The Glade 4.0

So, after my somewhat painful experience losing a drive last week (which I'm still working to recover), I decided to look into some redundant storage solutions.

I considered building a linux based NAS using some existing PC hardware, but after a friend suggested looking at Netgear's ReadyNAS line, and reading the reviews, a NAS appliance seems like a better solution with a lot less hassle (and I'm all about less hassle these days).

Not counting the cost of the drives, which I would have to buy either way, the ReadyNAS appliance empty would be between $500 and $700, which seems pretty reasonable considering the build quality and the included management software.

I'm looking at the ReadyNAS Ultra 6 (Diskless), but am open to other suggestions. I don't need more than a Terabyte or two online, and four bays would probably be sufficient, but would probably go with the 6 bay unit just so I have the option for future expansion. I also gives me the option to go with 1TB drives in RAID5/2 if that turns out to be a better deal (price and reliability being considered) than using 2TB drives.

Here is a review of the chassis
http://www.storagereview.com/netgear_re ... w_rndu6000

And the ReadyNAS page
http://www.readynas.com/

The stuff I'm backing up is mostly archived media (ripped DVD's from guitar building courses ive purchased online, etc..), the usual assortment of personal stuff like pictures, documents, video's etc.. and the occasional important document such as tax records, quicken database backups, etc.. I don't have any need for live data access, such as databases, etc.... although having DLNA and such, being able to stream media might be something I'd do in the future.. but live media is not a primary consideration.

I'm mostly just interested in the convenience of having my mostly offline storage be online, and using RAID[5|6] or X-RAID2 it gives me decent protection from a single drive failure, along with the convenience of being easily accessible internally or even remotely if I so desire. The ReadyNAS has a lot of features (most of which will go unused), and also has the ability to install user developed apps that might come in handy. Also, per the review, the included software has a lot of functionality that I wouldn't get from a system I built myself. And the hardware build quality is really good (e.g. Seasonic power supply).

This would be replacing my currently very manual process of docking SATA drives in an enclosure and manually backing things up,becaues, well, I'm apparently not very dependable (as a fallible human) when it comes to such things.

Anyone have any observations or specific experience with NAS appliances they'd like to share?

Edit:
Also, once I decide on a hardware platform, I'll be shopping for drives to populate it with, so any suggestions there would also be appreciated.

I hear great things about drobo, though in the end fan noise convinced me to avoid nas

Hrm... Checking out Drobo now... Thanks

Fan noise isn't really a concern, as I have some dedicated space for such things that is away from my personal space. I often have enterprise datacenter hardware (routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, etc..) at home for "evaluation and training purposes"

That stuff generates a lot of heat and noise, so I have a rack set up in my basement with dedicated power and abundant cool air circulation for such things.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the ReadyNAS Ultra 6 and populated it with 2TB drives.

I installed the drives and let them sync overnight and set it up this morning.

So far I'm really happy with it.

I was still undecided until I read about all of the add-ons that are available.

Lots of media servers (Plex/XBMC, Air, etc...), Network Servics (DHCP, DNS/BIND, NTP, etc..) and even some cool utility stuff like Cacti.

http://www.readynas.com/?cat=75

I love Plex so much. One of the few media servers that can steam 1080p to my TV without an issue. Over wifi, even.

Are you running a Plex server? If so, what platform are you running it on? Do you have a dedicated media server?

I just run Plex Media Server on my MBP and stream my Movies / TV folder over Wi-Fi. Router is a Time Capsule, dual band / 300 or 450Mbps, can't recall. My TV (LG 47LW5600) has DLNA support. Works np even with my 1080p Game of Thrones blu-ray rips.