Questions from a NAS (/Synology) noob...

TrojanWhore · 14 Jul 2023 at 18:33

Hi all,

Just acquired my first NAS - a Synology DS214se with 2x6TB WD Reds, I could use a little steer on how best to set it up.....if the answer to any of these depends on it, the main use case will be storing game recordings and edited videos - The bulk of the current stuff will likely be stored on another drive in my main PC, so won't be editing directly from the NAS.

1. SHR vs RAID1 (vs no redundancy?) - What would you pick?
So I have 2 drives, the enclosure only supports 2 drives.... I was considering just making each drive an individual volume and copying files I really cared about to both, but this is probably too much hassle so I think either SHR or RAID1 would be best...
As I understand it, the benefit to SHR would be that if I ever got a bigger enclosure, I could migrate both disks, then add more to increase the volume size, but are there any other benefits beside this (as I think I'm unlikely to upgrade beyond this any time soon)?
For RAID1, I understand it may have slightly better performance, but not to a huge extent and would also be more painful to move/expand in future
I have no idea which would be more reliable

2. a simpler question (I think) - Disks always on, or power down when not being accessed? - not sure whether power on hours or power on count has a bigger impact on longevity, given that I will be likely accessing it fairly infrequently.

Edit- Bonus Q3: I assume I'd be best to just make 1 big storage pool/volume, but is there any benefit to splitting it down?

Thanks in advance!

hornetstinger · 14 Jul 2023 at 20:48

Jbod isn't a good idea, as when you need to disconnect one drive I think it'll bugger it up.

I'd use power down drive, if it's not going to be accessed for hours then save wear and tear.

I have Synology Nas using she but I don't think I set it up right on volume for redudancy as it says something like no backup or something, don't have space on external usb HDD to wipe them all and start again correctly.

TrojanWhore · 14 Jul 2023 at 20:57

@hornetstinger Thanks, yeah I was thinking of possibly having two separate storage pools, one on each disk (AFAIK it can do that!), rather than one combined JBOD, and then manually (or by script) copying files I would be most sensitive to losing to each of them.

I think you're probably right on the power down thing, just wasn't sure as I thought it may be as an example analogous to the argument that a GPU that has been mined on low power settings 24/7 may have suffered less 'stress' than one which was gamed at full power/OC but only in short bursts and therefore gone through many hot/cold cycles.....if that makes sense!

Snapshot · 16 Jul 2023 at 13:28

Keep it simple and use RAID1 so you have redundancy without any hassle.

Armageus · 16 Jul 2023 at 14:32

TrojanWhore said:
1. SHR vs RAID1 (vs no redundancy?) - What would you pick?

With 2 drives it makes no real difference.

TrojanWhore said:
2. a simpler question (I think) - Disks always on, or power down when not being accessed? - not sure whether power on hours or power on count has a bigger impact on longevity, given that I will be likely accessing it fairly infrequently.

If it's anything like my Synology, even when set to spin the disks down they keep spinning back up without any real reason.

TrojanWhore said:
Edit- Bonus Q3: I assume I'd be best to just make 1 big storage pool/volume, but is there any benefit to splitting it down?

1 big pool but then make separate shares as needed e.g. music, documents, movies etc.
You can then if needed apply different user permissions to each share

Snapshot · 16 Jul 2023 at 17:15

Armageus said:
If it's anything like my Synology, even when set to spin the disks down they keep spinning back up without any real reason.

Yeah, don't they just. My Asustor does it too but not so often.

siclilmonkey · 17 Jul 2023 at 13:52

My Synology boxes use SHR not had any issues.

TrojanWhore · 17 Jul 2023 at 17:04

Thank you all for your input!

Snapshot said:
Keep it simple and use RAID1 so you have redundancy without any hassle.

When you say 'without any hassle', do you mean in the event that the enclosure failed that I could recover the data without having to buy another Synology (just plug in to any old motherboard supporting RAID)?
(That seems to be the main upside to using RAID)
If something else, would you mind elaborating a tiny bit more? - From the way Synology describe SHR they're framing it as 'simpler' than RAID for beginners!

In any case, I think you may be right and RAID1 will likely be the best fit for my use

Snapshot · 17 Jul 2023 at 17:20

No, I don't think you'd ever be able to read the drive on anything other than another Synology. At least, not without extreme Linux skills....
It's just that RAID1 is as simple as it gets. If one disk fails you plug in a replacement and let the NAS get on with rebuilding it. I've never investigated SHR as I've known what I wanted from my NAS (6-drive RAID10) but I believe it's intended as an alternative to RAID5 when you have mis-matched drive capacities.