F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop What are the best suggestions for a good NAS?

What are the best suggestions for a good NAS?

What are the best suggestions for a good NAS?

I
iRaine
Posting Freak
800
09-22-2021, 10:01 PM
#1
Hi,
I'm looking for a good NAS to use at home. First, it shouldn't be as loud as a dryer. It should be silent. So I thought about 2 HDDs 2.5" and a SSD cache. This thing does nothing other than being a fileserver, but I hate to wait for my backups to finish, so I would like to have 2.5 GBit Ethernet. Any good recommendations?
I
iRaine
09-22-2021, 10:01 PM #1

Hi,
I'm looking for a good NAS to use at home. First, it shouldn't be as loud as a dryer. It should be silent. So I thought about 2 HDDs 2.5" and a SSD cache. This thing does nothing other than being a fileserver, but I hate to wait for my backups to finish, so I would like to have 2.5 GBit Ethernet. Any good recommendations?

M
MrDarkxD
Junior Member
12
09-30-2021, 01:37 PM
#2
The network speed will only be as fast as the slowest component in the connection path.
If you have some other available computer, consider something like FreeNAS.
Then you can do some experimenting etc. to work out requirements and what hardware/software will fulfill those requirements.
And if noise (fan or otherwise) is a problem you can work on solutions for that as well.
Plus, remember that backups can be scheduled for times when you do not need to sit there and wait.
Just run overnight or at some other convenient time(s) when you can go do something else.
Waiting for a backup to finish is a much better situation than waiting for some data recovery service to save what (if anything) they can save....
M
MrDarkxD
09-30-2021, 01:37 PM #2

The network speed will only be as fast as the slowest component in the connection path.
If you have some other available computer, consider something like FreeNAS.
Then you can do some experimenting etc. to work out requirements and what hardware/software will fulfill those requirements.
And if noise (fan or otherwise) is a problem you can work on solutions for that as well.
Plus, remember that backups can be scheduled for times when you do not need to sit there and wait.
Just run overnight or at some other convenient time(s) when you can go do something else.
Waiting for a backup to finish is a much better situation than waiting for some data recovery service to save what (if anything) they can save....

R
Rhuji
Senior Member
437
09-30-2021, 03:27 PM
#3
The slowest storage devices would be the HDDs. Their reading and writing speeds may not be optimal, yet the SSD cache could easily compensate.
R
Rhuji
09-30-2021, 03:27 PM #3

The slowest storage devices would be the HDDs. Their reading and writing speeds may not be optimal, yet the SSD cache could easily compensate.

Z
Zorro340
Junior Member
48
10-10-2021, 10:07 PM
#4
I believe it will be the TBS-464. It's a bit pricier, but the 2.5 Gbit Port is the slowest part here.
Z
Zorro340
10-10-2021, 10:07 PM #4

I believe it will be the TBS-464. It's a bit pricier, but the 2.5 Gbit Port is the slowest part here.

S
SUPPERFLUFFY
Member
161
10-11-2021, 03:00 AM
#5
purchased a do-it-yourself NAS featuring 2*10 GBit connections
S
SUPPERFLUFFY
10-11-2021, 03:00 AM #5

purchased a do-it-yourself NAS featuring 2*10 GBit connections

P
purzey
Junior Member
1
10-30-2021, 01:16 AM
#6
You’ll likely need a fully solid state setup to get the most out of 10G Ethernet. A collection of 10,000 rpm 12Gb/s SAS3 2.5in hard drives (for high speed and minimal noise) won’t limit 10Gb/s Ethernet, even with an SSD cache.
I own a few HP Servers equipped with 10GbE NICs on an SFP+ fiber network running TrueNAS Core (the successor to FreeNAS), but these include 3.5in 6G SAS2 hard drives in RAID-Z2 configuration. I don’t observe transfer rates exceeding 125Mbytes/s, which is essentially the same as Gigabit speeds. This is due to the nature of RAID and spinning disks.
Note: TrueNAS stores some frequently accessed files in RAM, so more system RAM helps. At least 8GB is necessary for basic use; 16GB is ideal for a simple TrueNAS installation, though extra RAM is beneficial if you plan to run jails or virtual machines. The RAM cache lessens the demand on a physical L2ARC SSD, which only offers advantages in systems with over 64GB of RAM.
If you aim to push a 10GbE connection, consider using four (or eight) Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs on a PCIe controller card in RAID0, though many will advise against it unless you have a very specific need.
For reference, here are some useful links:
https://www.truenas.com/community/resour...primer.42/
https://www.servethehome.com/buyers-guid...s-servers/
https://www.truenas.com/community/thread...che.99760/
P
purzey
10-30-2021, 01:16 AM #6

You’ll likely need a fully solid state setup to get the most out of 10G Ethernet. A collection of 10,000 rpm 12Gb/s SAS3 2.5in hard drives (for high speed and minimal noise) won’t limit 10Gb/s Ethernet, even with an SSD cache.
I own a few HP Servers equipped with 10GbE NICs on an SFP+ fiber network running TrueNAS Core (the successor to FreeNAS), but these include 3.5in 6G SAS2 hard drives in RAID-Z2 configuration. I don’t observe transfer rates exceeding 125Mbytes/s, which is essentially the same as Gigabit speeds. This is due to the nature of RAID and spinning disks.
Note: TrueNAS stores some frequently accessed files in RAM, so more system RAM helps. At least 8GB is necessary for basic use; 16GB is ideal for a simple TrueNAS installation, though extra RAM is beneficial if you plan to run jails or virtual machines. The RAM cache lessens the demand on a physical L2ARC SSD, which only offers advantages in systems with over 64GB of RAM.
If you aim to push a 10GbE connection, consider using four (or eight) Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs on a PCIe controller card in RAID0, though many will advise against it unless you have a very specific need.
For reference, here are some useful links:
https://www.truenas.com/community/resour...primer.42/
https://www.servethehome.com/buyers-guid...s-servers/
https://www.truenas.com/community/thread...che.99760/

C
CatBuggz
Member
248
10-31-2021, 10:03 PM
#7
I purchased 4 *Samsung QVO 8 TB and 1*1 TB Samsung 990 NVMe drives.
I bought Unraid but I am feeling let down now. The write speed on the SSD is 160 MB/s when it's fast (you can check the speed directly on the NAS homepage). It struggles to use all drives simultaneously during reading and writing. This issue can be partially resolved by employing the write cache (for example, if I avoid copying many small files, I achieve about 280 MB/s over my 2.5 connection).

I explored Unraid Forums (and TrueNAS Forum) and discovered numerous articles discussing problems like "One drive damaged, data lost." It appears these issues are widespread across both distros. Consequently, I plan to set up a Windows 10 machine with RAID 5 that utilizes the 990 as cache. Apart from Linux distributions, this will ensure consistent and secure access to my network drives—my Unraid NAS remains hidden from explorers unless you map a network drive. You can then navigate it via cmd, though it won’t be visible in Explorer (except when browsing the network, where the NAS and shares appear). The proposed solution seems to grant unrestricted access to everything, which I will avoid (I won’t install SMB 1.0 on my Windows machine, I won’t allow guests access, etc.). This isn’t a good idea—security concerns are significant. I require something straightforward like a network drive. A VM might be useful, and a Windows machine seems more dependable based on my experience.
C
CatBuggz
10-31-2021, 10:03 PM #7

I purchased 4 *Samsung QVO 8 TB and 1*1 TB Samsung 990 NVMe drives.
I bought Unraid but I am feeling let down now. The write speed on the SSD is 160 MB/s when it's fast (you can check the speed directly on the NAS homepage). It struggles to use all drives simultaneously during reading and writing. This issue can be partially resolved by employing the write cache (for example, if I avoid copying many small files, I achieve about 280 MB/s over my 2.5 connection).

I explored Unraid Forums (and TrueNAS Forum) and discovered numerous articles discussing problems like "One drive damaged, data lost." It appears these issues are widespread across both distros. Consequently, I plan to set up a Windows 10 machine with RAID 5 that utilizes the 990 as cache. Apart from Linux distributions, this will ensure consistent and secure access to my network drives—my Unraid NAS remains hidden from explorers unless you map a network drive. You can then navigate it via cmd, though it won’t be visible in Explorer (except when browsing the network, where the NAS and shares appear). The proposed solution seems to grant unrestricted access to everything, which I will avoid (I won’t install SMB 1.0 on my Windows machine, I won’t allow guests access, etc.). This isn’t a good idea—security concerns are significant. I require something straightforward like a network drive. A VM might be useful, and a Windows machine seems more dependable based on my experience.