or archives? It can simplify and greatly reduce costs for your overall plan. I go for encrypted "cool" storage, expecting it to be write-only unless the house burns down (but I still test it every month).

Also, beware any RAID that makes the NAS itself a single point of critical failure: If the NAS board pops, can you still get to the data? RAID1 (mirror) on bog-standard fs (ext2 or similar), and that only if needed for performance (which it isn't needed for just streaming video and similar). Beware anything like Synology's Hybrid RAID - fine technology, but only if you've got several more identical Synology boxes to drop orphaned disks into.

Finally, you didn't mention actual amounts of data, but unless you've got >1TB disks on those laptops or some extraordinary data flow, you probably don't need **or want** an entire 3TB disk just for those laptop backups. Also, you're option #5 makes me think you don't have anywhere near 6TB of actual data, but more like ~2 for the foreseeable future?

So, what I would do:
* "reasonable" size partition (1.5 x active PC disk) on Syn disk 1 for PC backups
* same/similar size partition on Syn disk 2 for Mac backups
* Don't forget phones, tablets and such - can probably toss into one of the above.
* Mirror remainder Syn partitions for media on 1 and 2.
* Offsite backups/archive of the media partition, either cloud or that 6TB drive (or better, a rotating pair of 3-4 TB drives). an offsite level 0 of your laptops/phones/tablets every 3-6 months. Could do both cloud and disk if you're really paranoid, but I'd probably skip the rotating drives since that's more hassle than it's worth, error prone, and likely to fall by the wayside.

One cost you have to weigh is that the NAS disks will have to be replaced every ~20k hrs (2-3 years of continual op, 3-4yrs if offline 8hrs/day). Negligible cost in your case, but I have 9x4TB disks in 2 NAS and 14TB offsite storage (cool incrementals + glacier archives). It makes cloud storage much, much cheaper than buying/storing disks.

Thanks for your reply.

I don't want to use cloud storage for now. I help negotiate IT contracts, and don't like what I see behind the scenes re cloud storage. Its just not for me, even though I recognize its convenient and could be cheaper.

You're right. 3 TB is overkill for the laptop/phone/tablet back-ups. Not necc at all. Once media files are migrated to NAS, the laptop backups added together won't be anywhere near 1TB. The 3 TB (or 6TB in JBOD) is really to provide future space for the inevitable avalanche of media files now that my baby is here.

It sounds like you aren't concerned about malware on media volume affecting a backup volume, in that either there is nothing that can be done about it, or the seperate volume set-up does, in fact, provide protection

 

[kab]

Yeah, cloud storage is "problematic" in many ways. I encrypt and chunk things locally, store the chunks on two sites, hope they both don't go out of business at the same time. If the NSA wants to waste its time on my photo & ebook collection, well, what can I say?

Primary defense against malware is the host firewall/virus scans and the home router firewall/scans; I do watch my router for any local hosts causing issues. Secondary defense is the Synology backup machines scanning the backups (turns up some false positives, so be careful). I use 2 synologys, and alternate backups between the two. My backup machines are not directly accessible from the internet. Oh, and lest I forget, I use rotating VM's for "normal" internet access/browsing, since my SO is drawn to dangerous internet sites like a bee to a field of flowers. When away from home (I don't travel w/ computer much any more), we use a VPN, and backups stage to yet another public host, get scrubbed, and commit to an alternate backup area until I flip a switch. I'm only mildly paranoid!

If you have any better suggestions, I'm all ears.