Does not RAID with more than 1 drive give a backup? Why do I need an additional hard drive to back up to?
On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 22:16:06 -0600 Shawn Grover <sgro...@open2space.com> wrote: > I bow to the other info presented in this thread. But I can > comment a little on the hardware. > > We picked up both a 2 bay and 4 bay QNAP box at work. Both > have been running very reliably and are surprisingly quite. > Both are loaded up with 4TB drives. The 2 bay unit is > configured in Raid1, so it has a total of 4TB capacity (well, > slightly less...). The 4 bay unit is configured with Raid10, > giving us 8TB storage, with another 8TB of hot fail. The 2 > unit device serves as an RSYNC target for the 4 unit device > - purely a back up system. ( later picked up a cheaper more > consumer brand 2 bay QNAP for home use and have enjoyed good > success with it as well.) > > With this configuration we are reasonably sure we can recover > data quickly should we ever loose a drive. This was NOT the > case when the hardware RAID 5 controller on the storage server > that pre-dated these boxes decided to crap out. Luckily I was > able to get most of our data from the RAID 5 array before it > went for good. > > The one thing I would do different with the current > arrangement is to move the 2 unit backup NAS offsite. Now > that it has been sync'd locally, doing RSYNCs over the > Interwebs would be a minor inconvenience. We did some quick > math about doing a remote backup of everything from scratch > and arrived at somewhere between 2 to 4 weeks of solid data > transfer, utilizing the available bandwidth we typically see. > So I'd recommend a local RSYNC if possible, then move the > backup device and then set up remote backups to minimize the > data transfer hits for that initial backup. > > My thoughts. > > Shawn > > > On 14-05-30 10:20 AM, Bogi wrote: > > Hi Joe, > > Having a single drive external, while better than nothing is > > way not as good as having a 2 bay / drive raid 1 enclosure. > > in terms of safety i am talking. A step up in terms of > > safety would be a 4 drive raid 1 or 5 enclosure. A step up > > in all these cases, is having the drives/enclosures as a NAS > > device sitting in a different place (safer?) than the backed > > up computers are, and connected with the network to them. > > > > Most 2-4 drive enclosures (that come with drives) state the > > capacity as a raid 0, which can be tricky for the > > uninitialized. A raid0 configuration will not increase > > safety, in fact it will reduce it drastically, so when > > looking at populated 2 - 4 drive units, as a rule of thumb, > > half the capacity for 2 disk units (to get the capacity in > > raid 1 terms). the 4 disk raids a bit more complicated. you > > can treat them as 2 pairs, this halving the capacity, or as > > a 4 disk raid 5, in which case you get 75% of the total disk > > capacities. > > > > For direct connect enclosures, look for e-sata capability, > > look for usb3 , specially if your backed up computer has > > these ports, you can not go wrong with these features. > > > > For NAS devices, look for the once that have dual gigabit > > Ethernet connectors, they usually perform better speed wise. > > > > If you are going to invest on a 2-4 or more drive external > > nas unit, think about augmenting it with UPS (uninterrupted > > power supply), for capacity, add up the power rating on the > > NAS unit. If you want to skimp out on the UPS, just get a > > surge protector, it's your data after all. > > > > Here are some pointers: > > > > Single drive, direct connection: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX45802 > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX22324 > > > > Dual drive, direct connection: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40154 > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX43461 > > > > 4 drive, direct connection: > > (do consider the noise of 4 drives spinning near your > > desktop) > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX30898/Reviews and of > > course the drobo: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX42950 > > > > Single drive, NAS: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32282 > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33812 > > > > Dual drive, NAS: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX47066 > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX49052 > > > > 4 drive , NAS: > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39139 > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX49654 > > > > And you still need to get your drives. > > Generally look for NAS / Storage rated drives, Green rated > > drives tend to perform poorly in raid environments. > > Desktop / workstation rated drives will do fine, specially > > under low/medium stress situations. > > > > > > > > > > On May 29, 2014 Thursday 14:22:21 Joe S wrote: > >> I was reading the reviews of external hard drives. I found a > >> number had problems with reliability. I don't have > >> experience with these, but need something for backing up my > >> home computer. Are there any that can be recommended? I > >> also thought of getting an enclosure and a regular drive in > >> case I have to replace it in the future. Probably 1 TB or > >> so. > >> > >> > >> Thanks for suggestions > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> clug-talk mailing list > >> clug-talk@clug.ca > >> http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > >> Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > >> **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > clug-talk@clug.ca > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > clug-talk@clug.ca > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list clug-talk@clug.ca http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
