Raid isn’t backup. It’s only a local mirror of the current data - i.e. anything deleted from one drive (even unintentionally) also immediately gets automatically deleted from the other.
The current generation of NAS disks also have higher MTBF than the NAS enclosures themselves, thus making RAID1 essentially redundant (if you’ll excuse the pun!).
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Pun excused. Ok redundancy rather than backup. I have had hard drives fail in NAS over the years and being able to replace one drive without any issues has always been handy. All hard drives will eventually fail, but I have always found Western Digital Ones fail in a gradual way, giving off smart errors before the die completely giving me chance to replace them. Plus WD’s advance replacement RMA process is excellent.
As I said USB backup of any raid setup is essential. My NAS is surge protected but the USB drive is not connected most of the time, so I’m fairly safe from mains related spikes/surges too. Flooding to above shoulder height and house fires I’m not prepared for, but then I think having to re-rip my cd’s would be the least of my worries!
Dave
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Also make sure your NAS is connected via a UPS (battery backup) with graceful shutdown capabilities.
@anon4489532 - after a little bit of trial and error, pleased to report that my first one touch backup is now under way!
Well done you! It’s really easy once you get the knack. Glad to have been of service sir.
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@anon5525519 excellent tip - just shut down my 4 NAS’s (1 QNAP TS 251+ / 2 Synology 218j and 1 Synology 718) and you’re right quite a bit of dust! I had to double check with youtube to see how the chassis’ come apart but a 5 minute job for each NAS.
When you say “dying” what exactly do you mean? NAS enclosures don’t usually “die”. A hard drive may fail but then it’s just a matter of replacing the drive. I have three dual bay MyClouds and three single bay MyClouds. They are from 3-5 years old and show no signs of failure. Try to get the content of your MyCloud NAS onto a computer or USB drive and then try to figure out what’s going on with your MyCloud. And definitely figure out a backup plan.
I have my dual drive HDX (which has its own backup), a primary off-line backup (RAID 1 MyCloud EX2) and a secondary off-line backup (MyCloud single bay).
(Talk about belt and braces!!!)
I use same NAS and WD red drives running Asset as recommended by HH. It all works a treat and sounds great.
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This is something I didn’t realize and I still don’t quite understand. I ended buying a portable WD 4 TB G Drive and saved a copy of my multimedia folder via USB. It took about 6 hours in all to transfer but I now rest easy knowing I have a copy of my library in a separate location.
Running a QNAP TS-251A 4TB x 2 with WD Red drives running Asset and Minim and so far everything has worked flawlessly.
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For instance, if you accidentally (or otherwise unintentionally) delete a file:
With RAID 1, both copies of the file will be deleted.
With a backup, the working copy of the file will be deleted, but the backup copy will still be there.
This is just one example, there are other differences as well.
About 18 months ago, I got a QNAP TS-251-A with 2 x WD Red hard drives with Asset and BubbleUPnP. Has worked flawlessly and even prefer it over my UnitiServe for music serving duties. I use the US for ripping/back up and ripped CDs are copied to the QNAP overnight.
It was a bit of a faff to set up and I got some help from the nice chaps at Naim. Once set up though it works perfectly and you don’t need to touch it. I do however think the earlier suggestion to get the dust out annually is a good idea.
Hi Nigel, just out of curiosity, have you tried using the native support for BubbleUPnP that was introduced in the last streamer firmware update? It seems to have escaped most people’s attention, and I wonder if there is any benefit to using it.
Hi Chris, I am rather non-technical when it comes to NASs and UPnP software.
I installed BubbleUPnP about a year ago when SiS was having success with it and Asset with his NDS (or NDX, can’t remember). As you know, when installed, Bubble makes proxy versions of all the UPnP variants you have, in my case Asset, QNAP and Naim. These are shown in the app alongside the original versions. I believe the Asset Bubble proxy sounded best with my NDS but I am not so sure there is much difference between the various UPnP versions with the ND555. I still however tend to use Asset Bubble for streaming ripped CDs.
As I am now using a ND555, I presume the native support for BubbleUPnP is less influential on SQ. I would however appreciate your advice here.
I understand that now I guess I just don’t understand the purpose of a RAID backup since it’s not really a backup.
I also forgot I too am running BubbleSoft on my QNAP with no issues.
On the one hand it’s annoying so much customization is needed on these legacy streamers but on the other hand I’m glad to have the option.
The benefit of RAID1 is faster read times at the expense of write performance. Great for a database in read-only mode for example.
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Nigel, I cannot honestly claim greater technical knowhow that you here! I did try BubbleUPnP on my Synology NAS like others, but it was necessary to use third party control apps such as Lumin or Kazoo.
The latest streamer firmware, version 3.3.1, claimed to have “Support for third party UPnP controllers such as Audirvana and Bubble UPnP” according to the release notes.
I had a quick play with this, and got as far as seeing proxy versions of the servers I have running:
I haven’t had time to investigate any sound quality or other differences, or figure out exactly how and why this might be useful. Perhaps it’s just that the BubbleUPnP app on Android can be used for control. Maybe someone else is ahead of us here?
Not really, RAID1 just gives one level of protection from HDD failure, that’s all it does.
Since the MTBF of NAS specific drives is now as good as the MTBF for typical NAS enclosures, there’s really not that much point in using RAID1 anymore.
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Yes, when I had my NDS I used both Lumin and Kazoo control apps for music serving but it appears that the new streaming platform (ND555) allows the Naim app (iOS I’m my example) to control all UPnP server options including the Bubble UPnP proxies.
From memory, I would recommend the use of Asset and BubbleUPnP with legacy streamers. I am pretty sure I noticed a difference in SQ with BubbleUPnP when I had a NDS.
So if one part of the disk fails you have another copy on another portion of the disk to use. Is this an accurate characterization?
I don’t know what the tech jargon means but what would we use in lieu of RAID1?
Another thing I haven’t figured out is if this native support can access Tidal and Qobuz, as BubbleUPnP server can via Lumin…and again, if there is a sound quality advantage to this.