Well I think it’s quite telling that from an industry standpoint DIYing is going out of vogue, sure I could roll my own Postgres database server on site, or I can pay amazon to do it for the same, or even a bit less and lose the headache of not focusing on core business.
For me it’s the same thing at home, I want to put the management layer of things on someone else and just get the output more and more.
Depends on what industry and what goals. We run our own Oracle servers and outsourcing the data is completely out of question. The data is critical and belongs to the core business. From a regulatory/legal standpoint, it would also be a PITA. At a former employer, the requirements were too complicated for outsourcing (OCFS2, sync/speed requierements). For vanilla applications, externalizing the stuff is viable.
That’s the appeal of stuff like Synology. Granted UnRaid has forums but it still takes time to post and get support and order compatible parts etc.
I have a Drobo. Right now I’d probably go for a Synology.
I’m still internally debating… Synology came out with a 5 Bay NAS that would be ideal but it’s $700 which seems a bit steep for me. Granted I’d imagine the maintenece of it would be less or time wise then UnRaid possibly. Reguardless if I don’t like it I could always I guess build a cheap UnRaid server and backup to the Synology or resell it.
At that price?
Hey @ChrisUpchurch, curious the context of your comment. I took a look at that thread. It seems that the basic model of the latest Mac Mini would be $799. I think at this point the Synology would help my needs. I looked and Apple doesn’t have any Mac Mini’s for sale as certified refurbished computers. Do you mean my intention of reselling a Synology if I find the UnRaid to be ok for my needs?
Just pointing out that for about the same cost as the Synology you could get a mini and hang a couple of external hard disks off of it.
Great point and if I’d need more storage space I can always purchase larger HD’s or buy/build a NAS
If anyone’s interested in a 2012 quad-core i7 Mac mini with 16Gb RAM and a 1Tb hard drive that’s been gathering dust for a year since I got my iMac hit me up. I was considering using it as a movie server, but maybe I just need to Marie Kondo it out of the house.
Lots of excellent advice here and I see no reason to weigh in, but I will anyway.
What I want is a Time Capsule replacement. TC, as you all know, is not RAID, but many (most?) of us are using one as part of a comprehensive backup scheme.
Elsewhere I’ve seen some enthusiasm for using a Raspberry Pi as a TC replacement. Personally I think this is a terrible idea.
The great thing about TC: it “just works”, and it’s quiet.
I wish they’d update the Time Capsule but maybe that would be replaced by a NAS
Today’s Apple wants to lease cloud, not sell NAS or TC. They won’t even put a HD into an Apple TV - they’re all about the stream now (even if it’s just from your macOS/iOS device). And with QNAP and Synology offerings there’s not a lot Apple could offer that’s value-added by comparison, especially for such a tiny hardware niche. And since it is such a small niche they’re even less likely to consider it.
True. I thought I read though of issues of running Time Machine on a NAS like Synology?
I think I’m leaning towards a Synology to start and then if I find I want to separate my Plex stuff I can move that to unRaid and that also opens up the possibility later of using a Mac Mini for stuff as well.
It’s working fine for me. My iMac Pro alternates between backing up to my Synology and to an external USB-connected (spinning) drive.
MacBook Pro backs up over WiFi. It fails sometimes due to disconnecting (e.g. when I leave in the morning, or sleep the laptop). I don’t worry too much. I usually have a wired connection once or twice a week, and it uses that too. When the laptop is at school, it backs up to a small (1T, 2.5”) spinning drive.
I do bootable backups with Carbon Copy Cloner every couple of weeks. I need a more definite schedule for this. Backup destinations are external SSDs.
Finally, both laptop and iMac are backed up by Backblaze.
Folks here on the forum helped me think these things through. I’m grateful for their help. Unexpected consequence of getting a NAS, internet usage is through the roof
Are you using your Symbology for Time Machine?
I use a synology server for time machine, no issues so far.
Thanks @OogieM. Have you tried to restore from Time Machine on your Synology? I’ve heard this is the sticking point.
Every quarter I restore a file several times hitting both newer and older TM backups. Since I have 3 drives being used in sequence and TM restore doesn’t’ readily tell me which drive it’s from I don’t know that I’ve’ tried to restore from the Synology but a quick calculation says the probability is that I have at least once or twice. Let me go try to do that now after checking when the last NAS TM backup was.
…
OK I just verified that I can restore files from the NAS backup clear back to the end of the ones stored there with no problems.
Hopefully I have not come to the attention of Murphy by doing this. 