NAS upgrade question

Currently. I have Western Digital 1TB NAS drive connected to my router. I have now purchased a Synology DS212J with 2 X 2TB hard drives. I also have a 500GB external hard drive.

What's the best way of setting my system?

1) Configure drive 2 to back up drive 1 in the Synology periodically, & also back up to the Western Digital NAS.

2) Use RAID 1 configuration on my Synology & back up data on the Western Digital NAS.

3) How do I connect the Western Digital NAS? Directly to the router via ethernet, or via USB to the Synology?

4) I also intend to back up all media onto the 500GB external hard drive and connect it via USB either to my router or the NAS. Can I schedule another backup from Synology to it automatically even if it's connected to the router & not Synology directly?

5) How do I ensure that Sonos reads from only 1 drive & not all the back ups? I don't want duplicates in the library.
 

michael hoy

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Hi BB,

Although not a NAS in the true sense, I use a windows home server for streaming my music.

I have 2x 2TB drives and 2x 500GB drives, I set the second pair to mirror the main drives.

I also have a 2TB external USB drive hanging off the back of the server to which I backup the music files at night.

I would connect the 2nd NAS directly to the router, although I have a gigabit switch connected to the router and all the other devices connected to the switch.

Cyrus recommend using this method for their streamer.

Hope this helps with some of your questions.
 

The_Lhc

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bigboss said:
Currently. I have Western Digital 1TB NAS drive connected to my router. I have now purchased a Synology DS212J with 2 X 2TB hard drives. I also have a 500GB external hard drive.

What's the best way of setting my system?

2) Use RAID 1 configuration on my Synology & back up data on the Western Digital NAS.

That one.

3) How do I connect the Western Digital NAS? Directly to the router via ethernet, or via USB to the Synology?

I don't know enough about either NAS to know if either of them will support that but leaving it plugged into the network will be the easiest way.

5) How do I ensure that Sonos reads from only 1 drive & not all the back ups? I don't want duplicates in the library.

Just don't point the Sonos at any share other than the main one (on the Synology).
 
Thanks for the responses, michael hoy & The_Lhc! I'll probably try out Synology's hybrid RAID management system & use my existing NAS as a back up.

Is it easy to back up a NAS drive to another NAS?

My Synology should be delivered in the next couple of weeks. I'll post back how I get on. :)

Sorry for wrongly linking the Western Digital NAS. This is the NAS drive I currently have:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Edition-Network-Storage/dp/B001RNNTVQ/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1344565445&sr=8-28
 

Mr Steve

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Hi BB

I am using a DS410 so have gone through the same issues.

To get some comfort on hardware redundancy and prtotect against HDD failure in the NAS,use the Synology hybrid RAID which seems to be a fair compromise on the various RAID types.

Then plug your other external HDD into the Synology USB and setup your backups via the Synology OS (called DSM). Make sure you have updated to the latest version before doing all the setups and moving the data onto the NAS- it just makes things simpler and the newer versions of DSM have a nicer UI and is a bit easier to use. There is a "backup and restore" feature in DSM where you can just let the backup run by itself in the background. For true backup security, alternate between two external backup HDDs and keep one offsite.
 

Mr Steve

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bigboss said:
Thanks, Mr Steve!

If I want to backup onto my current NAS drive which is connected via ethernet to the router, can Synology detect it for a wireless scheduled backup?

I have never tried a backup over a wireless connection so I would just be guessing (much more of a fan of hardwired connections, except for things like iPads :))

On the Synology you create profiles and permissions for the various devices / pcs you want to connect to the NAS and I assume that so long as these have been properly set up (and are working through a common router and hence are part of the same IP address family) there should be no problem in the two devices seeing each other and hence for the wireless backups to work.

As to whether you will have a fast or stable connection wireless connection, the normal caveats re a wireless hookup would presumably apply.
 
Just noticed what I've typed! Actually, it's not strictly wireless.

My router is in the hallway & the Synology will be placed in the study, connected to the router via ethernet & home plugs. The Western Digital NAS will remain in the hallway with the router, or in the study connected to an unmanaged ethernet switch.

I'll see what happens when I actually start setting everything up, & will come back if I'm stuck. :)
 
Quick question: I'm setting up my Synology DS212J with 2 X 2TB hard drives. How long does it take to "verify hard disks in the background"? It's still not visible on my network; I'm assuming this will happen once the verification is complete. See the screenshot below:

Click this link for a bigger picture

Synology.jpg


Synology1.png
 

professorhat

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Mine took ages as I remember (a couple of days I think). However, I've got a 4 bay, so possibly longer as a result. I seem to remember the instructions saying it could be used in the meantime though and it did appear as available on the network - I didn't use it though as I'm a superstitous IT fella who's stuck in the past and remembers the time when you really shouldn't and can't move on...
 
Thanks for your reply! So it took a couple of days just to get it started, & we're not even counting the backup time! :O

Mine isn't showing on the network yet. Even tried time machine to locate it.

I suppose I should also wait for updating the software to DSM 4.0 :?
 
Right now, it's creating a single volume in SHR. I want to then divide this into 3 volumes; a 320GB for backing my PC up; another 320GB for backing the MacBook, & the rest for everything else!

Is that possible? I heard Time Machine occupies the entire volume allocated.
 

professorhat

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bigboss said:
Right now, it's creating a single volume in SHR. I want to then divide this into 3 volumes; a 320GB for backing my PC up; another 320GB for backing the MacBook, & the rest for everything else!

Is that possible? I heard Time Machine occupies the entire volume allocated.

I think you can do that, but you can't divide a single volume further into 3 volumes - you have to setup 3 volumes from scratch. I know where you're coming from as it's kind of what I wanted to do, then I decided actually it would be better just to have 1 big volume and divide things using Shared Folders as it makes things more flexible in the future (in that you don't have to limit yourself to 320 GB for the backups if you don't want to in a few months / years time).

To enable Time Machine, you need to create a shared folder (Control Panel > Shared Folder), then go to Win/Mac/NFS, click on Mac File Service - enable it and then choose the folder in the Time Machine section.

Unfortunately, Time Machine will keep using space up until its filled - I'm just going to have to get round this at some point manually (not sure how yet - I've had Time Machine enabled for both my Macs for a couple of months now and it's currently using 1.5 TB!)
 
professorhat said:
To enable Time Machine, you need to create a shared folder (Control Panel > Shared Folder), then go to Win/Mac/NFS, click on Mac File Service - enable it and then choose the folder in the Time Machine section.

:cheers:

Finally, the Time Machine found the DiskStation. When I attempted backup, I got the message, "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to DiskStation. The backup disc is not available. Looks like I'll have to wait until the resynchronising finishes. :roll:
 

Andrew Everard

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bigboss said:
Right now, it's creating a single volume in SHR. I want to then divide this into 3 volumes; a 320GB for backing my PC up; another 320GB for backing the MacBook, & the rest for everything else!

Is that possible? I heard Time Machine occupies the entire volume allocated.

If it were me, I'd use your existing WD as a dedicated back-up server for PC and Time Machine: in fact, it is me, as that's just what I do. And of course it's also worth having a further back-up for the 'media' NAS. The way things are going, I'm going to end up with four NAS devices running on our network – eek!
 

Andrew Everard

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bigboss said:
The problem is that my WD is not compatible with Time Machine.

Which WD is it? I know some of the older ones had problems with this, but I thought there was a firmware upgrade to sort that with some of those older models.
 

professorhat

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bigboss said:
Your suggestion is good though. I can backup my PC onto NAS drive & use Synology just as a media drive + Time Machine backup. Where should I back up my Synology NAS to then? :?

Probably easiest and cheapest would be a 2 TB USB drive which you can just plug in every now and then direct to the Synology and kick off a backup.
 

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