Any experience with QNAP NAS boxes?

[oynaz]

Hi guys.

I am being tasked to set up a backup and FTP solution for a small company (about 10 employees). They deal in mechanical engineering and graphics, and as such they use some quite big files. They also want their customers to have access to the FTP server.

Off-site backup is not possible, for a variety of reasons, so I want to get two NAS boxes, place them at opposite ends of the (large) building, and have them mirror each other.

The local dealer swears by QNAP, and I considered the QNAP TS-219Pro:

http://www.mm-vision.dk/produkter/visvare.asp?action=vis&menu=pc&varenr=93633

I actually think this might be a bit overkill, but they might want to use the advanced functions down the road.

A have used Synology NAS boxes before, and have been very satisfied, but using the local dealer would solve a lot of problems. Any experiences with QNAP in here?

 

[Davidh373]

You could build it for a lot less and use FreeNAS. If you look at what I have in my sig, that runs FTP and web server fine.

You'll probably want to get a faster HD and more of them.

Case/ PSU (6 HDD Bays for up to 12TB Capacity)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-065-_-Product

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-687-_-Product

Mobo (6 SATA ports)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-237-_-Product

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-235-_-Product

1TB HDD (get as many as you need)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

Of course if you do build it, you'll probably have to provide support for it. So you may want to put that into consideration.

Do you not live in the states? If you're interested I could give you links but I need to know where you live.

 

[oynaz]

Hi.

Thanks for the reply. I live in Denmark, so I have to add roughly 50% on top of Neweggs prices. That makes a FreeNAS PC unattractive, especially considering the extra need for power and support.

I have chosen Caviar Green HDDs for their low power consumption. They might be slower, but the 100 Mbit network is a bottleneck anyway.

 

[Mark R]

Qnap are quite OK. Definitely the best firmware of any cheap NAS and much, much easier to commission than a standard Linux distro.

I have a TS410 for a home server, and it's brilliant - although writes are very slow (CPU limited). The 219 has a better CPU so should be fine for light backup use. However, replication is quite CPU heavy, so you may not quite manage 100 Mbps speeds during syncing.

My TS410 handles FTP and file sharing fine. It supports modern (ext4) filesystems, so huge files are no problem. I've tested 160 GB files on my TS410- they work fine.

 

[vbuggy]

Off-site backup is not possible, for a variety of reasons

Huge, huge mistake. If the building burns down and both of their backups are on-site, they're toast.

Tape drive & encrypted backup + http://www.recall.com/?LangType=1030 if your data is commercially sensitive and can't be farmed off to e.g. Internet backup sites.

Throw together a Linux solution using a junk PC - or indeed, buy one NAS - for the FTP stuff.

 

[oynaz]

Huge, huge mistake. If the building burns down and both of their backups are on-site, they're toast.

I agree, but that is their decision.

 

[billyb0b]

qnap makes pretty damn good nas devices. i have a synology 4 bay in raid 5 but want to upgrade to a atom-based qnap in the future

 

[vbuggy]

I agree, but that is their decision.

Presumably as their IT guy, your job is to make them see the error of their ways so they don't go apeshit and blame you when the place does burn down.

At least, that's what I would expect from an IT guy.

Apart from that, I don't have any problems with QNAP - buy a rightsized device, is the only advice I'd give - look at Smallnetbuilder's charts for approx throughout and make sure the volume of data you're planning to back up / store can actually be transferred in the time you have - Most cheap NAS's have barely over megabit real-life throughput, while most of QNAP's midrange offerings are better than that.