I need NAS device recommendations for tight-ish budget. Synology preferred for software/security.

[Enquiries]

Looking to have ‘cloud’ storage alternative.

Primarily for home videos and other files that are too large to store easily on sub-1TB sized laptop SSDs. Would like the ability to stream 1080p video in some capacity for maybe 1-2 concurrent users. Probably only 4-6 users total.

Also looking to back up 2 MacBooks (each 512gb) with full image backups (offsite only would be nice). Time Machine preferred but not necessarily mandatory I guess. Not sure how that would work remotely.

I’d like to have one offsite backup and local backups for each as they will be 10+ hours of driving away from each other. Might shy away from a RAID configuration at least for now since continuous operation seems unnecessary in our use case. The plan was snapshot backups (every few hours) locally and (daily) remotely for the main. Only (daily) local for the main’s offsite backup.

Budget is ideally around $700* ish (*including 4 years of ~$19 annual energy) so that it would break even in 4 years when compared to getting the following instead: Family Microsoft 365 (1TB per user. up to 6 users) $100 annually + IDrive (for computer image backups) 5TB for $80 annually.

I already have drives that should have life left in them, but they are mismatched. (1) 2TB + (1) 3TB WD red drives, also (1)2TB + (1)3TB 2.5 inch drives for snapshots. Previously used for WD MyCloud devices that are no longer supported. I have the ability to handle data migration and formatting of said drives. I anticipate minimal issues there.

The plan was to buy 2 Synology’s and use the 2TB and 3TB drives in a ‘just a bunch of disks’ configuration in the main server (at least for the next 4 years or so) with their respective snapshot drives attached, and purchase 2 new larger capacity drives (8-10TB each) for the offsite back-up in anticipation of future storage configurations/upgrades and the expectation of minimal wear on said new drives since they would only be accessed once daily. Also no RAID for offsite of course. Using second drive for snapshots instead.

Saw the DS220J on sale, but hesitant to bite due to low performance (if used for main) and lack of snapshot restoration or snapshot support?? (If used for off-site). Might go ahead and grab 2 10TB WD Red drives while their on sale for $160 each.

Considering waiting for the 2023 units or just grabbing a DS220+ as the main and something less expensive for the offsite. Unsure of what would make a good offsite server at this point with this configuration. Please advise. Thank you.

Also, can snapshots be written to an internal drive on multi bay Synology’s? I assume yes, but it would be a bummer to get a 2 bay for the offsite and find out otherwise.

[TribalHound]

I think your tight $700 budget might be a little too tight for 2 new synology's to achieve everything your aiming at in addition to extra HDDs.

Also, watch those HDDs you currently have - if they're only desktop / laptop spec then they won't be supported for 24/7 NAS use. Plus you'll need to wipe them to format inside the NAS.

WD Reds or Seagate BaraCuda's are what you really need.

There is always the second hand market, which might get you closer to your end goal on your budget, but the downside is you don't know the history of the device and if it's second hand it'll be an older model so might not have any warranty left or be supported for so long.

The simplest solution would be to get one good quality new NAS the DS218Play (min spec I'd recommend), DS220+ (ideal mid term) or DS720+ (best).

You can make it accessible to both sites (until budget allows for a 2nd NAS) - then keep the 'best' at your main site and ship the lowest spec to your secondary site.
In the interim time, those old HDDs could be used for your backups. For added safety you could keep a copy at your secondary site.

As for JBOD, there's typically no circumstance when this is ever used in NAS without first having a principal RAID array in place.
You can of course use your 2TB + 3TB red in a RAID 1 - only you'll be limited to 2TB of storage until you can replace one / both discs. That'll fill up quite quickly with your 2 MAC backups and cloud storage - but make sure you reserve 10% for snapshots.

NAS snapshots aren't quite as I think you're seeing them. They record the current data / state of the drive - post snapshot they log just the changes, so revert to snapshot is like an 'undo' button that removes all the changes made to your data since it was taken.

Here's a link that explains a little more about Synology Snapshot management:
https://www.synology.com/en-uk/dsm/featu...eplication

Hope this helps.

[piperviper]

I think your tight $700 budget might be a little too tight for 2 new synology's to achieve everything your aiming at in addition to extra HDDs.

Also, watch those HDDs you currently have - if they're only desktop / laptop spec then they won't be supported for 24/7 NAS use. Plus you'll need to wipe them to format inside the NAS.

WD Reds or Seagate BaraCuda's are what you really need.

There is always the second hand market, which might get you closer to your end goal on your budget, but the downside is you don't know the history of the device and if it's second hand it'll be an older model so might not have any warranty left or be supported for so long.

The simplest solution would be to get one good quality new NAS the DS218Play (min spec I'd recommend), DS220+ (ideal mid term) or DS720+ (best).

You can make it accessible to both sites (until budget allows for a 2nd NAS) - then keep the 'best' at your main site and ship the lowest spec to your secondary site.
In the interim time, those old HDDs could be used for your backups. For added safety you could keep a copy at your secondary site.

As for JBOD, there's typically no circumstance when this is ever used in NAS without first having a principal RAID array in place.
You can of course use your 2TB + 3TB red in a RAID 1 - only you'll be limited to 2TB of storage until you can replace one / both discs. That'll fill up quite quickly with your 2 MAC backups and cloud storage - but make sure you reserve 10% for snapshots.

NAS snapshots aren't quite as I think you're seeing them. They record the current data / state of the drive - post snapshot they log just the changes, so revert to snapshot is like an 'undo' button that removes all the changes made to your data since it was taken.

Here's a link that explains a little more about Synology Snapshot management:
https://www.synology.com/en-uk/dsm/featu...eplication

Hope this helps.

I think I had Synology’s snapshots conflated with WD’s MyClouds snapshots. I’m meaning local backups. So no just a journal but a method of recovery in case a drive fails (but not a mirror like RAID 1). 

The (loose) plan now is to have a DS220j (purchased to lock in a sale price of $150 but plan to return if my research finds it unsuitable) for the backup site with 2 - 10TB WD Reds (sale price of $160 each). 1 of these 10TB drives was going to serve as the remote backup, and one to serve as a local backup for itself, in case of drive (or backup) failure. Was going with a 2 bay for the option of a RAID1 array in the future as initial investment costs are ‘paid-off’, in a manner of speaking.  (Perhaps raid for backup location is over-kill… uptime is still not a major priority)

Question: Can a local backup be on an internal drive in a Synology unit?

I understand forgoing Raid is untraditional, but also Raid is not a backup. While the up-time would be welcome, I’m more concerned with retaining the data (home videos). Not for business use, so it being down for a few days for a drive failure is not the end of the world in my book. 

I understand this may be a performance issue for the main site (read speed). Not sure by how much though. Definitely thinking of a DS 220+ for the main lately. Thank you for the DS218play suggestion. I might see what those run nowadays and what performance to expect.

The drives (loosely) planned for the mains are indeed WD Red’s (2TB and 3TB). They have a bit of age, but they have spent much of that time sleeping. Given that they are NAS hard drives with a lot of sleep time, I figure they should last a few more years, perhaps longer depending on usage (I understand that’s certainly not guaranteed). Both of those single bay MyClouds had local backups on 2.5 inch drives. Was planning to use them for the same purpose. Also have slept most of their lives. They are not as old as the NAS drives. Figured if one of those dies, I could replace it before the NAS drive dies. Worst case scenario, I’ll have to use the offsite backup to restore if the a 2.5 inch and it’s corresponding NAS drive both die. Could drive it for a local restore depending on the time of year, or pay Comcast overages and wait on a remote restore. Still planning on a JBOD setup for the 2 NAS drives with corresponding local backups on 2.5 inch drives at this point. I plan to potentially make a RAID1 array one day when I replace these old drives, but was going to stick with JBOD and prioritize local and offsite(w/ it’s own local) backups until then. 

Questions:
Thoughts on this plan? Will there be significant performance issues with the main unit without a RAID1 array? 
 
I’m sure I still have several knowledge gaps here, so please let me know if it looks like I’m missing some key details. Not super experienced with NAS setups yet (only used a WD myCloud for several years), but I’m otherwise fairly savvy I think (IT degree). Seeking council before I lock a plan in place. 

Context for the budget:
Also $700 is a goal, not necessarily a hard cap. I’m comfortable going a little over, but I want to stay as close as I can. The goal is to save money over other services (while also factoring energy costs and future Synology device replacements, assuming 8-10 year lifespans of security support). If it doesn’t ‘pay for itself’ in under 7-8 years, I might as well just go with cloud services and put my potential maintenance time to better use if that makes sense. Just letting you know some of the logic behind these plans. Thank you for the reply!

[TribalHound]

OK, So I get that the 1st 10TB is an offsite backup of site 1 that already hosts the data somewhere on the network.
But the 2nd 10TB drive to serve as a backup for itself ? I hope you mean data already on site 2 and not a backup of the NAS on the same disc, because a backup on the same disc as the original data is just a copy, lost if that one disc fails along with the original ?

So the NAS isn't being used as a NAS but as 2 JBODs, one backing up data from site 1 and one backing up data from site 2.
In which case, there is no redundancy for a drive failure in the NAS or redundancy for drive failure at either site - only another disc that has a copy, so the data would have to be completely re-written to either the original location or the backup device if any disc fails.

In that scenario, you'd create an allocated volume (Let's call it Site 1 Backup) - from your NAS you'd set up a local business backup to save files to that volume.

However, I'd be more inclined to network a NAS at each site, that becomes your primary shared data store for that site. Using RAID1 allows access even when a disc has failed, that you can rebuilt without any down time. If space permits in your 10TB capacity - get each NAS to backup the primary data of the other.

So NAS 1 - Volume 1 - Data for Site 1 (shared access), NAS 1 - Volume 2 - backup for Site 2 (restricted access & scheduled in the evening)
NAS 2 - Volume 1 - Data for Site 2 (shared access), NAS 2 - Volume 2 - backup for Site 1 (restricted access & scheduled early morning)
You could also create multiple volumes that compartmentalise your data further.

So in effect you'd have 2 copies of your data at 1 at each different site, additionally each site is covered for a disc failure.

If you're 10TB capacity isn't enough (or in addition) use those older different sized discs as USB plug in and remove drives (locally) where you can save critical data to for each site, then pop them in a fire-proof safe or stick them in your bag and take them home. Alternatively, if 10TB is over the top, you can populate NAS 2 with them in the short term and expand capacity later.

This video by Synology gives an overview of site to site backups and replication:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlQnvIAyFg4
It may assist in targeting your systems to a clear end goal, and so avoiding having to re-set up as you expand.

Using both discs as JBOD initially you wouldn't be able to RAID it later without wiping both discs, so it's defeating the object (slightly) of getting a NAS as opposed to an external HDD enclosure plugged into any device on site and mapped as a network share.

If it helps at all, I store NO data (that I want to retain) on any PC / Tablet / Phone (if a device fails, gets damaged or stolen, I've lost nothing) - it ALL gets written / cloned to multiple DATA volumes on my main NAS (Photos / Videos / Music / Work data / Personal Data / Downloads / Software images / Cloud copies) - from which I just map a drive or use the NAS remote access tools.
My Main NAS runs a RAID1 array for that data (2 copies, but one device, same location, drive failure redundancy) - snapshots are taking daily / weekly depending on the criticality or frequency each volume changes.
Once a month I plug a USB HDD in - run a one way 'update' of my 'must not lose data' (I can always redownload software / music / movies), then unplug and it goes in the fire safe.
Since I bought a 2nd NAS (main), the old one was demoted - it runs my home surveillance and actively backs up all my primary NAS (again Raid1) to my detached garage.
When I buy a third, I'll demote the primary and then put the oldest NAS at a relative's house and use it as a critical backup device only.
The only eventuality I'm NOT covered for, is a nuclear blast big enough to take out my house, my garage, and my relative's house - at which point my data will not be critical or we'll all be dead.

Hope this helps - as for performance RAID / JBOD - no real noticeable difference from an end user perspective.