Why buy a NAS?

JakeJ · « **on:** 16 Mar 2023, 08:30 am »

As I get more and more into streaming digital music I thought it might be a good idea to put a NAS on my network, rip all my music to it and be able to access it from any computer on the network. I thought...

I'm finding it very difficult to get it setup and working as the software (web app) just seems to lock up at the same point during initialization. I cannot find clear step by step instructions on the mfr's website and the instructions, tips, and videos are unorganized and it's confusing finding which ones help and which ones are unnecessary or not pertinent.

It's a Terra Master 2 bay and I put two 8 Tb drives in it which should be enough for my digital library, photos, and backups.

I just got through installing an all new network router with triple the wifi speed of the old one, a switch for adding more devices on said network (the NAS being one). All wired with Cat 8. It's all configured and working fine and definitely faster overall. I just need to figure out this NAS as it not working according to the online docs at all. GRRRR!

So exactly what is the value of a dedicated NAS over just throwing extra hard drives in one or more PC's on the network?

TIA for any input.

AllanS · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 10:50 am »

I started down the NAS route a couple or three years ago and was pretty quickly overwhelmed with the moving parts that need to come together to make it work. I’m not that technical and don’t have the time or patience for a lot of tinkering so I settled on a Blue Sound Vault2i. It does everything I want except DSD.

JakeJ · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 12:12 pm »

So, you would say I have gone down the rabbit hole, eh? It all seemed so simple...at first.

rbbert · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 12:38 pm »

I think some brands of NAS servers have easier setups than others; perhaps pose questions to someone in the IT circle? Someone there may be able to help you get past the bottleneck with your current hardware?

JakeJ · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 12:46 pm »

IT circle? This is as close as it gets, I think.

newzooreview · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 02:37 pm »

Terra Master has a user forum. Detailing the steps you've taken and what you observe going wrong may lead to some help from a user who knows the software.

https://forum.terra-master.com/en/

If it's stalling while trying to set up the drives, then a) the NAS is just taking a long time to download updates, or b) the NAS is doing a deep format on the new drives, which could take hours.

If you replace a disk on a NAS, it can take hours to reorganize data and run parity checks, for example.

rbbert · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 03:16 pm »

Quote from: JakeJ on 16 Mar 2023, 12:46 pm

IT circle? This is as close as it gets, I think.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?board=192.0

JakeJ · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 04:53 pm »

Oops, my bad. Looked in the wrong place.

Well I continued banging my head against the digital wall and learning along the way. I have gotten this working with some tips from tech support via chat and a couple of forum posts the tech linked. I have successfully gotten through the initialization and install of their version of TNAS (TruNAS) OS which operates through ~~an app in Windows (VPN?)~~ a webpage running right from the NAS. Anyway, right now it's just humming away running through its self-diagnostics, synchronization of the two 8 Tb drives, and final configuration. Once done it will move from desktop to it's permanent home in the printer stand.

Still have much to learn. Next challenges will be to move the music library to the NAS and configure JRiver to access it, configuring backups, and ghosting drives.

Appreciate all who contributed to the thread.

richidoo · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 05:42 pm »

Fwiw, Synology NAS are very easy to setup and administer. I have 2 bay DS220. Much easier than my previous Netgear ReadyNAS.

SlushPuppy · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 06:34 pm »

Quote from: richidoo on 16 Mar 2023, 05:42 pm

Fwiw, Synology NAS are very easy to setup and administer. I have 2 bay DS220. Much easier than my previous Netgear ReadyNAS.

I have a Synology DS218+ that has been running perfectly for 5 years. Incredibly easy to update and manage.

JakeJ · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 06:35 pm »

I looked at the Synology and others. Read about headaches with the ReadyNAS units. Most of my challenge was likely my own square-headedness making the learning curve a bit steeper. I did delve into the documentation but there is a lot of it and it can be pretty dry reading.

I landed on the Terra Master F2-423 for the performance (CPU and Ram) and didn't see as much negative feedback. Plus it was on sale at NewEgg for $80 off. I put two Toshiba N300 8Tb drives in it because they also were on sale on Amazon for $50 less than most of the others. NAS specified drives are better built and cost a bit more so I'm hoping they last a while.

Right now it running a slow synchronization between the two drives and that probably won't be done before I crash tonight. I think configuration will be complete at that point and I can create partitions photos, music, and files.

SlushPuppy · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 06:40 pm »

Glad to see you made it past the first difficult steps. Once you have it configured it should do its job so well you'll forget you even have it.

newzooreview · « **Reply #12 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 06:44 pm »

Just to be sure: if you plan to move the NAS, shut it down from within the web app and let it turn itself off. Then you can move it and turn it back on once it's in place.

JakeJ · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 08:24 pm »

Quote from: SlushPuppy on 16 Mar 2023, 06:40 pm

Glad to see you made it past the first difficult steps. Once you have it configured it should do its job so well you'll forget you even have it.

That is one of the goals.

Quote from: newzooreview on 16 Mar 2023, 06:44 pm

Just to be sure: if you plan to move the NAS, shut it down from within the web app and let it turn itself off. Then you can move it and turn it back on once it's in place.

Yes, always shut down for relocation. I started with it on the desk for setup and plan to move it once all the dust has settled.

toocool4 · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Mar 2023, 09:26 pm »

Next time you are buying a NAS, make sure you get yourself something with a minimum of 3 disks. The minimum you want to run on a NAS is RAID 5, meaning you need 3 disks. Any one disk fails, it will keep working. Just pop in a new disk and it will rebuild the RAID. What you are running now is just a mirror RAID 1, both disks contain the exact same data. No better than having 2 separate disks, the only advantage you have with what you are running now is that it copies your data to the second disc for you. Your 2 disks of 8TB which equals 16TB only gives you effective 8TB of storage, meaning you have lost half your storage. RAID 5 with a minimum of 3 disks each of 8TB like you have now is equals to 24TB, giving you a total of 16TB storage. You are only losing a 1/3 not a half of your space, and if you have RAID 5 with even more disks you lose even less.

lokie · « **Reply #15 on:** 17 Mar 2023, 12:17 am »

I have Synology 1515+ and have loved then I hated it and now I love it again.
I bought two 6TB drives to back it all up. Kind of crazy backing up a back up drive but that's what you need to do I guess.

Business laptop, family pictures, 4Tb of Music, phone data and everything else is backed up twice. It took me a while to get there but I sure feel good now.
I need to replace the UPS with a network capability to do soft shut downs. Any suggestions?

JakeJ · « **Reply #16 on:** 17 Mar 2023, 03:01 am »

@toocool4-
I looked at 3 and 4 bay units as part of my research but I couldn't justify the cost. Maybe if I win the Lotto, lol!

I do understand the benefits of which you speak and remember some of the information I've picked up about raid arrays over the years. When I first learned of the concept the hard drives were a whopping 40 Mb and there were hundreds of racks with thousands of drives in the server farm I visited. It was fascinating but no one I knew of at the time was thinking of having a home raid array.

A UPS, now that's a good idea if I suffered power outages but here in WA they are less frequent than other areas. I would like the option of a soft shutdown as I have lost components on an outage. I've lost gear on a power up too. Most of those times were on the west side of the Cascades and due to storms.

ErikMi · « **Reply #17 on:** 21 Mar 2023, 01:53 pm »

Me too I have a Synology DS214Play I have WD RED drives.. One started to fail a few years back swapped in another and alls well. I guess I'll have to at one point replace it with a new one... you can bet it'll be another Synology!

rbbert · « **Reply #18 on:** 21 Mar 2023, 02:57 pm »

my Synology DS1621+ has shut down multiple times (certainly more than 30-40) due to power outages or inadvertent unplugging; there have been zero problems from this so far.

nyc_paramedic · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 Apr 2023, 07:31 pm »

I'm a fan of using off the shelf low power servers. I have a generic Dell PowerEdge T110 II with 32GB of RAM and run FreeNAS with ZFS filesystem. I believe i paid $200 for the unit. Added a 20GB Intel SSD and three 6TB drives.

Super stable for years now.