1512 hardisks: to RAID-disks or to not-RAID-disks?

[Noah]

Hi all,

Planning to buy 2 of these big boys: one as the NAS, the other one for backup of the NAS-data on NAS1.

According to Synology, RAID disks are advised. However, they are considerably more expensive than 'normal' consumer disks. How about if I go in the middle: for the main NAS I'd buy the Raid Edition disks, and for the backup-NAS I'd buy the 'consumer disks', assuming the backup NAS won't have to work nearly as hard as the main NAS.

Would I be 'safe' in this setup, or is it a bad idea?

Thanks in advance for comments

[myCloud]

If you can find large capacity, enterprise/server grade drives at this time (due to the floods in Thailand), congratulations to you. Rather than a 412+ with four 3 TB (really 2.73 true TB) enterprise drives in a RAID 5, I opted for a 1512+ with 5 Seagate ST3000DM001 desktop drives in RAID 6 (same 8 true TB end result). These are now about $160 each--less than half what I was paying for same capacity enterprise drives before the flood.

[Noah]

Thanks for your reply, Cloud

Your ST3000DM001 is 'consumer', not 'enterprise raid'. Isn't that a concern?

[myCloud]

Thanks for your reply, Cloud

Your ST3000DM001 is 'consumer', not 'enterprise raid'. Isn't that a concern?

Not really (and I do this stuff for a living). I chose to add a bit more redundancy because of it. Your choice right now is to buy a DiskStation and use desktop drives or wait to get a DiskStation until they're available and you can pay over twice as much for enterprise drives. Certainly, enterprise drives would be ideal, but I'm not going to let "perfect" get in the way of getting it done. If you spend some time here, you'll find most of us are using desktop drives in DiskStations.

[Noah]

Thanks for your reply, Cloud

Your ST3000DM001 is 'consumer', not 'enterprise raid'. Isn't that a concern?

Not really (and I do this stuff for a living). I chose to add a bit more redundancy because of it. Your choice right now is to buy a DiskStation and use desktop drives or wait to get a DiskStation until they're available and you can pay over twice as much for enterprise drives. Certainly, enterprise drives would be ideal, but I'm not going to let "perfect" get in the way of getting it done. If you spend some time here, you'll find most of us are using desktop drives in DiskStations.

I'm still scared Mycloud, I've read some bad customer comments on that drive. About broke and Seagate not RMA-ing them because their own software didn't report enough errors (I can write such a tool too ).

[myCloud]

Well, you have to do what you think is right. Personally, I'd be more concerned about the BBLOD on the 1512+ and the 1812+ (and I'm not very concerned about that).

[Noah]

Well, you have to do what you think is right. Personally, I'd be more concerned about the BBLOD on the 1512+ and the 1812+ (and I'm not very concerned about that).

Not that I know what a BBLOD is, but I will investigate

EDIT: 3 hits on this forum about 'BBLOD', 2 from this thread and one from you using that in another thread. I still don't know what is meant by it, and google: 'synology bblod' also doesn't give a clue. Would you mind telling me what is meant with 'BBLOD'?

I think I am going to stick with Enterprise disks right now. Currently we (the wife and me) are considering 2 1812+ (1 primary, 1 backup) with 12 (2x6) 2TB WD RE4 disks. Plus a suitable UPS to protect this stuff.

[henkg]

BBOD: Blue Blink Of Death

[myCloud]

aka Blue Blinking LED Of Death

[Noah]

Thank you gentlemen, I will check the serial numbers before I pay the machines

On another note, over here:

https://macsynology.wordpress.com/2011/ ... rd-drives/

Under "The basic rules", points 2 and 3, would you agree?

Because our thought are now going to two 1812+, each with 6 2 TB disks. Money is a concern, hence the 6 instead of 8 disks. That means:
A. I won't be filling up all slots. So unless I use SHR when in the future adding more disks I will need to rebuild the RAID (RAID 6 planned), but I can keep on using the NAS meanwhile so what is the problem in the first place?

B. When I buy 2 more disks to add they will most likely be a different model, perhaps even a different brand. According to this writer above I'd be in trouble, but why? If all disks have to be exactly the same that would beat the purpose of a NAS, wouldn't it?

Thanks again for your help

[Noah]

I have just received 2 1812+ machines, and am going to fill them up with 16 WD Black 2TB disks. No more holidays for the wife and me for the next 5 years, but our data mess will be gone from now (anybody want to buy 29394959 USB disks ).