NAS or SAN?

[ey143]

What is the difference between a Network Storage Area device and Storage Area Netork if I want a network hard drive to store all my backup files, photos and movies to be played via DLNA...how secure are they from being hacked from outside? Any particular brand and cost size I should be considering for a reasonable price (maybe around £500..I dont know?)

 

[Lucid]

What is the difference between a Network Storage Area device and Storage Area Netork...

... In very very general terms NAS is better suited to individuals and small businesses. SAN is better suited to larger enterprises and businesses where the number of machines accessing the data is likely to continue to expand and the number of devices holding data needs to expand too. When additional NAS drives are added to a network they appear as unique addresses (drive letters if you will) whereas in a SAN the extra storage capacity appears as if the hard drive has grown.

The basic architecture of a SAN 'network' is different to a NAS. So while some NAS devices are now available with the facility that they can be used in a SAN too, it doesn't mean that using that feature automatically gives you a SAN. IOW there's a lot more you need to put in place to set up a SAN than simply buying a NAS drive with SAN features.

... if I want a network hard drive to store all my backup files, photos and movies to be played via DLNA...how secure are they from being hacked from outside?

It depends on how much exposure you allow to the outside world. If you start to enable the remote access features and use it as a web server or personal cloud then your vulnerability increases. Having said that, you're just as likely to be hacked through your existing computer's online activity, so have you already taken lots of precautions on those things?

Any particular brand and cost size I should be considering for a reasonable price (maybe around £500..I dont know?)

Unless yours is a medium to large enterprise or you're a high nett worth individual with multiple residencies then I'd suggest keeping things simple an going for a good NAS drive for your money rather than trying to implement a shoestring SAN solution just for bragging rights. With respect, the fact that you're asking these questions on a forum, and your initial budget is £500, both would lead me to conclude that you're not asking on behalf of a big corporation and you're not a multimillionaire hoping to equip one of several homes dotted around the world.

Brands to looks at: Synology and QNAP are the usual Go To brands. Western Digital has been steadily improving and as long as you're not a Mac user then its MyCloud products are worth a look.

 

[ey143]

Thanks for the reply.

We have a mixture of Macs and Windows computers in the household. Does Western Digital not work well with Macs? What sort of budget would be acceptable for an entry level NAS drive do you think and what features should they have?

The only protection I have on my home network is the firewall setting on the router and the standard firewall on a PC / mac.

 

[Lucid]

We have a mixture of Macs and Windows computers in the household. Does Western Digital not work well with Macs?

Certainly the MyCloud products have a compatibility issue with Mac's O/S. You should start to investigate the other two brands I mentioned: QNAP and Synology

What sort of budget would be acceptable for an entry level NAS drive do you think and what features should they have?

Apart from simple stuff such as the ability to set up different RAID configurations and quick read/write speeds then the rest of it is a "how long is a piece of string" question and it's really a case of looking at your individual needs and then working out which features are applicable and which go well beyond your needs. It's all quite personal.

I have clients who are living quite happily with two-bay NAS drives to host their iTunes library and store their photos. With a simple two bay NAS drive set up as RAID 1 then whatever is on one drive is mirrored on the the second. In this way if there's a HD failure there's always a back-up. The trade-off is that the storage capacity is halved. So if there are two 1TB drives in the NAS then the accessible storage is just 1TB.

Larger capacity discs are available of course. Or you can go with a 4-disc NAS. This opens up the possibility to use a RAID 5 configuration which provides data backup within the NAS but without the 1/2 capacity penalty of RAID 0. If the NAS enclose comes with 4x 1TB drives then the available storage will be 3TB minus a little bit of overhead for the set-up. So cost then depends partly on the price of the NAS enclosure (2 bay, 4 bay or larger) and what sizes of drives it is populated with. Have a read of some of the online articles for people in your position. They run through all the basics and will help you build up a picture of the correct spec' to meet your needs.

 

[Nozzle]

I Have a Buffalo unit, well happy with it. DLNA, Bittorrent built in, and you can open up a portal to the outside world so you can be anywhere in the world and get files off it.

Nozzle

 

[ey143]

Is DNLA not standard on these things? If not, what does that mean, I cannot stream music or videos wirelessly?

 

[Nozzle]

I don't know if DLNA is standard, you'll have to check the spec of the model you're keen on. The most basic NAS is to be storage that is attached to a network... When you do get one, make sure to keep it upto date with the latest patches. Also, before you put any of your data on it, update it too.

Nozzle

 

[ey143]

All useful information, thank you both. Does leaving a NAS on all the time consume a lot of energy? I appreciate that they are probably energy efficient and go into standby etc but is this like leaving a small desktop computer on 24/7 - assuming approach 150 watts of continuous energy?

And can these devices automatically backup or sync to a cloud based storage every x number of days in case there is a fire or the drive goes down?

I'm also presuming that laptops like Mac books air etc can backup to a NAS (using time machine) with the lid closed?

 

[Nozzle]

Nothing like 150Watts, again you can find this info in the specs of your chosen device. Two HDs and a small CPU, these things are very energy efficient, and should stay on all the time. Though you can get them to go to sleep between hours of the day. The PSU for my 2 drive NAS is rated 48W and I would not expect that to be specified 100% duty.

Nozzle

 

[Sam Gangee]

With a simple two bay NAS drive set up as RAID 1 then whatever is on one drive is mirrored on the the second. In this way if there's a HD failure there's always a back-up.

I just came across an instance where a Mac user was using a NAS RAID 1 system for all his backups. A momentary power glitch corrupted the data on both drives so now he's looking for a data recovery company (in the USA by the way). The lesson, here, is that the NAS drive system should be running from a UPS, as should any computer that might be writing data to it.

 

[motorbiking]

Synology Diskstations (either the DS216 or 416 in this budget) are pretty good in my opinion. They all do DLNA, but if your are going to stream music and download etc, then you'll quickly realise that not all TVs can decode all audio formats, so the ability to change this in the server is handy. There are some good 3rd party pluggins as well. Personally I'd buy as big drive wise as you can WD Reds are good and designed for NAS streaming, though cheaper disks work fine. The sweet spot on price is around 4TB as these are now going for under £100 8TB are pretty expensive still. Also you can plug in portable external drives to the USB3 ports and then set the device up to backup to these or even use them as archive drives.

RAID is not a backup solution - its redundancy to device failure, so if you delete from the device or corrupt a file its gone on both disks, unless you have a backup.

In terms of security - its a linux based device so it starts out being a lot more secure than windows, Its on the inside of your router firewall, so as safe as anything else on your network. It starts getting risky if you want to access the device remotely using port forwarding as then its open to the outside network and needs securing.

I've still got an old DS213 (2 bay 2013) model running on my network as well as other synology boxes and its never fallen over - runs happily 24/7 even covered in dust. Its pretty fast too - the "mobile phone" processor is not where the action is - its the disk controller that does all the work. make sure its plugged in to a gigabit port on your router and you'll get 40+MB/s transfer easy.

 

[ey143]

With a simple two bay NAS drive set up as RAID 1 then whatever is on one drive is mirrored on the the second. In this way if there's a HD failure there's always a back-up.

I just came across an instance where a Mac user was using a NAS RAID 1 system for all his backups. A momentary power glitch corrupted the data on both drives so now he's looking for a data recovery company (in the USA by the way). The lesson, here, is that the NAS drive system should be running from a UPS, as should any computer that might be writing data to it.

What are some considerations for a good UPS? How long do they last for on average (I guess this depends on what battery power you opt for?) and any suggestions for particular modesl / what costs?

Are they like big battery packs that you can plug multiple devices into e.g. broadband router or CCTV NVR?

 

[motorbiking]

Personally - I wouldn't bother with UPS. Plug in a portable USB3 hard disk on the USB3 port and set up a nightly backup. The NAS will go in crash recovery unless its intelligently connected to the UPS anyway, so the UPS won't add any value, unless it happens to be able to provide power longer than the outage

 

[ey143]

I was considering a UPS anyway for my broadband / NVR for security purposes, even if its just for an extra couple of hours of usage...if I can get that much juice out of it. What gets me, is if someone switches off the mains switch outside, all the CCTV and security settings required from a broadband connection, go out the window. This is the weakest link, even if intruder alarms have their own backup batter. If it cannot call or text someone and is reliant on the internet, it all fails.

 

[Sam Gangee]

so the UPS won't add any value, unless it happens to be able to provide power longer than the outage

True but the outage I mentioned was less than a second. The guy is now faced with a recovery bill of something in excess of $500.

Of course, if there's nothing unique on the drive (and there shouldn't be) then it doesn't really matter if it gets trashed. However, a £100 UPS will probably give you ten minute protection for the next 5 years (i.e. until the battery needs replacing) so you need to decide whether it's necessary or worth it.