Synology vs QNAP

[phill]

I have a Synology system but it's custom one. Used some spare hardware and bought a few other bits and pieces and it's been utterly brilliant Even with me messing up my network and such, it's always worked. I've made regular backups of my 6 x 4Tb drives in Raid 1 and the only issue I'm going to have shortly is running out of storage space

I have my phone connected to it, backs up everything on it, even my girl friends phone does the same.. It's utterly brilliant. Depending on files/size it'll max out my 1Gb network around my home with ease but even with the 10 or so PCs I have here connected too it, I've not had any issues. Not tried it so much with streaming films and such but it's more of a storage pot for all of my daughters photos, downloads, music, programs, videos and everything else I have had since day dot.. I wish I had done something sooner but upgrades with it are fairly simple.
My next aim is for when I move to make sure the network is 10Gb and I have the drive speed that can make the most of it, so hopefully by then, some nice big and fast SSDs or something maybe with a cache to help speed up transfers Very much like @TheLostSwede has done

Don't want anything in the cloud for the simple reason my internet sucks and I'd prefer to have everything local It can save so much hassle plus with regular backups of it, it's so easy to maintain Recommended for sure

 

[Octopuss]

Is it though? Your requirement is that your backup system be available at all times. It seems like your backups are very important to you. How can you guarantee a disaster won't happen?

The speed is a primary factor. The availability second.
Of course backups are very important, both my wife and father in law have their entire work data in their notebook (quite logically).
And no, no disasters happen here. We don't live in wooden houses like many Americans do.

I have a Synology system but it's custom one.

That's technically impossible, isn't it? I mean, what kind of customization are we talking about? You can't really mess around with the hardware as far as I know.

 

[phill]

Well without being to daft or silly, I'll just post some links for you to have a look at

As for the specs, it's a G3258, 16Gb ram, Z97 Asrock board, 6 x 4Tb Reds, RM750 PSU (a tad overkill considering it uses about 65w at most and about 35w at idle lol) and a Fractal 804 case I'm not 100% sure what a Synology own system uses for hardware but I'm not sure if it's that

Works flawlessly and is as simple or complex as you want it to be

Here's a snippet of the log in screen

Control panel

Current build -

I hope this is of some help

 

[John Naylor]

Wouldn't work here. The NAS is primarily used as automated backups storage for all computers in the family, so it needs to be available all the time.

Why not ? That's exactly what it does here.

Disk 0 - C:\ SSD w/ OS and programs
Disk 1 - D:\ SSD w/ stuff i want to go fast
Disk 2 - Q:\ thru T:\ SSHD with 4 partitions for Office Data
Disk 3 - E:\Disk 2 Backup ... U:\ Network Backups and V:\ Media Server
Disk 4 - SSD in Docking Station w/ Mirror of Disk 3

Only difference is that here it's used in a SOHO network. We have 5 family members using the network all day plus during business hours 3 -5 folks in the office depending on day. The workstation also has a HD / SSD docking station. Two SSHDs are rotated out each day and the HD w/ latest backup is moved off site daily.

The box serves:

a) as a data server to all the office PCs / laptops
b) as a data / media server to all the home PCs / laptops
c) Backups for all

It's on 24/7 except for a biweekly reboot. Backups are scheduled to run after hours, tho often at least 1 person on till wee hours (sunup) of the morning.

 

[Octopuss]

Well without being to daft or silly, I'll just post some links for you to have a look at

I don't really understand. So you basically run DSM on custom built PC? How is that possible? :-O

Why not ? That's exactly what it does here.

I looked back at my first reply and I have no idea what the hell was I even replying to, because it makes no sense, lol. I can only assume I really meant to say custom built box was out of question because I don't have room for even more mess of cables and another PC (it would be much bigger than the Synology enclosure that can sit at the bottom of my small rack in the living room).

edit: OH, I get it now.
I meant that adding extra HDDs in my own PC wouldn't work, because I don't keep it running all the time.

 

[phill]

I don't really understand. So you basically run DSM on custom built PC? How is that possible? :-O

Have a look here and here -

https://xpenology.com/forum/
https://xpenology.org/

A friend introduced it too me a few years ago and I've been using it ever since Another friend bought one of the little HP Micro servers and uses it with that with no issues at all For home use it's briliant, as you can see, it's on 24/7 and I never turn it off I should actually consider getting a UPS for it to be honest.. Data protection and all

 

[Octopuss]

Ha, that is actually neat as hell if you want the other functionality like media and stuff (otherwise I'd use FreeNAS or something, which is probably a lot more configurable and has better performance).

 

[phill]

I had a look at FreeNAS, wasn't really my thing so I changed back to Synology and been with it ever since. I'm sure it'll do exactly what you want even with a few extra programs added, I really like using it and like I said before, the only problem I'm having with it now is disk space

 

[Octopuss]

I wish it was easier to install stuff on Synology. I mean the non-"native" programs. The Docker thing makes no sense to me. I tried to install qbittorrent in it, and while I almost made it to work after two days (like being able to access the webUI), the pain in the arse with volumes, folders, mounts and whatnot was too much and I ditched the idea.

 

[phill]

Everything works from a USB stick, so it's really easy to setup and get to work I've had it so long I've probably forgot how to get any of it working from scratch lol That said, I'd probably just build another one on top of the one I have.. I do have a 22U server rack at home, so I suppose I could always mount something in there

 

[Easy Rhino]

The speed is a primary factor. The availability second.
Of course backups are very important, both my wife and father in law have their entire work data in their notebook (quite logically).
And no, no disasters happen here. We don't live in wooden houses like many Americans do.

I just would hate to see you lose it all. What are you doing about data protection? Are you using raid 1?

 

[Octopuss]

Of course I am. It's in the first post...

 

[Easy Rhino]

Good stuff. Well I have owned a QNAP TS-110 for 7 years now and it has been solid. It is slow but it is for my fourth backup so it doesn't have to be fast. If you must choose just one solution then go with QNAP.