Questions about your home NAS...

[GTaudiophile]

What kind of back-up solution are you using?
Which RAID level if any?
What brand/size/model hard drives are you using and how many?
Which OS do you use? (Windows Home Server, FreeNAS, ZFS, etc.)
What software do you use to keep your client(s) synced with the NAS?

Thanks!

 

[skyking]

1) nightly offsite backups to another server using dirvish.
2) RAID 1 on all the servers.
3) 2 x 1TB WD green
4) Debian
5)? Clients are clients, nothing to sync. Files are on the server. I back up OS images to the server from clients on a schedule.

 

[boomhower]

I use a WHS with two 1.5GB Seagates, a 1TB WD green, and a 2TB WD green. Back-ups use the WHS auto back-up. Server is not backed up. If I have a fire or theft I'm screwed.

 

[Railgun]

-esata attached array to my main desktop (Sansdigital TowerRAID)
-5
-4x750GB Seagate Barracudas that are about to be replaced by 4x1TB Samsung F3s
-Win7
-Nothing to sync as everything lives off this drive already so it's automatic.

Granted, it's not a NAS in the purest sense, but as it's shared, other devices have access to it and naturally becomes attached to the network so to speak. Anything that's on the desktop (which is on a RAID0) can die a horrible death if it comes down to it since I have the redundancy I need already.

 

[pugh]

WHS too.

 

[GTaudiophile]

WHS users: I assume its 2008 R2?

 

[GTaudiophile]

-esata attached array to my main desktop (Sansdigital TowerRAID)
-5
-4x750GB Seagate Barracudas that are about to be replaced by 4x1TB Samsung F3s
-Win7
-Nothing to sync as everything lives off this drive already so it's automatic.

Granted, it's not a NAS in the purest sense, but as it's shared, other devices have access to it and naturally becomes attached to the network so to speak. Anything that's on the desktop (which is on a RAID0) can die a horrible death if it comes down to it since I have the redundancy I need already.

So basically you moved your "My Documents" folder to the NAS such that just about all the pics/docs/vids, etc. you create or download live off of the NAS instead of locally? And then you just "share" that drive/file over your LAN?

 

[Railgun]

I don't use those folders as much as possible. Some things may end up there, but most of it isn't anything I'm concerned about losing. I have my own structure that I just add files to. And yes, I just share that drive as a whole.

 

[Jimmah]

What kind of back-up solution are you using?
Which RAID level if any?
What brand/size/model hard drives are you using and how many?
Which OS do you use? (Windows Home Server, FreeNAS, ZFS, etc.)
What software do you use to keep your client(s) synced with the NAS?

Thanks!

1. All documents and important is saved to an Amahi server running Greyhole with 5 drives in the pool

2. No RAID, all software

3. 3x 500gb Seagate 7200.12's, 1x 1500gb 7200.11, 1x 1tb WD Black

4. Amahi (Fedora 10)

5. All important folders are linked to the GH array, it synchs every drive something like every 5 mins.

Theft is protected from (one of the two dual bay USB enclosures lives under the stairs in a hidden crawlspace) and for fire unless the entire house collapses the likelyhood of both locations (opposite ends of the house) being destroyed is small.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I am amazed by the variety of solutions people have!

 

[yinan]

Priamry Server
8 x 2 TB drives raid 5.
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2.

backup Server
8 x 1 TB drives raid 5. ( Will upgrade when space is needed)
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2.

Backups done via a daily robocopy script

 

[degibson]

Backup - Opportunistic incremental, using some wrappers around rdiff.
RAID - RAID5, 5 disks, 4KB stripe, 2.0TB usable capacity
HDs - Seagate Barracuda SATA something-or-other, 500 GB apiece
OS - Ubuntu server
Sync - None. Data in the form of backups flows automatically client->NAS, but on-demand from NAS->client.

 

[Dahak]

WHS users: I assume its 2008 R2?

whs v1 which includes the driver extender is based off server 2003 r2

whs 2011, which is still in beta is based off 2008 r2

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a "gigabit NAS", with a 500GB IDE drive inside. I only recently started backing up the contents of the NAS to a USB external HD, connected to one of my desktops, for as long as the backup takes, then disconnected.

 

[SammyJr]

What kind of back-up solution are you using?
Which RAID level if any?
What brand/size/model hard drives are you using and how many?
Which OS do you use? (Windows Home Server, FreeNAS, ZFS, etc.)
What software do you use to keep your client(s) synced with the NAS?

Thanks!

1. I have two NASes. Data is mirrored between the two. The larger NAS also has additional space for a D2D backup of pictures, email, and other similar items.
2. RAID 6
3. NAS 1 has 8x2tb Seagate drives. NAS 2 has 12x2tb WD20EADS drives.
4. Fedora 14 which serves NFS and iSCSI to my vSphere servers and guests.
5. Folder redirection, mostly. D2D backups for the rest.

 

[Griffinhart]

What kind of back-up solution are you using?
Which RAID level if any?
What brand/size/model hard drives are you using and how many?
Which OS do you use? (Windows Home Server, FreeNAS, ZFS, etc.)
What software do you use to keep your client(s) synced with the NAS?

Thanks!

Currently, I'm Running the HP MediaSmart ex470 Windows Home server. It is my network storage, remote access, backup solution.

It doesn't use RAID, but is a prebuilt WHS solution. I use the duplication feature on my Photo's Music and Documents.

It currently has four 2TB drives (Seagate and WD) so an 8TB drive pool total.

It's running WHS v1.

If by synced, you mean back up my local PC's, I use the WHS client software to back up every PC nightly. It has saved me, days of effort on re-installing after HD failures and upgrades over the past few years.

I also use Synctoy2. I have it set as a background task that runs on my primary machine every few days to copy any new media and documents to my WHS.

I also use the Asus Web Storage service on the WHS box. It backs up my Documents and Photos to the cloud as an off-site back up.


I will be, eventually, switching to a new set up. I have built a server with 12GB of RAM and the potential for 14TB + storage in RAID 5. It's running SBS 2011 with a WHS VM under Hyper-V. The remote connectivity and the mail handling capability of SBS 2011 is just plain awesome, and being able to keep the Back up features of WHS (or similar) under a VM on the same machine is extremely appealing for me.

Admittedly, the new set up will require far more maintenance than the current WHS does. WHS is really designed as a set it up and forget about it solution until you need it, which it does extremely well, while the SBS 2011 is a much more hands on product.

Edit: I just want to add, IMHO, if the goal is to have an extremely nice back up solution for your desktop PC's to a network device, WHS is an amazing product. Being able to restore individual files from any night over the past 3 years and being able to do a "bare metal" restore to my PC with ease is such a great thing, I can't see myself ever running without it.

 

[FiLeZz]

I use a poweredge t710 running ESX then running server 2011 as a DC with folder redirecion on all clients in the domain.


Esx installed on raid 1 with 2x 160gb for 160gb space

I have 4 x 1.5tb drives in a raid 5 for 4tb

Then I have 2 x 2tb drive as my backups 4tb raid 0

I used to have a readynas but was too slow over network.

 

[kevnich2]

I use a poweredge t710 running ESX then running server 2011 as a DC with folder redirecion on all clients in the domain.


Esx installed on raid 1 with 2x 160gb for 160gb space

I have 4 x 1.5tb drives in a raid 5 for 4tb

Then I have 2 x 2tb drive as my backups 4tb raid 0

I used to have a readynas but was too slow over network.

You have a T710 for a home based server? Wow, kind of overkill. We use a few 710's at work for our databases but I have just a plain PE T105 for my home server. No use for anything bigger than that.

 

[FiLeZz]

Over kill was the point when I bought it.

 

[Zargon]

my pc uses idrive backing up my 'important' stuff to their cloud.

my wifes pc has a external USB that gets a system image nightly per W7 backup.

getting ready to have my steam folder mirrored onto my now spare gaming rig.

ot do real good backups I need to build a sans digital esata tower that I backup and push that out to carbonite or something.

 

[Eug]

I thinking of buying a NAS to serve to both my Windows 7 PCs and my Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 Macs, and ideally to my Sony Blu-ray player (via DLNA) and to my Xbox 360 as well.

Any issues in terms of OS compatibility and file systems? For example, will Mac OS X apps all have to be zipped up or dmg'd for storage on the NAS?

BTW, the NAS would sit in a closet on the other side of the house, nowhere near the computers. I figure if the computers get ripped off, they wouldn't likely take the NAS too, because they probably wouldn't know it's there. It seems just ever so slightly safer than having my backup drives in the same rooms as the computers. I do have some of my most important data on Blu-ray discs, but backing up to Blu-ray does get tedious, so I only do it for very specific stuff, and store some of the discs in my office (offsite).

I have Gigabit Ethernet everywhere so I'm thinking speed would be OK. I'd be getting high capacity drives (3 TB?) x 2 in a double-drive NAS enclosure. Something like this.

 

[SViscusi]

Any issues in terms of OS compatibility and file systems? For example, will Mac OS X apps all have to be zipped up or dmg'd for storage on the NAS?

Short answer, no. The beauty of a NAS, and network storage is you don't need to worry about any of that. As long as the program you're using works well with network shares, you will be completely fine.

 

[Eug]

So all the metadata is fine then?