How long should I expect a NAS to last?
How long should I expect a NAS to last?
First off, I'd normally ask this question on a datahoarding forum, but this one is way more active than those and I'm sure there's considerable overlap.
So I have a Synology DS218+ that I got in 2020. So it's a 6 year old model by now but only 4 into its service. There's absolutely no reason to believe it'll start failing anytime soon, and it's completely reliable. I'm just succession planning.
I'm looking forward to my next NAS, wondering if I should get the new version of the same model again (whenever that is) or expand to a 4 bay.
The drives are 14 TB shucked easy stores, for what it's worth, and not even half full.
What are your thoughts?
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What about building your own NAS? If you've the time / skills you can pick a very small micro ITX motherboard and a NAS case and build your own. This way you can run open-source software and it will have more features / expandability and potentially last way longer.
Do you have any examples of a NAS case? I'm looking at possibilities for redoing my setup which is currently an old Ryzen PC stuffed with 9 or so drives running Windows, SnapRAID, and DrivePool. I'd love to scale it down horsepower wise to make it more efficient and reliable (Windows sucks for this) along with separating it from my general PC usage. Some sort of 8-bay drive enclosure that can directly connect to a thin client PC, and handle different capacity drives (6TB-14TB) would be ideal.
Something like this? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003125774264.html or https://www.amazon.com/AUDHEID-Enclosures-Compatible-Micro-ATX-Motherboard/dp/B09QKMQ1B1
Just follow the related items you've a lot of options.
Could you run open source software on something like a Synology if they stop supporting it?
No always, and that's the reason why I would never buy their hardware. There are some older models that can be hacked to install a generic Linux but the majority can't. It's just easier to get something truly open.
That sucks. Well, I still am fine with my purchasing decision. It's a good stepping stone into learning out to network. In the future, I'll definitely build it myself and get my own domain for remote access.
You don’t need to buy a domain for that. There are plenty free dynamic DNS options that will give you a free subdomain that will work perfectly fine for that.
Oh interesting. Links?
https://freedns.afraid.org/ , https://www.duckdns.org/ , https://dynv6.com/ , https://free-ddns.com/ , https://ydns.io/
Personally I always pick and recommend the first one as it has been reliable for ever. The second one is kind of the new kid on the block (but for a few years now) and the others may be commercial entities with other lines of bussines.