I use a mini PC (n100 processor) for my home server. I just have a 6tb HDD plugged into it. I’m wondering what the best solution is for me long term. I’ll probably have the HDD filled in about a year.
I see a lot of usb enclosures on Amazon but the idea of running like 5 disks over a single usb makes me nervous.
I also keep seeing the 4 bay qnap DAS that can do raid 5. That’s tempting too to prevent data loss.
I’d like to keep the miniPC as the center since it’s configured just how I like it.
What would you recommend for external storage?
I see a lot of usb enclosures on Amazon but the idea of running like 5 disks over a single usb makes me nervous.
Why does it make you nervous?
I also keep seeing the 4 bay qnap DAS that can do raid 5. That’s tempting too to prevent data loss.
The mantra: RAID is not backup. RAID is for uptime and recovery in hardware failure scenarios. Backup is your protection against data loss, not RAID. If your entire RAID array catches fire, gets struck by lightning, gets caught in a flood- whatever, if it hits the whole thing, it’s gone.
What would you recommend for external storage?
Well, you have to answer the “why” question above. There’s no universal answer to this question. I myself on Windows, use multiple USB connected JBOD enclosures (16 disks). I use StableBit DrivePool to aggregate disks(on Linux, I’d use something like MergerFS), instead of any kind of RAID. I use a feature DrivePool has to duplicate specified folders across multiple disks for local redundancy to improve recovery time against corruption/hw failure etc to make up for not having RAID, with BackBlaze to perform backups to prevent data loss in disaster scenarios.
It works for me, and I’m fine with any differences in performance I might get- they largely just aren’t that impactful most of the time in my use-case. It might not be what you want. You have to consider what things are most important to you to determine what storage setup you want to use.
I’m using a Terramaster DAS enclosure (D3-400 I think?) with a mini PC and it’s great. I know some people are sketched out about USB etc but I have had literally no issues. I’m not using traditional RAID though, I’m using SnapRaid and Mergerfs.
I assume the Qnap DAS you are talking about is this one :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07K23ZJFN?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I was recently in the same place as you and i’ve bought this… i have 2 x 16TB drives and 2 x 6TB drives in it all presented as individual drives… i’ve spent the last week syncing my data to the drives and it’s been faultless (this is a backup server for me)
I run Proxmox on a Lenovo USFF m910q and have passed the USB controller through to a windows VM running on it and file transfers max out the 1GB connection using rclone.
I use a Terramster D6-320 (6-bay USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps DAS). Theoretical transfer speed is faster than any use case I need it for, and not issues with usb to date.
I felt like I wasted money on a QNAP TR02 (the 2 drive bay version of the one you’re looking at). I quickly outgrew it, and for whatever reason it doesn’t support SMART testing.