I need a new file server and backup – any suggestions?

[#1]

Since 2013, I’ve been using Windows Home Server 2011. All our data is (or should be) stored on it rather than the PCs and Laptops. It acts as a print server for my printers / scanner. It also manages daily backups of the PCs and Laptops to the server and server backups to an attached external drive.

I have been very happy with it and would continue to use it other than the fact that Microsoft ceased support in 2018 (other than security updates for defender which I think will also be ending soon) and the hardware and drives are now almost 11 years old.

So, I need to look for an alternative solution. Microsoft no longer offer a Home Server solution – I briefly looked at their more business-based solutions, but they are very expensive and no longer offer the backup service for the desktops / laptops. I then started to look at NAS instead as I see that they are now much more than simple storage and potentially offer the features that I’m looking for.

There seem to be two main suppliers – Synology and Qnap. I’ve had a quick look at both but am undecided as to which route to take.

I’d appreciate it if some of you could highlight any differences I should consider, pros and cons of each and any gotchas I should look out for.

I’m also wondering which file system I should use – Synology promotes Btrfs but I’ve seen a few comments about it and data loss on the web. Do Synology suffer from problems with this or is it only other older implementations of Linux that suffered?

Thanks in advance

Ian

[#2]

I have been using a Synology for years, storage only. Have never had a issue storing or retrieving files, all accessed by Windows machine.
The main issue for any storage solution is drive failure, mind is 2TB mirrored.
Since I got mine, and as you have found out there are many more players in the field.
Have you considered building your own NAS/print server? Think that the PI has good reviews

[#3]

A few years back, my solution was a raspberry pi 3b running lite os on a 8Gb SD card and samba. To this I connected a USB SSD enclosure which provided hardware mirroring for the two 500Gb WD red SSD devices, the 3b does only offer USB2 but later models 4 and 5 are now USB3

I formatted the SSD to NTFS so if the pi failed I could connect the disk enclosure directly to a windows server if required.

There is lots of online help on using a PI.

The pi also runs a wireguard VPN server, 

HTH

[#4]

+1 for Synology, been running a pair of 218+  & a 216j  for several years with no problems.

[#5]

@mystreet1 and @Dan_the_Van and @Champnet  @Thanks for your input. After seeing the online comments about Btrfs I did wonder whether building my own would be a good idea - possibly using the hardware from the Windows Home server with new drives and freeBSD. However, after installing freeBSD as a virtual machine on my desktop and struggling with first steps on a command line interface I remember why I found windows to be so nice after DOS.

I think that for something as important to me as data security, I will go with an off the shelf solution (Albeit I realise that I will still have to set that up for the shares and backup processes.)

Ian

[#6]

@Champnet , Which file system are you using?

Is that 3 NAS each with 2 bays?

I was wondering about a 4 bay NAS, with two raid 1 arrays. Use one for the file server and the other for the backups. Would this count as data on two sets of media, or would I be safer with two separate NAS units?

Your (and others) thoughts would be appreciated.

Ian

[#7]

@IMM 

I can't comment on Server software but setting up a Pi is reasonably simple - I managed it for about £40. Plenty of help online including Videos on "How To". I used a Chromebook to have these running while I looked at the Pi.

I run Pi-Hole as a website blocker.

Brian

[#8]

Single point of failure, the actual NAS.

I would have 2 2 bay devices, both mirrored raid.
To be ultra safe, the NAS would be as far a possible separated with thier own network connection. One in the garden shed/garage other in the office. 'Off site' backup

[#9]

@IMM  2x 218+, 1 production & 1 test . each having 4x 6TB drives, setup as BTRFS, Raid5

1x 216j Backup online in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

You don't need 2 boxes but make sure you have a good backup policy. Onsite & offsite.

Plenty of help & advice here https://community.synology.com/enu 

and more advanced here https://www.synoforum.com/ 

[#10]

Can't disagree with @mystreet1  - but these servers are not cheap.......

[#11]

Not saying that it is any good

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176611163678?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=x...

[#12]

@IMM have you looked at Truenas Core https://www.truenas.com/truenas-core/#_

[#13]

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@MisterW wrote:

have you looked at Truenas Core https://www.truenas.com/truenas-core/#_

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Not yet, I'll have a look - I might see if I can load it as a VM to see what the user interface is like. (VM on windows 10 is something I've just discovered.)

[#14]

@IMM  Certain Synology models have a built in VM Manager. 

[#15]

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@Champnet wrote:

@IMM  2x 218+, 1 production & 1 test . each having 4x 6TB drives, setup as BTRFS, Raid5

Apologies it's 2x 418+   4 (drives) 18 (year of production) + (being better than J 0r Play)