neopolitan6
Dabbler
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
- Messages
- 13
The question I'm going to lead up to: Is FreeNAS a good option for our use case? How should I be thinking about redundancy vs backups?
I'm responsible for a unique blend of storage requirements.
1. small business file server (moderate storage, currently 3-5Gb)
2. family media storage (1-2 TB)
3. backup target for business and family use
Currently, I have a Synology 2 bay NAS. It has no redundancy. I'm confused about how to structure storage and backup, and concerned that I don't have proper backups in place. (Regarding critical business data, it is copied daily to multiple devices, and a cloud service, so I feel better about that.)
The most confusing part is trying to comprehend ZFS. I read that RAIDZ1 is insufficient, because a second failure is likely during a rebuild process. But then if using RAIDZ2, wouldn't a 3rd failure be a significant statistical possibility? Where does one stop? I'm starting to think that redundancy in machines is better than redundancy in drives.
So would it not be better to setup a vdev with 3 or 4 x 4TB in RAIDZ1, for 8 or 12TB storage, and use the Synology with a single drive or 2 in a simple, no redundancy setup, as a backup target? The backups would probably not be of computer backups, but rather data from the file server and media storage.
This way a failure of a drive in the FreeNAS, and a subsequent 2nd failure would only result in loss of data not backed up to the Synology. Which, if I setup the rsync backup, should only be computer backups. A failure in the Synology would not result in any data loss, assuming it was corrected, and a fresh backup of the FreeNAS is done.
Am I on the right or wrong track?
Why would someone spend money for drives to use RAIDZ2, rather than a separate device?
I'm responsible for a unique blend of storage requirements.
1. small business file server (moderate storage, currently 3-5Gb)
2. family media storage (1-2 TB)
3. backup target for business and family use
Currently, I have a Synology 2 bay NAS. It has no redundancy. I'm confused about how to structure storage and backup, and concerned that I don't have proper backups in place. (Regarding critical business data, it is copied daily to multiple devices, and a cloud service, so I feel better about that.)
The most confusing part is trying to comprehend ZFS. I read that RAIDZ1 is insufficient, because a second failure is likely during a rebuild process. But then if using RAIDZ2, wouldn't a 3rd failure be a significant statistical possibility? Where does one stop? I'm starting to think that redundancy in machines is better than redundancy in drives.
So would it not be better to setup a vdev with 3 or 4 x 4TB in RAIDZ1, for 8 or 12TB storage, and use the Synology with a single drive or 2 in a simple, no redundancy setup, as a backup target? The backups would probably not be of computer backups, but rather data from the file server and media storage.
This way a failure of a drive in the FreeNAS, and a subsequent 2nd failure would only result in loss of data not backed up to the Synology. Which, if I setup the rsync backup, should only be computer backups. A failure in the Synology would not result in any data loss, assuming it was corrected, and a fresh backup of the FreeNAS is done.
Am I on the right or wrong track?
Why would someone spend money for drives to use RAIDZ2, rather than a separate device?