[SOLVED] 2-in-1 NAS, backup and media server, exist?

ferret141 · 17 Jun 2018 at 20:34

What I am after is as follows:

Let's say it's a 4 bay NAS box.

In bays 1 and 2 I have 4TB drives in RAID 1. I'll store my docs and photos there. Maybe get them backed up and synced there from my devices automatically.

In bay 3 I stick an 8TB drive. Here I put, software & game installers/backups, movies, shows, etc. The media content on this drive is then accessible at home or remotely for movie nights at a friend's house.

I've been out of the loop for six years. As far as I know and recently investigated, such a thing doesn't exist. I get one or the other. Especially in terms of storage configuration. If I want something as versatile as what I described I would have to run a dedicated desktop to do it. Or does it exist and I missed it?

Rroff · 17 Jun 2018 at 20:36

Most of the 4 bay NAS can work as a backup solution and media server with mixed disc configurations - the more expensive ones can fully do transcoding, etc. as well.

ferret141 · 17 Jun 2018 at 20:42

But could I run RAID 1 only on the pair in the first two bays? Or would it want to apply RAID 1 to the whole array?
Also externally, from a PC on the network, would the NAS be seen as one drive or several?

Thanks for your fast reply Rroff.

Rroff · 17 Jun 2018 at 20:44

I can't speak for all brands but definitely with QNAP and Synology NAS you can configure the bays individually so you could have the first 2 drivers in RAID then another drive acting stand alone and then configure that so the clients see it in a variety of different ways including split off to different locations (even one drive as several virtual discs) or as combined as one shared location, etc. etc.

ferret141 · 17 Jun 2018 at 21:21

Awesome. Just got to wait for the paycheck

bledd · 18 Jun 2018 at 00:28

I would just buy a matching set of 4 drives, create one SHR (RAID5) array.

Then once that is set up, create multiple volumes.

One for backup, one for media, etc.

Don't limit yourself by not having them as one big RAID group.

ferret141 · 18 Jun 2018 at 13:43

bledd said:
I would just buy a matching set of 4 drives, create one SHR (RAID5) array.

Then once that is set up, create multiple volumes.

One for backup, one for media, etc.

Don't limit yourself by not having them as one big RAID group.

That was my question, can I not have them as one big RAID group. Also, I don't need redundancy on the 'media' volume. Wouldn't RAID 5 on everything be ott?

ferret141 · 20 Jun 2018 at 18:41

An email to Netgear and Asustor confirms they too are capable of having volumes with different storage configurations