Synology DS1511+/DX510 or Build own server?

Mysteriouskk

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
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Which would be better for me if I need to use the following below?

Media Server Streaming
--> Most Important --> Blu-Ray Backups
Music

Is the Synology Overkill?
 
Also been pondering this.

I'm turning my i7 rig into a ESXi host so it's either buy a ds1511+ or build a new box just for storage.

The way i see it, the Synology is a buy once, cry once deal. It's VMware certified and pulls 50W rather than the 300+W of a regular computer. Faster too I'm sure and easier to set up LUNs to segregate & protect my data.

Hmm...may have just talked myself into a DS1511+
 
I've got a DS1010+ myself and I absolutely love it. Get about 100MB/s read and write via gigabit.

Since its an intel Atom x86 CPU you can install any Linux packages you want. I've got several other server daemons running on mine.

The webui management Synology makes for their NAS is very very good and very convenient.

I've got 5x2TB drives in mine running in RAID5 and I actually just had one of the drives die last week. It wasn't unexpected as the NAS had been emailing me telling me that one of my disks kept having red error on a few sectors that were eventually read after several retries.

So one afternoon the box started beeping and had an orange light over one of the drive bays. All I had to do was swap out the bad drive and swap in a new one and hit the repair volume button on the webui. Meanwhile all my data and services were up and running as normal while one drive was failed and while it was repairing. I never even had to reboot the box or lose access to my data at all.

It took about 15 hours to rebuild the one drive on a 10TB array so it wasn't bad at all.
 
I've been wanting to build a zfs server, but it just seems so extremely complicated for someone who's never used anything but windows, and doesn't really have any experience with raids beyond my raid 0 os drives.

This looks like something I could handle though and I may end up going this direction.
 
I am also considering getting a Synology since my WHS died last week. I was looking to get the DS1511+ and DX510, until I saw that they will be coming out with a 12 drive-bay unit.

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=165&t=34407&start=30

Unfortunately, there is no release date stated anywhere. I need to get my server up and running soon, so I might end up with just rebuilding my WHS with an HP Microserver instead and save myself several hundred dollars.
 
]|[ Mar']['in ]|[;1037032935 said:
I've been wanting to build a zfs server, but it just seems so extremely complicated for someone who's never used anything but windows, and doesn't really have any experience with raids beyond my raid 0 os drives.
This looks like something I could handle though and I may end up going this direction.

Most of the complication though will be form people trying to get hardware outside the HCL to work, or trying to do complicated large scale setups. Basically if you pick your hardware before hand & get something that is known good then it very straightforward. If you want a small appliance like device you can pick up the HP Proliant Microserver for 300ish, throw in 5 disks, and be good.

Re: NAS's - the Synology and QNAP stuff is nice - if I were going to get a NAS it would be one of those. When you get down to it the higher end "NAS"'s are really nothing more now than a nicely packaged computer (like the HP Proliant) with a nice Web GUI - and support for your specific task.

What got me on the NAS front though was still the lack of end to end checksumming. As drives get bigger and you have more slots the odds approach unity that you will have some sort of bit rot, etc. with your data. In my mind the NAS is first and foremost for storing/archiving my data, and it really wasn't an option to compromise on that (i.e. the data will probably be good, the bit flip will probably be in a file where it won't hurt it too much, etc. didn't fly).
 
That 12 bay looks awesome but I'm sure it'll be pricier than a 1511+510 setup. Not that hardcore yet! :)
 
Most of the complication though will be form people trying to get hardware outside the HCL to work, or trying to do complicated large scale setups. Basically if you pick your hardware before hand & get something that is known good then it very straightforward. If you want a small appliance like device you can pick up the HP Proliant Microserver for 300ish, throw in 5 disks, and be good.

Re: NAS's - the Synology and QNAP stuff is nice - if I were going to get a NAS it would be one of those. When you get down to it the higher end "NAS"'s are really nothing more now than a nicely packaged computer (like the HP Proliant) with a nice Web GUI - and support for your specific task.

What got me on the NAS front though was still the lack of end to end checksumming. As drives get bigger and you have more slots the odds approach unity that you will have some sort of bit rot, etc. with your data. In my mind the NAS is first and foremost for storing/archiving my data, and it really wasn't an option to compromise on that (i.e. the data will probably be good, the bit flip will probably be in a file where it won't hurt it too much, etc. didn't fly).

It seems like short of making a 1000th thread about it, there's no real great way of making sure the hardware you pick is good together. I have a newegg wishlist that I made when I was trying to figure out what I would need for a good scaleable zfs server but meh.
 
]|[ Mar']['in ]|[;1037035779 said:
It seems like short of making a 1000th thread about it, there's no real great way of making sure the hardware you pick is good together. I have a newegg wishlist that I made when I was trying to figure out what I would need for a good scaleable zfs server but meh.

Do what you are doing with the NAS's - buy a complete package from a vendor that's been validated on the Solaris HCL.

Here's an Example:
Dell T310
It comes with 2 250Gb HD's, remove one (you can't remove both) for 500 bucks.
X3430, 4Gb Ram. Has 4 HD trays internally, 5 internal sata ports (one connected to optical drive, can be replaced with a another HD for 5 internal), and an eSata port (can be connected to an internal HD for 6 internal drives). Has 2 internal USB ports if you want to boot of USB to free your ports for storage.

If you need more you can add the "SAS 6Gbps HBA External Cntrl [add $199.00]" - LSI2008 based 8 port SFF-8088 connector to connect up to 8 more drives natively in an external enclosure, or more through a port expander.

If you want to put it together yourself, go with the supermicro X8SIL-F, Norco Case, LSI card with IT firmware in whatever number of connectors you need, and you are good to go.

Alternatively the HP Proliant Microserver "just works" - for 300 bucks with 5 drives I think (or 4?) it's a good deal.

Any of those 3 recipies is good. Trying to do a zacate build? Trying to use port expanders in complicated setups? Trying to use OEM HBA's crossflashed to other firmware? Great way to save money, but going to be necessarily more complicated. If you stick to one of the tried and trued recipies you will be fine.
 
I have the QNAP 419P and it really is helaciousl;y awesome. Set up iSCSI last week, its on the web, email alerts and most importantly is my iTunes Server. as i look to expand, the 12 Bay Synology caught my eye too. I will keep the QNAP as my iTunes server and run VMs off the Synology unit after I finish building my ESXi server. After MSE allowed a nasty but of Malware through, I am going to use VMs to surf the web and general monkeying around now....screw it.
 
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