Basic NAS for small office?

Triggster

Triggster

Triggster

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Joined
19 Apr 2007
Posts
23
Hi folks,

Currently have about 5 desktops with one main machine acting as a local server which holds our main sage dataset along with scanned documents etc. This has worked thus far but the problem is I need to update the main machine and any downtime on it negatively affects the rest. So I thought about a NAS drive.

The more I read the more I get confused, I think I may be over specifying. I initially thought about a off the shelf NAS with 3 1TB WD red disks however I have read that RAID5 should be avoided. I'm now currently thinking about a HP Proliant Gen 8, 4 1TB disks, 4Gb ram upgrade, 32Gb micro SD card and a copy of Free NAS running RAID10.

1TB is probably more storage than we will need for years to come, I do weekly backups of the main machine along with nightly back ups of sage.

Any thoughts?
 
id not touch a non windows box for small business... you come in Monday morning and it does not boot.. what do you do?

5 users id go for a hp micro server 2x hardware mirrored drives and windows 10 core..

if it breaks anyone can fix it, worst case pull the drive out and plug into your desktop...

If I walk into your office and you have a non booting / dead windows 10 "server", give me a spare windows PC I can have your file access back in 30mins

If you have a non windows box god knows

just make sure the "server" does not get used as a desktop
 
Kreeeee said:
Keep it simple and get a Synology 4 bay NAS.
Click to expand...

So something like this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/syno...ork-attached-storage-enclosure-hd-091-sy.html
With 4 WD red, under RAID 10 or is that overkill? Probably a more expensive option than the proliant however.



edscdk said:
id not touch a non windows box for small business... you come in Monday morning and it does not boot.. what do you do?

5 users id go for a hp micro server 2x hardware mirrored drives and windows 10 core..

if it breaks anyone can fix it, worst case pull the drive out and plug into your desktop...

If I walk into your office and you have a non booting / dead windows 10 "server", give me a spare windows PC I can have your file access back in 30mins

If you have a non windows box god knows

just make sure the "server" does not get used as a desktop
Click to expand...


I see what yer saying, I suppose with the Synology you buy another and hope it arrives the following day and let it rebuild.

What about windows server and maybe I could add some sort of user access as at the moment the accounts data is accessible. Then back to data resilience, RAID1, or get another HDD and go RAID 5?
 
Personally I like mirroring almost impossible for that to mess up..

Synology will likley not be selling the model you have by the time it fails!

Windows server, over 20 years I've decided generally its bad it will generally require support and when it dies you gotta sort out users profiles... Maybe there is not much in there maybe there is a load of settings.. If it's very simple access i like to keep it simple and map a network drive "as" to a windows workstation OS..

Low security but easy to fix and maintain Dont forget sage and other accounts packages have a login password.. 10 seconds to connect the 5 machines to the "server".. Does not matter if they are Windows home..

Just make sure they don't plan to add another 5 machines any time soon... Explain it only really works well if people use the same machines and only 1 or 2 restricted shares
 
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Nothing wrong with synology, their support is fantastic.

What are you doing to back this data up? So irrespective of whether your nas/server fails you can get to your data.
 
Vargas said:
Also backup to the cloud, so simple.
Click to expand...

Another thought, would I be better with a simpler/cheaper NAS and paying a monthly subscription for cloud backup or alternatively would buying a second NAS and placing it at home and initiating some sort of remote backup be possible?
 
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