One or two NAS's


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I currently have over 100 TB of media storage. Split between two NAS's

 

NAS1. My original is a Windows 7, Intel RAID controller, RAID5, 8 x 3 TB Drives (~20TB), NFS Shares, OS on a separate SSD drive.

NAS2. Huge box with Unraid 6.6 Pro. 12 x 6 and 10 TB drives + 2 x 10 TB Parity drives.

My ( 4 or 5) Media Management Servers are all virtualized Ubuntu running under VMWare on a large Dell Server.

The Windows NAS1 is also my "work" station, so this is were I manage my library, review/verify my media, edit my scripts, etc.

 

An application while scanning/importing my media files on NAS1, deleted every file. All the data "should" be recoverable, since was just deleted and not wiped or written over.

 

I purchased a couple 10 TB drives to recover the delete data to. Then at that point the NAS1 will be empty for me to do whatever I want to it. But here's the dilemma. I have a couple options.

 

1. Do I continue using NAS1 as I have, Workstation and NAS? I've not had any real problem with it.

2. Stop using NAS1 for storage. Add more storage to NAS2 and move all data from NAS1 to NAS2. Having only a single NAS moving forward?

3. Build out a new NAS3 storage server with unRAID. Move data from NAS1 to NAS3 and stop using NAS1 for storage and just use NAS1 as a workstation? Having two NAS's (NAS2 & NAS3) moving forward.

 

I guess the real question is, with over 100+ TB of data What would you do? Split between two NAS's or is it okay to keep all the data in one NAS?

 

 

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I don't know how much money is a consideration for you.  But if you've got the cash, I'd add space to NAS2, build NAS3 as a backup, and just use NAS1 as a workstation.  Making tons of assumptions about your hardware here, but the backup server would help somewhat to mitigate the issue of accidental deletions in the future.  I am right now on the brink of putting together a backup server, the only thing holding me back is the fact that I'm short on cash right now.  If I lost 20TB worth of files, I think I might cry.  

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Thanks for your feedback. I think I've decided to do just that. Convert my current Workstation/NAS1 to unRAID NAS. As it already has a chassis large enough for 10 drives, a large power supply and 8-port RAID controller. Purchase a new computer to setup up as my workstation. Using unRAID vs. the existing traditional RAID I can easily add drives as needed and of varies sizes to expand my storage needs. And I can easily move to a larger chassis in the future if needed.

 

This NAS1 held only movies 2015 and newer. So it should be easy enough to re-download any that are not recoverable. I'll post back here as I progress. I've got to be away for a week for my work, so it be a while before I can start this project.

 

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An update. Its now Jan. 2021. I migrated to two unRAID systems.

 

unRAID1 (Used for my Dockers and VMs)
Intel i9-9900K CPU, 32GB RAM
Large case with room for 14 3.5" drives. Currently 60tb.
Single 2Tb SSD cache drive and Mirrored 1Tb SSD for VfastPool drive

 

unRAID2
Intel Xeon E3-1281, 8GB RAM
Similar large case as unRAID1. Currently 126Tb.
Single 2Tb SSD cache drive

 

I run SABnzbd, Sonar and Radarr on a seperate Ubuntu system with dedicated nVidia card for transcoding all TV Episodes to 720p. Allowing for better playback on Plex. I also have a dedicated Ubuntu box as my Plex server. All are networked together with bonded/teamed 1Gb ethernet. For faster transferring of all that data between servers.

Edited by laryan
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