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The Cheapest NAS

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Re: The Cheapest NAS

#21
post #16

Note that it doesn't look like it has ECC, so make sure to have backups. Fancy file systems like ZFS don't remove the need for ECC.

> so make sure to have backups Can you (or someone) suggest a backup scheme? I have a 28TB NAS. Almost everything I've looked into is expensive or intended more for enterprise tier. Are there options for backup in the "hobbyist" price range?

if your talking cloud backup Wasabi (which uses S3) is the cheapest i could find it’s pay as you go and they don’t charge for upload/download. The pay as you go is $6.99 per TB which would be pretty pricey at 28 TB, but it’s super cheap for my 4tb NAS.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#22

Note that it doesn't look like it has ECC, so make sure to have backups. Fancy file systems like ZFS don't remove the need for ECC.

been using zfs on my home nas without ecc for well over a decade and never had any problems. i've seen people claiming this since before i started using zfs and it seems so unnecessary for some random home project.

Unless you've verified hashes of your files over time you may be having problems and not realizing it.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#23
post #16

Note that it doesn't look like it has ECC, so make sure to have backups. Fancy file systems like ZFS don't remove the need for ECC.

> so make sure to have backups Can you (or someone) suggest a backup scheme? I have a 28TB NAS. Almost everything I've looked into is expensive or intended more for enterprise tier. Are there options for backup in the "hobbyist" price range?

I have a NAS that has 18 TB effective storage, 36 TB mirrored. It all gets backed up to a B2 back blaze which is about six dollars per terabyte - but I'm currently only using about 8 TB at the moment so it's only about 50 bucks a month.

So this might be on the higher end of the price range if you're using up all 28 TB uncompressed since that's about $168 per month though...

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#24
Is there any NAS software that just lets you add disks whenever you want, while using them for redundancy if they aren't full? I wish something was as easy as adding another disk and having the redundancy go up, then removing a disk and having the redundancy go down.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#25
The image builder for this board looks dodgy af:

"The distribution builder is a proprietary commercial offering as it involves a lot of customer IP and integrations so it cannot be public."

Seems like a supply side injector to me!

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#26
post #19
post #4

When people set up these NAS's, how are they accessing the files? NFS? SFTP? And how are you accessing it when away from home? A VPN that you're permanently connected to? Is there a good way to do NAT hole-punching? Syncthing kind of does what I want, in that it lets all my computers sync the same files no matter what network they're on, but it insists on always copying all the files ("syncing") whereas I just want t…

Synology does all that. I run two one at home one at the office, my only complaint is that it’s a bit “idiot proof”… both other times the web based GUIi is great. Also has free software that punches through NAT and dynamic IPs works great (quickconnect.to) I use sftp, media server, primarily

Synology can even serve as a macOS Time Machine.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#27
My secret protip: old Fujitsu desktop/nuc PCs. At least in Germany (Europe?) they are cheap on ebay since a lot of businesses use them and upgrade on a regular schedule.

If you care about power consumption like I do, you can Google "$model energy consumption white paper" which contains very accurate data about idle usage, for example https://sp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/Publications/public/wp-energy...

In one case I had a nuc where on Linux after enabling power saving features for the sata controller, idle usage even fell to 5W when the pdf claimed 9.

Having an actual pc instead of a random sbc ensures best connectivity, expandability, and software support forever. With almost all sbcs you're stuck with a random-ass kernel from when the damn thing was released, and you basically have to frankenstein together your own up-to-date distro with the old kernel because the vendor certainly doesn't care about updating the random armbian fork they created for that thing.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#28
post #4

When people set up these NAS's, how are they accessing the files? NFS? SFTP? And how are you accessing it when away from home? A VPN that you're permanently connected to? Is there a good way to do NAT hole-punching? Syncthing kind of does what I want, in that it lets all my computers sync the same files no matter what network they're on, but it insists on always copying all the files ("syncing") whereas I just want t…

Seafile + Samba + OpenVPN is my stack. I use Seafile for a dropbox style file sync on my devices, and Samba for direct access. OpenVPN for remote access on all devices. Works quite well.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#29

Note that it doesn't look like it has ECC, so make sure to have backups. Fancy file systems like ZFS don't remove the need for ECC.

I know ECC is a special type of ram, but how does it help a NAS/Raid setup?

Data that's about to be written to disk often resides in ram for some period of time - bit flips in non-ECC ram can silently corrupt the data before writing it out. ZFS doesn't prevent this though it might detect it with checksumming.

https://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-y...

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#30
post #4

When people set up these NAS's, how are they accessing the files? NFS? SFTP? And how are you accessing it when away from home? A VPN that you're permanently connected to? Is there a good way to do NAT hole-punching? Syncthing kind of does what I want, in that it lets all my computers sync the same files no matter what network they're on, but it insists on always copying all the files ("syncing") whereas I just want t…

Seafile + Samba + OpenVPN is my stack. I use Seafile for a dropbox style file sync on my devices, and Samba for direct access. OpenVPN for remote access on all devices. Works quite well.

I’d replace OpenVPN with WireGuard at this point - WireGuard is a lot faster and the client software is pretty good. All of my Apple devices are set up to use VPN 100% of the time automatically if I’m not on home WiFi.
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