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Purchase or build NAS Raid 1 solution

J

jcthornton

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
65
I am looking to replace an old ReadyNAS NV that is at least 4 years old. It never had the speed that I was expecting - although it has been very reliable (No drive failures, no lost data ever).

With the improvements over the past few years, I am looking to simplify somewhat, and the cost of several of the 2-drive Raid 1 solutions out there are tempting. But, before committing to that route, I wanted some feedback from the folks here.

My questions are 2-fold.
1. Why go homebuilt? For a 2TB (2TBx2) solution, what are my advantages to rolling my own right now? I want to be convinced, but am falling for the shiny allure of prepacked.
2. If I'm not convinced, any thoughts on which brand to go with? Synology is bubbling to the top as I look, but QNAP and Netgear [and others] are not eliminated. I do not want to go the route of a WD Live drive [prefer diskless or at least designed for user disk changes]

My Situation
4+ computer systems (reasonably, 6 + networked appliances). The main purpose of the NAS is to host shares for data files - so that I can blow away and replace the individual machines and only worry about programs.

Secondary concerns that I have is I want to be able to do backups of the NAS on an irregular basis for off-site storage. Planning on eSata or USB 3.0 portable drives.

Tertiary - nice to have, but not required - would be remote access to media stored on the NAS (internet - possibly through VPN). The ability to expand the storage further to act as a library for a media server (not the server itself, just storage) will be nice, but I may choose to do a second NAS when the home theater is done in several years to take advantage of other improvements in the interim.
 
jcthornton said:
I am looking to replace an old ReadyNAS NV that is at least 4 years old. It never had the speed that I was expecting - although it has been very reliable (No drive failures, no lost data ever).

With the improvements over the past few years, I am looking to simplify somewhat, and the cost of several of the 2-drive Raid 1 solutions out there are tempting. But, before committing to that route, I wanted some feedback from the folks here.

My questions are 2-fold.
1. Why go homebuilt? For a 2TB (2TBx2) solution, what are my advantages to rolling my own right now? I want to be convinced, but am falling for the shiny allure of prepacked.
2. If I'm not convinced, any thoughts on which brand to go with? Synology is bubbling to the top as I look, but QNAP and Netgear [and others] are not eliminated. I do not want to go the route of a WD Live drive [prefer diskless or at least designed for user disk changes]

My Situation
4+ computer systems (reasonably, 6 + networked appliances). The main purpose of the NAS is to host shares for data files - so that I can blow away and replace the individual machines and only worry about programs.

Secondary concerns that I have is I want to be able to do backups of the NAS on an irregular basis for off-site storage. Planning on eSata or USB 3.0 portable drives.

Tertiary - nice to have, but not required - would be remote access to media stored on the NAS (internet - possibly through VPN). The ability to expand the storage further to act as a library for a media server (not the server itself, just storage) will be nice, but I may choose to do a second NAS when the home theater is done in several years to take advantage of other improvements in the interim.
Click to expand...

You can get an HP microserver for $200 right now from neweggbusiness. Add in a bit more memory and you win on all fronts.

WHS = $50 and you get NTFS style data
FreeNAS + RAM = $50
Nex + RAM = $50
any other ZFS platfor + RAM = $50

so..$250 for a damn nice server.
 
I am in the same situation and decided on rolling my own. Here is why:

I compared the price for a Synology DS1512+ NAS. It retails for $799.

At a comparable price, I could build the below:
Asus P8B WS - $220
Intel Xeon 1225 - $220
Kingston 4x4 RAM (16GB) - $140
Adaptec 6405E SATA Controller - $360
Total = $940

So for an extra, $140 I built a WAY beefer machine than the Synology NAS which means I could do a lot more things with it. Load it with ESXi and you have the infrastructure for a small VM farm.

Also, you could drop the SATA controller and use the on-board SATA with FreeNas and you save yourself money while getting a much faster machine.
 
I should mention that I will be using some parts that I have laying around such as PSU and chassis.
 
why get a raid controller.. just get a jbod hba and do zfs or some other software raid
 
Who said RAID controller?

EDIT:
I see what you mean, but at these prices RAID is simply thrown in.

At least, I could not find a strictly JBOD SATA controller with 8 ports.

I went with 8 ports since we are talking about a NAS.
 
Last edited:
Looks like time to read up on ZFS and FreeNAS.

Nothing weird on restarting, etc.? I need my wife to be able to recover if the power goes out while I am gone, etc. I am assuming that once setup, mapping shares is as easy as mounting network drives and that different shares can have different limitations (some kept small, other share the remaining available space until it is full).

I assume that going with the hardware Raid SATA card is going to get me better performance than software - any hints on how much of a hit? I'll be reading up on those suggestions, but do not mind getting a head start here.
 
Never been a fan of DIY NAS solutions, too many parts that can fail, footprint it generally although not always (microserver is a good example) larger, plus you have to install and maintain an OS. Sure brand name NAS's cost more but your paying for the convenience and the fact that you generally don't have to do anything to them except apply an update once and awhile if you want to. I have three brand name NAS's, an older Netgear ReadyNAS NV, a QNAP and a Thecus, they meet my needs and I love them, I seldom touch them, just use them.
 
OK, I think I've figured out what I am going to do. I have an old box that has been dead. Never figured out why since I have the other machines. If I can resurrect that box, I will give FreeNAS a try. I'll update this if I do with any notes on my experience.
 
ashman said:
Never been a fan of DIY NAS solutions, too many parts that can fail, footprint it generally although not always (microserver is a good example) larger, plus you have to install and maintain an OS. Sure brand name NAS's cost more but your paying for the convenience and the fact that you generally don't have to do anything to them except apply an update once and awhile if you want to. I have three brand name NAS's, an older Netgear ReadyNAS NV, a QNAP and a Thecus, they meet my needs and I love them, I seldom touch them, just use them.
Click to expand...

If I had more money than time (by a large amount) and performance wasn't an important metric...I would agree with you 100% (especially in the 1 or 2 disc arena). However, the issue you touch on but largely try and pass off is cost. A HP microserver with upgraded RAM is ~$300. A good QNAP, RN, or thec is $400+; typically $700 for 4 bays. A really important quesiton that must be asked every time is $200-$400 worth your time? Only the user can answer that question..but it is an effing important quesiton.

Furthermore you try and say a SW based NAS need more work that prebuilt. I disagree here as well from a point of view. The SW base only needs more work if you choose to make it more work. Just because people are trying to constantly improve the SW doesn't mean you have to. For the prebuilts, you are largely at the mercy of the vendor's level of support which is why is they seem like "less work" (As a point of note...I haven't touched my WHS box in YEARS!) The only time a prebuilt really saves you is week 1 time. Beyond that...they are fundamentally equal. Thus my mian statement is...if you have no clue on how to build a NAS...the yes, a prebuilt is a smart idea.

Don't get me wrong, I've fielded out 3 QNAP boxes for neighbors in the past 2 years...but that is because their data needs are very low (2x2TB in RAID) and they have neglible PC skils. If it goes bigger than that, they get a microserver with WHS2011 and a crashplan cloud backup for critical data.
 
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