NAS newbie wanting to run surveillance station

[Drilldo]

I just ordered my first ever NAS. It is a DS1618+ with six 4tb drives. I also purchased an eight pack of camera licenses and plan to run ten 5MP POE cameras and store all the video on the NAS. Additional uses for the NAS will be time machine backups on three Macs, local Dropbox copy of about 2TB of data that gets about 50GB added a month, and that is about it.

My home network is all Ubiquiti gear with a USG pro and a 24 port POE switch. I have a lot of reading to do on setting this up but in general I am wondering what is the best way to connect the NAS to my network. Is LAG beneficial since ten cameras will be writing data nonstop? Should I maybe instead use one NIC in the NAS to connect to my home network and get a separate switch and connect it to another NIC on the NAS so the camera traffic isn’t even on my home network?

 

[WST16]

Hi,

You didn’t mention how many users will be active on this NAS.
If it’s not too many then I’d say it doesn’t matter much if you “LAG” it (for the uses you’ve mentioned).

And I don’t think you need a separate switch to isolate the traffic. It’s isolated already (traffic wise on the switch). So you can connect the 2nd NAS network port to the same switch if you want.
A switch operates on layer 2. Maybe you’re thinking of old network hubs operating on layer 1 where everybody hears everybody shouting.

Check this simple calculator to give you a rough idea of the bandwidth the NAS will be handling.

If I were you, I’d start by setting up all the cameras first, then work on the other requirements (including security and remote access if needed).

Check the resources on the forum. And you can ask anytime. The guys here know everything

(Let’s see if someone else has any better ideas)

 

[Drilldo]

Thanks. The number of users will mostly be just me. I plan to set it up to back up the wife and two kids computers via time machine but that is about it. I don’t anticipate any file sharing or streaming the rest of the family really isn’t into that.

The main demands I see on the NAS will be the ten cameras writing to it 24/7, the family viewing that footage on their phones, and my Dropbox sync.

I own a small business and at my job I travel around and collect some very valuable data. Each data set varies from 10-50 GB. This data is stored on a raid array on the machine that collects it, I copy it to a usb drive and upload it to Dropbox over the motel WiFi where I am working. Having it go to my NAS as well would give me some more redundancy and piece of mind.

The only reason I am asking about LAG now is I plan on putting the NAS inside a safe room that is across the house from where the switch is. I will need to run Ethernet cables to it so I was curious how many to run. My NAS is being delivered tomorrow so I don’t even have it yet but I think it has four Ethernet ports.

 

[jeyare]

@Drilldo,
It was good idea switch your topic from Ubiquiti forum here.

LAG is useful and helpful when you have this scenarios:
1. you have devices in your network topology that support this feature
a) the switch is ok
b) the NAS is ok
c) PoE camera - No, because there is just single PoE port attached
Then LAG is not applicable for the PoE cameras, even not for standard cameras.

You have 3 Macs. When you have at least one of them with two (and more) 1Gbps ports attached then you can use LAG for them. Otherwise LAG is not applicable for them.

Then my recommendation for NAS connection setup:
- use single Bond of two ports for Adaptive Load balancing or failover of internet connection
- use rest of two ports for next Bond - Adaptive Load balancing or failover of LAN connection
Done. Useful and flexible solution

Setup your cameras VLAN as independent network, for a security reason. Also you can isolate ports of the cameras (Unifi controller). Then you have secure solution.

Regarding Dropbox:
you can use Synology Cloud Sync package to synchronize Dropbox environment to your NAS. You can find lot of setup resources here.

 

[jeyare]

Synology call bunch of these features improperly as Link Aggregation Mode
but LAG is just second (Dynamic LAG - better) or third (XOR) option

here is the scenario by DSM screenshots:

 

[jeyare]

I will need to run Ethernet cables to it so I was curious how many to run. My NAS is being delivered tomorrow so I don’t even have it yet but I think it has four Ethernet ports.

For your easy future development use 4x CAT6 cables to NAS. You never know what you will need Tomorrow
It's no so expensive, but it will save your future changes

 

[WST16]

@jeyare idea to have the cameras on their own VLAN is excellent if your switch can do that. You found the right guy for your Ubiquiti questions. He’s the man

And yes for the cables, since you’re doing it. Do 4 or more if you can. You might like it so much and start adding more DiskStations

:::Edit:::
You might also filter by MAC address for the cameras, especially if they’re outside.
Also, think of backups. How are you going to backup the DiskStation.

 

[jeyare]

thx M8,
Ubiquiti Unifi 24 port switch can do that, and many more and when you setup Unifi controller in Docker properly, its also careless as DSM, even better - you have full copy of your system setup backup by Hyper backup.

@Drilldo you have 24port switch, then it is the second generation (new one) switch from Ubi
your switch and USG Pro router has enough capacity to switching and routing all mentioned cameras.
Then you need purchase a really fast disks dedicated for the 24x7 Surveillance usage (fast write, slow read):
like this Seagate SkyHowk
Why fast write and slow read? Because it's about the Surveillance. You will read sometime the data (in cause of an event), but the write, the write must be fast and furious
Then there are two possible solution supported really fast and redundant data write by RAID10 or RAID1
You need calculate what is better for your business from cost point of you and advantages also.
In this case RAID1 is better, because you can use single (additional HDD) as spare for automated change when RAID is downgraded - excellent DSM feature. Then RAID1 with 3x HDD is really fast and reliable, for time of repair. And Surveillance systems needs to be really fast repaired.
Forth disk as spare for the RAID1.
Rest of the disk bays - it is up to you.

Good luck

 

[WST16]

The only thing I know about Ubiquiti is that they’re good with mesh WiFi. But I have no interest in that as we’re on a constant quest to reduce WiFi around the house as much as possible, even turning it off at times and using wired connections. Not easy at all

 

[jeyare]

now you are like Greta, when she doesn't know, that biggest part of generated electricity that she used in US (e-car from Arnie, e-train, smart mobile charging, internet, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, street lights, etc) comes from fossil fuels
@SynoMan will prepare Ubiquiti part in this forum. I will prepare some education entry

 

[SynoMan]

@SynoMan will prepare Ubiquiti part in this forum

It's already here:
Ubiquiti and Synology NAS

 

[WST16]

now you are like Greta, when she doesn't know, that biggest part of generated electricity that she used in US (e-car from Arnie, e-train, smart mobile charging, internet, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, street lights, etc) comes from fossil fuels
@SynoMan will prepare Ubiquiti part in this forum. I will prepare some education entry

You can’t assume that my circumstances are similar to yours, or because you believe WiFi is ok I should believe the same. Every one of us is fighting their own battles that the others know nothing about.

We can agree to disagree. Life is too short to think otherwise

 

[Drilldo]

Thanks for all the detailed and excellent replies. I feel so stupid about all of this stuff.

I guess I do not fully understand LAG. By that I mean If have LAG on my NAS to switch I understand that it offers no benefit to say a laptop with a single gigabit connection connected to it. What I don't understand is if say with the cameras where I have ten of them or say a hundred of them, each on their own ethernet port how LAG on the NAS would not help. Does the LAG not allow for more data transfer between the switch and the NAS? No single client would ever get more than 1Gb but with multiple small things would it not utilize the 2Gbps pipe to the NAS?

 

[fredbert]

The LAG is a benefit when multiple devices are communicating with the NAS. Meaning that the NAS can have a max of 2Gbps shared across all the communications but one cannot be more that 1 Gbps.

 

[jeyare]

Thanks for all the detailed and excellent replies. I feel so stupid about all of this stuff.

you anchored in user friendly water, don’t hesitate to ask a help in future and good luck with your project

 

[WST16]

Thanks for all the detailed and excellent replies. I feel so stupid about all of this stuff.

I guess I do not fully understand LAG. By that I mean If have LAG on my NAS to switch I understand that it offers no benefit to say a laptop with a single gigabit connection connected to it. What I don't understand is if say with the cameras where I have ten of them or say a hundred of them, each on their own ethernet port how LAG on the NAS would not help. Does the LAG not allow for more data transfer between the switch and the NAS? No single client would ever get more than 1Gb but with multiple small things would it not utilize the 2Gbps pipe to the NAS?

Think of LAG as a 4 lane (1x4 1Gb ports in your case) highway from the switch to the NAS.
Each device on the LAN has its 1 lane (1Gb) to the switch.

If there’s not much traffic from these single lanes going into the highway, then building it in the first place is unnecessary.

If you have the cables to the NAS, enough ports on he switch and you’re willing to configure it, then why not (for future proofing). You can configure 2 in a LAG not all 4 too. I would do 2 in a LAG at this time.

But I believe according to your usage description even with the 10 cameras you should be ok with no LAGing.

You’ll need to understand the configuration settings for the cameras as this will have an affect on network bandwidth and storage consumption (for recordings).

Check the Synology SS video tutorials.

 

[Drilldo]

Thanks again. Headed to the tutorials now. The cameras and cables showed up today. I got three of them installed. The attic is much more tolerable this time of year than in the summer that’s for sure.

The NAS was delayed in shipping though won’t be here until tomorrow. That’s ok though as I still have a lot of cable to run. I am going to run two to the NAS. Even if not necessary it can’t hurt and if one goes bad I will have two there.

 

[fredbert]

Whether to LAG or not, if you’re going to lay wires between two buildings then it will probably be cheaper to add a spare now that add/replace one later.

 

[fredbert]

Did someone mention (haven’t read all) adding a 10Gb switch in both buildings and uplinking two cables between the two. Then you have future-proof connectivity and a choice of LAG or not. Hey Presto! Data centre phase 1

 

[jeyare]

My idea with Cat6 wires