07-07-2022, 04:30 AM
I apologize if this is a duplicate. I tried to send from my phone a few days ago and the progress icon never stopped spinning, so I don't know if it went through.
First, some background. I currently have a Drobo 5N that has been giving me good service for many years, but is now getting to the point where I’m maxing out on available space; every month or so I’m getting status warnings until I delete or move data. The unit has 16TB installed (4x3TB, 1x4TB WD Reds) with about 12TB available after single disk redundancy. The current firmware only allows for 16TB, and although I understand that I can increase that to 64TB with different firmware, it can’t be done without removing and reloading all the data. Since this would involve getting something to off-load all the data to, then upgrading to new HDDs anyway, I started looking for a new solution and came across your YouTube videos. They're great by the way.
I’m a home user, and right now the main use for the Drobo is for media storage. I use the Plex Media Server on my PC as I found the app on the Drobo never worked well for me; or at least I never spent enough time trying to get it to work better. With a new NAS I will want something that will handle Plex directly, and I will also start doing a local backup of my PC as well; currently my PC is backed up off-site using Backblaze. I should also look at backing up my wife’s iMac beyond the external drive that holds her Time Machine files. Oh, and there are also a couple decades of photos that we should get around to organizing.
Anyway, from watching your videos I am looking at the following setup, and I would like your opinion as to suitability for my use scenario. (Much of it is available on sale in my area (Canada) this month)
NAS - DS1520+ (with stock 4GB memory) $929 CDN
DRIVES - 3 x IronWolf 12TB (ST12000VNA008) - $295 CDN ($885 CDN) (This would increase my available storage to 2.5x the amount of data that I will initially load. I could increase this to 4 drives from the start if there would be any benefit, or just have the extra bays in reserve.)
CACHE - No NVMe cache as it doesn’t seem to be beneficial for my main goal of a Plex server. However, I can get Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe (MZ-V7S1TOB/AM) PCIe 3 x 4 for $140 CDN if I’m wrong.
RAID/FILE SYSTEM - I will use SHR with single disk redundancy, and BTRFS. Over the years I twice had to replace a failed drive in the Drobo and the hot swappable feature made it so simple that I want to stay with something that can offer that feature, as well as handling potentially mismatched drives, and SHR seems to provide that if I've understood your videos correctly.
I still have what are probably the usual questions about should I get something with more bays, or slots for upgrades, but I don't really see that as being an immediate concern as I don't have anything else that's above 1GBe.
That’s it. Your thoughts?
Regards,
First, some background. I currently have a Drobo 5N that has been giving me good service for many years, but is now getting to the point where I’m maxing out on available space; every month or so I’m getting status warnings until I delete or move data. The unit has 16TB installed (4x3TB, 1x4TB WD Reds) with about 12TB available after single disk redundancy. The current firmware only allows for 16TB, and although I understand that I can increase that to 64TB with different firmware, it can’t be done without removing and reloading all the data. Since this would involve getting something to off-load all the data to, then upgrading to new HDDs anyway, I started looking for a new solution and came across your YouTube videos. They're great by the way.
I’m a home user, and right now the main use for the Drobo is for media storage. I use the Plex Media Server on my PC as I found the app on the Drobo never worked well for me; or at least I never spent enough time trying to get it to work better. With a new NAS I will want something that will handle Plex directly, and I will also start doing a local backup of my PC as well; currently my PC is backed up off-site using Backblaze. I should also look at backing up my wife’s iMac beyond the external drive that holds her Time Machine files. Oh, and there are also a couple decades of photos that we should get around to organizing.
Anyway, from watching your videos I am looking at the following setup, and I would like your opinion as to suitability for my use scenario. (Much of it is available on sale in my area (Canada) this month)
NAS - DS1520+ (with stock 4GB memory) $929 CDN
DRIVES - 3 x IronWolf 12TB (ST12000VNA008) - $295 CDN ($885 CDN) (This would increase my available storage to 2.5x the amount of data that I will initially load. I could increase this to 4 drives from the start if there would be any benefit, or just have the extra bays in reserve.)
CACHE - No NVMe cache as it doesn’t seem to be beneficial for my main goal of a Plex server. However, I can get Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe (MZ-V7S1TOB/AM) PCIe 3 x 4 for $140 CDN if I’m wrong.
RAID/FILE SYSTEM - I will use SHR with single disk redundancy, and BTRFS. Over the years I twice had to replace a failed drive in the Drobo and the hot swappable feature made it so simple that I want to stay with something that can offer that feature, as well as handling potentially mismatched drives, and SHR seems to provide that if I've understood your videos correctly.
I still have what are probably the usual questions about should I get something with more bays, or slots for upgrades, but I don't really see that as being an immediate concern as I don't have anything else that's above 1GBe.
That’s it. Your thoughts?
Regards,