NAS backup setup

[Humphries]

Hi, I hope I am putting this in the right section. I am thinking of making a NAS out of a pc. I would also have the nas set up as a htpc. My plan is to have all media on the device and then use the network to play it all. I would also backup all the computers in the house on it. So it would contain a decent amount of data.
My problem is with backups. I am not real knowlegable in the subject to be honest. I was thinking of making another device that may or may not be purpose built to back up the original nas. Does this sound like a good idea? Is their an alternative?

Another thing, would raid be completely pointless for me? I've done a bit of research on it but raid would only help if a drive failed and I wanted to restore the data to the failed disk or play the data whilst one disk has failed?
Because this is just for home use, I wouldn't care about 'down time' either, so I could wait for the backup to apply.

 

[smitbret]

Hi, I hope I am putting this in the right section. I am thinking of making a NAS out of a pc. I would also have the nas set up as a htpc. My plan is to have all media on the device and then use the network to play it all. I would also backup all the computers in the house on it. So it would contain a decent amount of data.
My problem is with backups. I am not real knowlegable in the subject to be honest. I was thinking of making another device that may or may not be purpose built to back up the original nas. Does this sound like a good idea? Is their an alternative?

Another thing, would raid be completely pointless for me? I've done a bit of research on it but raid would only help if a drive failed and I wanted to restore the data to the failed disk or play the data whilst one disk has failed?
Because this is just for home use, I wouldn't care about 'down time' either, so I could wait for the backup to apply.

Generally, a device pulling double duty as an HTPS and as a NAS/Server is not the best idea but it will work.

If uptime is not that important and your household can stomach the HTPC/NAS being down for a day or two if a drive fails, then don't bother with RAID. RAID is not a backup, which leads us to....

Your idea of a purpose built NAS for backups is the best idea. Locate it as far away from the NAS/HTPC as possible and just throw some backup software on your devices like EaseUS, Acronis or Macrium. Don't forget to back up your NAS/Server, too.

I'm curious as to how much data you plan on storing outside of the backups, that might change how I looked at the 2 device setup.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

A couple of comments:

1. As smitbret mentioned, a NAS that is also an HTPC will work, but it isn't ideal due to noise, heat, possibly all the additional LEDs, etc.
2. I have a large server and have a multi-tiered backup solution. My backup solution is as follows:

a. Movies and data are backed up to the cloud via Crashplan+ ($60/yr, unlimited storage).
b. When I rip movies from my DVDs or Blu Rays, I copy them to my server but also on an additional drive I call the "vault" so I'll have a local backup as well.
c. Data and VMs are backed up nightly to a dedicated DS413j with four 4 TB drives.

Not sure what you're planning to do with an HTPC, but I discontinued my last HTPC in 2011 or 2012 and instead went to a model of a large backend server which runs Plex (among other things) and Roku devices as the players at each TV. I'm not sure why anyone would have an HTPC at each TV these days to be honest except for possibly gaming on them too.

 

[88keys]

Not sure what you're planning to do with an HTPC, but I discontinued my last HTPC in 2011 or 2012 and instead went to a model of a large backend server which runs Plex (among other things) and Roku devices as the players at each TV. I'm not sure why anyone would have an HTPC at each TV these days to be honest except for possibly gaming on them too.

This. Back when I used to run freeNAS (now NAS4FREE), I had it set up as a upnp server to stream video to my PS3. Now I have Ubuntu server doing that.

Granted, consoles aren't the best idea for streaming video, but you can make it work if you convert the video files properly. Something more dialed down like a roku box would be preferential, however the new consoles (PS4, Xbox One) should do better at streaming video, but its really not worth it unless you plan to use them for gaming.

You can build a NAS4free system for next to nothing, and roku boxes are dirt cheap do the job pretty damn well. And if you have (or plan to get) a Smart TV, that could even eliminate the need for the roku box all together.

 

[Humphries]

I appreciate the feedback guys.
My plan is a little left of field as you mentioned. Mainly because I am trying to set it up for my tech-illiterate family and money doesn't come easy with my little projects that appear to only benefit me haha.
I kind of have to explain the master plan for it to make sense, so bare with me.
I have about 3tbs+ of media on various hdds. With not much room left at all.
I am thinking of building a new pc for myself because my old ones psu died and I wanted an update (I also might be leaving home next year for uni, so it cant be the main computer)
I want to set up a media server because data is all over the place at the moment. I would run plex.
Dad wants to watch AFL on an android app, so I am going to get an android tv box that would run the app and plex.
We obviously dont want to spend heaps on tech, so a purpose built nas is hard to explain to family. They don't really need a desktop but we don't have anything else that could run a server. The redeaming factors of the desktop is that it's another operational computer, could run the server, and is good for a backup (even though you couldn't backup the server without another device)

I've bounced a lot of ideas around in my head but I am still open to all opinions. I would also like about 8tbs of storage. Double what we need.

 

[Humphries]

By the way, if I replaced my psu, I could run the server on that but I think I might be better off selling it, not that I'd get much for it but as a server it's probably not ideal. It has an old i7 on a 1156 board with 4gbs of ram, good board but an old one. 6x sata 3, etc. In some ways its perfect but others its not ideal.
I just thought that if I ran a server, I might as well get them a good computer.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Some NAS boxes from manufacturers can also run Plex. My DS413j does have the ability, though I haven't used it. I believe there are some restrictions regarding transcoding but you might want to do a little research. If that meets your needs, it might be a cheaper solution (esp. in terms of power) than having a server running 24/7. I hear you that you want the server to be a PC your folks could also use but you would need to train them very well on it (ie, "don't delete files here" and "don't turn this box off")

I have a large server on the backend but I also do more with it than just run Plex (I have about 20 VMs running). If not for that, I'd probably look for a low-power solution myself and in fact, I am looking for a low-power solution to replace a second physical server I have running in order to cut down on heat and power use.

 

[azazel1024]

I'd just build a NAS/server and a seperate HTPC.

If you want a cheap option, go low cost on most of the server components (IE consumer) and if you need a backup, use a USB3 external storage drive or enclosure to hold the drives. Just depends on how much data you need to store.

For the backups, my suggestion is a combination of Synctoy and Task Scheduler, at least if they are running windows and/or the NAS/server is running windows.

Its what I do.

My server is an H67 board with a Celeron G1620 on it and 8GB of RAM. I am running two 2TB drives in RAID0 (for speed) and a 60GB SSD as a boot disk. For network connetivity I have a pair of Intel Gigabit CT NICs and its running Windows 8. My backup is my desktop, as I mirror all important data back to my desktop. Otherwise I'd probably just run an external USB enclosure off the server and backup to that.

Down the road I'll probably use my existing server as a backup for both a new server build as well as a data backup (hardware AND data redundancy).

I have Synctoy setup on the server. Its setup to backup the images folder on my Desktop both pulling all new images to the server as well as pushing new images on the server to the desktop (setup as contribute), as I also load stuff to the server from my laptop/tablet/phone occasionally, but mostly I do image editing on my desktop. I also have synctoy pulling new movies from my desktop (setup to mirror changes, so deletions on my desktop are mirrored as deletions on the server).

In Task Scheduler on the server, I have it set to wake my desktop at 12:30am Sunday morning, then run Synctoy to perform the backup operations at 12:35am and then my server is set to go back to sleep at 12:50am. My desktop also as a task scheduled for 12:50am to shut down. So the server starts my desktop (my network adapters support wake from S5/off), it boots, server backups up from/to my desktop, and then the server goes to sleep a little later and my desktop turns off at the same time (my server is set to sleep from 12:15am to 6:15am normally as there is about a 0% chance someone is going to be awake and want to use the server for anything normally and at worst, its a quick WOL request or run to the basement and hit the power button to resume it. I think I've needed to do this once in the last year).

Simple, easy and the only times it has broken in the last couple of years has been changing OSs on my desktop or server (from Win 7 to 8 on the server and Win 7 to 8 to 8.1 on my desktop). Each time I manage to mess something up under configruation of the network adapters, task scheduler or synctoy and I manage catch it a couple of weeks later.

My overall server setup costs, were, I think around $400 including the drives. Sans drives it would have been about $200.