NAS / Server Help/Suggestions

[Tolerant 74]

I just had a couple 3TB drives fail which made me very sad.  I am now looking at solutions to prevent that in the future but there are SO many options. I feel a bit lost and I was hoping someone with a real grasp on NAS, RAID, Drives and Media servers.. might offer some suggestions.

 

Currently using Windows 10/64 on my "main" PC, also on my "Emby Server PC". (Why I am posting here, unless there is a better place?)

 

My "Main PC" has 3 (useable) bays, My "Emby (Media) PC" would have 4. I am looking at NAS 2-4 (Maybe 5) bays VS. just using drives in the two PC's and setting the drives to RAID 2 or maybe other choices.

 

I was just using the PC's as network storage etc, serving media to the home as needed until drives failed. Now that I will have a little cash and I lost drives it seems like a great time to get things fixed.

 

I guess my question(s) is(are) should I use the "Emby PC" and add drives to it in RAID and/or in my "main PC" as well, OR should I find a reasonably priced NAS 2-4 bay unit and buy drives for it.

 

I would like to have "around" 10TB of useable space that is backed up in real time.. Ie. RAID 2 ?  But I am worried about loosing both drives before I can replace them if one fails in the future.. so does it make more sense to have 4-5 drives and be able to tolerate maybe 2 failing. But articles caution about that as well.

 

I was looking to spend 150-300 per drive and maybe 150-300 for a NAS 2-4+ bays.  OR .. just get drives and use them in the PC's in RAID, perhaps even using FreeNAS on the "Emby PC" .. but I think I would not be able to run Emby on it if I did that. (Although I read some NAS can RUN Emby on the NAS Server?)

 

Anyways..  Any thoughts, links for NAS/Drives to consider or other useful tips or info I should try to absorb before I start spending? 

 

Thanks..

 

RIP 5k movies

Edited April 26, 2020 by Tolerant

[pwhodges 2015]

Emby is available in FreeNAS in their plugin catalogue.  Two versions, in fact - the "official" one which is a version or so behind, and a community one which is up to date.  I'd consider running it there myself, except that my FreeNAS machine is my least powerful.

 

Paul

[Tolerant 74]

Emby is available in FreeNAS in their plugin catalogue.  Two versions, in fact - the "official" one which is a version or so behind, and a community one which is up to date.  I'd consider running it there myself, except that my FreeNAS machine is my least powerful.

 

Paul

But.. you are saying.. if I turn my current "emby pc" into a "freenas" NAS server .. running 2-4 HDD's on my Local Lan..  that the software also has an Emby plugin to run the Emby server? So basically I would just be adding "NAS" to my current Emby PC without giving up the "Emby" part of it now .. but I would be giving up the Windows 10 environment?

 

EDIT:  Another question.. if I am putting drives into RAID in my Desktop PC's.. should I be looking for NAS drives, Server Drives, Gaming Performance Drives..  etc etc.. they got like 8 types of drives now but none say "Raid Drive for Desktop PC's".

Edited April 26, 2020 by Tolerant

[Tolerant 74]

Everyone stuck at home.. who likes to do a bit of online shopping.. feel free to toss in some links for parts.. or opinions on how I should progress in adding NAS or RAID to my home media platform.

[pwhodges 2015]

But.. you are saying.. if I turn my current "emby pc" into a "freenas" NAS server .. running 2-4 HDD's on my Local Lan..  that the software also has an Emby plugin to run the Emby server? So basically I would just be adding "NAS" to my current Emby PC without giving up the "Emby" part of it now .. but I would be giving up the Windows 10 environment?

 

Exactly so.  Of course, the process also includes reformatting the disks to ZFS and things like that, so FreeNAS doesn't just take over the existing files - they'll need to be put back from a backup or original sources.

 

But I haven't actually done this myself (I've installed it, but not run it in anger) - certainly running Emby in FreeNAS can work, but I don't know, for instance, whether it can access hardware acceleration in that environment, even if your computer hardware includes it.

 

Paul

[Tolerant 74]

I ended up ordering a DS1019+ and 3x6TB Ironwolf drives to start.

Hopefully it shows up quickly.