Back up Strategy Advice (another one...)

[Deleted member 49549]

Hi All, looking at simplifying my 'data strategy' (i.e. getting rid of all the miscellaneous hard drives plugged into my router). First some info.

Data:-

• I have about 800 GB of photos in total. Currently these are split between my laptop and a hard-drive connected to the wireless router. Laptop is backed up via time machine and crash plan. External drive is backed up manually off site and to crash plan.
• Media. I have around 1 TB of media, currently on a hard drive plugged into the router.

I wish to get a more robust solution. I was thinking either a microserver or raid array. However, I do not need disk redundancy on the media. Can I set up a raid array so that the photos are mirrored, and the media is held on a single disk. Backups will be made offsite for all data, and also to crash plan for the photos.

I would like to have quite a bit of future capacity, so total drive space for photos of around 3tb, and 4tb for media. This will need an approx 10TB array of raid. Maybe a 3 disk raid x 4GB? Micro server, Synology or other?

Thoughts?

(Side question, can a micro server or Synology stream iTunes media without having the mac switched on?)

 

[Snapsh0t]

I really don't like three-drive RAID5 because there's too much chance of data loss if they're fairly full and one fails so I would have either a pair of drives in RAID1 for the photos and a single drive for the media or a four-drive RAID5. The latter would let you use smaller, cheaper drives, say 4 x 3TB. There's a bit of confusion between your third and fourth paragraphs as to which you want.

The hardware you use to host your drives depends on how much effort you want to put into it. A commercial NAS (choose from Asustor, QNAP or Synology) is the simplest but most expensive solution. It's worth coming up from the bottom of the range to get a better CPU and therefore speed.
An HP Microserver is cheap (until you add 16GB RAM) but you need to allow for an OS and the time to install it. Also note that the Microserver's RAID controller doesn't support RAID5 but any non-Windows OS you're likely to install will do it in software.
Finally, there's the DIY route: a mini-ITX mobo & CPU of your choice plus a suitable case and you have a server that's barely bigger than a Microserver but has a lot more processing power.


BUT, as we always say, RAID is not backup so you'll need to carry on with your existing backup arrangements.

 

[Alastair]

You've got until the end of the month for the microserver cashback..

The microserver (using FreeNAS) would let you set up a two disk mirror for your photos with a separate non-mirrored disk for your media. I just run a two disk mirror but I can see how you would be able to add the third in that way.

Not sure about your itunes question, not something I'm familiar with. Other than this my own motivation for going to the microserver was very similar.

 

[Deleted member 49549]

I really don't like three-drive RAID5 because there's too much chance of data loss if they're fairly full and one fails so I would have either a pair of drives in RAID1 for the photos and a single drive for the media or a four-drive RAID5. The latter would let you use smaller, cheaper drives, say 4 x 3TB. There's a bit of confusion between your third and fourth paragraphs as to which you want.

The hardware you use to host your drives depends on how much effort you want to put into it. A commercial NAS (choose from Asustor, QNAP or Synology) is the simplest but most expensive solution. It's worth coming up from the bottom of the range to get a better CPU and therefore speed.
An HP Microserver is cheap (until you add 16GB RAM) but you need to allow for an OS and the time to install it. Also note that the Microserver's RAID controller doesn't support RAID5 but any non-Windows OS you're likely to install will do it in software.
Finally, there's the DIY route: a mini-ITX mobo & CPU of your choice plus a suitable case and you have a server that's barely bigger than a Microserver but has a lot more processing power.


BUT, as we always say, RAID is not backup so you'll need to carry on with your existing backup arrangements.

Hi jonathan, the numbers are inconsistent as I am just approximating what I think I need. I shall investigate the cost difference between the NAS and the servers.

You've got until the end of the month for the microserver cashback..

The microserver (using FreeNAS) would let you set up a two disk mirror for your photos with a separate non-mirrored disk for your media. I just run a two disk mirror but I can see how you would be able to add the third in that way.

Not sure about your itunes question, not something I'm familiar with. Other than this my own motivation for going to the microserver was very similar.

Thanks Alastair.

One problem I have discovered, nobody seems to have the cheaper 4 bay Gen 8 Microservers in stock...