What's your recommendation for a small NAS?
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I'm looking for a compact NAS to back up events from my video surveillance system. Two drive bays is enough, maybe four at most. They can be 2.5" or 3.5", SATA or SAS, preferably populated with mechanical drives but even with reliable SSDs. It doesn't need to handle more than a few GB per day of throughput and 16TB of total storage would be more than enough so it doesn't need to support even more massive drives. I don't care if it's complete product like a Synology or something built from scratch using an SBC and adapters; all I need is RAID 1 and an SMB/CIFS file share, though I would like to keep costs low. My house is wired for Ethernet so wifi would just be a bonus but it might help to hide the device somewhere a burglar isn't likely to see it like they will the NVR in my server rack. Also, a GNU/Linux-based OS is obviously mandatory or else I wouldn't be on Lemmy.
I had a good experience with my Synology two bay NAS, used it for years without any complaints.
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I had a good experience with my Synology two bay NAS, used it for years without any complaints.
Which model? I ordered one reliable one for a customer and another one that turned out to be a lemon.
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I'm looking for a compact NAS to back up events from my video surveillance system. Two drive bays is enough, maybe four at most. They can be 2.5" or 3.5", SATA or SAS, preferably populated with mechanical drives but even with reliable SSDs. It doesn't need to handle more than a few GB per day of throughput and 16TB of total storage would be more than enough so it doesn't need to support even more massive drives. I don't care if it's complete product like a Synology or something built from scratch using an SBC and adapters; all I need is RAID 1 and an SMB/CIFS file share, though I would like to keep costs low. My house is wired for Ethernet so wifi would just be a bonus but it might help to hide the device somewhere a burglar isn't likely to see it like they will the NVR in my server rack. Also, a GNU/Linux-based OS is obviously mandatory or else I wouldn't be on Lemmy.
Terramaster is just a PC in a NAS form factor. You can install your favourite OS without any issue
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Terramaster is just a PC in a NAS form factor. You can install your favourite OS without any issue
Not all TerraMaster units. I happen to have one that can't replace the OS.
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Terramaster is just a PC in a NAS form factor. You can install your favourite OS without any issue
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Which model? I ordered one reliable one for a customer and another one that turned out to be a lemon.
Not the person you were responding to, but I'm quite happy with my DS220+. It's on 106 days of uptime after a power out. The interface / OS is very friendly. The only downside is the weak processor which makes it inadequate for things like Immich's AI or heavy Jellyfin use - but you get what you pay for.
Re. lemons; are you sure it was the NAS that had issues or could it have been the drives? Mine is loaded with WD Red drives iirc. -
Terramaster is just a PC in a NAS form factor. You can install your favourite OS without any issue
Terramaster had some pretty gnarly security issues that they badly handled in the past. No big deal if you keep it walled off from the internet, but their software would never let you know it should be kept away from any internet access.
Also, if you get one of their units that has an ARM chip inside instead of an intel one, there is basically no chance you're ever going to be able to use anything other than the software that they have by default. This makes the security issues impossible to resolve without completely removing internet access to the device.
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Which model? I ordered one reliable one for a customer and another one that turned out to be a lemon.
The 2 bay model. I couldn't tell you off hand which exact one because they release a new model each year, with its model name containing the year. I think is was a 222+, but might have been 223+. The + part is really the only important part.
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Businesses around here are constantly selling old rack and standing servers on Craigslist. $50 ish on up depending on age and configuration, just have slap some drives in them. I set one up with ZoneMinder and some cheap poe IP cameras for my house. Works great and shrinks the ewaste pile a little bit.
I love the idea of up-cycling but I was looking for something physically small/compact that I could hide easily in a ceiling or closet that wouldn't also be unnecessarily power-intensive. My 10th gen NUC running Debian and a full *arr stack uses <5W at idle for example. I could end up using it as a NAS instead but I think I'd rather have it out in the open on a desk where I can still use it as a desktop as needed.
I also have a GOAT friend with a 2.5x2.5Gb symmetrical fiber connection who co-locates a server of mine for free as long as I share the storage with him. It'll be a redundant offsite backup in addition to this NAS so I only need the most basic of features, not something with a whole desktop OS and/or entire ecosystem of available extensions and other packages.
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How are you intending on backing up the recordings from your security system? Where do the recordings from it go by default?
It's a Ubiquiti UNVR with a four bay backplane running RAID 10 on 4x6TB drives for the primary/default storage but they recently added an archiving feature to the Protect app that can push events to cloud storage providers or local/offsite SMB file shares. This NAS will be one backup stage while another will be offsite at a friend's house.
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What's the OS situation? I like Synology's proprietary stuff but it's a
likelittle too proprietary for some tasks and they seem to be getting greedy with these new OEM drive requirements. I like the idea of bare hardware even better where I can install whatever I want.wrote on last edited by [email protected]I’ve enjoyed the Synology OS personally. I’m messing with a custom build with spare parts though.
IMO I think symbology is a good point of entry. I haven’t tried HexOS but it might be pretty good down the line for a no fuss system.
Edit: Sorry just realized the comment was about UGreen. Have my 2 cents about synology anyway.
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Terramaster had some pretty gnarly security issues that they badly handled in the past. No big deal if you keep it walled off from the internet, but their software would never let you know it should be kept away from any internet access.
Also, if you get one of their units that has an ARM chip inside instead of an intel one, there is basically no chance you're ever going to be able to use anything other than the software that they have by default. This makes the security issues impossible to resolve without completely removing internet access to the device.
Also, if you get one of their units that has an ARM chip inside instead of an intel one, there is basically no chance you’re ever going to be able to use anything other than the software that they have by default.
Their x86 models are fine as you imply, just avoid ARM and you can install any OS you want.
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It's just saying it's not supported, not that it doesn't work (although I'd avoid the ARM models). Depending on your country, I doubt that warranty voiding claim is enforceable either.
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Which model? I ordered one reliable one for a customer and another one that turned out to be a lemon.
DS223 is a fine little machine. Nothing exceptional, but not bad by any means.
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I'm looking for a compact NAS to back up events from my video surveillance system. Two drive bays is enough, maybe four at most. They can be 2.5" or 3.5", SATA or SAS, preferably populated with mechanical drives but even with reliable SSDs. It doesn't need to handle more than a few GB per day of throughput and 16TB of total storage would be more than enough so it doesn't need to support even more massive drives. I don't care if it's complete product like a Synology or something built from scratch using an SBC and adapters; all I need is RAID 1 and an SMB/CIFS file share, though I would like to keep costs low. My house is wired for Ethernet so wifi would just be a bonus but it might help to hide the device somewhere a burglar isn't likely to see it like they will the NVR in my server rack. Also, a GNU/Linux-based OS is obviously mandatory or else I wouldn't be on Lemmy.
Lil Nas X totally sounds like it would be a valid answer here.
Get an old optiplex SFF off Craigslist for $200 and be done with it. Those things last so long, and since it's commodity hardware you can replace individual components that break for not much money.
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Lil Nas X totally sounds like it would be a valid answer here.
Get an old optiplex SFF off Craigslist for $200 and be done with it. Those things last so long, and since it's commodity hardware you can replace individual components that break for not much money.
I'd argue for something a bit bigger, physically. The Optiplex SFF systems don't have a whole lot of interior space for hard drives, in fact the 7050 SFF can only handle a single 3.5", a single 2.5", and a single NVME.
I have an older HP Elitedesk 8300 SFF that can handle 3x 3.5" drives, 2x 2.5" drives, and boot from an M.2 NVMe on a PCIE adapter card (I modded the BIOS). But that's limited to 3rd gen Intel 🫤
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I’ve actually just ordered one for myself as they officially support third party operating systems. I intend to be setting up unraid on it.
I have the 2-bay ugreen with unraid. Works good. Make sure to turn off the watchdog in the bios!
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I have the 2-bay ugreen with unraid. Works good. Make sure to turn off the watchdog in the bios!
@possum @kuroshido small PSA for lower power consumption:
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I’ve enjoyed the Synology OS personally. I’m messing with a custom build with spare parts though.
IMO I think symbology is a good point of entry. I haven’t tried HexOS but it might be pretty good down the line for a no fuss system.
Edit: Sorry just realized the comment was about UGreen. Have my 2 cents about synology anyway.
I bought a Synology a couple of years ago and it has been 100% rock solid the whole time. Synology OS is nice, their hybrid RAID is pretty sweet, and I've gotten many containers working with no issues (like the Servarr stack). But knowing that the company is enshittifying, I might not buy another product from them
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I love the idea of up-cycling but I was looking for something physically small/compact that I could hide easily in a ceiling or closet that wouldn't also be unnecessarily power-intensive. My 10th gen NUC running Debian and a full *arr stack uses <5W at idle for example. I could end up using it as a NAS instead but I think I'd rather have it out in the open on a desk where I can still use it as a desktop as needed.
I also have a GOAT friend with a 2.5x2.5Gb symmetrical fiber connection who co-locates a server of mine for free as long as I share the storage with him. It'll be a redundant offsite backup in addition to this NAS so I only need the most basic of features, not something with a whole desktop OS and/or entire ecosystem of available extensions and other packages.
Why not use the NUC as a PC and have it do NAS stuff as well? You'd just need a drive enclosure for extra storage.
