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The Cheapest NAS

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Re: The Cheapest NAS

#71
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?

A cheap backup scheme:

Buy the hardware to make a lightweight backup server. Make backups work with it. Take it to your friend's place along with a bottle of scotch, plug it in, and then: Use it.

Disaster recovery is easy: Just drive over there.

Redundancy is easy: Build two, and leave them in different places.

None of this needs to happen on rented hardware in The Clown.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`zfs send --raw` of encrypted datasets to https://www.rsync.net/products/zfsintro.html .

That would cost at least 336 € per month.

Yeah, rsync.net is pricey, but in reliable.

I been using Interserver[1] + borg[2] for the last 3 years. With the 10TB plan comes out to $25/mo, but if you prepay a year there's discounts.

For the OPs use case, they have a 40TB plan for $84/mo. Still pricey, but, cheap compared to most other cloud storages. If you have data you care about, off-site backups are required.

[1] https://www.interserver.net/storage/

[2] https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#73
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?

https://www.interserver.net/storage/

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#74

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.

Unraid is probably the closest to that.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They did mention ZFS, so verified hashes of each file block. I hope they are scrubbing, and have at least one snapshot.

ZFS does nothing to protect you against RAM corrupting your data before ZFS sees it. All you'll end up with is a valid checksum of the now bad data.

You can Google more, but, I'll just leave this from the first page of the openZFS manual:

  Misinformation has been circulated that ZFS data integrity features are somehow worse than those of other filesystems when ECC RAM is not used. This is not the case: all software needs ECC RAM for reliable operation and ZFS is no different from any other filesystem in that regard.[1]
[1] https://openzfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#76

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…

I'm looking for a machine like this (affordable, small, low power usage) with 64GB memory. If anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#77
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had non-ECC NAS systems for over 20 years and I've had exactly zero cases where memory corruption was an issue. It's OK for corporate systems, but complete overkill for personal setups.

As for my anecdote, I had a computer with 3 HDDs in a raid5, it had some of my very early programming projects and other various things which I wish I still had. But, I don't have any longer because something, I'm assuming memory, was silently failing and over 40% of the files were turned into jibberish and random binary bytes. I now use ECC EVERYWHERE now. My laptop, my desktop, my little home server. All ECC. Becau…

Which laptops support ECC?

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#78

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.

This is only 1 disk, so you are way more likely to lose all your data due to an ordinary single disk failure than to some ram errors.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#79
The entire concept of network attached storage is kind of cargo-cult in the vast majority of personal use cases. Just put the drives in your computer. Fewer abstraction layers, fewer problems, cheaper, faster, less fragile, easier to debug and fix if problems do happen. It's just not as hip or cool sounding as "NAS".

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They did mention ZFS, so verified hashes of each file block. I hope they are scrubbing, and have at least one snapshot.

Why would one snapshot help?
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