NAS Box

[paulellam]

Hi All,

 

Looking to purchase a NAS box, mainly for the use of storing and archiving of video and photo evidence. I.e mapped shared drive that users can place folders of evidence media while taking the space strain off the main server. I would also like to back the server up to this as a extra backup medium.

 

I have looked at QNAP and Synology so far but not sure what the real life pro,s and con,s of each brand are.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Paul

[tech_guy]

We use QNAPs for a similar purpose. The only niggle we have is that the web interface is a bit slow at times.

[paulellam]

Thanks Tech Guy, which model and size etc do you use?

[Gardinho]

You're looking at the best two NAS brands in my opinion. Not much difference between the 2, but my experience has been:

 

QNAPs have better hardware/build quality.

Synologys have better all round software and a much nicer OS. Depending on which model you're looking at Synology's tend to be compatible with more drives. The other benefit with Synology is the Hybrid RAID technology.

 

For me it would come down to cost (including drives), as you're splitting hairs with quality. Either would be a good choice.

 

I have 2 QNAPs at work - TS-412u and TS419u. Both have 4 x 3TB drives in.

I have a Synology DS414 at home with 4 x 4TB drives in.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Gardinho

[laserblazer]

We have a couple of these in different buildings and use Macrium Reflect to backup. A relatively inexpensive solution that works fine.

 

Buffalo Linkstation Mini 2TB NAS (LS-WSX2.0TL/R1EU) - www.misco.co.uk

[hallb15]

I would also look at Bufallo Terrastation PRO.

I've used them in several schools without any major issues. They play nicely with Server 2008 and 2012 and have a good (if somewhat slow) web interface - or NASNavigator software for configuring them.

[Oaktech]

Also worth looking at WD Arkeia products.

[3s-gtech]

I wouldn't touch anything Buffalo with a pole, let alone install it in a school (and we have four of their NASs).

 

What budget are you looking at? Synology, Netgear ReadNAS, QNAP (not tried myself), have an iomega Storcenter that isn't too bad but has thrown a fit with a lost disk and wiped all data when rebuilding so not impressed.

[laserblazer]

I wouldn't touch anything Buffalo with a pole, let alone install it in a school (and we have four of their NASs).

.

 

Care to elaborate? We have never had any issues with ours, does what it says on the tin!

[dave.81]

We've got 3 QNAP's on site; TS-419U+, TS-659 and TS-112. Used for alsorts from our backup disk server, media storage or just general dumping ground. OS can be a bit slow but have been very stable and the built in backup between QNAP devices is very useful.

[hallb15]

Care to elaborate? We have never had any issues with ours, does what it says on the tin!

Same here - only ever had one drive die and the terrastation carried on happily until the replacement drive arrived, after which it prompty re-built the array and I've never had to touch it since.

I also have one of their 'consumer' units, a LinkStation which I use for my admin stuff and archiving which has also never skipped a beat.

[Gardinho]

I wouldn't touch anything Buffalo with a pole, let alone install it in a school (and we have four of their NASs).

 

What budget are you looking at? Synology, Netgear ReadNAS, QNAP (not tried myself), have an iomega Storcenter that isn't too bad but has thrown a fit with a lost disk and wiped all data when rebuilding so not impressed.

 

We have 4 Buffalos here too. Dreadful in comparison to the QNAP/Synology.

 

Performance is the biggest issue. They weren't over reliable either as 2 died in their warranty period. Plus the buffalos we have don't support iscsi (including the 4 bay model).

 

The buffalos here are used sparingly by ourselves and would never consider putting them into production.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Gardinho

[paulellam]

Been looking at about 12TB QNAP TS 659, which should be ample. Are they easy to intergrate into a AD network?

[3s-gtech]

Issue with Buffalo - speed. Chronically slow. The AD integration is also flakey.

[synaesthesia]

We have a LOT of Buffalo Terastations, and needless to say we haven't bought more for a long time. They don't play too nicely with anything modern, slow, not exactly featureful. As above, AD integration where it exists, is crap. Last purchase was Synology DS2413+ which is awesome, performs well, good UI, looks good, works well. Sitting with I've forgotten how many terabytes of drives in (8 x 4TB I think so far). We'll need another, and it'll be another one of those.

[paulellam]

All good input folks, many thanks!!!

[tech_guy]

Thanks Tech Guy, which model and size etc do you use?

 

We have a farm of the TS-412's

[seawolf]

FreeNAS is our go-to NAS solution. BYO or buy a commercially supported box from ixSystems.

 

http://www.ixsystems.com/storage/freenas/

[tj2419]

Sorry to jump in on your thread but what would people recommend for shared drives for all teaching resources and student resources? about 1100 users in total on network but around 500 computers. Do the QNAP's play nicely with CC4?

[3s-gtech]

For heavily used shares, either file servers or big multi-drive enterprise NAS or SAN. I wouldn't use a regular NAS for this.

 

We use a pair of DFS-R Server 2012 servers with lots of discs, just for the shares. Fast enough, but wouldn't go for less.

[seawolf]

Sorry to jump in on your thread but what would people recommend for shared drives for all teaching resources and student resources? about 1100 users in total on network but around 500 computers. Do the QNAP's play nicely with CC4?

 

For 500 computers and 1100 users you need a more serious piece of kit or you will have serious latency and performance issues, particularly if you are using folder redirection.

 

The low cost option here would be a TruNAS rack or tower mount server form ixSystems with 8+ drives! either SAS or hybrid (SATA w/flash write caches). These would go for 8-12k with drives depending on specs. The next step up would be something like a low-end Nimble Storage unit. Otherwise, you could keep costs down by using DAS with a lot of SAS drives connected to an existing server.