Buying / building first NAS system

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wisemonkey

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May 19, 2012
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10,510
Hey everyone,
I've been thinking about implementing my own NAS system for a while now. It seems I've enough money to put it in the plan.

Here is how I'm planning to build it:
1. Get Synology diskless system DS1813+ (I probably don't need 8 bays right now but I might as well buy it)
2. Any of the NAS HDD (I'm looking at WD 3TB)
3. For now I'm planning to buy only 4 of these HDDs and keep on increasing them as I need more space.

So few things I would like help with:
1. Can I install only few HDDs and keep other bays unoccupied?
2. Does NAS system automatically take care of RAID even when I change number of disks? (What is minimum number of disks I need to have)
3. Can I mix and match NAS HDDs? The ones I'm looking at right now are 5400RPM.
4. And any other general advice / opinion you guys have to provide.

Thanks :)
 
Solution
popatim
1: yes
2: no, you'll need to manually initiate a capacity expansion.
3: Yes though its not recommended. I dont think you'll have a problem finding 5400 rpm drives in the future and spending more for the 7200rpms would be pointless in a Nas.
4: Here ya go!
- Learn what you need to do in case a drive fails.
- Test the drives for a while first.
- Make backups of any important data. Consider your Nas as one storage device and never trust important data to just 1 device. I personally recommend 2 backups stored in different locations. Ultimately a 3rd backup thats not even kept onsite would really be sweet.
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popatim

popatim

Titan
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Dec 2, 2009
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1: yes
2: no, you'll need to manually initiate a capacity expansion.
3: Yes though its not recommended. I dont think you'll have a problem finding 5400 rpm drives in the future and spending more for the 7200rpms would be pointless in a Nas.
4: Here ya go!
- Learn what you need to do in case a drive fails.
- Test the drives for a while first.
- Make backups of any important data. Consider your Nas as one storage device and never trust important data to just 1 device. I personally recommend 2 backups stored in different locations. Ultimately a 3rd backup thats not even kept onsite would really be sweet.
 
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Solution
W

wisemonkey

Honorable
May 19, 2012
9
0
10,510


1. Thanks :)
2. I'm guessing initiating capacity expansion doesn't need user intervention -- Simply press a button or run a command after adding new HDD. But its completely speculation (4th point will make clear why I need little user intervention)
3. So as long as all HDDs are 5400 RPM it shouldn't be an issue (similar to RAM), they can be different capacity but its recommended to have same RPM, right?
4.1 Thanks for reminding me about this one
4.2 Just connect to computer and try to see if it shows up correctly and write and read (an hr testing) or use it for a week or so? -- What does this achieve?
4.3 Planning to have 2 similar systems one at my place and another at my parents (this is why I need easier expansion) one at parents place will be mirror (most probably rsync) to one at my place.

Sorry to repeat what you replied, I simply want to make sure I understood them correctly, Thanks
 
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