DS2411+ Questions - Ideas

[kablekill]

At the moment I am running a server with a number of drives in the machine. I use this as a media server and file host, for storing application install files, and personal file storage.

I am looking at moving to a DS2411+ device. This will cover everything that I need and allow for increase in date storage as needed.

DS2411+

At the moment my server is setup with my Steam account to download all the games that I have and keep them up to date as well.

Moving to a NAS device is looking like limiting this ability to a point.

I was wondering if there is anyway to complete this task with the device?

Or would one have to setup a computer with Steam on it and setup the diskstation to do nightly backups to the device form this folder on another computer.

Or would this still not work with the device, and not be possible.

Just wondering if anyone has looked at this before buy any chance.

While this is not a deal breaker Its something that I wanted to check first before dropping a lot of coin on something like this.

I have hit up the official forums to look with out any help at this point and through I would see if there are anyone else that might have something similar setup.

Thanks in advance.

[figuresofstick]

Whilst the NAS itself will not be able to automatically download your steam updates and keep them updated for you.

If you have a computer that you don't game on, you can setup steam to store your game files in a folder on the NAS, and thus anytime the game updates it'll download it directly to the NAS.

I hope this answers your question, if not I can provide further details. Thought that I would keep the answer short and sweet


EDIT: Please disregard the above. It appears as though this comes with Windows Server or it is possible to install it on there at least. At which point Yes you will be able to install Steam on the device and use it directly to keep your games up to date and backed up.

It looks as though this is similar to my HP ProLiant MicroServer that I use as my everything server.

[kablekill]

Thanks for the information, further information would be great as this would help make the choose of moving to a NAS device easy.

I have seen that there could be issues depending on the file system that is used.

Have you used one of the Synology device or are using one atm?

I guess the other question would be, while these device do have back features. Will I be able to use the build in software or will it be a program that I need to install on my computer to complete the backup.

Thanks.

[figuresofstick]

Sorry, it seems I jumped the gun with being able to install Windows Server on it. I apologise for that.

I haven't used a Synology device myself, However from everything I have heard about them they're a great device.

The software provided with the device seems as though it'll allow you to setup backs of particular folders and for it to happen at scheduled times.

Is there any reason why you couldn't have your games backed up from your primary system?
Are you going to be continuing to use your server for other things after you get the NAS?

The reason I ask is, you would be able to use the method I stated above with having Steam setup to download the games and updates directly to a shared folder on the NAS.

[Long John]

Have you used one of the Synology device or are using one atm?

I guess the other question would be, while these device do have back features. Will I be able to use the build in software or will it be a program that I need to install on my computer to complete the backup.

Thanks.

Mines a Linux based model, so not sure if it relates to what your asking. Synology have a program called Data replicator to install on clients. This backups to the users home drive via different option (schedule/manual/sync'd).

[kablekill]

Thanks again guys for the info. Helped alot.

[Auld]

Synology run their own software, its a cut down linux that they call DSM. Very user friendly and out of the box can do a bunch of neat stuff. There is also community made plugins/software for DSM.

We sell the Synology gear so if you have any other specific questions let me know, your other Q's seemed to have been answered nicely.

[kablekill]

Thanks Auld will look you up If I have any questions. Cheers!

[Long John]

Synology run their own software, its a cut down linux that they call DSM. Very user friendly and out of the box can do a bunch of neat stuff. There is also community made plugins/software for DSM.

We sell the Synology gear so if you have any other specific questions let me know, your other Q's seemed to have been answered nicely.

Alud, Is the nice web interface there for the Windows servers models? or does it disappear in favour of TS.

[SaNE]

Alud, Is the nice web interface there for the Windows servers models? or does it disappear in favour of TS.

Synology don't have windows server models (at least no where on their website), they are all running their DSM as they are specifically designed to be a NAS.

If you want a server which doubles as a DIY NAS then you're looking at the wrong product.

[Long John]

Synology don't have windows server models (at least no where on their website), they are all running their DSM as they are specifically designed to be a NAS.

If you want a server which doubles as a DIY NAS then you're looking at the wrong product.

No no, just curious - happy with my old DS-107. I Re-read the link to the model above and I see now it's Windows Server 2008 R2 Certified only.

[Auld]

Alud, Is the nice web interface there for the Windows servers models? or does it disappear in favour of TS.

All the higher end Synology boxes run DSM. Any Windows Certification/Compatibility will be referring to ACL/Domain/iSCS + Virtual Machine storage or another feature that sys admins need NAS storage for. There is no support for different operating systems to be installed on the Synology servers.

In the case of the little pics in the link, its probably referring to Virtualisation support;

Virtualization
Vmware vSphere 4
Microsoft Hyper-V
Citrix Ready

[kablekill]

Back with a few more questions I guess.

While looking at this deivce it does state that it supports the Western Digital WD Green 3TB WD30EZRX drives.

I was wondering if there could be any issues using green drives over other WD RED drives//Enterprise drives other than read and right speeds and transfer rates across the network?

Could you see drives drop from the array when under load from other computers access this device?

Would you notice spin up times for accessing your data via the device?

Thanks.

[SaNE]

While looking at this deivce it does state that it supports the Western Digital WD Green 3TB WD30EZRX drives.

It does, no problems with them.
You should use WDIDLE3 and change the head parking to a more extended time however to reduce the amount of parks which can kill your drives if left on factory default.

I was wondering if there could be any issues using green drives over other WD RED drives//Enterprise drives other than read and right speeds and transfer rates across the network?

The read and rights speeds won't be much different, Reds are also 'green' and use less power.
IMO if you go for greens use R6 and if you go for reds then you can feel a little safer about using R5.

Could you see drives drop from the array when under load from other computers access this device?

Typically the greens would only drop from the array is when rebuilding, if a bad sector is encountered there's a chance that the drive will be marked as bad and dropped from the array (the drive will try to rebuild the data, not what you want on a NAS)
The red drives have TLER which respond to the array in the event of a bad sector and the array will continue on.

More info;
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas- ... r-raid-nas
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showt ... hp?p=21166

Would you notice spin up times for accessing your data via the device?

No, both Red and Green run a speed above 5400 but less than 7400.

[kablekill]

Quick reply thanks. I guess that answers the question great.

I know very little about Raid so excuse the stupid questions. The only raid system that I have used before was a Raid 1 setup. For data back up.

Would most poeple opt for a raid 6 set with this type of device?

When looking at setting up a Raid 6 setup with this device you could look at losing 2 or more drives for fault tolerance? What sort of total storage would be left after setting up a raid 6 setup out of the total 36tb?

Would you lose 6tb straight out or would this require more data set aside to cover any redundancy in the raid setup? Could you opted to set aside more data for redundancy if you wanted or would you have to setup 2 raid 6 systems of 6 drives with the device?

Thanks.