Questions about a home NAS

[nexus5rocks]

I have an idea of what I want, but I'm too new to the subject to make an informed decision. I've been looking at the Synology DS414, since it checks off a lot of the boxes at a good price point.

What I know:

I want storage off my workstation to be able to be accessed from any networked device.

Questions:

1. Ability to access media (movies, music, files) from a myriad of devices (PC, MAC, desktop/laptop, Android, iOS). What file system should I use?

2. To be able to connect to a home theater for media playback. Both my TV and receiver have RJ-45, my TV has wifi. What about HDMI? How will that be used? How will my TV/receiver browse the content?

3. I read briefly about transcoding. Will I need that? File types are mp3, mp4, mkv, avi.

4. How will I access files on mobile devices? I'm more familiar with Android than iOS. I know with Android, I can use ES File Explorer. What about iOS?

5. Do these devices generally do hardware or software RAID? I will have 4 x 3TB hard drives? I am leaning towards RAID5 to maximize space with some redundancy?

6. I noticed it has USB ports. Is it for plugging in kb/mouse, or USB/external drives?

7. Will something like the DS414 be able to present local storage over iSCSI as well as CIFS?

8. Can I torrent directly onto the NAS without leaving my PC on?

9. Provided my router (FIOS provided) can do port forwarding, can I access my NAS over the internet?

10. If not the DS414, what should I get that can accomplish my goals? Do I need it to have wifi natively? Or will wireless be handled by the wifi router?

I realize I have a bunch of novice questions and I thank in advance for any help I may receive.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

1. Ability to access media (movies, music, files) from a myriad of devices (PC, MAC, desktop/laptop, Android, iOS). What file system should I use?

Any.

2. To be able to connect to a home theater for media playback. Both my TV and receiver have RJ-45, my TV has wifi. What about HDMI? How will that be used? How will my TV/receiver browse the content?

HDMI is irrelevant. That's not a network tech. If your TV has WiFi, it probably handles DLNA streaming, which means you just have to have a NAS that also supports DLNA. Content gets browsed through your TV - consult the manual.

Some NAS devices have HDMI so they can also be used as video playback devices. But as far as I'm concerned, that means you're eventually going to have your friends kids kicking the thing. The NAS goes in the closet with your network hub and wifi base station.

3. I read briefly about transcoding. Will I need that? File types are mp3, mp4, mkv, avi.

If you do, it's because your client device is incompatible with the encoding type, and it has nothing to do with the NAS. As a convenience, some NAS devices can transcode the incompatible media to a compatible format.

You can either get a device with multiple platform support and transcoding (perhaps something running a PLEX server) or just encode everything to the same format and buy new client devices.

4. How will I access files on mobile devices? I'm more familiar with Android than iOS. I know with Android, I can use ES File Explorer. What about iOS?

The files? There's lots of network file browser apps, even on iOS. Same for media streaming apps.

5. Do these devices generally do hardware or software RAID? I will have 4 x 3TB hard drives? I am leaning towards RAID5, maybe with a hotspare?

Software RAID, almost always. Usually linux mdadm.

No sense in doing a hot spare. With Parity RAID and a hot spare, you're getting 50% of your total capacity available, and you'd be better off building a RAID10 instead.

This post may be helpful re: RAID.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37014281&postcount=6

6. I noticed it has USB ports. Is it for plugging in kb/mouse, or USB/external drives?

External drives.

7. Will something like the DS414 be able to present local storage over iSCSI as well as CIFS?

Probably, but why would you ever need that?

8. Can I torrent directly onto the NAS without leaving my PC on?

Most support that now, yes. It's pretty CPU intensive though, I'd imagine network transfer and transcoding would suffer.

9. Provided my router (FIOS provided) can do port forwarding, can I access my NAS over the internet?

Yes, and many NAS's include a plug and play type app to do this, but I wouldn't recommend it without a lot of security. Here there be dragons.

10. If not the DS414, what should I get that can accomplish my goals? Do I need it to have wifi natively? Or will wireless be handled by the wifi router?

Wifi should be handled by the router, and as many devices as possible should be hard wired to the NAS, because WiFi

is




slow.






No,









really.

 

[Attic]

For media playback (video specifically) get the DS414Play. That'll transcode to all devices better.

Stronger CPU, will support putting a Plex package on it where the DS414 won't.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

For media playback (video specifically) get the DS414Play. That'll transcode to all devices better.

Stronger CPU, will support putting a Plex package on it where the DS414 won't.

Excellent point.

 

[nexus5rocks]

snip

Thanks, it looks like I have a bit more learning to do.
So it looks like the Synology is a good choice?

Oh, and the reason for iSCSI is just to make use of all that storage eliminating the need to buy local storage (as cheap as it is). I can use it to have some fun with VMWare too.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks, it looks like I have a bit more learning to do.
So it looks like the Synology is a good choice?

Oh, and the reason for iSCSI is just to make use of all that storage eliminating the need to buy local storage (as cheap as it is). I can use it to have some fun with VMWare too.

Synology is the Lexus of the prebuilt NAS market. There are plenty of people, myself included, that would rather build our own for less money, and even more people who are price conscious and would rather buy a less expensive competitor, but frankly, they make a darn fine product. Even if they are at the high of the price range it's probably worth 90% of the price premium.

VMWare works fine with NFS. I'd stick with that, personally. Easier to set up and recover from problems if you have direct access to the file system.

Caveat 1) I use iSCSI at home for the exact same reason (big scratch disk for DVD ripping and stuff). 2) I'm pretty sure the Synologys all support iSCSI.

 

[alyarb]

Why don't you build your own box if you want a multirole performant system?

You could easily build a suitable intel box for what the Marvell based DS414 would cost you, and the intel box would perform much better...

I've setup a DS413J in RAID10 with 4 WD Blacks and it was incredibly slow with sequential reads over CIFS.... like 30-50 MB/sec. On the other hand the cheaper intel machine I built saturated the 1 GbE easily.

 

[smitbret]

Dave the Nerd has hit most of the important points but I agree with alyarb. If you are going to need transcoding and have ever successfully built a PC and installed an OS, then forget about Synology or any other off the shelf. You will be much, much better off building your own and will come out way ahead on $$$$$$.

Just get a FreeNAS or unRAID setup.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The reason I don't use FreeNAS anymore is that I found it limiting as a multi-role home server. (Jail based plugins are wonky; I had particular trouble with Crashplan but I'd have to reset the PLEX server about once a week, and doing a custom environment was a royal pain.)

If you want to roll your own, just install a Linux distro on it and go from there. (I'd be using Ubuntu instead of FreeBSD except for ZFS compatability - ZoL couldn't import my FreeNAS storage pools. But I can still install Windows 2000 in a VM if I want to, gosh darn it! Also, Crashplan took 20 minutes to configure and make work instead of several hours to troubleshoot.)

Also, the FreeNAS forum people are unhelpful jerks who are mostly trying to sell you consulting services by negging you.

I haven't tried unRAID, maybe it's more awesomer.

 

[abekl]

Thanks, it looks like I have a bit more learning to do.
So it looks like the Synology is a good choice?

I just bought a home NAS and have researched all the various models.

I found this one brand new model from Asustor (it's be available as of Jan 10th). It only costs 400 for a bare unit, and has all the bells and whistles.

Take a look:

http://www.excaliberpc.com/633281/asustor-as5004t-4-bay-customizable-nas.html

 

[Childs]

Why don't you build your own box if you want a multirole performant system?

You could easily build a suitable intel box for what the Marvell based DS414 would cost you, and the intel box would perform much better...

I've setup a DS413J in RAID10 with 4 WD Blacks and it was incredibly slow with sequential reads over CIFS.... like 30-50 MB/sec. On the other hand the cheaper intel machine I built saturated the 1 GbE easily.

My 1513 does 100MB/s from a single connection. I tested it with 3 clients and it hit the listed max with two ports linked. I bought it mainly because it looks cool, and iSCSI support. I couldn't use iSCSI the way I wanted to because I didn't want to spend money on iSCSI initiator licenses, but the NAS in general works really well. I ended up buying the expansion unit, and then a refurbed 1813 as well.

 

[nexus5rocks]

Why don't you build your own box if you want a multirole performant system?

You could easily build a suitable intel box for what the Marvell based DS414 would cost you, and the intel box would perform much better...

I've setup a DS413J in RAID10 with 4 WD Blacks and it was incredibly slow with sequential reads over CIFS.... like 30-50 MB/sec. On the other hand the cheaper intel machine I built saturated the 1 GbE easily.

1. Aesthetics. To build one would require spending some money to make it fit in with the decor. The Synology looks like a mini subwoofer an would balance out the tv stand when placed on the opposite side.

2. Want something that just works without tinkering. I've done plenty of builds in the past (including FreeNAS VMs) and you get to a point where you just want to plug and play. This is a tried and true solution that's easy to setup.

3. The DS414 is a pretty solid performer, despite the Marvel CPU.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6399/synology-diskstation-ds414-4-bay-nas-review/index7.html

 

[nexus5rocks]

I just bought a home NAS and have researched all the various models.

I found this one brand new model from Asustor (it's be available as of Jan 10th). It only costs 400 for a bare unit, and has all the bells and whistles.

Take a look:

http://www.excaliberpc.com/633281/asustor-as5004t-4-bay-customizable-nas.html

This looks interesting. I'll do some research, thanks.

 

[voodoo7817]

Lots of good posts in this thread.

I recently purchased a QNAP TS-451 as I found it on a great sale ($350). I was also considering similar Synology units. Here's the anandtech review for the 451: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8298/qnap-ts451-bay-trail-nas-performance-review. If you look at other reviews for more recently released consumer level NASs you'll see it still has high marks all around.

I recommend taking a look at some of the other previous threads in this forum on this topic (search for NAS) and you'll find a lot of reinforcement of what's already been said plus some additional discussion about Synology vs QNAP vs others.

Edited to add: Here's another good link worth reviewing: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8789/holiday-guides-2014-cots-nas-units. Fwiw, Ganesh offers this reply about 4-bay multimedia focused consumer level NASs:

"For home multimedia use - the TS-451 with hardware-accelerated transcoding is better than the 415+ ; Backup / sync capabilities are available for both QNAP and Synology - which one is better is a matter of personal preference - they both achieve the intended purpose.

The DS415+ is targeted more towards business users - slightly better performance for simultaneous multi-client accesses / hardware-accelerated encryption etc."