Yet another "what's the best NAS to buy/build/scrounge"...
I need to upgrade my old Seagate 2TB single drive "NAS" (it's actually just a drive in a cheapy consumer-grade enclosure with 100Mb ethernet). The need to upgrade is driven by me wanting to migrate it to Gb ethernet for inclusion on a more sophisticated network setup (more on this later) and to have expandability.
I'm basically just confused as to what I should go for... the key thing for me is to get something/anything up and running for as little £ as possible since I'm spending a fair bit on other network infrastructure at the moment. What it must have:
1. Gb ethernet
2. Ability to grow with me
3. Initial disk size of 1x2TB (that way I can rip my old NAS apart and add that 2TB disk into the array in due course once it's up and running)
What I think I would like:
4. Ability to add more than 4 drives even if they're hanging out of its @rse
5. Better redundancy than I have at the moment (which is none!) - why do the Proliant microservers not offer RAID5?? Wouldn't that be a good-to-have?
6. Dual Gb NIC if possible then I can load balance through my smart switch with LAG
I'd also quite like to be able to tinker, which is what puts me off a ready-made solution like Synology/QNAP etc. (and the bang-for-buck).
What I don't need (I'm pretty sure)
7. Currently... any transcoding or remotely heavy lifting in terms of processing - this will just be serving data across two subnets to a PC and kodi boxes (music only, initially - and quite possibly only ever music)
8. It to look pretty - it can go into my rack if it's rack mountable, otherwise it will just sit in the loft
9. It to be small - ditto above
I really haven't a scooby as to which option is best. I'd like to be able to get some basic kit for £100 and don't mind 2nd at all. If that £100 could include a 2TB drive then brilliant but I'm not expecting it to...
I can see a new HP Gen 8 with cashback can be a steal but I'm nervous about the lack of RAID5 or am I just hanging onto an old idea about what a NAS should deliver? Bearing in mind I'm currently running just a single drive anyway - which I know isn't good.
Then I see old (really old) rackmount HP servers with 12x SAS enclosures etc... Am I just spending new £ on old cr@p there? Given I just want it to serve data...
It's to be used in my home and "home office" environment (hence the two subnets) but home office doesn't require me to subscribe to any particular standards since I can set my own IT policy
Thanks in advance
edited to add: Doing further research, I can see the reasons for perhaps not using parity RAID with consumer-grade drives. The NAS will be 95%+ read-only (if not far higher) which was my original thinking behind RAID5. I realise the power consumption of a newer gen Microserver would be far better than say a DL180 Gen6, but the latter is just perversely appealing Especially the one I've spotted which has 25 drive bays and dual PSU... Someone tell me to be sensible
I need to upgrade my old Seagate 2TB single drive "NAS" (it's actually just a drive in a cheapy consumer-grade enclosure with 100Mb ethernet). The need to upgrade is driven by me wanting to migrate it to Gb ethernet for inclusion on a more sophisticated network setup (more on this later) and to have expandability.
I'm basically just confused as to what I should go for... the key thing for me is to get something/anything up and running for as little £ as possible since I'm spending a fair bit on other network infrastructure at the moment. What it must have:
1. Gb ethernet
2. Ability to grow with me
3. Initial disk size of 1x2TB (that way I can rip my old NAS apart and add that 2TB disk into the array in due course once it's up and running)
What I think I would like:
4. Ability to add more than 4 drives even if they're hanging out of its @rse
5. Better redundancy than I have at the moment (which is none!) - why do the Proliant microservers not offer RAID5?? Wouldn't that be a good-to-have?
6. Dual Gb NIC if possible then I can load balance through my smart switch with LAG
I'd also quite like to be able to tinker, which is what puts me off a ready-made solution like Synology/QNAP etc. (and the bang-for-buck).
What I don't need (I'm pretty sure)
7. Currently... any transcoding or remotely heavy lifting in terms of processing - this will just be serving data across two subnets to a PC and kodi boxes (music only, initially - and quite possibly only ever music)
8. It to look pretty - it can go into my rack if it's rack mountable, otherwise it will just sit in the loft
9. It to be small - ditto above
I really haven't a scooby as to which option is best. I'd like to be able to get some basic kit for £100 and don't mind 2nd at all. If that £100 could include a 2TB drive then brilliant but I'm not expecting it to...
I can see a new HP Gen 8 with cashback can be a steal but I'm nervous about the lack of RAID5 or am I just hanging onto an old idea about what a NAS should deliver? Bearing in mind I'm currently running just a single drive anyway - which I know isn't good.
Then I see old (really old) rackmount HP servers with 12x SAS enclosures etc... Am I just spending new £ on old cr@p there? Given I just want it to serve data...
It's to be used in my home and "home office" environment (hence the two subnets) but home office doesn't require me to subscribe to any particular standards since I can set my own IT policy
Thanks in advance
edited to add: Doing further research, I can see the reasons for perhaps not using parity RAID with consumer-grade drives. The NAS will be 95%+ read-only (if not far higher) which was my original thinking behind RAID5. I realise the power consumption of a newer gen Microserver would be far better than say a DL180 Gen6, but the latter is just perversely appealing
Especially the one I've spotted which has 25 drive bays and dual PSU... Someone tell me to be sensible
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