16 Bay NAS, 1 or 2 volumes?

[hedkase]

Hey there, I'm moving from an 8 bay Synology to a 16 bay. I was initially going to run one volume in SHR2 but am now considering two volumes in SHR1. Can anyone chime in on which would perform better?
I am also under the impression that if I run with two volumes in SHR1, I can just pull the 8 drives from my current NAS and drop in the new 16 bay for the first volume. Then add the new 8 drives to create the second volume in the remainder 8 bays.

I'm using the NAS for backup and media streaming.

Thanks for the help!

 

[jeyare]

welcome hedkase,
your last point (usageof the NAS) is more important for the answer:
- backup
- media streaming.
Both of of them need different approach of usage, performance, redundancy or availability. Then no single Volume is recommended.

Backup:
- what kind of backups do you use right now
- is there idea from your side to enhance the backup frequency, new devices, etc?
- encryption?
- what is your performance expectation? in Mbps

Media streaming:
- home usage? How many concurrent users (in same time connected to your NAS)?
- neighborhood usage? Same for the concurrent users.
- advanced public usage? Same for the concurrent users.
- YouTube or similar usage?

Of course, usage of both NASs can provide for you better condition from backup point of view:
- backup of data from NAS on same NAS is not backup, it is just a problem to future
- then second device with “smart” backup plan can give you additional backup stability in many cases.

Need a more information.

 

[hedkase]

Hey jeyare - thanks for the reply!

Backup:
Guess I wasn't clear on "backup". I'll be backing up data from other boxes on the LAN to the NAS. I'm a photographer and graphic designer so I'm backing up crucial media and projects to the NAS but I wouldn't consider it high-volume by any means. I am obviously moving large amounts of media data to the NAS (Blu Ray/DVD rips and some UHD discs as well.

I've got a 10gb network being installed now and am expecting some great speeds from the new NAS, iMac Pro and Mac Mini Pro. I'm currently getting 112-117MB/s on my gigabit network which appears to work fine with current setup.

Media Streaming:
The NAS is really my media streamer and have a Mac Mini Pro connected, running Plex. At any given time there's no more than 2 local users and 1 streaming from the WAN. In most scenarios, theres only one local streaming and possibly (but not often) 1 WAN streamer.

 

[Rusty]

Considering the usage scenario it's still up to you how you wanna deal with this. Expected capacity is what drives you atm. How much storage you need (in a single volume), and how much in what time frame do you expect to grow. Depending on those results you can go with 1 or 2 volumes. If you will not be having a separate SSD volume for example but both volumes will use HDDs then again, its really debatable if you need 1 or 2.

Personally, I have RS models with expansion bays and the idea for my needs is to have single volumes across the entire RS or expansions (so 12 bays each). I'm going for redundancy and max capacity with those. So again, it's really up to you.

 

[hedkase]

Considering the usage scenario it's still up to you how you wanna deal with this. Expected capacity is what drives you atm. How much storage you need (in a single volume), and how much in what time frame do you expect to grow. Depending on those results you can go with 1 or 2 volumes. If you will not be having a separate SSD volume for example but both volumes will use HDDs then again, its really debatable if you need 1 or 2.

Personally, I have RS models with expansion bays and the idea for my needs is to have single volumes across the entire RS or expansions (so 12 bays each). I'm going for redundancy and max capacity with those. So again, it's really up to you.

Hey Rusty, thanks fo the info.
Guess I thought of the 2 volume option out of sheer laziness. Having to build a new SHR2 volume and move 60TB of data here and there bums me out!

It doesnt sound like theres much of a performance difference with 1 vs 2 volumes.

 

[Rusty]

True, it can be a task (time consuming) to run with large array, but thats also something to think about. What capacity drives am I using atm? What drive will I use etc... Personally atm I'm still running with 4TB coz its still a sweet spot for me price vise, my space needs and time needed to restore the array if a drive or 2 fails.

As I said before its all down to personal preferences. Another needed for a second volume might be to use it for a block type iSCSI storage and not a data volume. Considering what your needs are and network setup its clear that you have no need for speed (apart from network transfers that 10Gb will solve) but rather storage space.

If I have to recommend, I would say stick with a single volume (SHR2 with hot swap drive).

 

[hedkase]

Rusty, thanks again for the information. I'm currently at close to 60TB (a mix of 10-14TB drives) in a SHR1 arrangement. I anticipate this will grow in the next several years to 80-100TB.

Now I just need to decide on a proper Synology box for rack mount. I'd love to get into something with more horsepower but then I lose SHR functionality... why they remove that feature in those boxes is a mystery.

 

[notrui]

I agree with @jeyare.
Backup of data on the same NAS is a problem in the future, because of the hardware itself (NAS) might fail, fire risk, etc.
The best is backup to another NAS and even better is a backup to a NAS that is located far from the first one (another location).
You can also do a online backup but of course LAN backup is much quicker.

Before i buy something i always learn and read a lot.
Do that and then decide what is the best for you.
Think at SRH mode that is for me a great feature.

 

[hedkase]

Thanks for your input @notrui. I haven't solved for the NAS backup solution quite yet. I might end up with a secondary NAS to mirror. I'm mainly focused on the main NAS device options and how to setup (one vs two volumes).

 

[jeyare]

Before i buy something i always learn and read a lot.
Do that and then decide what is the best for you.

good to know, that there is still small group alive, who read/ask before purchase

 

[Shadow]

good to know, that there is still small group alive, who read/ask before purchase

I've also heard that there are humans on this planet that actually read the manuals of products that they bought.

 

[jeyare]

I've also heard that there are humans on this planet that actually read the manuals of products that they bought.

Except Angus MacGyver

 

[itsjasper]

With that number of drives, I'd strongly suggest switching to SHR2, or at the very least a hot spare supporting the SHR1 pool.

My suggestion would be to run SHR2 with one storage pool, and carve your volumes up as you please, though personally, I'd keep it to a single volume for a 'media storage & backup' use case.