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nas systems thoughts: additions

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Wouter Groeneveld 2022-02-27 14:42:25 +01:00
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content/post/2022/02/thoughts-on-home-nas-systems.md
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ The first major struggle. Should you create your own NAS/server[^nass] or should
[^nass]: I know these serve different purposes, but for brevity, let's not get into that.
**Power efficiency**. This excellent blog post on "[DIY NAS or Synology](https://blog.sugoi.be/posts/diy-nas-or-synology/)" shed some light on the (hidden) costs of creating your own machine. If you build your own system, a truly low-powered setup is difficult to achieve. A simple home PC PSU already consumes way too much Watts. The [2bay DS720+](https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS720+#specs) I ended up buying consumes `16.44 W` on access and `6.19 W` in hibernation. A Ryzen CPU easily drains more than `20 W` (idle). According to Sugoi's blog post, the difference in power over eight years is a cost of `71%`! Given the ridiculous high prices of gas and electricity right now, I'd say store bought definitely wins here, even if you resort to smaller cases.
**Power efficiency**. This excellent blog post on "[DIY NAS or Synology](https://blog.sugoi.be/posts/diy-nas-or-synology/)" sheds light on the (hidden) costs of creating your own machine. If you build your own system, a truly low-powered setup is difficult to achieve. A simple home PC PSU comes with way too much Watts (500+), usually needed to power Ryzen CPUs that easily drain more than `20 W` while idling. This is just the CPU: factor in motherboard, RAM, GPU, fans, ... and you've probably doubled that amount. The [2bay DS720+](https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS720+#specs) I ended up buying consumes `16.44 W` on access and `6.19 W` in hibernation. According to Sugoi's blog post, the difference in power over eight years is a surplus cost of `71%`! Given the ridiculous high prices of gas and electricity right now, I'd say store bought definitely wins here, even if you resort to smaller cases.
Our server is powered off between midnight and 7 AM. It's a local-only system, and even if it runs the DHCP and DNS server now, it's a great way to preserve both power usage and internet access at night. Self-constraints for the win!
@ -41,27 +41,27 @@ That's a baseline of let's say (rounded up) `1.2 TB` + `7.5 GB` yearly. Let's pl
Right, so how much do hard disks costs? At first, I wanted to go for SSDs, not because of the speed or reliability, but because of the **noise**! There are data sheets available for that kind of info, as are for reliability, such as the well-known [Backblaze hard drive stats](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-q1-2018/). At the moment, `4 TB` of NAS storage (slightly more expensive than a regular HDD) costs about `€95`. Will four tera suffice? `111.6 GB` is `9%` of a terabyte! Even within ten years, I cannot see how I can fill that entire disk. The [Backblaze buyers guide](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/nas-101-a-buyers-guide-to-the-features-and-capacity-you-need/) features a capacity calculator formula, but the growth factor multiplier there is just ridiculous.
**RAID setup**. Another important note: HDDs are known to eventually fail. To protect your data, you're best off installing _multiple_ hard drives that function as a carbon copy. In case one fails, the other takes over. This is called a "RAID" setup, and there are multiple possibilities here. Of course, with only two bays, you're limited to RAID-1: one HDD is an exact copy of the other. That means that if you buy 2x4TB, there's not eight tera but only four available for you. If you buy a 4-bay system, you can resort to a hybrid setup or RAID-5: only one HDD will function as a copy, and there's room for expansion. The DS720+ does offer an external port that can connect with an expansion bay, and two USB 3.0 ports that can connect `1 TB` USB HDDs.
**RAID setup**. Another important note: HDDs are known to eventually fail. To protect your data, you're best off installing _multiple_ hard drives that function as a carbon copy. In case one fails, the other takes over. This is called a "RAID" setup, and there are multiple possibilities here. Of course, with only two bays, you're limited to RAID-1: one HDD is an exact copy of the other. That means that if you buy 2 x `4 TB`, there's not `8 TB` but only four available for you. If you buy a 4-bay system, you can resort to a hybrid setup or RAID-5: only one HDD will function as a copy, and there's room for expansion. The DS720+ does offer an external port that can connect with an (expensive) expansion bay, and two USB 3.0 ports that can connect `1 TB` USB HDDs.
If you were to rely on SATA SSDs, a Western Digital Red SA500 NAS SATA costs about `€525` for `4 TB`. Ouch! Just `1 TB` is still about `€120`, and you'd need two of them for a RAID setup. Just one tera is more than the fixed data we already have, so that's a no-go. Mechanical drivers it is---just make sure to dump that server in the basement or somewhere where the HDD rattle doesn't bother you.
Unless I've made a grave mistake, two bays more than suffices for us. The extra cost of four bays---"just in case"---from DS720+ to DS920+ (delta of about `€120`) is just not worth it.
Unless I've made a grave mistake, two bays with `4 TB` disks more than suffices for us. The extra cost of four bays---"just in case"---from DS720+ to DS920+ (delta of about `€120`) is just not worth it.
### 3. How much computing power?
**Services**. What are you planning to run on it? Synology's home NAS solutions come with either 2 or 4 CPU cores, and usually with only 2GB of DDR4 RAM. That's kind of meager, but should be enough if backup and storage is your priority. However, if you plan to deploy a lot of Docker containers, expect to buy a SODIMM RAM expansion. A home grown solution clearly shines here. The extra memory is _very_ expensive (`€90` for 4 gigs, what the hell??), and these machines are very finicky when it comes to RAM compatibility. Believe me, I've tried.
**Services**. What are you planning to run on it? Synology's home NAS solutions come with either 2 or 4 CPU cores, and usually with only 2GB of DDR4 RAM. That's kind of meager, but should be enough if backup and storage is your priority. However, if you plan to deploy a lot of Docker containers, expect to buy a SODIMM RAM expansion. A home grown solution clearly shines here. Official "Synology memory" is _very_ expensive (`€90` for 4 gigs, what the hell??), and these machines are very finicky when it comes to RAM compatibility. Believe me, I've tried. A reliable Kingston DDR4 stick for `€30` made the system crash every few hours.
I went with the DS720+ instead of the lower priced 220+ for the extra juice as running [PhotoPrism](https://photoprism.app/) with facial recognition can get a bit intensive, plus I wanted to fool around with other services. At the moment, it runs Pi-Hole, Photoprism, Navidrome, and the built-in Video Station (more containers will likely come). If you're into video transcoding and HD/4K streaming, a bit of extra power is likely to be welcome, although I haven't tried Plesk-like solutions just yet. We're not big into video streaming (except for ripping and streaming our [De Kampioenen](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149453/) DVDs, of course!).
Again, the pricey hardware might put you off. In that case, by all means, build something custom with spare parts! I only have Athlon CPU processors lying around from 2000, so that would be a no-go.
Again, the pricey hardware might put you off. In that case, by all means, build something custom with spare parts! I only have Athlon CPU processors lying around from the year 2000, so that would be a no-go.
### 4. How to backup?
Besides the aforementioned services, our NAS primarily acts as an automated Time Machine backup manager. Before, we'd have to manually insert an USB HDD---which we'd forget, meaning no backups at all.
Besides the aforementioned services, our NAS primarily acts as an automated Time Machine (and VPS) backup manager. Before, we'd have to manually insert an USB HDD---which we'd forget, meaning no backups at all.
But, as the 3-2-1 backup strategy dictates, what of the backup of the backup? Ideally, that has to be off-site, but since the whole point of this venture is to keep my data local, I didn't like that solution, even if it's encrypted-at-rest somewhere "in the cloud". The Synology software is, again, very easy to use when it comes to backups, whether it's cloud or USB-based. For now, a `1 TB` USB HDD is responsible for that, and incremental and compressed backups are automatically pushed onto that drive.
But, as the 3-2-1 backup strategy dictates, what of the backup of the backup? Ideally, that has to be off-site, but since the whole point of this venture is to keep my data local, I didn't like that solution, even if it's encrypted-at-rest somewhere "in the cloud". Besides, uploading terabytes with our cheap ISP is not going to end well. The Synology software is, again, very easy to use when it comes to backups, whether it's cloud or USB-based. For now, a `1 TB` USB HDD is responsible for that, and incremental and compressed backups are automatically pushed onto that drive.
Wait, your capacity is `4 TB` and your USB backup is `1 TB`? Yeah, that's a problem, isn't it? Luckily, selective backups are possible, and I opted to ignore the `/music` and `/video` folders. If needed, I could re-rip those: the CDs and DVDs _are_ the third backups. In theory, that still doesn't suffice, but we haven't reached the threshold just yet, and I hope the compression technique used will help in prolonging that moment. It currently only uses `118 GB` using the _Hyper Backup_ tool.
Wait, your capacity is `4 TB` and your USB backup is `1 TB`? Yeah, that's a problem, isn't it? Luckily, selective backups are possible, and I opted to ignore the `/music` and `/video` folders. If needed, I could re-rip those: the CDs and DVDs _are_ the third backups. Furthermore, I always exclude folders like `/Applications`, `/private/var/vm`, `~/Library/Caches` etc from Time Machine backups. In theory, that still doesn't suffice, but we haven't reached the threshold just yet, and I hope the compression technique used will help in prolonging that moment. It currently only uses `118 GB` using the _Hyper Backup_ tool.
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