Not really. D300 most probably costs around 300$. So at most you are looking at a 2700$ costing machine if you remove one. That is not going to effect any sales to audio professionals. Not being able to use 2 processors would.
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nMP external storage set up...
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Not really. D300 most probably costs around 300$. So at most you are looking at a 2700$ costing machine if you remove one. That is not going to effect any sales to audio professionals. Not being able to use 2 processors would.
Drobo is its own RAID device - no JBOD - No booting - If this is something tat works for yo that is fine.
But the dealbreaker for me in the case of the Drobo Mini was a fan that was nothing I wanted in my room... loud...
I bought a Drobo 5D and the fan is noticeable but I wouldn't call it loud. Per the Drobo website the 5D is 24dBA. My existing 2008 MP is between 40-50dBA under normal operation. According to Apple, the nMP is considerably quieter only 12dBA at idle (maybe 15-18dBA under working loads). The bottom line is that the nMP plus the Drobo will still be the same but probably quieter than my old MacPro alone.
I just wanted to note that an interesting alternative to Time Machine is CrashPlan, which is something I'm considering to run headless on my NAS.
For free users you can setup multiple backup targets, including a friend or family member's computer to connect to remotely (if you can get them to set it up and they have space). This option lets you do a mutually assured backup in case one of you has a disaster like flooding or a fire.
Of course CrashPlan's main purpose is cloud backup, which is paid, but it's a good option if you can set-up shared backup or have far more data than your friends can backup for you.
I probably won't use it for local backup as I like Time Machine far too much, and I spent a long time getting rsync setup the way I like for sending a second backup to my NAS (I know I could now use Time Machine for that too in Mountain Lion, but I want actual files on my NAS rather than a disk image).
You can actually do a kind of best of both, by tricking CrashPlan into backing up from your latest Time Machine backup. This involves editing the CrashPlan settings file to point to: /Volumes/<Timemachine Backup>/Backups.backupdb/<Computer Name>/Latest/./
This tricks it into following the symbolic link, rather than just backing up the link itself (and nothing else).
Anyway, just thought I'd mention it as an option, as while having local redundant backups is a good idea, having a backup off-site in case of disaster is something worth considering. As I say, my NAS is actually in a kind of out-building (uses the same power circuit so I can use a Powerline network to connect it), which gives me some protection if the worst happens, but cloud backup is more disaster proof. One of the advantages of CrashPlan is that you can set your own encryption keys; so long as you keep them somewhere safe then it means your data should be nice and safe from the NSA
Very well put sir! This thread has been invaluable to me so far. It doesn't matter what kind of computer someone has because this thread shares awesome tips for people who care about keeping their data safe.
I have to disagree. I have a drobo DAS which works great and is much faster then my Qnap. My qnap serviced a purpose but I found the performance too slow to manage my aperture libraries. My Time Machine backups are faster exponentially. My initial backup on Qnap took all night (8 plus hours) where as on my Drobo, it was done in under an hour.
I understand a NAS has different functionality then a DAS and not everyone loves drobo (a lot of that justified) but I think their current products are as good if not better then others. I will say that I wished they offered standard RAID configurations but that's just a minor issue imo
Locked in file system, poor performance, high cost and lots of people dropping them.
I don't rate drobo at all!!
Build yourself a server for less, which is faster and more customisable.
Anyway a NAS is not suitable as a replacement for internal drives. TB is and then USB3.
I'm not sure what you mean about Locked in file system,
As for performance I'm getting this for performance which I'm extremely pleased at
As for the cost I purchased it used at a good discount
Overall, I'm getting much better results then my NAS, at a price that was decent (quite cheaper then other competing solutions) and its meeting my needs.
I've built my share of computers and servers and I wanted a simple efficient DAS to hold my data. The thunderbolt connection gives me excellent speed where as the throughput via ethernet on typical NAS units were too slow
I'm sorta in the the same boat and looking at my external options.
I have my drives that I need for my scratch drives for FCP. But with only 1TB of internal storage, isn't enough. I'll no doubt have enough room for all the apps. But when adding in all my iTunes stuff, and photos from aperture etc. (basically everything that should go into my home folder) I'm at a loss.
I was thinking of the 8TB Lacie 2big Thunderbolt and setting it up as a RAID 1 or the G-RAID w/ thunderbolt. Will performance be an issue with Aperture (maybe i'll switch to light room) when editing photos?
Thoughts?
I have my drives that I need for my scratch drives for FCP. But with only 1TB of internal storage, isn't enough. I'll no doubt have enough room for all the apps. But when adding in all my iTunes stuff, and photos from aperture etc. (basically everything that should go into my home folder) I'm at a loss.
I was thinking of the 8TB Lacie 2big Thunderbolt and setting it up as a RAID 1 or the G-RAID w/ thunderbolt. Will performance be an issue with Aperture (maybe i'll switch to light room) when editing photos?
Thoughts?
NAS is fast enough for backups. They go in the background and you don't have to wait. However using just one NAS as your only backup is not good enough.
You need BOTH of these to remain true even during abackup
1) Data exists on at least three different physical media and
2) Data exits in at least two different geographic locations
So add to the NAS backup a second NAS in some other building or a cloud backup service or any other way to get an off site backup.
One More Thing. If you have 6TB of data your time machine backup device needs to be about 9TB or at least 50% larger then the about of data. But if your local 6TB disk is only holding 4TB of data then a 6TB time machine drive is fine. The reason is so TM can hold some older versions of your files
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Yes performance will be very good with a Thunderbolt disk, just as good as if it were internal. But the question is how much data you have? Buy and external storage system sized for the amount of data you will have in about three years, then you upgrade.
The harder question always is how to do the backups.
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"Locked in a file system" means that your data depends on a working Drobo. If the Drobo box itself fails you can not recover the data without buying another Drobo. The data on your disks is completely UNREADABLE with with device other than a Drobo.
The advantage of Drobo is that it is easy to understand and use. Server's RAID and so on, is not something most people know much about so I have to credit Drobo for making this easy.
But you'd do better with Synology and if you DO understand a little about computers, file systems and networks then look into FreeNAS. But you are likely looking at a minimum buy-in for $600 at least but you get a enterprise class system for cheap.
I have about 1TB of personal stuff, photos,music etc so an 8TB drive should last 3 years, i'm hoping. I never got in RAIDS, how is the performance.
Technically thats not locked into a file system. Thats locked into their implementation of RAID named BeyondRAID. The file system will be either NTFS or HFS+.
Wow this is awesome! I can do offsite backups with time machine now while keeping another at my desk!
I would have to agree with going the Drobo Route, which model will depend on how you want to use it. As for me, I use the Drobo 5D as a DAS (Direct Attached Storage) device for iTunes library and for files needed to work on POC's in VMware.
For my storage needs, I am using this setup:
From left to right -
Drobo 5D - Drobo 5D - QNAP TS-219 PII - QNAP TS-419 PII - QNAP TS-869 Pro
The Drobo's have 5 WD-Red 2TB drives confiugred for a single drive failure.
The 219 has 2 Seagate Barracuda 3TB Drives in RAID-0 for Time Machine Backups
The 419 has 4 Seagate Barracuda 3TB Drives in RAID-10 for backup of 2nd Drobo
The 869 has 8 Seagate Barracuda 3TB Drives in RAID-10 for the master backup of the most important files
Attachments
Great. Whatever it is, you still can't put the disks into another machine and read the data off it.
Even with plain RAID you could theoretically, I've seen it done on a few occasions.
Well its inconvenient but its not the end of the world for your data....You can always grab another drobo and be able to use your data. Sure it costs money but if you can pony up the cash for NAS/DAS/SAN/Whatever you should have enough money for emergencies (ie: fund for failed drive(s), cables, the entire thing, etc.).
External storage wise I've heard some people say that Drobo are not nearly as fast as Promise solutions....I ask because I have some experience with Drobo but NO experience with Promise other than seeing it associated with Apple more so.
The thought of having to fork out £300+ to get just a box, and then maybe another £300+ to essentially get your data back if it dies out of warranty just seems utterly, utterly stupid to me.
Fair play if you have spare cash, but even if I did I wouldn't touch the system with a barge pole!
That does sound stupid. I'd assume most people would just recover the data from their backups.
You'd be in the same exact situation if you opted for a Synology that you recommended. They also have a hybrid RAID implementation end if the unit goes south the only way for you to access your data is to get another.Kind of a pointless exercise then really isn't it?
Not everyone wants or needs to build a server for storage and there are plenty of great solutions out there. For me a DAS was it, for others a NAS. You may not agree with it, but that in of itself doesn't make it a wrong decision.
I at no point in time have I recommended any kind of NAS/RAID product.
I personally use UnRAID as even if 5/6 disks fail, I still get some of the data off the 6th!
I firmly believe that unless your in a commercial environment there is absolutely no need for such systems and actively avoid them and never recommend them.