On Thu, Dec 8, 2022 at 5:38 AM Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Howdy, > > I've pretty much reached a limit on my backups. I'm up to a 16TB hard > drive for one and even that won't last long. Larger drives are much > more costly. A must have NAS is quickly approaching. I've been > searching around and find some things confusing. I'm hoping someone can > clear up that confusion. I'm also debating what path to travel down. > I'd also like to keep costs down as well. That said, I don't mind > paying a little more for one that would offer a much better option. > > Path one, buy a NAS, possibly used, that has no drives. If possible, I > may even replace the OS that comes on it or upgrade if I can. I'm not > looking for fancy, or even RAID. Just looking for a two bay NAS that > will work. First, what is a DAS? Is that totally different than a > NAS? From what I've found, a DAS is not what I'm looking for since I > want a ethernet connection and the ability to control things over the > network. It seems DAS lacks that feature but not real sure. I'm not > sure I can upgrade the software/OS on a DAS either. > > Next thing. Let's say a NAS comes with two 4TB drives for a total of > 8TB of capacity from the factory, using LVM or similar software I > assume. Is that limited to that capacity or can I for example replace > one or both drives with for example 14TB drives for a total of 28TBs of > capacity? If one does that, let's say it uses LVM, can I somehow move > data as well or is that beyond the abilities of a NAS? Could it be done > inside my computer for example? Does this vary by brand or even model? > > Path two, I've researched building a NAS using a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB as > another option. They come as parts, cases too, but the newer and faster > models of Raspberry Pi 4 with more ram seem to work pretty well. The > old slower models with small amounts of ram don't fair as well. While I > want a descent speed, I'm not looking for or expecting it to be > blazingly fast. I just wonder, if from a upgrade and expansion point of > view, if building a NAS would be better. I've also noticed, it seems > all Raspberry things come with a display port. That means I could hook > up a monitor and mouse/keyboard when needed. That could be a bonus. > Heck, I may can even put some sort of Gentoo on that thing. :-D > > One reason I'm wanting to go this route, I'm trying to keep it small and > able to fit inside my fire safe. I plan to buy a media type safe that > is larger but right now, it needs to fit inside my current safe. Most > of the 2 bay NAS or a Raspberry Pi based NAS are fairly small. They not > much bigger than the three external hard drives and a couple bare drives > that currently occupy my safe. > > One thing I'd like to have no matter what path I go down, the ability to > encrypt the data. My current backup drives are encrypted and I'd like > to keep it that way. If that is possible to do. I suspect the > Raspberry option would since I'd control the OS/software placed on it. > I could be wrong tho. > > One last thing. Are there any NAS type boxes that I should absolutely > avoid if I go that route? Maybe it is a model that has serious > limitations or has other problems. I think the DAS thing may be one for > me to avoid but I'm not for sure what limits it has. Google didn't help > a lot. It also could be as simple as, avoid any model that says this in > the description or uses some type of software that is bad or limits > options. > > Thoughts? Info to share? Ideas on a best path forward? Buy already > built or build? > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-)
DAS is direct-attached-storage. I don't think you want that. Synology (sp?) is sort of a big name in home & small office NAS boxes. You can buy the boxes with or without drives. I suspect you won't like the prices. I wonder if you might consider what data on your backups needs to be immediately available and which doesn't. Possibly buy an 8TB USB drive, take a bunch of the lower priority data off of your current backup thus system freeing space and move on from there? I built my NAS devices using old computers ala Wol's suggestion to me maybe a year ago. They work for me but don't have the fastest network interfaces. Raspberry Pi 4 B's are hard to get and expensive right now. Still, they are nice little devices but you would probably be limited to USB hard drive storage.
