NAS or RAID or something else?

[ajac63]

For a basic home server set-up, what is the most common form of storage? Is it NAS, or RAID or maybe something else? I've done some research with SE's and the problem with NAS is that it would mean effectively having to build a separate system dedicated to storage when I would already be paying-out for the server build itself, so not too keen on this. The problem with RAID is that it is not secure with say RAID 0; RAID 5 is safer but you lose some capacity, so as an alternative to either NAS or RAID, I've been thinking of just an extra high-capacity drive in the server for common storage to be backed-up by an ordinary backup drive on a regular basis using Windows scheduled backup wizard.

 

[DelJo63]

You could always directly attach a large capacity drive to one system and consider it as a server (fix the IP address on your lan).
Then create one&only one folder on the new drive (named ShareRoot?) and set sharing for everyone full control.
Now each client can access as needed.

 

[ajac63]

You could always directly attach a large capacity drive to one system and consider it as a server (fix the IP address on your lan).
Then create one&only one folder on the new drive (named ShareRoot?) and set sharing for everyone full control.
Now each client can access as needed.

I agree with this very much Thanks, this makes sense.

 

[DelJo63]

To get a private Folder/User:

• create a folder per user
• set NFS perms %user% full control; delete the <everyone> permission.

Attempting this requires all users to have a login on the 'server system' so the perms can be set, but once setup, they all can be disabled to disallow login on this server.

 

[bluejolls]

Just moved from a Windows Home Server to unRaid a few months ago. In the beginning, WHS worked well for me. However, in time the operating system and buggy software forced me to abandon it. I spent weeks trying to reinstall the operating system and get the thing back on my network. It had a nice GUI and lots of add on possibilities (something I tried to stay away from to avoid problems) but in the end it was just too much work and let me down one too many times. I found a great deal on a used Norco enclosure that already had a unRaid license so I decided to give it a try. It's been a few months now and after the initial setup which took maybe 20 minutes and then adding drives one at a time while I migrated my data over to it, I couldn't be more pleased with it. Knock on wood, it just "works" and I don't have to worry about updates, processes getting in the way of streaming, errors that lead from one deadend to another, etc. Knowing what I know now I would have just gone with unRaid in the first place.

 

[DelJo63]

Good job. Crazy how many things 'should work' but nickel and dime issues just wipe out the viability. Glad you found a REAL product and not just some pretender.