Hye again

Got few doubt need advice;

1. Should I encrypt certain folder?
* this will make it a bit slow is it

2. Now I'm using 3 disk @ Raid-5, if insert 4th disk can I expand to Raid-6 or Raid-10 ?

3. SHR can mix disk, can Raid mix disk size?

4. Do you guys kept Cold spares or Hot Spares ?

5. Is it better to use 5th & 6th as separate volume or spares?

6. We can use HyperBackup to backup on external drive kan... portable drive connected via USB.

7. DS Photo vs Moments vs coming Synology Photos, why is it separate folders

Thanks

1. What's the reason you want to encrypt certain folder? If you don't want other user to see or access the folder you can make it not available to that user.

2. You can expand to RAID-6, but conversion will take ages. Faster way will be to delete the RAID-5 pool, create RAID-6 pool with the additional HDD. Make sure to have backup of your data.

3. Can mix disk size, but the all disk can only use size as the smallest size HDD. If got 3 12TB HDD and 1 4TB HDD, all 4 disk is available size to use is 4TB.

4. Up to preference really, and available bay. I got 4 bays only and all is utilized.

5. If your HDD is heavily and frequently accessed, and mission critical, better to have spare. If can afford downtime then can utilized it as separate volume for scratch files.

6. Yes, can. Using Hyper backup to make backup on another volume of my NAS, on external drive through USB, and rsync backup to another NAS.

7. I think how each app was developed that resulted as such. DS Photo the first and thus using Photo folder. Moments was part of Drive so it is in Drive folder. I don't know the upcoming Photos will be in which folder, but heard it will be the app that will merge DS Photo and Moments.

Additionally, see this video, he give good advise why one should do Snapshot. And since it's automated and doesn't really cost a lot of space, everyone should really have Snapshot on all their folders


This video also teach the safer way if your NAS can be accessed from internet

Noted then nice video also, done the replication but dunno why my DHCP gone will look again tomorow

Those running Plex server and also have UPnP enabled in their router should disable UPnP for the time being until Plex is patched.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/plex-media-se...r-ddos-attacks/

SiFus

Do you do periodical clean-up of the NAS unit?

Using vacuum cleaner ka

any particular thingy to look upon from experience

Yes, Every yrs end will do the cleaning.

The dust can kill the nas and HDD as it will cause high temp.

Normally I will dismantle the fan, hdd and NAS cover.

Compressor airblow is the best. Cause no contact to the component.

Vacuum also ok.

Ok so I'll keep monitor the temperature once a while since it just short time running maybe not yet the time

Hi sifus here. I just recently heard of NAS and did some quick reading on google. Need some recommendation on choosing right NAS to replace google drive storage. Currently i subscribe to google drive 2TB package which is $400+ /year.

1) Main purpose - photos videos backup from multiplr phones for all family members and photo sharing among us, laptop data backup and some personal data backup. No need streaming.
2) what brand is recommended and has similar features google drive offers?
3) data safety is important. Make sure still can retrieve back backups in case hard drive breakdown
4) how many bays recommended?
5) Type of recommended hard drive and life span?
6) do you all use plug with surge protector to protect the NAS?
7) can NAS backup whatsapp chat from phone similar to google drive?
8) which NAS has user friendly interface from web and mobile device?
9) Price - tight budget. Can consider RM500-RM1500 range

Hope sifis here can give me some advise. Tqvm

What’s wrong with google drive?

Mahal a bro when whole family store many data on google.. partly also due to data privacy.

$400 a year.. really better invest on NAS.

Got 3 main NAS brand in market, Synology, QNAP, and Asustor. Synology got the most polished software, QNAP better hardware, Asustor more on budget friendly but software not polished.

1. All NAS should be able to do backup of photos and videos from multiple phones. Laptop/PC backup also all should be able to do it. I'm using Synology and they have Active Backup for Business which it also can make laptop/PC drive's image backup, not sure the others have such functions.

2. Synology have almost same functions with Google. I got write a review at Reviews and Guides sub-forum, you can read it there. Not sure about QNAP and Asustor.

3. Same as Google Drive, data that can be constantly edited or deleted should not be consider as backup. With NAS you can make a volume for active data, these are data that sync with your phone and laptop/PC. Then make another volume for backup of those data. The best backup practice is follow 3-2-1 backup rules.

4. As my recommendation of NAS to handle 1 volume for active data and another volume for backup data, suggest to get at least 4 bays NAS. These day it's better to get NAS with Intel/AMD CPU that have at least 2 cores 4 treads, and 4GB RAM. You can get 2 bays NAS just for backup, but once you discover what else it can be use for, you will find the 2 bays will limit you from achieving it.

5. Get NAS hard drive, it is designed for running 24/7 and have vibration sensor to optimized performance. Though got 1 consumer NAS HDD that doesn't have vibration sensor even though it is the most expensive, and recently exposed to be using SMR drive. On the plus side, didn't hear much reliability issue with it's drive. So pick your poison.

6. Get UPS, preferably that have data USB that can connect to the NAS, when power failure it will send signal to NAS which will shut down to prevent damage. Surge protecting also part of UPS.

7. Do exactly as Whatsapp backup at Google Drive? I believe all NAS can't do it. Luckily WhatsApp also can make local backup (backup on phone's storage) that can fully restore all chats and documents. What we can do is backup this local folder to NAS. Synology have it's Cloud app that can sync local folder to NAS, but it is only limited to 1 folder for sync. The plus side is can specify root as folder, but it means the whole phone storage will be backed up, even other files that you don't care to backup. Syncing will also take longer time since too many files need to check and sync. Another issue is the app will not be updated anymore, so there's risk. Asustor don't have such option. QNAP with it's QFile should be able to specify local folder to sync, but I'm not sure it will also be limited to only 1 folder sync or not. What I'm doing now is using SMBSync2 to auto sync few local folders to NAS using SMB protocol. The limitation is it can only work when I'm connected to my wifi, but it's good enough for me. I'm actually now writing guide how to automated backup from phone to NAS using SMBSync2, can have a read later once I post it. If want to backup over internet can use Syncthing, but more things need to setup on NAS.

8. All 3 NAS have friendly interface these days. They are more similar to Chrome OS or Linux OS but it's not much different than Windows OS. What is different is you need to approach it as system admin handling multiple users accounts, including your own phone backup. This way to ensure security to your NAS. See it as you are Google while your family members is Google's users. You need to set what they can and cannot access. Also use 2FA as an additional security.

9. That's a very tight budget. Unfortunately good spec NAS with 4 bays is 2k above, and that haven't include HDD. For HDD you can get 2 HDD first and use RAID-1. When in future only get additional 2 HDD or more.

Happy hunting!

But your budget is too small.

Increase the budget.

I see from your later pasts that you have a Synology DS920+. Can you report if you are using pi-hole on it, and how is the stability? I currently run Pi-hole off a RPi, and it works beautifully. I will be upgrading my NAS one day (target is DS220+), and will be running Pi-hole in Docker on it.

My current NAS is a Synology DS212j, and although it works well, the interface is incredibly slow and there are less updates for it. I just use it for the occasional torrent, where I have a browser plugin to right-click and send the download task to the NAS. Also do an auto backup of the important documents from my work (using Cloud Station Backup on the PC), which is then also backed up to the cloud. (Using Cloud Sync on the NAS) I am quite happy with the data redundancy since the NAS is also using SHR mirrored. Meaning I have a data copy on my PC, one on each NAS HDD, and one in the cloud, and is accessible when I am out and about.

The icing on the cake would be running Pi-hole on the NAS too! Other than wanting Docker on it, and being a bit slow, the NAS has been almost flawless (the external PSU has died once....) in all the time I have been using it. 7 years running 24/7! Highly recommended.

Does anyone have any recommendation for a UPS? I was thinking of this RightPower. Would appreciate it if anyone has any experience and able to report back.

^{Edit: spelling and grammar}

This post has been edited by stormer.lyn: Feb 21 2021, 12:07 PM

Ya, I'm running pihole on DS920+, install from docker. Just updated it few days ago, with docker it is so easy.
No issue with stability or any other issue. With intel Celeron/Pentium CPU, it's powerful enough to run pihole effortlessly.

I see your NAS is single core 1.2GHz, that is very slow by todays standard. I think your router have more powerful CPU than that. Can use router to download torrent, less strain on NAS.

If you get new NAS, can use your old NAS as additional backup for your important files. Can even use it as offsite backup if can put at other place and have fast internet.

Don't have experience with that UPS. Another thing to consider is the UPS battery can easily get and easy to replace. Battery doesn't last long, few years then it will die. Changing it's battery will be cheaper than getting a new UPS.

How much RAM do you have in total? I'll probably only be running 3 Docker containers, in addition to what I already run now on the DS212j (Single core! 1.2GHz!! 256MB RAM!!!)Yes, it is slow when you login to the admin page. But it works flawlessly for everything I need; torrents, file sharing, local and cloud backup, and remote access. But it can't do Docker, so I have to run Pi-hole separately. But it is time for an upgrade, and I also thought to repurpose the RPi that is running Pi-hole.
Not too worried about the battery of the UPS, as I am familiar with electronics. Only need knowledge if the USB control works. But thanks for the tip.

I'm running 2 dockers containers, RAM usage is almost 2GB. With some for caching, I think at least need 4GB. If want to run VM then 8 or 16GB only enough.

What is docker for?
I wonder if I need to ask, would I need it 😆

My nas for storage and streaming.

Docker is like mini VM. Instead of whole OS virtualization, it only virtualize the program (Docker call it as container). In locked OS such as NAS, with Docker you can run program/container that are otherwise not available. There's thousands of programs/containers that you can run. One of the most famous will be pi-hole. I also use it for jdownloader.

Guys, anyone experienced synology NAS detected Bad Sector on the Hard Disk drive? I mean how accurate it can be or it could be NAS false alarm?

FYI, I got a new replacement drive from RMA, but again the Synology NAS detected Bad sector.

hehehe... same


I tried to read "What is Pi-Hole" and still not understand the use of it

Is it good to have? and about JDownloader is not needed is it when I just use DS-Get to download my torrents link


no comments as myself new user too