Advice on next step in media storage

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DamageInc

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#306360 16-Jul-2023 14:15

Hi all,

I currently run Linux (Pop OS!) on a NUC8i5BEH. Main purpose of my system is to run the Plex media server.

Attached I have 3 x USB3 4TB HDD’s which house all of the media. I'm sure the drives are getting quite old also. All 3 drives sit at 77%.

I am at that point where I need to start thinking about how I progress with increasing my HDD capacity plus introduce backup/parity (which I should have done ages ago I know).

Do I buy a 4-bay(or higher) NAS? Synology? QNAP?

Do I buy a 4-bay(or higher) JBOD/DAS?

Budget is up in the air at this stage. I know whichever way I go that I need to buy 1, 2 or 3 new larger HDD’s (8TB, 12TB etc). Ideally would like storage plus backup/parity.

Any advice or ideas much appreciated.

Thank you

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#3104725 16-Jul-2023 14:29

how do you access you media? is it just from one device or from multiple?

If you look at something like a Synology NAS, they do command a bit of $$ up front for the device and also for the storage media to go in it, but they come with a lot of first and 3 party packages you can install on them, like plex, and other backup software. they allow you to run their volumes in raid (not a backup but a redundancy). But IMO they are so versitle and can do a heap of different things.

you could use you old drives as a backup destination which you could backup your important files to once a month or so then just put them somewhere safe.

DamageInc

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#3104728 16-Jul-2023 14:51

Access is from multiple devices near & far.

I'm very happy with the performance of my NUC so one thought was to just use the NAS as storage only. Never had one before so don't know too much about them.

Great idea about using the old drives.

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mdf

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#3104784 16-Jul-2023 15:31

@michaelmurfy helped me shift to Unraid a couple of years ago. Works really well as a more space efficient alternative to RAID and hardware demands are very modest. I have the important stuff backed up online to Backblaze B2 using rclone which is as cheap as chips. Some great tutorials on SpaceinvaderOne's youtube channel.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3104791 16-Jul-2023 15:52

DamageInc:

I'm very happy with the performance of my NUC so one thought was to just use the NAS as storage only. Never had one before so don't know too much about them.

It's called Network Attached Storage. That is exactly how you should be using your NAS.

I have three Synology NAS boxes. All three are used for storage exclusively. In the past I have found them to be very good, but the newest one is annoying me. It's e-mailing me constantly telling me about 'security risks' because I haven't updated a built-in package that I can't delete and will never use. I thought I'd turned off the relevant notices, but apparently not.

I got a good deal on some 20TB drives, otherwise I would have followed through with my original plan, which was to replace my aging 8-bay NAS with a PC running TrueNAS.

cddt

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#3104964 17-Jul-2023 10:38

The answer to this question also depends on how much time you want to invest in this.

For DAS you could look at something like a Sabrent 5-bay which I have read good things about.

Since you're upgrading I would also look at Jellyfin as a free and open source alternative to Plex.

DamageInc

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#3104978 17-Jul-2023 11:18

SirHumphreyAppleby:

DamageInc:

I'm very happy with the performance of my NUC so one thought was to just use the NAS as storage only. Never had one before so don't know too much about them.

It's called Network Attached Storage. That is exactly how you should be using your NAS.

I have three Synology NAS boxes. All three are used for storage exclusively. In the past I have found them to be very good, but the newest one is annoying me. It's e-mailing me constantly telling me about 'security risks' because I haven't updated a built-in package that I can't delete and will never use. I thought I'd turned off the relevant notices, but apparently not.

I got a good deal on some 20TB drives, otherwise I would have followed through with my original plan, which was to replace my aging 8-bay NAS with a PC running TrueNAS.

Sorry i should have expanded the bit around storage only. What i meant was instead of using Synology programs ie Plex etc, keep Plex on my NUC so the NUC can do any heavy lifting in regards to transcoding. Currently doing that very easily.

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DamageInc

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#3104981 17-Jul-2023 11:25

cddt:

The answer to this question also depends on how much time you want to invest in this.

For DAS you could look at something like a Sabrent 5-bay which I have read good things about.

Since you're upgrading I would also look at Jellyfin as a free and open source alternative to Plex.

No issue with investing time, my server would be about my only hobby going at the moment.

Thanks for the Sabrent suggestion, will have a look.

There was a period i had both Plex and Jellyfin running side by side, currently have Jellyfin dormant in docker. Too much effort invested in Plex to go to Jellyfin.

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Jase2985

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#3104997 17-Jul-2023 11:55

DamageInc:

Sorry i should have expanded the bit around storage only. What i meant was instead of using Synology programs ie Plex etc, keep Plex on my NUC so the NUC can do any heavy lifting in regards to transcoding. Currently doing that very easily.

any decent NAS should be able to transcode for you, with synology you dont want one of the newer ryzen chips as they dont have hardware transcoding built in.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3105019 17-Jul-2023 12:29

Jase2985:

any decent NAS should be able to transcode for you, with synology you dont want one of the newer ryzen chips as they dont have hardware transcoding built in.

A NAS should maximise the potential of the network and/or storage it provides. The OP does not need a NAS that does more than a NAS NAS should, so the Ryzen units will work perfectly well. Reviews I read suggested the Ryzen performed better than the previous generation Intel-based systems, transcoding aside. They also have a (very over-priced) 10GbE option for the 4-5 bay Ryzen systems.

DamageInc

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#3105045 17-Jul-2023 13:17

With the performance i get from my NUC, i have no need for a NAS that transcodes. Unless going that way terribly affects my Plex users experience, i believe i need a NAS/DAS that nails exactly that - being an attached storage.

The only benefit i see going with a transcoding NAS is if my NUC craps itself. But right now if that happened, id buy a new NUC.

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DamageInc

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#3105077 17-Jul-2023 14:51

Possibly looking at the QNAP TR-004

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SumnerBoy

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#3105084 17-Jul-2023 15:16

DamageInc:

The only benefit i see going with a transcoding NAS is if my NUC craps itself. But right now if that happened, id buy a new NUC.

On a side note, did you hear the other day that Intel have decided to EOL the NUC product line?

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3105086 17-Jul-2023 15:17

SumnerBoy:

On a side note, did you hear the other day that Intel have decided to EOL the NUC product line?

It's not all of them.

SumnerBoy

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#3105087 17-Jul-2023 15:18

Oh really? I didn't realise that, thanks for correcting me!

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3105088 17-Jul-2023 15:19

DamageInc:

Possibly looking at the QNAP TR-004

This isn't really a NAS box, it's just USB connected storage. It supports multiple modes, including 'hardware RAID' options. Generally, I would advise avoiding hardware RAID. You'd probably want to use this in JBOD mode and use software RAID.

QNAP is a popular brand and how they implement their RAID may be well documented (I cannot confirm), but ideally you want to know that you can pull drives from one NAS and attach them to a PC to read the data. With the more feature-packed NAS boxes, they are typically just running Linux with software RAID, and even if not trivial, you can pull the drives and read them in a PC, should that ever be necessary.

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