Canada; 8-Bay Choice--> 831X or 853A

[gauthijm]

In Canada, seems we have smaller choices in this domain

For $ 1,250 canadian, or so, we can get these 2 8-bay models

I only do file storage for movies, comics, backups, books etc, am in no rush as long as it works
RAID-10 so I can lose 1 drive and not lose everything even if I lose another; Lost a full raid-5 a while back, when drive was rebuilding, another one died; lost 9TB that time

So either the 831X or the 853A (or another option for same price range) will contain 8x 4TB's, in RAID -10 (2 redundants) config.

So any advice ?
Comments are very welcome!

JM

[Don]

First I would run RAID 6 instead of RAID 10. Lose the wrong two disk in RAID 10 and your array is toast. Second you need to make backups. See my signature.

Either unit will do what you want. Compare the specs on both and see which ones has all of the features you need.

[dolbyman]

I am in Canada and have the choice of all the units in qnap's "arsenal"...only the weak canadian dollar make the units expensive

unless you reallt want to use the 10GBit ethernet of the ARM 31X or save a bit of energy .. you might want to go with the intel CPU for more apps and VM/container capability of the 853A

[gauthijm]

Don said
"First I would run RAID 6 instead of RAID 10. Lose the wrong two disk in RAID 10 and your array is toast. Second you need to make backups. See my signature. "

Now Im scared, what does this mean ? I thought I was protected if 1 drive goes, and I need to rebuild 1 and another one fails ?
Question 1: Why RAID-6 vs Raid-10 ?
Help!

Question 2: As for 831X vs 853A, the stats mean nothing to me; I don't need containers of the 853A, it's only a file/share. So which unit to go for ?
Question 3: And how the hell do I backup a 21 TB array ? another QNAP ?

Thx in advance !

[Don]

With RAID 10 you can lose 1 drive and rebuild. You could lose a second drive and be ok as long as it wasn't the mirror of the first drive you lost. If it was your array is gone. That is why I said lose the wrong 2 drives in RAID 10 and you are in trouble. With RAID 6 you can lose ANY two drives and still be ok while you rebuild. Raid 6 will also give you more storage.

If your data is important and cannot be recreated then you need backups. You already suffered the consequences of losing data ("lost 9TB that time") with backups. You choose what is important and back it up. Do it externally, to another NAS, or to the cloud.

If you can afford it I would go with the Intel version and stay away from the ARM units. You will get better performance.

[dolbyman]

Well if you have no idea why Raid10 vs Raid6 .. why did you choose Raid10 in the first place ? .. Is it because the number is higher ?

That might be the reason why they sell more mp4 than mp3 players .. and those mp5 players skyrocketed


Question3: There is many ways, and you should really start thinking about them. Because otherwise you WILL eventually loose your data

[P3R]

Now Im scared, what does this mean ? I thought I was protected if 1 drive goes, and I need to rebuild 1 and another one fails ?
Question 1: Why RAID-6 vs Raid-10 ?

Because RAID 6 is much safer and really offer the disk redundancy you thought RAID 10 did.

Question 2: As for 831X vs 853A, the stats mean nothing to me; I don't need containers of the 853A, it's only a file/share. So which unit to go for ?

Based on that I would say TS-831X. It cost less, is a great file server and the network connection is more future proof.

Question 3: And how the ** do I backup a 21 TB array ?

In my opinion you're approaching data storage in the wrong way if you set up a huge capacity NAS and THEN ask how to back it up. A safe data storage consist of both the main storage and the backup storage so they should be planned and be in the budget together.

another QNAP ?

Yes another NAS is one alternative. Cloud solutions and multiple USB-connected external disks are probably the more common choices for home users.

Most likely not all of your data needs to be backed up. Any data on the NAS that is a backup of other systems already exist in two places. Media files that can be recreated from other sources (like CDs and DVDs) already exist in two places. Often not all data is critical but could be stuff that you have "just in case" or things that "you intend to look at some day". Classifying data like this can all together significantly reduce the volume necessary to backup.

The choice of RAID 6 would use 2 less disks and still offering the same usable storage capacity a RAID 10 in an 8-bay NAS. Those 2 disks could be your start for a backup solution.

[gauthijm]

wow I have some work to do
Im such a fool, I knew about raid 5 and thought I knew about 10, but did not know about 6

I have some further thinking to do, might need to move everything to raid 6 from 10 (full rebuild)
thank you all so much
J

[storageman]

The choice of RAID 6 would use 2 less disks and still offering the same usable storage capacity a RAID 10 in an 8-bay NAS. Those 2 disks could be your start for a backup solution.

Surely typo/mistake, 8 disk RAID 6 and 8 disk RAID 10 don't give same usable capacity.

[dolbyman]

yeah raid6 is n-2, raid10 is n/2

[P3R]

Surely typo/mistake, 8 disk RAID 6 and 8 disk RAID 10 don't give same usable capacity.

I don't think I wrote that. At least that's not what I meant. I meant that regarding usable storage capacity:
8*n TB RAID 10 = 6*n TB RAID 6

Therefore, 2 disks can be used as external backup disks (or something else) instead if moving to RAID 6.