Home Cloud/NAS recommendations

[ClearedHot]

Looking for some feedback and solutions of others. 

I have a lot of porn....errr personal files and I am looking for a backup solution that is safe and allows for world-wide access.  I am not a big fan of the cloud services...giving big tech all my data is not high on my list and personally I think there will be a large cloud cyber attack in the near future. 

I've looked at several home cloud options and have ruled our Western Digital after the big hack and some nefarious nonsense around requiring hard drive replacement every three years.  As of now I am thinking the Synology DS1522+ which I would set up as a Raid 1.  We have a lot of old family pictures and video that I would like to have better access to.  In addition to the Raid 1 I will likely keep a separate direct connect backup of those files in the fire safe.

 

[Lord Ratner]

How technically oriented are you? Comfortable with Linux?

[ClearedHot]

27 minutes ago, Lord Ratner said:

How technically oriented are you? Comfortable with Linux?

I've programmed things for Linux before but I would rather a turnkey solution with a GUI (there could be Linux shareware), that allows seamless backups of our phones, IPads, laptops AND provides access to all our files, pictures and videos via a single networked solution. 

[Sim]

DS1522+ seems a bit overkill. Go with DS923+ using raid5 and WD Red HDs (insert desired size). 

[ClearedHot]

4 minutes ago, Sim said:

DS1522+ seems a bit overkill. Go with DS923+ using raid5 and WD Red HDs (insert desired size). 

DS923+ has a some negative reviews and the 1522 has an extra bay for a couple dollars more.

[Lord Ratner]

The thing about self hosting is that once you realize what's possible, you tend to want it. If money isn't a driving factor, get a TrueNas Scale box. 

It's got a great interface, it's easy to add modules to it, and most importantly, there's a large community of users so you can Google answers to problems you have. I would set it up as RAID5/Z-1.

 

The downside with truenas is that you have to buy all your drives at the same time and they all have to match. Some of the other solutions allow you to add random drives as you go, but it's less efficient.

 

If you're truly going to self-host your own backups, you will need a second box at a second location to clone your data to. All the raid drives in the world won't stop a fire from annihilating your data if it's stored it one location.

 

Use the simple box from Synology or similar as the off-site backup.

Edited January 17 by Lord Ratner

[herkbier]

@ClearedHot What did you end up going with? 
 

My requirements are pretty minimal.. was thinking of just going with their cheapest single bay and a reasonable hard drive. Mostly just want to backup family photos and videos, organize and manage them, view/distribute as necessary. 
 

I would have said I am technically inclined.. but those penguins have long ago jumped off the iceberg. Synology definitely looks user friendly.

Being able to expand and store home security footage in the future would be nice too. But maybe that needs to be a whole separate system?

[Lord Ratner]

3 hours ago, herkbier said:

@ClearedHot What did you end up going with? 
 

My requirements are pretty minimal.. was thinking of just going with their cheapest single bay and a reasonable hard drive. Mostly just want to backup family photos and videos, organize and manage them, view/distribute as necessary. 
 

I would have said I am technically inclined.. but those penguins have long ago jumped off the iceberg. Synology definitely looks user friendly.

Being able to expand and store home security footage in the future would be nice too. But maybe that needs to be a whole separate system?

You want at least 2 drives for redundancy. Tons of 2-bay options. 

 

No need for separate systems. Backup and storage are mostly-idle processes, so adding security recording won't tax the system. If you start running multiple services that simultaneously access the hard drives, that's where you start getting into more advanced requirements. 

[ClearedHot]

18 hours ago, herkbier said:

@ClearedHot What did you end up going with? 
 

My requirements are pretty minimal.. was thinking of just going with their cheapest single bay and a reasonable hard drive. Mostly just want to backup family photos and videos, organize and manage them, view/distribute as necessary. 
 

I would have said I am technically inclined.. but those penguins have long ago jumped off the iceberg. Synology definitely looks user friendly.

Being able to expand and store home security footage in the future would be nice too. But maybe that needs to be a whole separate system?

Terramaster F4-423 with 4 x 4TB harddrives.  The user interface is solid but I am have some issues getting it set up on my network.  Initially it worked but knocked my network printer offline.  My son needed the printer, he is doing all his end of year AP exams and projects and I have been traveling like crazy for work so I have not had a chance to sit down and sort the IP addresses and ports.

[busdriver]

On 1/17/2024 at 10:41 AM, Lord Ratner said:

If money isn't a driving factor, get a TrueNas Scale box. 

The downside with truenas is that you have to buy all your drives at the same time and they all have to match. 

I just saw this thread, and I'll share this for anyone else that bumbles across this.

I have what Ratner is suggesting, running True NAS Scale for the OS and then a tailscale application to allow a very simple VPN access from on the road.  At the end of the day, I can access the shared drive on my home server from anywhere.  I can also route my internet traffic back to the house if I want to avoid sending things over the hotel wifi.

It is not terrible to setup, but it's not nearly as turn key as a Synology box as an example.  TrueNAS is really a basic server OS rather than just a NAS OS.  It has virtualization options and the afore mentioned apps (containers) and a bunch of other stuff.  

That said, if all you're doing is NAS stuff, you can put together a computer to run it for pretty cheap since it'll run on pretty crappy hardware.  All the server stuff will require more horsepower if that's what you're looking for though.

[abmwaldo]

On 4/17/2024 at 3:47 PM, herkbier said:

@ClearedHot 
 

My requirements are pretty minimal.. was thinking of just going with their cheapest single bay and a reasonable hard drive. Mostly just want to backup family photos and videos, organize and manage them, view/distribute as necessary. 

I have a DS-218+ that I use as a media server/back up that's effectively run since I purchased it in 2019. Upgraded the RAM to 6 GB and swapped out the 2x 4TB drives for 2x 10TB drives this year. The other drives worked fine just needed more storage. Running it in in Synology Hybrid RAID (default) which means I'm limited to 10 TB of data storage.

Before that I ran an old Mac Mini connected to an external hard drive since 2010...the evolution/ease of use over 14 years has been pretty impressive. 

Couple of lessons learned: 

1. Go for 2x the storage you think you need now. 

2. Get a dedicated UPS for the NAS (allows you time to shut it down properly for extended power outages or covers the "blips" in the grid). 

3. Use software running inside "Dockers" vs the stuff in the Synology App store. The dockers require significantly less system resources (in my experience 1/10 or less) to keep the same program running. Only thing is you have to manually update (I do that quarterly)the software that's running. I haven't figured out how to auto update yet. 

[nunya]

52 minutes ago, abmwaldo said:

 I haven't figured out how to auto update yet. 

Watchtower.

I'm running generic Ubuntu, not Synology, and it looks like Synology might require a few extra hoops, but apparently it can be done.

https://mariushosting.com/synology-30-second-watchtower-install-using-task-scheduler-docker/

 

[Lord Ratner]

I generally don't recommend anyone do auto updates. If the service is working fine, updating it might not get you anything, and a lot of updates have "breaking changes" which required direct intervention to keep things running.

If your system is capable of snapshotting, then getting in the habit of doing that before any updates or changes can make life a lot easier.

Anyone who's looking to go down the rabbit hole of advanced home servers, strongly recommend proxmox.