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+--- Thread: New to NAS - RAID / UPS questions (/showthread.php?tid=7929)
New to NAS - RAID / UPS questions - Enquiries - 11-19-2022
Hi Robbie/Eddie - I am trying this one more time; I still haven’t been able to see your response. My latest thought is Yahoo is accidentally routing your email response to the dreaded Junk folder. So, if you already responded, please resend your response and I will double check my junk folder for the next few weeks. Thanks so much. -Brian in US
My exact question is copied below:
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Hello Robbie,
Thanks for all the work you do to make videos that are useful - and understandable!
This will be my first NAS - I am building it for my family to store and share photos, videos and files in a “cloud” that we own.
So I have to convince my wife that it is safe. (Yikes) And I am super nervous that my plan might put the high-value family data (photos and videos) at more risk than they are currently - stored in individual phones, laptops, hard drives.
So far, my plan is to buy: the DS220+, Seagate Iron Wolf 4TB drives, an external 5TB drive for permanently attached USB backup, and possibly a secondary drive for 1-button copy backups that I can disconnect.
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Question 1: Why use RAID?
Please hear me out.
Since NAS is new to my family, I am guessing I won’t need the extra speed that RAID provides - only three users to start, mostly using NAS for backing up data. (Cloud function will come after everyone gets comfortable,)
From what I have read…
RAID seems unstable - is it true that if there is ONE ERROR (like a URE) on the disk that the whole array will be lost? …I heard this from another YouTuber. (Thio Joe Tech - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A2OxG2UjiV4 )
I am hoping this is incorrect - I would expect the frequent health checks done by both Synology and Seagate would find these errors and possibly segregate that sector of the drive before the error causes a failure in a critical action - like an array rebuild.
I would also hope that a RAID array would be more robust to a single error - essentially allowing only a SMALL portion of the data to be corrupted by a bad sector without loosing the ENTIRE data set in the array.
If RAID arrays ARE prone to this type of error, why would I risk it?
It seems that MULTIPLE BACKUPS with non-RAID hard drives might be sufficient and safer than building a potentially risky RAID array.
Can you set me straight - tell me, Is RAID the way?
Or, are my fears about RAID being less stable than non-RAID drives justified?
(…again, remembering that I might not even notice or need the speed associated with RAID)
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You can stop here if you are tired of reading… but I do have one other, maybe simpler, question.
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Question 2: Does a NAS typically need pure sine input from a UPS?
Some of the UPS info online says that some sensitive(?) equipment doesn’t just need a UPS but also very accurate sine waveform - something about PFC. I noticed in your UPS video that you were using a CyberPower UPS with “Pure Sine Wave” output. Is that required for Synology NAS?
Thank you! …for reading my long question(s). Any feedback you have will be great.
Sincerely,
NAS newbie - Brian
RE: New to NAS - RAID / UPS questions - ed - 11-20-2022
Yes. DS220+ would be a very good choice. It comes with a graphics chip built in. This allows you to access your videos and surveillance footage remotely. Not just at home.
Synology comes with great mobile apps that will simplify your phone backups. This will also allow you to organise your home media in a very user-friendly way such as GEO, AI etc.
Synology will come with data scrubbing function built in. This will regularly check your hard drives bit by bit. If something is wrong it will be alerted or fixed.
Some people prefer RAID6 with two drive parity. Thinking this ensure there is no bitrot. Some other people go for ZFS files system. I thin data scrubbing is enough.
Either way, there are other disasters you need to be prepared for. Flood, fire, theft.
When you use UPS, you need to make sure they have USB port. This will allow your NAS to timely initiate shut down procedure. Other UPS would not help much since they would run out juice and kill the NAS.
I hope this helps . https://nascompares.com/cheapest-ups-for-synology-qnap-nas/