Wols Lists wrote: > On 08/12/2022 13:31, Mark Knecht wrote: >> >> >> On Thu, Dec 8, 2022 at 5:38 AM Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com >> <mailto:rdalek1...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> > >> > Howdy, >> > >> > I've pretty much reached a limit on my backups. I'm up to a 16TB >> hard >> > drive for one and even that won't last long. Larger drives are much >> > more costly. A must have NAS is quickly approaching. I've been >> > searching around and find some things confusing. I'm hoping >> someone can >> > clear up that confusion. I'm also debating what path to travel down. >> > I'd also like to keep costs down as well. That said, I don't mind >> > paying a little more for one that would offer a much better option. >> > >> > Path one, buy a NAS, possibly used, that has no drives. If >> possible, I >> > may even replace the OS that comes on it or upgrade if I can. I'm >> not >> > looking for fancy, or even RAID. Just looking for a two bay NAS that >> > will work. First, what is a DAS? Is that totally different than a >> > NAS? From what I've found, a DAS is not what I'm looking for since I >> > want a ethernet connection and the ability to control things over the >> > network. It seems DAS lacks that feature but not real sure. I'm not >> > sure I can upgrade the software/OS on a DAS either. >> > >> > Next thing. Let's say a NAS comes with two 4TB drives for a total of >> > 8TB of capacity from the factory, using LVM or similar software I >> > assume. Is that limited to that capacity or can I for example >> replace >> > one or both drives with for example 14TB drives for a total of >> 28TBs of >> > capacity? If one does that, let's say it uses LVM, can I somehow >> move >> > data as well or is that beyond the abilities of a NAS? Could it >> be done >> > inside my computer for example? Does this vary by brand or even >> model? >> > >> > Path two, I've researched building a NAS using a Raspberry Pi 4 >> 8GB as >> > another option. They come as parts, cases too, but the newer and >> faster >> > models of Raspberry Pi 4 with more ram seem to work pretty well. The >> > old slower models with small amounts of ram don't fair as well. >> While I >> > want a descent speed, I'm not looking for or expecting it to be >> > blazingly fast. I just wonder, if from a upgrade and expansion >> point of >> > view, if building a NAS would be better. I've also noticed, it seems >> > all Raspberry things come with a display port. That means I could >> hook >> > up a monitor and mouse/keyboard when needed. That could be a bonus. >> > Heck, I may can even put some sort of Gentoo on that thing. :-D >> > >> > One reason I'm wanting to go this route, I'm trying to keep it >> small and >> > able to fit inside my fire safe. I plan to buy a media type safe >> that >> > is larger but right now, it needs to fit inside my current safe. >> Most >> > of the 2 bay NAS or a Raspberry Pi based NAS are fairly small. >> They not >> > much bigger than the three external hard drives and a couple bare >> drives >> > that currently occupy my safe. >> > >> > One thing I'd like to have no matter what path I go down, the >> ability to >> > encrypt the data. My current backup drives are encrypted and I'd >> like >> > to keep it that way. If that is possible to do. I suspect the >> > Raspberry option would since I'd control the OS/software placed on >> it. >> > I could be wrong tho. >> > >> > One last thing. Are there any NAS type boxes that I should >> absolutely >> > avoid if I go that route? Maybe it is a model that has serious >> > limitations or has other problems. I think the DAS thing may be >> one for >> > me to avoid but I'm not for sure what limits it has. Google >> didn't help >> > a lot. It also could be as simple as, avoid any model that says >> this in >> > the description or uses some type of software that is bad or limits >> > options. >> > >> > Thoughts? Info to share? Ideas on a best path forward? Buy already >> > built or build? >> > >> > Thanks. >> > >> > Dale >> > >> > :-) :-) >> >> DAS is direct-attached-storage. I don't think you want that. > > Depends. If it fits in the safe, and can be connected using one of > these eSATA thingy connectors, it might be a very good choice. >> >> Synology (sp?) is sort of a big name in home & small office NAS >> boxes. You can buy the boxes with or without drives. I suspect you >> won't like the prices. > > I've been looking :-) I think the empty box costs more than the drives > you're going to put in it ... >> >> I wonder if you might consider what data on your backups needs to be >> immediately available and which doesn't. Possibly buy an 8TB USB >> drive, take a bunch of the lower priority data off of your current >> backup thus system freeing space and move on from there? >> >> I built my NAS devices using old computers ala Wol's suggestion to me >> maybe a year ago. They work for me but don't have the fastest network >> interfaces. >> > I get the impression Dale isn't actually PLANNING his disk storage. > It's just a case of "help I'm downloading all this stuff where do I > put it!!!" > > How much storage do you have in your actual computer? How much space > do you need IN ONE PARTITION? Can you get an external disk caddy that > you just slot bare drives in? > > I've no doubt you have good reason for wanting all this storage. I > just fail to see why you need huge drives for it if most of the time > you're not doing anything with it. > > Get yourself a basic 4-way DAS/JBOD setup, PLAN where you're putting > all this stuff, and plug in and remove drives as required. You don't > need all these huge drives if you think about what you're going to do > with it all. (And while it takes time and hammers the system, I > regularly record off the TV getting a 2GB .ts file, convert it to mp4 > - same resolution - and reduce the size by an order of magnitude - > maybe more. > > If you've got two hot-swap JBOD enclosures, that's brilliant. You can > stream from your media centre to a drive, swap it out, and use a > second system to then organise your collection. > > Oh - and if you are worried about disks going walkabout, just LUKS the > whole disk, and without the key nobody can read it ... build your > partitions or whatever over it. > > Cheers, > Wol > > >
Getting some good info from different folks. Picking this to reply to, last message I read. I do have a lot of data in my system. I need the info at random plus want to keep a backup copy. If for no other reason, in case I accidentally delete or overwrite something. I've done that before. I also want backups in case of a sudden drive failure without warning. This is about my backup copy, not the drives in my system that I regularly use. I have a large Cooler Master HAF-932 case. I still got room there. I may at some point build a NAS for regular storage and everyday use. While I would like something power efficient and able to scale for that, I think a 2 bay, certainly a 4 bay, NAS will give me plenty of room to grow for my backups. A NAS for everyday use tho, that's for another day. I kinda like my current setup except that one large directory, it's to big for a single external hard drive. I need to span that data over two or more drives. That means either a NAS of some sort or another system. Since any system I build from old parts I have laying around would be to large, a NAS is the best long term route. I mentioned before, I wish I could split my backup script so that about half of the data goes to one drive and the other half to a 2nd drive. If I knew of a way to tell rsync to split files starting with 'a' through 'k' to one drive and files starting with 'm' through 'z' to the second drive, then I could span across two drives without needing LVM or similar software. I'm not aware of a way to do that without a ton of work and having to update my scripts each time I add or remove a directory within the larger directory. Some of this is sort of hard to put into text unless I write half a book about it. Basically, I'm needing a way to have external drives with enough capacity to hold a large directory. Also some room for growth and even upgrades would be nice. Whether I buy a prebuilt NAS or build one, whichever is the better option and affordable. Since I forgot to hit send after typing the above, I've got more replies to read. Dale :-) :-)
