central document and media storage

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deedledeedle

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Topic # 193672 19-Mar-2016 20:35

beginner question!

until recently i've only ever had one computer which had everything on it(along with an external drive as backup), i've heard about servers,nas,networks etc but don't know what i need to fit my needs

i now have a few computers,tablet and mobile phones in the house at the moment and all my documents and media have become scattered around them all, i want to relocate them to a central area so all other devices have access to them.

i currently have-

htpc running openelec with 2x 2tb drives

desktop with dual boot windows 10 and linux mint,linux is normally running,desktop is 500gb i think-linux used most of the time

old powerpc mac used as a music player,80gb

tablet

couple of smartphones

the htpc currently has most of my media on it

documents and some media are split between windows and mint

some music is on the mac

how would you rearrange these to have everything in one central location that every device has access to them?

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Reply # 1516192 19-Mar-2016 20:43

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A multiple approach: NAS and cloud.

A local NAS with RAID guarantees quick access to data and some protection against failure. RAID is not a backup solution so an option would be a backup of some these folders to services such as Crashplan or Backblaze.

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darylblake

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Reply # 1516475 20-Mar-2016 16:52

Hes Right +1.

You should look at NAS solutions. NAS meaning simply network attached storage is going to work probably the best.

Synology, Dlink, WD and Qnap all have NAS devices. Here are some from pb techs site. http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=c&p=nas_storage.

He is also right about the backup solutions. For the most important information you should look at backing this up to the cloud. If you property was burgled and you needed that data then you can get it back. You may not need to back up ALL your data if its too expensive to back ti all up to the cloud, but I would be selecting what is important and doing that. Personally I use google drive, and I pay for it so I get extra storage.

andrewNZ

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Reply # 1516478 20-Mar-2016 16:59

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darylblake:
Hes Right +1.

You should look at NAS solutions. NAS meaning simply network attached storage is going to work probably the best.

Synology, Dlink, WD and Qnap all have NAS devices. Here are some from pb techs site. http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=c&p=nas_storage.

He is also right about the backup solutions. For the most important information you should look at backing this up to the cloud. If you property was burgled and you needed that data then you can get it back. You may not need to back up ALL your data if its too expensive to back ti all up to the cloud, but I would be selecting what is important and doing that. Personally I use google drive, and I pay for it so I get extra storage.

Please note, Google Drive is NOT backup either. No standard cloud storage system is classed as backup.

When guiding people on subjects like this, it is very important to make the distinction between online storage and online backup.

Location: Dunedin

freitasm

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Reply # 1516480 20-Mar-2016 17:02

I would think of either Synology or QNAP. I am currently using Crashplan and for a AU$12.50/month I can backup up to ten computers. Currently we have eight PCs, with a total of almost a terabyte.

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deedledeedle

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Reply # 1516552 20-Mar-2016 18:34

i'll do some nas browsing then

so what are the benefits of cloud backup aginst an external harddrive? is it just fire and theft or is there more to it than that?

how easy is it to point the various computers in the direction of the nas and to use that as their default storage location?is there an idiots guide anywhere on the web you can recommend?

thanks for the help so far

freitasm

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Reply # 1516556 20-Mar-2016 18:35

deedledeedle:so what are the benefits of cloud backup aginst an external harddrive? is it just fire and theft or is there more to it than that?

You answered it yourself.

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xpd

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Reply # 1516740 21-Mar-2016 10:29

Personally I'm running a "server" (old desktop loaded with HDD's) - any documents/pics gets uploaded to OneDrive and backed up to an external drive.

All media sits on the drives and also runs web server along with minecraft server. No media is backed up or RAID'ed , so if a drive fails, it'll be a pain but I'll live :)

If its just pure data storage, then NAS is a good way to go. If want to run anything else (such as I am) , a server is the better choice.

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cyril7

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Reply # 1516744 21-Mar-2016 10:39

Most of the NAS vendors provide a backup method (or several), I normally use Synology, and use the Timeline package to do incremental s to an external USB drive attached to the NAS, and for DR backup, use Amazon S3, or Glacier.

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Reply # 1516849 21-Mar-2016 12:39

freitasm:

deedledeedle:so what are the benefits of cloud backup aginst an external harddrive? is it just fire and theft or is there more to it than that?

You answered it yourself.

Ransomware, earthquakes, etc.

I use Zoolz coldstorage (based on Amazon's AWS cloud), $14.99US Per year, for 100GB. Sufficient to backup Photos, documents - stuff that cannot be replaced.

Windows home server ( unfortunately no longer supported / sold) for all documents, files, music, videos, backups, and they are in turn backed up to a couple of 2TB external drives on a monthly basis, and stored off site.

A backup is only a backup if it is stored in 1 or more disparate locations.

What can you afford to loose if your house is completed and utterly demolished by fire, missile attack or zombie uprising?

My thoughts are no longer my own and is probably representative of our media-controlled government

BTR

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Reply # 1516902 21-Mar-2016 13:35

I run a MacPro which has a SSD as a boot drive, I have 1 TB scratch drive and 4 x 2TB HDD's in a Raid 5 config which I keeps all of my photography work on. Every day my RAID backs up to my NAS

For Documents I use Google drive so they are accessible from most devices and they are backed up by the drive folder on my desktop machine being backed up to the NAS as well.

Long story short you can never have to many copies of things. For centralised storage get a NAS box, at least a 2 bay model so you can setup a RAID 1.

Tinshed

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Reply # 1516922 21-Mar-2016 13:54

My two cents worth: I run a three-tier hierarchy:

1) Local=PC/iMac

2) NAS=Synology

3) Cloud=Dropbox

In my view this means I have the best of all worlds, fast easy access to files at the local PC/MAC love, some hardware redundancy through RAID in the NAS, and Cloud backup. Whatever solution you come up with, it needs to work for you.

Tinshed
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nunz

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Reply # 1516945 21-Mar-2016 14:21

The answer about cloud not being a back up is because:

Many cloud services only keep 1 x copy - eg. the latest so if you have mangled a file then the mangled version gets uploaded to the cloud and your backup is not mangled too.Having said tat Some services like cubby (cubby.com) have file versioning and when you run out of space drop the loldest versions of archived / versioned files to make more space.

Drop box and amazon and google drive can be used for backups. Take a look at Duplicati or duplicity. Has windows, Mac, linux versions, uses delta versioning so only uploads parts of a file that change (smaller backups) and allows versioning. I personally have a full backup taken once each month, incremental / deltas daily and keep 6 of my monthly backups. This works well with amazon and dropb xo especially using a webdav type connection.

In short - cloud = backup if you keep versions.

nunz

freitasm

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Reply # 1517254 21-Mar-2016 22:05

Tinshed:

My two cents worth: I run a three-tier hierarchy:

1) Local=PC/iMac

2) NAS=Synology

3) Cloud=Dropbox

Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive are not "backup" as per reply above.

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DravidDavid

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Reply # 1519028 24-Mar-2016 13:20

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Have you considered a Freenas RAID-Z2 with an ownCloud install backed up to an external hard disk/Dropbox/CrashPlan? You can access all your files in the classical fashion from Windows or Linux platforms, and via the internet when away. You have the added benefit of disk redundancy, minute by minute snapshots (if required), ZFS and the ability to also satisfy your other HTPC needs if you want. There are an array of HTPC related plugins available such as:

HTPC Manager
Headphones
Plex
Emby
Subsonic
Transmission
XDM

You can also integrate CrashPlan in a headless configuration as I have. I am currently running 12 2TB disks across two pools with about 7TB each. which are then backed up across the network to external disks which are attached to my workstation, and continually backed up to CrashPlan.

It's not super demanding hardware wise, but there are recommended minimums which I recommend looking in to first.

Good luck!

Sometimes what you don't get is a blessing in disguise!

RileyB

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Reply # 1529842 11-Apr-2016 09:04

deedledeedle:

i'll do some nas browsing then

so what are the benefits of cloud backup against an external harddrive? is it just fire and theft or is there more to it than that?

how easy is it to point the various computers in the direction of the nas and to use that as their default storage location?is there an idiots guide anywhere on the web you can recommend?

thanks for the help so far

The idea of cloud storage is that it's offsite, and not just offsite, but generally stored far away, so it protects you from both a local event (theft/fire etc) as well as wider reaching event like an flood earthquake, which may still take out an offsite backup if you kept it at work/friends place etc. Another upside, is that (and I wouldn't rely on it), cloud storage normally has some amount of backup/reduncy built in by the vendor, so when one of their HDD's die, your data will probably survive.

The downsides are you don't have immediate access to your data ( how long is it going to take you to download everything back to your computer?) and that you need an working computer/device to download it, so it isn't ideal for storing backups' that you directly restore from, ie. images of your boot drive. Lastly, you are trusting your data to a third party, they could go bankrupt any day etc.

One thing I would personally look at when buying a NAS, is the cost of adding an decent UPS, it could save your NAS and your data.

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