NAS experiences

[Anvil]

I'm about to order a NAS and I'm interested in what experiences you have had.

My mind is set on the Synology DS1511+ or the DS411+II, the DS1511+ looks to be more value as one can easily expand to up to 15 drives.
The Synology "DSM" software also looks to be stunning and the V4 Beta raises the bar vs the others.

So, what else should I look at?
I basically need it as a backup "device" but the added functionality made available by the modern NASs for mobile devices and the possibility of using it as a personal "Cloud" has made me wanting as much as possible.

Links
DS411+II
DS1511+

[Gogeta]

Your decision completely depends on your data set and expected growth rate. Without knowing this information, I would highly recommend the DS411+II. I've deployed two of these units for the same customer in the last 6 months to act as disk backup targets with BackupExec. Both are using 4x2TB drives in raid10. I and the customer have been incredibly pleased with their performance and reliability. Each site backs up between 100-600GB per night and hasn't had more than 4 or 5 failed jobs since day one. Each unit is scheduled to reboot itself once a week during a maintenance window - I've found this improves performance and the job success rate. Beyond all that, the web interface is very intuitive, responsive and well designed. Interface quality wasn't a driving factor behind the purchase in the first place, but it is certainly worth mentioning.

Edit: Having worked with several Netgear NAS models over the last two years, I began recommending Synology units for a good reason and won't be taking back that decision.

[Anvil]

I'll go for something that's easily expandable and that looks to be the 1511+ (unless the 1812 is released shortly)

The data is a mix of VM's, a few workstations and then there is some personal data (mainly images, music,...)
On top of this I need a Time-Machine (at least I'll give it a try) for a Mac.
iSCSI isn't required but as it is available on the 1511+ it's a great bonus and convenient for testing VM's.

I haven't decided on going raid 10 or 5 or 6 yet, in the end it's bottlenecked by the network so the type of raid is more a question of personal preferences.
I might go for a small raid-5 and a raid-1, I'll just have to do some testing.

If I was doing backups only I might have settled for a 411+II but it looks like I will be using most of the functionality of the DSM and with a steadily growing image base I need to be able to expand.

It looks like QNAP is a strong contender as well but price-wise the Synology comes out favorable.

[tived]

sub to this thread - I am very interested in this too - though not running VM's just large images

thanks Henrik

[3lfk1ng]

I have no NAS experience but it is funny that this thread should appear, I actually just purchased a QNAP earlier today, the QNAP TS-459 Pro+ (Available on Newegg). After reading the specs and the possibilities, I am super excited to play around with it. I have never played with a NAS before but I have about 10TB worth of clients data that I need to store and access securely. In the past I just used a Mac Pro but it just didn't offer the rich features of a NAS that I could manage remotely from my Phone.

The QNAP answered every one of my needs on paper, let's hope it lives up to my expectations.

[tived]

3lfk1ng,

have a look at the NAS that is talked about above, then go return the QNAP as you are getting much better performance from the above unit

anyway just my $.02

Henrik

[Anvil]

I've ordered the Synology 1511+, expecting delivery tomorrow.
I'll start playing with it but won't be able to dive into the functionality until the weekend.

The QNAP X59 Pro+ looks OK imo, could be an interesting compare vs the Synology

[3lfk1ng]

3lfk1ng, have a look at the NAS that is talked about above, then go return the QNAP as you are getting much better performance from the above unit

At the end of the day, they are both SATA II devices. All my laptop and desktop computers are on SSD's, I'm not expecting any blazing speeds from mechanical drives inside NAS.
The Synology posts 110.73 MB/sec Reading 105.48 MB/sec Writing
The QNAP posts 115.4 MB/sec Reading 107.0 MB/sec Writing. This excludes 116.4Read / 112.3write via FTP.

I saw nothing but positive reviews for the QNAP and their community is very much alive with constant innovative new features. Also it doesn't appear as if the Synology devices listed above support 256bit AES encryption any news on that?

On another note, I needed the drives to be locked in by key.

[Anvil]

I installed the 1511+ yesterday and it is more than I had hoped for.

I'll get back to how it performs/works in a few days

Anyways, today I visited one of the webshops that I order such items from and of course there were news on the new models from Synology, so for all of you that are about to order, wait for the 1512+ or the 1812+.

They both feature a 2.1 dual core processor (the old one features a 1.8) and are scheduled to be available February 2nd.

They both feature USB 3.0 which is a huge benefit for backups, the old one is limited to the usual 30+MB/s.

edit:

The 1812+ features
High Performance NAS Server Scales up to 18 Drives for SMB Users
Synology DiskStation DS1812+ offers a high-performance, scalable, and full-featured network attached storage solution that meets the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that require an efficient way to centralize data protection, simplify data management, and rapidly scale storage capacity with minimal time spent on setup and management. The Synology DS1812+ is backed with Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.
Highlights
194.4 MB/sec Writing, 192.3 MB/sec Reading1
Scaling up to 18 Drives with Synology DX510
Featuring SuperSpeed USB 3.0
Expandable RAM Module (Up to 3GB)
2 LAN with Link Aggregation Support
CPU Passive cooling Technology & System Fan Redundancy
VMware®, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V® Compliance
Running on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)