Hi Custom PC forums, been a while Currently, I have 5TB of combined storage spread over 2 Desktop and a Laptop. I am looking at investing in a backup solution, but i have no clue how to go about this and what to go for, so need some advice. Online backup is out of the question, using a quick calculation (50KB upload speed * 5TB = 100,000,000 seconds or 1,150 days) I want something quick and simple, and expandable to accommodate more storage as I plug in new hard drives. also be redundant so I don't lose any data/minimal chance of lose. I run, Vista on one desktop and the laptop and other desktop run 7 It would be nice to store extra files on the backup solution, so i can free up space on my desktop, but this is not a requirement I have a blank check so don't worry about budget Thanks Adam W
NAS box was what i was thinking, anyone got any personal recommendations on something that will suit my needs.
If any NAS box can be used. would It be software that would control the backups been looking at getting this NAS box a while ago http://www.scan.co.uk/products/syno...18ghz-dcore-1gb-ram-2xgbit-lan-2x-esata-4xusb
blank check...build out a SAN Something like BSD would be a good OS to go w/ for a NAS though, going w/ the ZFS file system and SMB for windows share (yes, im aware its not as fast as native windows sharing). ZFS would allow for features like double / triple parity, on-the-fly compression, logical volumes, blah blah blah, the list of features for ZFS is long and impressive and its a rock solid file system. There are also pre-built solution using ZFS such as FreeNAS (BSD bassed) or NexentaStor ( Solaris / open solaris / open indiana bassed, whatever that oracle situation has spawned out) for people less confident setting things up or who want a good, quick, easy solution. I do believe NexentaStor using CIFS over SMB so its a slightly faster, though not native, speed windows share but i could be wrong, i dont follow the Solaris camp ttoo closely these days.
You could build a box on your own or could by pre-built boxes and put your own drives in them. I personally use a ReadyNAS NV+ with 4 2Tb drives in RAID 5 (gives me ~6Tb working space), but I am just about at it's limit with a 4 drive maximum. http://www.netgear.com/home/products/storage/ Drobo has some larger cases (up to 12 drives) and I've heard good things about them. Just look at what options each box has for connectivity to get something that works for you. The Drobo Pro will probably be my next purchase when I go to a rackmount system. I like the iSCSI implementation of it. http://www.drobo.com/products/index.php
I'm going to go ahead and suggest the HP ProLiant Micro Server. It makes a great, though expensive, alternative to a NAS box. I think the price is justified by being a full fledged computer, so you can use it as a small HTPC, NAS box, torrent box (if you do that, personally I don't approve), or whatever you want to do with a small four-drive computer. If you want to, you can also stick a 4x2.5" drive converter in the 5.25" bay.
I also recommend Drobo for it's easy use and large storage capacity. However I personal run a Windows Home Server which looks after all my files, backups my computers and is all set up for a easy to use friendly remote web access for other family members such as my Uncle. I backup the whole thing on the 1st of every month to a removable HDD and anything else gets coverd by online backup which uploads only the files that have changed every night from 23:00 to 06:30. So far all working perfectly. And it has been up for almost a year now
If you actually have a blank cheque, then a bottom-end NetApp would serve for a cracking home data protection regime. Brand new, a FAS2020 with support would be sub £10k for a fair old chunk of storage, allowing for fairly granular recovery points for a least a month, possibly scaling back to weekly/monthly for longer retention. You could save buckets by going for second hand though a EOL reseller (or ebay for that matter) - you could get one hell of a "home" NAS for around £2k, though to bear in mind that you would have to take it on unsupported (which ins't necessarily an issue, they're easy as pie to use/configure, and docs are freely available) The NetApp SnapManager suite is pretty great, and you would be learning about "real" storage (and bragging rights, if that's your thing) If you don't actually have a blank cheque, then forget about it and get a Drobo and Acronis.
Just build a cheap home server from low end desktop parts. That's what I opted for. If the use is literally back up and file storage/streaming, then it's more than good enough. Just build a really, really cheap low end, low power PC. I used a Celeron E3200 and under clocked it/under volted it, and it runs at 1GHz with 0.9v and draws around 50 watts from the mains in use. mATX/Atom boards would be good too. I'd put the money into a decent hardware RAID card and drives. This way, the RAID card is doing the work, and it will be fast. I only use 3disks to attain RAID5 and still manage over 200MB/sec write speeds with Caviar green drives, which is more than fast enough because I'm backing up over a gigabit network. Over a 1Gb network, the max speed you can theoretically attain is 112MB/sec, and I can back up to my server at over 100MB/sec, so getting close to these speeds is entirely possible with a decent router. If you only have a 100Mb router/network, then you need to sort that out, as 100Mb/sec is essentially USB speeds... around 12MB/sec max. Do not use Norton Ghost for backing up over a network. Unless they've changed something back up speeds were awful last time I used it. Acronis will take full advantage of what bandwidth you have. I then mirror the server to a RAID5 NAS in my garage via ethernet run out there in cable trunking. I use AllWay Sync to mirror the server. Works great. If you genuinely do have a no budget limit I'd go with Mister_Tad's suggestion. Bear in mind though, with hard drives at the prices they are today, even my suggestion is no longer going to be cheap. Drobo is a great solution, but you'll not get the speeds that max out your network when backing up large amounts of data. I looked into this when I was deciding on my own solution. Drobo transfer speeds.... http://storagenerve.com/2009/12/01/drobo-performance-stats/ http://www.slashgear.com/drobo-fs-gets-benchmarked-0488353/ It's a similar story with most NAS type solutions. My own Thecus NAS which I use to mirror the server is the same kind of speed. That's fine for mirroring, as it does it overnight, but as your main server it can be a pain when backups take hours. Even if you do incremental backups, every once in a while you'll want to start a new back up set and then means a full back up. At 25 or 35MB/sec that can take a long time with a lot of data. In it's favour, is the ease of set up... and easier to manage than a proper RAID server... slightly more robust too.
So it's sort of like a HP microserver then? [derail]Also out of curiosity what RAID card did you use? The one in our media server is acting up and we're looking for a replacement [/derail]
If I can ask why is online backup out of the question? I've heard of backups services that cost ~3£ a month for unlimited storage. The thing you've got a problem with is speed I think? Once you uploaded your data the service will just rescan your data on a given time and upload the new stuff you have online. Its quite effectife.
Yes.. but cheaper (minus disks of course)... and faster... with RAID5... so actually.. no at all like a HP Micro server. LSI SAS8704EM2 Works great.. although in hind sight, I'd have paid a little more and got the version with hot plugging... but at least it has a hot spare option for zero downtime... unless you have all 4 ports running RAID. Use 3TB disks however, that's not really necessary for a home server. With today's disk prices though... an expensive option. Because it sucks!
Please, please use RAID6 with disks 2TB and larger - rebuild times and IOs are immense for big disks, and hence exposure to a double failure is immense (especially given that you're likely to have bought all the disks in one shot, i.e. from one batch, so if one goes, it's not out of the question that the rest aren't far behind)
I'm using 1.5TB disks... rebuild times aren't that bad actually. If I only had the server, I'd agree with you, but I've got the RAID5 mirror.
BTW RAID 5 is not safe! http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/raid5-vs-raid-10-safety-performance.html http://www.miracleas.com/BAARF/RAID5_versus_RAID10.txt You want RAID 10 (if you can afford it). you might as well use JBOD and have a second copy on an external that is only connected for copying data. But this would actually be much safer then raid 5. HP Micro server would be a good bet, unless you want to use the server also as a HTPC then an AMD E-350 would be better suited. (build your own with this CPU).
Both links are terribly misguided (and a little bit outdated, at least in concepts if not time). There is a time and place for RAID5, as there is for RAID10 and RAID6. Stating a blanket "don't use RAID5" is just as daft as saying "Don't use SATA, use SAS!"
