5 Mistakes I Made Setting Up My First NAS

Are you buying for your archetypal NAS? I made a batch of mistakes erstwhile I bought my archetypal networked retention system, and I inactive regret immoderate of the decisions to this day. Here are 5 ways I messed up, and however you tin debar making the aforesaid mistakes I did.

5 Not Buying NAS-Rated Hard Drives

When I got my archetypal NAS, I didn't enactment a precocious capable precedence connected buying NAS-rated hard drives.

Why is that important? Well, a NAS is typically moving 24/7/365, and besides handles tons of work and constitute tasks. This tin enactment undue accent connected a thrust not made for it. A modular machine thrust conscionable isn't designed to clasp up to the deterioration and teardrop of what a NAS requires. A NAS-rated drive, connected the different hand, is designed with the anticipation it'll person small oregon nary downtime.

4 No SSD Cache

Depending connected the record strategy you spell with, NAS systems aren't peculiarly known for fantastic work and constitute speeds. Without an SSD cache, you're constricted to the velocity of the array itself, which tin sometimes beryllium arsenic dilatory arsenic 50 to 100Mbps.

However, with an SSD cache, you're capable to transportation arsenic accelerated arsenic the SSD tin write, and past determination the information to the array aft the fact. That's however my NAS is acceptable up now, but my archetypal NAS wasn't susceptible of that astatine all.

This was a immense drawback for me, arsenic it meant that files moved to the server rather slowly, and it made transfers instrumentality a while.

If you're speccing retired a NAS close now, past don't marque the large mistake I did and get a strategy that lets you acceptable up an SSD cache.

3 Not Enough Power to Handle What I Wanted to Run

Back successful 2016 erstwhile I got my archetypal NAS, I didn't deliberation I would privation it to bash thing much than elemental record management. How incorrect I was. The ARM-powered NAS with 1GB of RAM I had conscionable couldn't grip thing much than files and possibly 1 oregon 2 apps.

This is wherever I truly kicked myself. I yet did upgrade it from 1GB to 4GB of RAM, which helped some, but the ARM processor didn't fto maine deploy services similar Docker oregon thing similar. I was stuck with what Synology offered successful its app store and thing more.

The services that did tally connected the NAS ran decently, but I conscionable ended up utilizing different computers to grip astir of the tasks. While Plex was disposable connected the NAS, it couldn't transcode to prevention its beingness due to the fact that the ARM processor conscionable didn't person the horsepower.

2 No Future Upgrade Path

My archetypal NAS was beauteous limited, each things considered. It lone had Gigabit Ethernet, and nary mode to upgrade that.

At the time, successful 2016, Gigabit was the fastest disposable successful user hardware for the astir part. 2.5G Ethernet was comparatively unheard of. However, that means the NAS itself got outdated successful a fewer years erstwhile 2.5G became the standard.

The different downside was it didn't person immoderate PCIe lanes astatine all. Not lone did this mean I couldn't adhd a web paper successful later, but I besides couldn't adhd successful immoderate signifier of graphics paper to assistance with the dense lifting that the underpowered ARM processor couldn't handle.

Really, not having the PCIe slot was highly limiting and made it, truthful determination was nary existent way to upgrade the NAS down the road.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to my archetypal NAS was that it lone supported 4 hard drives. While Synology present has costly enlargement units, they astatine slightest supply the quality to adhd other drives to a NAS if the banal fig becomes excessively few.

My existent NAS supports 12 3.5-inch hard drives, and I tin easy adhd much done a PCIe HBA successful the aboriginal if I privation to. I'm purely constricted by the hardware I privation to bargain now, but that wasn't the lawsuit up front.

With the 4 hard thrust bays that I had, each populated with a 4TB drive, it was beauteous hard to grow the retention pool. I had to bash it 1 thrust astatine a time, and each thrust had to beryllium replaced and the array rebuilt.

I truly privation I had prioritized retention successful the NAS up front. Four drives mightiness dependable similar enough, but it's decidedly not. The 12 I person present isn't enough, and I've been eyeing a 24-bay NetApp Disk Shelf for a fewer months present due to the fact that I request each the storage.

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Now that you cognize the mistakes I made erstwhile getting my archetypal NAS, here's everything I urge for you to physique your ain NAS. From the processor to hard thrust selection, however overmuch RAM, what case, and adjacent what operating strategy to run, the nonfiction covers everything you request to physique your ain NAS today.