New Synology DS720+ NAS
 

Back in December, I was poking around on my NAS and startlingly realized I was running Raid 0!!! The volume was named “Raid 1”, which I erroneously saw as a “Raid 1” array. Doh!

Anyway, I never had a failed drive and backed up regularly so it was never a problem - thank God! I only listen to my system via the 30,000 something song library I have (and growing) on the NAS with the occasional Spotify session. Not to mention the years of photos I have stored.

Once I realized the mistake that I made eight years ago when I initially set up the Buffalo NAS, I quickly decided it’s time to fix the mistake and hell, why not upgrade the whole shootin’ match!

I opted to go with a Synology DS720+ 2-bay NAS, two 6TB WD Red Pro HDDs, two WD M.2 SSD for read/write cache, and 8GB ram upgrade (upgraded to 10GB from 2GB soldered on the motherboard. Yes, spec for the unit and the CPU calls for max of 8, but it tests out ok and works flawlessly, and that’s the max Intel decided to test; not necessarily a CPU limitation.).

First off, what a difference in the manufacturers... The Buffalo NAS drive had near zero as far as software, diagnostics, flexibility, visibility, or built-in web server functionality. Conversely, Synology is not only a hardware company but they are a significant player in software, and their suite of apps that can be run from within the NAS is substantial and quite impressive. Secondly, the hardware is substantially better with a significant improvement in response, loading, lack of buffering, etc. I won’t speak to the sound quality improvement (mainly because I don’t think there is one), but what a world of difference in functionality and usability!

Are you planning to have a backup system in place for the Synology or are you planning on relying on solely on Raid 1 ? I am right now in the process of selecting a cloud storage provider to back up my Synology and if you are going to be backing up your Synology to the cloud I am curious who you plan on using.

New Synology DS720+ NAS
 

Yes sir. I’ll absolutely have a backup in place. I consider Raid only as a short term safety net and solution to prevent a short term shutdown. If a drive fails, pop it out, stick in a new drive and it’ll rebuild. Or will it?

Definitely need a local backup, in my case, a similar-size drive in a usb chassis, or like you mention, cloud. You literally could do both and have what is referred to as a 3-2-1...

Shamelessly stolen from the inter-webs…“The 3-2-1 backup rule is a revered and time-honored backup strategy. ... The 3-2-1 backup strategy simply states that you should have 3 copies of your data (your production data and 2 backup copies) on two different media (disk and cloud) with one copy off-site for disaster recovery.”

I'm loving my Synology 1819+. I am running Synology Hybrid Raid 1, so I can have a single disc fail and fully recover. Currently loaded with 4 WD Red 8TB drives. I also keep a backup in another physical location on two separate 8TB drives.

I am using it with a CyberPower UPS and the two talk via USB so I can configure when the NAS will do an orderly shutdown.

It's been up for 320 days so far.

There is so much this thing can do - I've barely scratched the surface.

New Synology DS720+ NAS
 

More directly answering your question, I am only doing a local back up. Some of the cloud-based back ups are closing in on $50 a month depending on storage size. You can buy one hell of a local back up for less than one years worth of cloud fees, plus I control all of my data.

I’m running a relatively new DS420+ with 4 Wd red drives. I only have 6mb upload speed so cloud backup isn’t practical, but the simplest solution I’ve found is sort of a 3-2-1: I do a daily backup to a USB drive in the same cabinet, and a weekly backup to portable drives I store “offsite” in a detached garage about 75’ from the house. You can also do something similar: store a 2nd backup drive at your workplace, or even in your car. If you’re not making a lot of data changes, updating this weekly should be more than adequate.

New Synology DS720+ NAS
 

Exactly, Tony. I’ve got crappy internet service. Sometimes Netflix is challenging to stream. Another reason I like local backup.

Anyway, Synology Hyper Backup does incremental backups, which are typically small (unless you’re doing video or some thing with huge and/or lots of files). That’s a plus for backup size, wether local (usb) or cloud.

My DS415+ has been a real champ. When I purchased it 6 years ago I was running 4 1TB Western Digital drives. Drive 2 backed up drive 1, drive 3 backed up drive 2 and drive 4 was a hot swap spare.

After we got settled in here in early 2020 I could hear drives 1 & 2 laboring and the tell tale sound of skipping read/write arm could be heard. So I backed up the data, pulled the HDs and installed 4 Samsung 2TB SSD's. The thing purrs like a kitten and I have the same backup scheme operating.

Strictly speaking, RAID isn't intended to be used as a backup, but as protection against HD failure.

I use iDrive for cloud storage of backups. It's an excellent service and reasonably priced.

I also run the Synology DS720+ - I upgraded/bought this to run Roon core, which it does without issues. Also upgraded memory and use a small (128GB) external USB 3 SSD drive for the Roon database itself.

As far as back-up, I use two external USB drives, which I swap out once a week or so (one is stored off-site). No cloud services.