External NAS & RAID-1?

[Mark M]

I am looking to purchase a new NAS for my small business set up and notice that some of them can be set up with RAID-0 and RAID-1. If I have read up correctly then RAID-0 combines 2, or more, drives into one combined drive but if one of those drives fail then you are basically stuffed unless you have other redundancy options in place? RAID-1 seems to offer a "built-in redundancy" by mirroring one drive to the other?

If I went with an external NAS with 2 drives and set them up in RAID-1 would this offer me an extra level of protection against a drive failing? If so is it easy to set up and does it require much, if any maintenance?

Im looking for a simple but robust solution.

Also, what happens if one drive fails? Does the NAS software warn you of it?

Any recommendations of NAS eclosures with RAID and also types of HDDs that will be reliable for light business use appreciated.

Thanks, Mark

 

[rpstewart]

If I went with an external NAS with 2 drives and set them up in RAID-1 would this offer me an extra level of protection against a drive failing?

Yes but that's the only thing it protects against

If so is it easy to set up and does it require much, if any maintenance?

No maintenance required, the NAS will deal with it. Normally there's a web based interface for managing the unit, much like you get on an router.

Also, what happens if one drive fails? Does the NAS software warn you of it?

Yes, it should do.

Any recommendations of NAS eclosures with RAID and also types of HDDs that will be reliable for light business use appreciated.

Generally you get what you pay for with NAS boxes, cheap ones tend to have slower processors and hence can't shift data as quickly as more expensive models.

As for drives the WD Red range are supposedly built for running in the likes of NAS boxes but I wouldn't get too hung up on that. Instead I'd make sure whatever I went with was on the compatability list for the NAS.


Have you thought about backups? Whatever you do don't think RAID1 is the same as a backup, it's just an availability solution.

 

[Mark M]

Thanks for the detailed response. I currently have all my data stored on my laptop with another laptop accessing the data from my laptop, my laptop has all the data synced to a USB HDD but it is about 4 years old so I want to replace it an thought a NAS box may be a better solution.

I also backup online using Acronis Backup.

Can you think of a better solution or will the NAS work well for what I want to achieve?