DS1812+ Raid/backup advice

[wechap]

Hi

Just recently got my first Synology DS1812+ upgrading from a Qnap TS209.

I was looking for some advice/opinions on the way i was going to set it up.

I was thinking of running 2 volumes of 4x3TB drives iether in raid 0 or SHR. Then using Volume 1 as my data volume and volume 2 for backup. Then also having a number of external HDD to backup critical data for offsite storage.

The majority of the data is movies, which are not critical, but a pain to replace if lost. This was the major reason for 2 volumes.

Critical data are files/documentation and family photo's/movies. These I will be backing up to multiple external drives for offsite storage.

Anyone have a better suggestion? trying to get the maximum amount of disk usage while having a moderate amount of redundancy in the one NAS. External tape drives or multiple NAS units are out, the wife would have a fit over the cost.

Thanks
Peter

[MaximumFish]

Rather than do it manually with 2 separate volumes, why not just have an RAID1 volume over the whole 8 drives? (Assuming you meant 2 volumes of 4x3TB drives for each volume)

That said, I'd just run RAID6 or SHR with 2 disk redundancy (essentially the same thing) across the one volume. The chances of 3 disks failing at once are pretty slim and you get the most bang for your storage buck that way. You seem to have a solid external backup solution in place for the critical things so the masses of redundancy you'd get from RAID1 or 2x RAID0 volumes seems like wasted space to me.

The only real issue with RAID6 is that it does take a long time to rebuild a degraded array when using such large drives, but as you can still use the system while it's building that isn't even such an issue.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

[wechap]

Thanks for the advice MaximumFish, I think i'll run with your suggestion.


Cheers

[HarryPotter]

RAID is NEVER a backup at all. The solution with 2 volumes is way better! So dont even think about that....
And the one with external HDD even better.

[rodef]

I agree with HarryPotter. I've had a RAID 5 crash on my Synology and I lost about 100GB of data after the repair was done (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=37015).

[wechap]

OK, that gives me a bit more food for thought.

If I run 2 Volumes, would I be better to run 2 raid5 volumes or just go with 2 raid0 volumes? and keep backups of all my critical files on external HDD's

What are your thoughts on raid10 with external backups?

Cheers

[HarryPotter]

IMO it is really waste of space (and money) to go for RAID10, RAID6 or 2x RAID5 as long as you dont need 100% uptime.

[wechap]

Great help, thanks HarryPotter. Also to everyone else who gave me advice.

Cheers

[craigpt]

Hi,

I wanted to run the setup I'm thinking of doing on my Synology DS1812+ running 8 x 3TB WD RED Drives.

I wanted some advice/opinions on the best way to set this up..

I was thinking of running 1 x Disk Group with SHR totaling 21TB with 1 Spare of 3TB, and having 2 volumes of storage maybe 50/50.

Then using the first Volume for Video / Data & Music and 2nd volume for backups.

I'm also looking into a DX series to have as a the 2nd storage backup..

I noticed the replies above have 2 volumes, did you mean 2 disk groups or volumes ?

Any help would be appreciated as I'm not sure what way to go for the best disk usage and redundancy..

Thanks