Multiple NAS's - HD Streaming - One-to-Many Replication

clayman88

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I'm working on a project for a client where I need a minimum of 10TB of network-attached storage for at least 4 different locations. The NAS's will be used to stream HD movies and potentially music down the road. 99.9% of the devices accessing the NAS will be Apple. The goal is to copy all of the content to a single NAS and have that data replicated to 2-3 other sites. There is already an encrypted network between locations. I'm really not comfortable with hand-building anything as I just don't have the time to mess with it, plus I want a single contact for hardware support.

Requirements:
- 10TB Usable Minimum
- Enough IOPS to stream HD video to 3-5 devices simultaneously
- Replicate from one site to several others (Integrated or 3rd-party software)
- If 3rd party replication software, needs to be MAC compatible.
- Extremely reliable and user friendly. Most of the sites will not be accessible to me very often, if ever, so I want this to be a set it & forget configuration. At times I'll be guiding computer illiterate individuals through making changes over the phone, sooo...yeah. :D
- Manufacturer warranty & support
- Hot-swappable drives
- Rack-mount preferred
- Price is not a big concern. Let's say less than 10K per NAS, but preferably under 6K.


I appreciate all the input in advance. Please let me know if you need more details. Thanks!
 
This doesn't seem like anything too crazy. You could probably do it for 3K to 4K using some 8bay QNAP's and 8x 2TB SATA drives in RAID6. Replication can be done using the built software.
 
I would hand build servers that cost 2-3k and use freeNAS using good and new hardware, and stress test all of it.
Alternatively pay a builder like acme micro to build the chassis for you. Make sure it includes redundant PSU, battery backups, multiple hot spares. Keep on-site spare drives per site.

Build an an entire extra system at your site and keep it on the shelf.
Charge 5k per server, or 6k per with one year of support by __________.

Plan a backup system as well and provide the option to sell it.
Make them sign something saying you're not liable if they don't buy it.

FreeNAS works pretty well with osx, and with your price tag you can build in significant redundancies.
Setup ZFS replication to run at the intervals desired.

Sounds like a great opportunity to make profit.

No matter what you do, someone is going to have to support it, but I can't think of any products (by dell or HP) in that capacity and price range that you can buy in the price range that will provide on-site technicians that will check and make sure the replications work.
This is definitely a project for a third part small business, and if you have the time it might as well be you.
 
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hotcrandel, that sounds like a really good plan and I would love to try something like that, but I just don't have the time. I have a full time network/server administration job and this is a pseudo side project. Ideally, I would like for the replication software to be inherent to the NAS, but I'm not opposed to running a 3rd party application on a Mac device.

I've been doing some reading on the QNAP TS-869 Pro and it seems like a really good option so far. I'm still reading through the documentation, but I haven't found anything that definitively states it will do a one-to-many synchronization.
 
it says right on the product page the Qnap TS-869 Pro supports device to device replication.

It's under the heading "cloud storage"

I've heard good things about the Qnap and Synology products for their ability to synchronize, I think this would be an ideal solution for you as previously suggested
 
Ideally, I would like for the replication software to be inherent to the NAS, but I'm not opposed to running a 3rd party application on a Mac device.

I understand. FYI, freeNAS has really slick replication built in with ZFS.
 
Thanks for all the input so far. I appreciate it. As far as replication, the thing thats not 100% clear is whether you can replicate to multiple target devices or if its only a one-to-one.
 
How about Infortrend EON NAS Pro?

ZFS based
Replication provided via Rsync.
 
How about Infortrend EON NAS Pro?

ZFS based
Replication provided via Rsync.

Easily the worst vendor issue I've experienced in my career was with Infortrend.

We were rather happy with the EONstor units in the past, but trying 'new' products was awful, both from a support perspective (they fired all of their in-house US support/sales team a couple years ago), and a software perspective (their programming is atrocious).

They would have to be the last company making storage products on the planet before I would consider them again nor would I consider anything I could tell was OEM'd by them.
 
Really? Wow I ran some of their EONstor stuff too, and always had good luck.

Thats kind of a bummer to hear....they are really the only ones with SFF ZFS units out right now.
 
Anyone have experience with the new Netgear ReadyNAS 516? It looks like they do have the ability to do one to many replication.
 
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