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I’m a newbie (with very light networking knowledge) considering purchasing a RN 214 for my home. Basically, I have a lot of multi-media files I want backed up locally in addition to my Google Drive. The ideal setup I’m considering is a private home share for each user (wife, son, and me); a “family” shared drive so we can exchange files; and an automatic weekly backup of each user’s client machine. I’m thinking RAID 1 , data mirroring, should be sufficient. My question is can NAS be configured for home shares AND automatic backup of client machines? Would the drive have to be partition, i.e. for home & family share; and backup data? I’m thinking of a 6TB HD should be sufficient to store this data, so will I need 2-6TB hard drives (one for actual data and one for mirror)? Or would I need more? Lastly, since I’m a newbie, is there a better configuration, model other than RN 214, etc. to achieve my goals?
The ideal setup I’m considering is a private home share for each user (wife, son, and me);
Normally I recommend that home NAS uses avoid using the private home share feature. You are better off creating three public shares (one for each of you). You can apply access controls to those shares if you need to. But if you share a home PC, then you'd all have to have the discipline to log in/out of that PC every time you use it.
My own NAS has shares organized by content (Music, Movies, Finance, etc), and we all share a single NAS account.
I’m thinking RAID 1 , data mirroring, should be sufficient.
I would just use XRAID, starting off with two disks. That will end up using RAID-1, but also can be easily expanded later. For instance, if you add a third disk, it would convert to RAID-5 and double the storage.
Also, you should plan on having at least 30% free space initially. New owners tend to under-estimate the storage they will need. So get a bit more than you think you need up front (perhaps 2x8TB).
My question is can NAS be configured for home shares AND automatic backup of client machines?
Yes. Though I suggest using backup software on the clients to do those backups. Personally I use Acronis TrueImage. But there are other options (including FreeFileSync). One benefit of running the backup software on the PCs is that the software can wake up the PCs when it's time to make the backup.
Would the drive have to be partition, i.e. for home & family share; and backup data?
No. You'd set up network shares on the NAS. You can apply quotas on those shares if you want to limit the space usage in them (though I don't do that myself).
Lastly, since I’m a newbie, is there a better configuration, model other than RN 214, etc. to achieve my goals?
The RN214 is the current entry-level ReadyNAS. It will do what you need (and provide good performance), but you might want to also consider an RN424 or RN524 (though they do cost more).
The ideal setup I’m considering is a private home share for each user (wife, son, and me);
Normally I recommend that home NAS uses avoid using the private home share feature. You are better off creating three public shares (one for each of you). You can apply access controls to those shares if you need to. But if you share a home PC, then you'd all have to have the discipline to log in/out of that PC every time you use it.
My own NAS has shares organized by content (Music, Movies, Finance, etc), and we all share a single NAS account.
I’m thinking RAID 1 , data mirroring, should be sufficient.
I would just use XRAID, starting off with two disks. That will end up using RAID-1, but also can be easily expanded later. For instance, if you add a third disk, it would convert to RAID-5 and double the storage.
Also, you should plan on having at least 30% free space initially. New owners tend to under-estimate the storage they will need. So get a bit more than you think you need up front (perhaps 2x8TB).
My question is can NAS be configured for home shares AND automatic backup of client machines?
Yes. Though I suggest using backup software on the clients to do those backups. Personally I use Acronis TrueImage. But there are other options (including FreeFileSync). One benefit of running the backup software on the PCs is that the software can wake up the PCs when it's time to make the backup.
Would the drive have to be partition, i.e. for home & family share; and backup data?
No. You'd set up network shares on the NAS. You can apply quotas on those shares if you want to limit the space usage in them (though I don't do that myself).
Lastly, since I’m a newbie, is there a better configuration, model other than RN 214, etc. to achieve my goals?
The RN214 is the current entry-level ReadyNAS. It will do what you need (and provide good performance), but you might want to also consider an RN424 or RN524 (though they do cost more).
