QNap / NAS

[Fzero]

Just looking to spark some discussion/thoughts on these NAS devices, in general and the QNap models.


Never really looked into NAS before, last week though I was looking at one of these in use, not sure if it was this TS-412 model but it looked like this, was a 4 drive one and looking the same.


http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/network-storage/1291537/qnap-ts-412-turbo-nas


Thinking these are a good thing to have.


Currently I just back up all my things to passport drives, have a couple WD 750GB ones and a Toshiba 1TB one.


With these NAS though, and I am guessing this is the case with all of them;


I could stream media stored on it over to my PS3, save me keep plugging in the USB passport drives as I currently do.


I could be out and stream media from it to my Android phone, freeing up the memory card allocation for apps only.


I could do same thing with one of those Android PC sticks, like the MK's, and watch stuff stored on the NAS from that.


I like the one-touch-backup too, from a USB stick.


Faster backing up I believe too.


Do most/all these NAS offer similar interfaces as I seen on the QNap one?


This one had a nice UI that allowed to you share out certain files for a specified time period, then email the link to that share to someone ... which I thought is a nice feature.


Do any NAS offer better cloud service than QNap that are worth looking into?


Correct in thinking that, with the ones that have 2 or 4 disks trays. can set one to be a mirror of the other, a backup disk essentially - And that it would be a simply/automated process once configured, I could add files to one of the disks and it would auto copy them onto the backup disk either immediately or daily at set time?


How about the fans on these, how noisy are we talking, XBOX 360 noise or even louder?


That's some of the questions I have at moment, I wouldn't be affording one immediately anyway, it's just something that although I'd heard of them, had never really seen one until recently and I was impressed with what it could do.


Just interested to hear any thoughts from anyone, especially if any of you are currently using them for a home/personaly media and backup purpose.


cheers

 

[thatgui]

I have a Synology Diskstation 411Slim at home.


I'm using it as

• media share: Video over smbfs to a Xbmc Client, Music over mpd
  
• backup medium: Network Backup using rsync for Linux clients and BackupServiceHome for Windows clients
  
• personal cloud: contacts/calendersync, Firefox Sync - Server (thats why I love the full fledged Firefox for Pandora, got full sync support instead of the crippled Android version)
  

The fans of this particular device spin up high on system start, but are slowing down after that to a speed where I can't here anything approx. 70-80cm away from the device.

 

[Fzero]

That one looks to me to offer the same features as the QNap TS-412 model, but seems to be quieter.


I would definitely need a quiet/silent one as only have the one room it could be in and I would be spending my time there too.


Also the fact it takes 2.5" disks rather than 3.5" ... Which I have a few already which could be used.


Looks a good option, cheers

 

[gunrock]

For the money, I'd consider a HP Proliant Microserver. Stick your own disks in it (and some extra memory if you like) and your favourite Linux distro (or virtualisation hypervisor + distro) and away you go.

 

[mosschops]

I have an older qnap model 209pro II and its grand. Its a bit noisy but i understand that is now solved. However i woild say done expect silent operation fro something with disks potentially spinning all the time.


I use mine to serve up videos and music via twonky, grab from usenet with sabnzbd+ and transmission for torrents, run an ftp server etc. My understanding is these devices are all very much alike with the odd issue here and there differing between the various manufacturers.


If you want any more info PM me, ive been more than happy with mine in the 2.5 years ive had it

 

[thatgui]

Some additions:

Do most/all these NAS offer similar interfaces as I seen on the QNap one?

Both Qnap and Synology provide Live Demos of their interfaces - have you tried them ?

Correct in thinking that, with the ones that have 2 or 4 disks trays. can set one to be a mirror of the other, a backup disk essentially - And that it would be a simply/automated process once configured, I could add files to one of the disks and it would auto copy them onto the backup disk either immediately or daily at set time?

My Configuration: All clients backup/sync with one drive on my NAS (no raids configured) which gets mirrored to a second HDD in the NAS (not the whole drive, only the specific directories) once a week. I also made a light modification so that a custom script is started whenever a USB-HDD with a specific partition name is plugged in to the usb-port. This script copies the backups to this HDD, which happens roughly once every one or two months (if I do not forget it)

For the money, I'd consider a HP Proliant Microserver. Stick your own disks in it (and some extra memory if you like) and your favourite Linux distro (or virtualisation hypervisor + distro) and away you go.

I know a lot of people who did this (and are very happy with it), and with a little luck you get them relativly cheap on the used market. It would say its a matter of how much time you want to invest. With a Microserver you have the upmost flexibility (especially regarding reducing the noise it is emitting), but setting everything up costs time. With a "ready to go" NAS solution you aren't very flexibel anymore, but it is more of a "plug it in, switch it on, do some 20min configs and your ready to go" thing.

 

[Fzero]

Nice one guys, all good information here.


I am looking a more 'ready to go' solution, so although the Proliant is a good price, I'm still thinking a NAS. ...I'll probably be able to source the disks to throw in it a little cheaper than normal anyway.


I didn't know about Qnap and Synology live demo sites


http://web.qnap.com/liveDemo.asp


http://www.synology.com/products/dsm_livedemo.php


Thanks, I am definitely going to spend some time within each environment and that will likely sway my decision.

 

[kojack]

I've had a Qnap TS-109 Pro for a while, but I haven't used it for a couple of years (lost the power adapter). I was planning on installing some stuff like SVN on it, but getting it to do more stuff like that was getting annoying (maybe for somebody with more "linux on a semi open embedded system" experience it would be easy, but it seemed too annoying for me at the time.


As a file server it worked fine. I liked the way that I could plug in a usb drive to the front, press the front button and it would copy the entire usb drive to a dated directory.


The proliant looks pretty cool. A 1.5GHz dual core athlon with 8GB of ram is a bit better than my Qnap's 500MHz arm926 cpu with 128MB ram. (Although the qnap would be quieter, it's fanless).

 

[thatgui]

sorry - no post intended

 

[Fzero]

The USB one-touch backup is a very nice feature, one I would probably use now and then.


I have just been watching a load of videos by Ranjit from Tech2buzz on YT, he does some nice thorough reviews of the Synology DS212J model, a 2 disk NAS. Covering the physical unit, which he comments is almost silent - even though it does have a fan.


It is a fairly cheap device too at around £170 ... I had a look around the demo live site, liked it, both the live sites seem pretty much the same to me really, I suspect digging deep there are differences but the main tasks I would do are within both.


Ranjit also reviewed some Android apps from Synology, I like you can enable/disable services like file share, FTP, from the phone itself.


No one-touch backup from USB on this model, but that aside it seems very good.


Looks like I might end up with this one, will be looking in the January sales and see what's saying then.