|
Ones tolerance for shitty engineer "design" (and Linux) determines if one should get a Synology (low tolerance = get it). Well I suppose that and budget/need for power. At least that's how I always imagine it, even though I'm sure plenty of people will tell me how great X is. How you're an idiot for wanting to spend more money for less power! Blah blah blah. The only issues in the year I have had with Synology have been from third party stuff. edit: Oh and I suppose how you value your time/how comfortable you are piecing together a nas. edit 2: I've never used Unraid maybe it's amazing. I really shouldn't speak as though it and other options are garbage, it's just people always seem to talk praise about Synologies UI and I pretty much have 0 trust in programmers for this kind of thing to make something with a pleasant user experience. I'm looking at you Docker. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Feb 25, 2020 |
![]() |
|
Synology's strength is getting most of the complexity of having a nas and placing it behind a good ui. So if that is not a value to you then of course you can roll better hardware and more SATA controllers but you lose out a lot on the interface. The advantage of not is not being tethered to synology methodology which is irritating at times .
|
![]() |
|
Axe-man posted:Synology's strength is getting most of the complexity of having a nas and placing it behind a good ui. So if that is not a value to you then of course you can roll better hardware and more SATA controllers but you lose out a lot on the interface. Also the small form factor. That is what has me leaning towards an off the shelf NAS for my next upgrade.
|
![]() |
|
Axe-man posted:getting most of the complexity of having a nas and placing it behind a good ui I have never used a synology so I might be way off and they're worlds apart, but this is also true of unraid in my experience
|
![]() |
|
Simone Poodoin posted:I have never used a synology so I might be way off and they're worlds apart, but this is also true of unraid in my experience Unraid from what I have seen is a bit more intensive, ask synology, if you tell it too will do most things just automatically. Like it will setup your raid and do it for your disks. A menu like this would never be in a synology: https://wiki.unraid.net/File:Configuringarray1.png But, I mean, it has the same role mostly. Make all this stuff as simple as possible, I think though form factor is also a big thing.
|
![]() |
|
Duck and Cover posted:Ones tolerance for shitty engineer "design" (and Linux) determines if one should get a Synology (low tolerance = get it). Well I suppose that and budget/need for power. At least that's how I always imagine it, even though I'm sure plenty of people will tell me how great X is. How you're an idiot for wanting to spend more money for less power! Blah blah blah. The only issues in the year I have had with Synology have been from third party stuff. See edit 2, I didn't want people to get the wrong idea.
|
![]() |
|
Simone Poodoin posted:I have never used a synology so I might be way off and they're worlds apart, but this is also true of unraid in my experience Synology is basically the Apple for NAS: don't worry your pretty little head, we'll take care of all of that complex stuff for you. Just plunk down your credit card, plug it in, and you're done! Unraid you still have to deal with a base OS and all the patching / management that comes with that. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of purpose and opinion, mostly.
|
![]() |
|
DrDork posted:Synology is basically the Apple for NAS: don't worry your pretty little head, we'll take care of all of that complex stuff for you. Just plunk down your credit card, plug it in, and you're done! Unraid you still have to deal with a base OS and all the patching / management that comes with that. Uh. Nope. UnRAID updates ar repackaged exactly like a standard firmware update on a prebuilt nas.
|
![]() |
|
DrDork posted:Unraid you still have to deal with a base OS
|
![]() |
|
CopperHound posted:Since when is a web UI considered a base os? Poor wording. UnRaid is, indeed, its own complete OS with a web UI. My point is you still have to go through the hassle of actually installing it, vs just plugging a box in and turning it on. Yes, I know it's not a huge amount of effort, but it's there none the less, and has been a reason some people opt for Synology/QNAP. To each their own.
|
![]() |
|
I mean the installation for unraid is simply plug a USB drive into any PC, download installer and click one button. It's ridiculously simple. I can't imagine anyone knowledgeable enough to even know Synology exists would have trouble with that.
|
![]() |
|
Enos Cabell posted:I mean the installation for unraid is simply plug a USB drive into any PC, download installer and click one button. It's ridiculously simple. I can't imagine anyone knowledgeable enough to even know Synology exists would have trouble with that. I've watched highly knowledgeable people willingly shell out for a Synology over any form of DIY because they "don't want to janitor at home--they do enough of that at work." I mean, I'm with you--all the NAS-appliance OSes are pretty easy to get going, but there's a reason Synology is still in business.
|
![]() |
|
DrDork posted:I've watched highly knowledgeable people willingly shell out for a Synology over any form of DIY because they "don't want to janitor at home--they do enough of that at work." I mean, I'm with you--all the NAS-appliance OSes are pretty easy to get going, but there's a reason Synology is still in business. I guess it just seems like a lot of people don't realize Unraid is a lot closer to Synology on that scale than something like FreeNAS or whatever. I put off building a home server for a long time because I didn't want to shell out for Synology, and didn't want to mess with janitoring at home. If I'd known how "just works" Unraid actually is, I'd have put one together much earlier.
|
![]() |
|
Enos Cabell posted:I guess it just seems like a lot of people don't realize Unraid is a lot closer to Synology on that scale than something like FreeNAS or whatever. I put off building a home server for a long time because I didn't want to shell out for Synology, and didn't want to mess with janitoring at home. If I'd known how "just works" Unraid actually is, I'd have put one together much earlier. But can I order an unraid, or do i have to fart with parts and build some shit? I'm He, the technical-ish guy who has more than the competence but zero of the desire to janitor a storage system but want storage. I have a Syno DS1817+ and a DX517 expansion, humming along great for the last couple years now. I'd never in a 1000 years want to DIY my own computer to hold these 13 drives. That wouldn't even fit in my entertainment center, not to mention require a lot more fucking around with.
|
![]() |
|
Another aspect is definitely the hardware, I can see people just not wanting to build a PC or they see re-purposing an old PC as a hassle (and it is, depending on the case and how old the components are). Way easier to just buy a box with built-in drive bays, buy some drives and go.
|
![]() |
|
Constellation I posted:Another aspect is definitely the hardware, I can see people just not wanting to build a PC or they see re-purposing an old PC as a hassle (and it is, depending on the case and how old the components are). Way easier to just buy a box with built-in drive bays, buy some drives and go. Ding ding ding.
|
![]() |
|
Yeah I'll concede that point, I'm sure there are pre-builts out there with lots of drive bays but I've never really looked into it. I had a huge ass full tower case already and it lives in a closet in the basement so I didn't have to worry about that. Past the initial build though there has been zero ongoing maintenance required.
|
![]() |
|
Yeah Synology, does a lot of things that make scratch my head, but for the most part on a base level, they kind of "work out of the box" which isn't something I can say for most others. With their rackstuff coming out more and more, they might be focusing on more enterprise, but who knows, that is a whole different beast and like everyone who does enterprise knows needs like a SLA and real time support.
|
![]() |
|
I live in a shitty tiny urban apartment and my wife loves that we got rid of the 4U rackmount server behind the couch, and replaced it with a 4 drive unit the size of a literal toaster. It lives in a well ventilated part of the media console under the TV now. If it died tomorrow I'd buy another one in a heart beat. Synology hardware is tiny unobtrusive and nearly silent. Yeah you technically have to add your own drives but that's about as simplified as could possibly be. When I was single the 4U rackmount thing was friggin' awesome but now it's a major point of marital strife. Synology solved that for me, for $330. We haven't fought about computer BS since I bought it two years ago. That alone is worth $500 to me.
|
![]() |
|
Hadlock posted:I live in a shitty tiny urban apartment and my wife loves that we got rid of the 4U rackmount server behind the couch, and replaced it with a 4 drive unit the size of a literal toaster. It lives in a well ventilated part of the media console under the TV now. If it died tomorrow I'd buy another one in a heart beat. If I could mush 128GB RAM and a 6c/12t CPU into a Synology I'd probably get one: I, too, live in a shitty tiny urban apartment and there's already space problems enough between two desktop computers that I'm trying to figure out if someone makes a case like the Corsair One that I can actually buy as a case, not as a whole computer. The form-factor of Synologies are fantastic. But the price you pay for that is performance/hardware. So now I'm setting up a re-purposed Z440. Which, btw, HP can go fuck themselves over the decision to use bullshit custom cables that are keeping me from transplanting its guts into a much nicer case. Still, 112GB and a Xeon 1650v3 for <$400 is hard to argue with, and now the girl will stop complaining that her lab VMs are running out of RAM.
|
![]() |
|
Lucky! I wish my wife cared about having adequate RAM for a VM.
|
![]() |
|
Smashing Link posted:Lucky! I wish my wife cared about having adequate RAM for a VM. Hint for obtaining higher Wife Acceptance Factor: Explain all changes insofar as they impact Plex usage positively. For example, more ram will mean smoother Plex, more storage will mean more Plex content/downloads won't stop because storage has run out.
|
![]() |
|
Heners_UK posted:Hint for obtaining higher Wife Acceptance Factor: Explain all changes insofar as they impact Plex usage positively. For example, more ram will mean smoother Plex, more storage will mean more Plex content/downloads won't stop because storage has run out. "What are you doing with all this crazy computer stuff? Why do you need multiple hard drives?" Week four: "Hey, I wasn't able to watch the last episode of 'the good place'. Why isn't it downloaded yet?"
|
![]() |
|
CopperHound posted:Week four: Add House Hunters Intenational to cover the Week 4 scenario.
|
![]() |
|
Heners_UK posted:Add House Hunters Intenational to cover the Week 4 scenario. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
![]() |
|
CopperHound posted:Week four: Response: *incoherent screeching about TVDB*
|
![]() |
|
IOwnCalculus posted:Response: *incoherent screeching about TVDB* Lol I appreciate this post
|
![]() |
|
Heners_UK posted:Add House Hunters Intenational to cover the Week 4 scenario. No need I got you covered. "I want a home in the city center" "Well I want a home in the country". Alternatively. "I want a fixer upper" "I want a turn key".
|
![]() |
|
Enos Cabell posted:I guess it just seems like a lot of people don't realize Unraid is a lot closer to Synology on that scale than something like FreeNAS or whatever. I put off building a home server for a long time because I didn't want to shell out for Synology, and didn't want to mess with janitoring at home. If I'd known how "just works" Unraid actually is, I'd have put one together much earlier. I lusted after $800+ 8-bay Synology NASes for years until I found out about Unraid, which I promptly installed using an old desktop computer that I had lying around. I haven't looked back and I really appreciate the apps and community support that Unraid has. The fact that I could slowly add non-identical drives over the years made it even more enticing than a more traditional NAS. Now I use it as a private VPN, portable vm machine (for tablets and phones on the go), Pi Hole DNS, an Plex server for 20+ friends. My Fractal R5 case isn't hard to miss next to our entertainment center, but at least it's near-silent even when a few disks are spun up. Gay Retard fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 25, 2020 |
![]() |
|
IOwnCalculus posted:Response: *incoherent screeching about TVDB* This guy knows
|
![]() |
|
DrDork posted:If I could mush 128GB RAM and a 6c/12t CPU into a Synology I'd probably get one: I, too, live in a shitty tiny urban apartment and there's already space problems enough between two desktop computers that I'm trying to figure out if someone makes a case like the Corsair One that I can actually buy as a case, not as a whole computer. The form-factor of Synologies are fantastic. I was in this boat but I've moved my workload(s) to the cloud. It is a premium I'm willing to pay.
|
![]() |
|
Yeah, that's the other option, and it may be how I go the next time I actually run out of storage: keep a small Synology around for Plex and file storage, and then punch the labs up into the cloud. Depending on how much power this new NAS of mine draws, it might not even cost more, over the long run. Related: Intel AMT works, but is nowhere near as nice as SuperMicro's IPMI, and I was very disappointed to find that the Z440 doesn't implement AMT's KVM module at all, so all I can do with it is power cycling duties and pulling hardware reports for warranties that expired years ago.
|
![]() |
|
Has AMT gotten better? I have a previous generation of it in my HTPC NUC (and laptop, though it's disabled), and it is so incredibly finnicky to get working, especially the VNC stuff for KVM.
|
![]() |
|
Constellation I posted:Another aspect is definitely the hardware, I can see people just not wanting to build a PC or they see re-purposing an old PC as a hassle (and it is, depending on the case and how old the components are). Way easier to just buy a box with built-in drive bays, buy some drives and go. Yeah this is a great point for prebuilt solutions. If I didn't have much space or wasn't willing to deal with hardware I would definitely get one. The great thing about Unraid for me is that it's a perfect midpoint between ready to go pre built solutions or finicky nerd shit. When I was younger I enjoyed the nerd shit a lot, now not so much. Either way it's great that there are so many options for home storage, instead of the nerd shit being the only choice.
|
![]() |
|
Heners_UK posted:Hint for obtaining higher Wife Acceptance Factor: Explain all changes insofar as they impact Plex usage positively. For example, more ram will mean smoother Plex, more storage will mean more Plex content/downloads won't stop because storage has run out. I will modify her config file as suggested. Thanks!
|
![]() |
|
Simone Poodoin posted:The great thing about Unraid for me is that it's a perfect midpoint between ready to go pre built solutions or finicky nerd shit. When I was younger I enjoyed the nerd shit a lot, now not so much. Either way it's great that there are so many options for home storage, instead of the nerd shit being the only choice. Yup, you bring the hardware (means you can buy a standard psu, mobo etc. when something dies), and unraid makes the software side friction free. Prebuilts might be convenient, but "bring your own" hardware is much more attractive to me, for home use.
|
![]() |
|
I'm planning to build a NAS in the next few weeks but am unsure of what some of the best/common practices for general home use. Use case will be for hosting and transcoding Plex, hosting PiHole/VPN, and being a general storage for all of our home data. Do most folks do mirroring or striping? My important data is saved up into my Google Drive (which will also be hosting on this NAS) but all of the Plex content is not, and in the event of a catastrophic failure it'd just be inconvenient to grab everything again. That being said, with hard drives being cheap enough, it seems like I should have a more robust system and double up on the drives to prevent those issues. I only have about ~8TB of data right now so a 4-6 bay solution should be more than enough (I have 2 6TB drives on their way from Shamino's storage wars fire sale) and provided I replace the smallest drives over time with larger ones I think I'll keep up with the times. General thoughts on above? I just don't have a ton of experience with managing storage other than mapping 3 drives on my Windows 10 gaming machine which has served as the host.
|
![]() |
|
If you're planning to put the hardware together yourself I'd say look into Unraid. Nobody really does raid mirror or stripe anymore, at least for what a home user needs. Here is an explanation of how parity drives work: https://wiki.unraid.net/Parity
|
![]() |
|
I figured this would be the thread to ask and I run Unraid at home and don't know much about these synology devices. I don't need a lot of raw space, its mostly just text documents I want to use it for, and I am looking at getting a 2 bay synology for my office, specifically a DS218. I can set that up to just have the drives mirror, so if one drive dies I pull it out and put in a new one and rock on. I also need the drive to backup (daily) to some cloud service so that if both drives die I can just pull it back off the cloud right?
|
![]() |
|
nerox posted:I figured this would be the thread to ask and I run Unraid at home and don't know much about these synology devices. Yes they are very good for that kind of use case. Additional suggestion is a 3rd HDD mirroring the 2 bay as an off site backup.
|
![]() |