NAS HDD Configuration: Advice Appreciated

archer_dan · 6 Mar 2013 at 07:05

After a bit of research and some analysis paralysis, last night I ordered a Synology Diskstation DS212+ to cater for my home media collection and machine backups etc.

Now, my quandary is how to populate it. I had been looking at getting a DS112+ (found the DSD212+ cheaper

). I was planning on using a 3TB Drive then in time having that backed up to an external 3TB USB3 drive (only have around £130 to spend on drives atm).

Now though I'm confusing myself with options.

Option 1:
1 3TB WD Red now, with 2nd added later in RAID 1

Option 2:
1 3TB WD Green now, 2nd later RAID 1
(I'm not convinced the reds are worth the price difference, as though the NAS will be on 24/7, the drive access is only likely to be a few hours per day)

Option 3:
2 x 1 TB WD Red now in RAID 0, External Backup added later

Option 4 (Currently most likely):
1 3TB Red/Green in the NAS, 3TB External Backup and maybe 2nd drive for raid 1 added later
(Without RAID, i'm assuming the Green will perform better)

I'm currently using around 1TB for media (all stored on my desktop), so liking the idea of 3TB for future space, but could also revise down to 2TB for now.

What do you guys think? As far as I can tell, the performance of each option will be fine for my needs, just trying to decide if i should opt for true backup or RAID 1.

Deceptor · 6 Mar 2013 at 07:16

Ideally you'd want RAID & backup, whatever you choose go for the Red drives as they're designed for NAS usage (got 4x WD red 2TB in Raid 10 for a Synology ds1512+).

The -safest- option would be getting a backup solution right away and do raid later if you want, but if you're getting the backup drive just a few months down the line then you could risk going with raid first (the risk imo would be small, but that depends on the data being stored and how critical it is to you).

I should point out aswell that synology OS has a plethora of options for backing up too, to other drives, other machines, cloud services and it can even mirror another synology device

Hope that helps

YoungThomas · 6 Mar 2013 at 07:28

I have 6 x 2tb Red drives in my Readynas.

They are definitely worth the money over greens as the warranty is better and they are good for 24x7 operation.

As said above RAID is not a substitute for backups and it would be the first thing I'd address-

archer_dan · 6 Mar 2013 at 08:12

I agree with you that RAID is not a backup substitute. Ideally i'd go with 2x3TB RAID 1 + 3TB External Backup.

However with my funds being limited, I'm starting to think that the first thing to drop is RAID, and go with 1 drive w/ ext. back up.

Am I right in thinking the main advantage of RAID 1 is the self-rebuild?
(I've not run a RAID array before)

For the cost saving I can cope with the extra time required to restore a new drive from the backup drive.

archer_dan · 6 Mar 2013 at 16:00

Also, outside of a RAID environment, are the Reds still the better choice vs the greens?

welshdragon · 6 Mar 2013 at 17:50

I have had a pair of greens runs faultlessly in Raid 1 for a few years and now still going strong on their own. I currently use red drives and I have found them to be faster and quieter

archer_dan · 6 Mar 2013 at 21:19

Single WD Red drive + external backup seems to be my best bet then, and maybe and add a 2nd drive for RAID 1 later on, though for the added cost i'm not convinced of its advantages.

Deceptor · 7 Mar 2013 at 08:26

archer_dan said:
Single WD Red drive + external backup seems to be my best bet then, and maybe and add a 2nd drive for RAID 1 later on, though for the added cost i'm not convinced of its advantages.

Completely up to you really, I do like RAID in case a drive fails and that's really why I got a synology in the first place so it can handle all that for me, otherwise a basic NAS would have suited just fine.