uncertain what you expect a NAS to do for you. 1) A storage area for archiving file backups? 2) a server for delivering source media to edit? 3) a place to centralize, store, and stream file data to distant connections and media boxes? NAS is not fast, not necessarily efficient, and problematic to access.

I've been using a Synology 410j for several years only for backups and archiving of old projects. I've also used it to excellent effect for streaming audio to my Oppo Blu-ray player for enjoyment on my home stereo system. It is indeed slow for any other purpose.

The 410j has a little blue light, reminds me of R2D2, sits quietly on a shelf, and just works flawlessly in the background. Never had a single problem with it. I once had to replace a bad drive; the 410j just rebuilt the RAID while I continued working.

I am looking it as a general backup/archiving solution and not for editing purposes. That I do on a couple of attached Seagate drives.

RZ

In that case it doesn't matter much what you put on the other end, as long as it lasts . . .

NAS storage is great but pls keep in mind if the hardware fails be sure you can recover and or replace the NAS. I have lost motherboards with on board RAID and lost the whole array because the board could not be replaced.

... if the hardware fails...

Right - better safe than sorry - and here I have got 2 Qnap 119plus with each a 2 TB disks connected to the PC through our Gigabit net.
One is separated from the PC-room by a firewall and fireproof door and the other is at the far end of the house.

Backups are done each second day alternately using GFI backup. Plus, for smaller recoveries (like when you forget to rename a project and save over an old one :-) to an internal 5900 Rpm 3 GB harddisk.

I run Thecus NAS boxes however QNAP does get better user reviews.

As others have said a failure in the NAS hardware itself can cause a lot of grief, been there, had that happen. Still I was able to get someone to recover the data and at the same time get the NAS mobo repaired quite easily and that's way more cheaper than data recovery.

Bob.

I recently added a CiragoLink Network USB Storage Device to my network, and it couldn't be easier to setup or use. Plus it has four USB ports and each can handle a 2Gb USB drive. Or a printer. And you can hot swap the drives. (Sort of, but you don't have to shut down all drives to swap one).

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/cirago-link-nus2000-network-storage-adapter-gigabit-ethernet-4-x/223430176.html?listingId=233790085

> I have lost motherboards with on board RAID and lost the whole array because the board could not be replaced.

Proof that ***RAID IS NOT A BACKUP*** (of course you know that already)

My goal is to have two NAS devices, one completely off-site, which use continuous 24/7 Internet file synchronization (as opposed to a scheduled backup). A set of removable drives, off-line and rotated to a third off-site location would also be wise.

I have been using the Drobo FS for a couple of years for archiving footage I need to be able to access for Vegas projects. I populated it with 5 3TB WD red drives and set it up for single drive safety (one drive can go out and it will re-build) although it can be set to 2 drive safety with less total storage. In single drive mode I have 10.86 TB of storage. My workflow is to pull my clips off of it into a project and then save the project with the media saved with it onto a local drive. for short projects I edit straight from the Drobo although the playback is choppy at times, the render times are acceptable. Their new 5N uses a SSD in addition to the storage drives and is supposed allow you to work directly from the machine, although I don't have any experience with that...yet...it is on my list of thins to get this year as my original drive is filling up. I have not had any issues with the machine as well as several photographers I work with have used them with great success as well.

What is NAS?

Reviving an old thread as a friendly reminder to people who are using NAS storage (or any storage for that matter) to please BACK-UP your IMPORTANT data!

I have a good friend who is in panic mode right now because he replaced a bad drive on his RAID5 NAS. While the NAS was repairing the drive a second drive died,causing the whole NAS array to become unavailable.

I mentioned to him in passing when he first bought it (in hindsight I should have been more persuasive) that he should have at least a USB external and/or a mirrored hardware NAS. I didn't what to make him feel worse in a "I told you so" because I felt really bad for him too. I tried to help him and looked up online on some forums and found that there have been other people who have had multiple drive failures during a re-build and the only solution was to go thru the vendor and see if they can remote into their box and recover one of the drives, via command line, and immediately move the data off the NAS.

I personally never felt totally comfortable w/ proprietary NAS storage because of "what if" scenarios like this. I've built a RAID5 w/ hot standby drive server for this friend over 15 years ago using 3WARE RAID card and quality hard drives on an Intel server grade motherboard and it's still working in his shop today. He only had to replace 1 drive since I put it into production. At the time it was a whopping 1 TB total capacity! With this setup if the 3WARE card failed I'd be able to get another one and easily replace it. Or even if the worst case, mother board failure, I'd be able to migrate the whole array to another motherboard.

I would have built him another server but, I just don't have the time anymore do that fun stuff much less keep up w/ this forum anymore. ):

NAS = Network-Attached Storage

Unless you're operating in an enterprise environment, I'd just backup up to portable USB 3 drives. I prefer WD. Retrieving stuff off a NAS can be a pain when they break (and they do).

-- tom

"What is NAS?"

Network Attached Storage.

And i agree, RAID in itself is not backup. RAID mirroring exists primarily to guard against drive failure. Whatever is stored/changed on one drive in the mirror is nearly instantly mirrored to the other drives. So, if you overwrite or delete a file accidentally the mirror of it is destroyed too. What mirroring is good for is that if one of the drives dies the other will carry on without it, with all the data still intact.

On the other hand, backup drives that use RAID mirroring re usually more reliable than those that do not.

Just use an old machine with a case that has a bunch of drive bays. Fill the bays with 4-6TB WD RED drives, mirror the drives in OS. Additional controllers can be added for more drives. Share the drives on the network. There is nothing special about dedicated NAS hardware, if anything, they are slower than normal hardware.

Optionally:

Max memory on the machine.

In windows set system optimized for background services.

Include an LTO in one of the 5 1/4 bays.

UPS with auto shutdown, to protect again power issues.

Use PRTG free to monitor and alert drive RAID status, SMART, and system issues via wmi.

Get a quality network switch, verify throughput, and jumbo framing.

Don't forget to check out FreeNas. Lots of options, uses stable ZFS file system among other things. Based on FreeBSD. Supports Plex media software as well.

I backup our network machines to a standalone server with three 2TB drives daily. Those then get copied to three 2TB external USB drives daily. Check the quality/accuracy weekly. Almost lost both copies of 15yrs worth of data when one internal and it's USB backup bit it at the same time. That's where RAID would have come in handy.

Ideally need an extra set of USB for weekly offsite storage.