NAS Recommendations (and Expectations)

Armageus · 7 Aug 2023 at 09:15

RSR said:
I have had the opposite experience with Synology, as I have a DS1621XS which had 6 x Samsung EVO 4TB drives in it and they all failed at once.

They aren't even NAS rated drives - so I'm with Synology on that one - why should they support something that's not even designed for that usage?
(Especially as your presumably running them in RAID so likely will exacerbate any issues)

Also presumably you installed them all at the same time? As with most things RAID, better to hedge your bets and buy from different suppliers to try and get different batches of drives, and with SSDs especially, stagger their install, so that drives have slightly different endurance so don't all fail at the same time purely on write endurance grounds

RSR · 7 Aug 2023 at 17:46

ChrisD. said:
They aren’t saying to install their drives, they are saying use compatible hardware. There are regular brands on their comparability list.

Here is the approved drive list (SSD)

I wouldn't even classify it as an "Enterprise" level product, but I will probably move to a Qnap later. As the WD Reds I am using now are on their approved list.

The SAT5200-3840G drives are currently £998.86 per drive on the cheapest place I can find, and the SAT5200-3840G are a bit more.

RSR · 7 Aug 2023 at 17:47

Minstadave said:
The move to

This sounds like a Samsung issue rather than a Synology issue tbh. Looks like 870 Evo issues are widespread.

Yes I know, I have had 10 of them fail on me in total.

RSR · 7 Aug 2023 at 17:51

Armageus said:
They aren't even NAS rated drives - so I'm with Synology on that one - why should they support something that's not even designed for that usage?
(Especially as your presumably running them in RAID so likely will exacerbate any issues)

Also presumably you installed them all at the same time? As with most things RAID, better to hedge your bets and buy from different suppliers to try and get different batches of drives, and with SSDs especially, stagger their install, so that drives have slightly different endurance so don't all fail at the same time purely on write endurance grounds

They had the 860 Evo's 4TB listed for the 1618+ which is what I upgraded from on the QVL list, rightly or wrongly I assumed the 870 EVO's would be fine on the 1621XS

Yes, there were 3 different suppliers as I covered that one off and used Synology F1 RAID, so one drive gets hammered more than the rest.

However, I have had no problems to date with the WD Red 4TB SA500 drives.

ChrisD. · 7 Aug 2023 at 18:00

RSR said:
but I will probably move to a Qnap later

Their support are no better and their software is a joke at times, good luck!

RSR · 7 Aug 2023 at 18:11

ChrisD. said:
Their support are no better and their software is a joke at times, good luck!

True but the amount it would cost for a unit that's approved according to the QVL, I could buy a QNAP TS-h1290FX and some drives, so it's not worth the outlay IMO.

Oddly the Samsung 870 Evo is on the approved list for the QNAP TS-h1290FX :cry:

Vince · 7 Aug 2023 at 18:13

I have 2 8 bay qnaps and a 4bay netgear - Can totally recommend the qnaps tbh! Great little devices.

Vince · 7 Aug 2023 at 18:48

ChrisD. said:
Their support are no better and their software is a joke at times, good luck!

Havent had any issues with either of mine, both exposed to esxi as well as doing other things and they have been super solid. Been impressed tbh, I mean its no san but still solid. The newer one of the two which is a TS-873A is running some sort of ryzen SoC.

ChrisD. · 7 Aug 2023 at 19:13

I've had various units over the years and the latest was the TS-673A. Couldn't wait to get rid of it to be honest. My DS1821+ has been an absolute dream in comparison.

I faced various issues including: TimeMachine, CIFS/file shares in general, iSCSI issues, networking oddities, terrible performance etc.

Vince · 7 Aug 2023 at 19:36

ChrisD. said:
I've had various units over the years and the latest was the TS-673A. Couldn't wait to get rid of it to be honest. My DS1821+ has been an absolute dream in comparison.

I faced various issues including: TimeMachine, CIFS/file shares in general, iSCSI issues, networking oddities, terrible performance etc.

wonder if its a windows vs mac environment thing, I have mine AD/Domain connected also. My 873A ive been super impressed with its performance. Had a celeron one before which I still have and that gets really chugged up at times.

ChrisD. · 7 Aug 2023 at 19:40

Vince said:
wonder if its a windows vs mac environment thing, I have mine AD/Domain connected also.

Nope, it was a software issue as with each release it got slightly better. I had AD, Windows VMs, ESXi hosts, Mac's, Linux VMs etc all connected in various ways. It got so bad nothing worked and I had to fat finger the thing. Support were useless, and I'd had similar issues with older units so in the end I just gave up as it wasn't working. They've also had their far share of Ransomware/security related issues due to lazy developers so I'm not entirely surprised there were issues elsewhere.

As mentioned since I've put the Synology in its place with the same NIC, networking, drives etc, and it's been flawless since January.

Vince · 7 Aug 2023 at 19:44

ChrisD. said:
Nope, it was a software issue as with each release it got slightly better. I had AD, Windows VMs, ESXi hosts, Mac's, Linux VMs etc all connected in various ways. It got so bad nothing worked and I had to fat finger the thing. Support were useless, and I'd had similar issues with older units so in the end I just gave up as it wasn't working. They've also had their far share of Ransomware/security related issues due to lazy developers so I'm not entirely surprised there were issues elsewhere.

As mentioned since I've put the Synology in its place with the same NIC, networking, drives etc, and it's been flawless since January.

Nice, One of mine are very much used as secondary so if that had major issues I probably wouldn't notice for months anyway. The other Im actually running in production right now in a test environment using the nas as the entire back end fingers crossed, so far so good.

Mcthommo · 8 Aug 2023 at 10:48

I have recently moved from a Synology 4 bay to an Unraid self build using an older pc I had lying dormant and have found that for me it is a lot more flexible, simpler and future proofed than the Synology was. I do very much like the Synology DSM and would still not be adversed to using one again but just the ease of the unraid allowing me to add more drives if needed makes things good for me

Andybtsn · 8 Aug 2023 at 11:44

After a week of using the Asustor, no regrets. Everything works as I wanted it to; I have IDrive for online backup linked to the NAS, so I have the resilience there. NAS also backs up from my drives on the PC, so I'm comfortable that nothing should be lost!

Filled around 4TB of the 8 of Media, it should be okay for a couple of years, then may expand, also have the 3 x M.2 bays. Not sure what I should use them for right now! Plex is a good experience over Kodi, some frustrations, but it's all working great.

Andybtsn · 23 Aug 2023 at 13:30

@Armageus hopefully you can help.

I have volume 1 on a 1TB M.2. I’m wanting to add another 1TB m.2 drive. Can you RAID such drives? I’m a complete noob to this. If you can, and I have to reinstall ADM, will my 2 x 8TB drives be affected?

Armageus · 23 Aug 2023 at 13:53

Andybtsn said:
@Armageus hopefully you can help.

I have volume 1 on a 1TB M.2. I’m wanting to add another 1TB m.2 drive. Can you RAID such drives? I’m a complete noob to this. If you can, and I have to reinstall ADM, will my 2 x 8TB drives be affected?

You shouldn't need to reinstall the OS, and your 2x 8TB drives should be unaffected.

Having a quick read of this link: https://www.asustor.com/en/online/College_topic?topic=352, suggests it should just be a case of shutting down, fit the 2nd M.2 and then start back up.
You then go into Storage Manager -> Volume -> Management -> RAID

It will then be a choice of either "Add Disk to this volume" or "Migrate this volume from the current RAID level to a higher one".

Presumably you want them to be a RAID1 mirror? If so I think you'll need the second option, to convert if from a single disk to a RAID1 array

Andybtsn · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:14

Armageus said:
You shouldn't need to reinstall the OS, and your 2x 8TB drives should be unaffected.

Having a quick read of this link: https://www.asustor.com/en/online/College_topic?topic=352, suggests it should just be a case of shutting down, fit the 2nd M.2 and then start back up.
You then go into Storage Manager -> Volume -> Management -> RAID

It will then be a choice of either "Add Disk to this volume" or "Migrate this volume from the current RAID level to a higher one".

Presumably you want them to be a RAID1 mirror? If so I think you'll need the second option, to convert if from a single disk to a RAID1 array

Thanks!

I'm not going to mirror. Just expand so I have 2TB of storage. I have enough places now where my data is backed up so happy with this option.

Armageus · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:29

Andybtsn said:
Thanks!

I'm not going to mirror. Just expand so I have 2TB of storage. I have enough places now where my data is backed up so happy with this option.

~~Should be a case of "Add disk to this volume" then I would think~~

EDIT: Assuming you want it to appear as a single drive? If so you will likely need to remove the first M.2 from a volume (losing any data on it), then create a RAID0 that stripes across both.

If it doesn't matter about being a single volume, then you should just be able to add it as another separate volume. (meaning 3 volumes total - your 2x 8TB volume, and then 2 separate 1TB volumes)

Andybtsn · 23 Aug 2023 at 15:06

Armageus said:
~~Should be a case of "Add disk to this volume" then I would think~~

EDIT: Assuming you want it to appear as a single drive? If so you will likely need to remove the first M.2 from a volume (losing any data on it), then create a RAID0 that stripes across both.

If it doesn't matter about being a single volume, then you should just be able to add it as another separate volume. (meaning 3 volumes total - your 2x 8TB volume, and then 2 separate 1TB volumes)

Yeah, I want the 2 x M.2 drives as a single volume so I assumed I would lose data on the original volume; this wasn't a concern. I was more worried about Vol2, the 8Tb drives in RAID1, I assume their config won't be affected?

SonicSW20 · 23 Aug 2023 at 15:09

RSR said:
Here is the approved drive list (SSD)

I wouldn't even classify it as an "Enterprise" level product, but I will probably move to a Qnap later. As the WD Reds I am using now are on their approved list.

The SAT5200-3840G drives are currently £998.86 per drive on the cheapest place I can find, and the SAT5200-3840G are a bit more.

You realise there is a 3rd party list too right? Click the Synology dropdown and change it to 3rd party.