Question RAID/DAS Enclosure vs. NAS for external backups

CubsWin

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I am trying to decide on a storage solution for my external backups. I use Veritas System Recovery to create weekly restore points in Windows. I need about 15TB to store the volume of data that I would like to keep. I currently have an 8TB External drive, which works, but I'm not able to back up everything that I want and I can't keep the restore points for as long as I should.

Since there aren't any stand-alone external drive options in the neighborhood of 15TB, my 2 best options seem to be:
  1. RAID 0 (2x8TB) using a DAS RAID Enclosure
  2. RAID 0 (2x8TB) using a NAS

The benefits of Option 1 would be lower price, faster reads/writes, and the ability to disable the drive when not in use to protect my restore points (I may be able to do this with a NAS too but I don't have any experience in that area).

The benefits of Option 2 are the ability to store the drive in a safer location, my basement, versus having it upstairs next to my PC. That also has the benefit of eliminating any noise in my office, since the NAS enclosure could be isolated in my basement storage closet. The ability to access from multiple different devices on my network wouldn't really be a benefit here, since my use case is for backups only and not data sharing.

What would the experts recommend that I do in my situation? Is there anything else I am overlooking, or other options I could consider? Thanks!
 

kanewolf

Titan
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One other benefit of a NAS is that it has an independent CPU that is always on. You can use it to store media for playback on TV and audio hardware. It can independently upload copies to cloud storage for off-site backups. It is a shared resource for your entire home network.
 
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popatim

Titan
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IMO, You need to rethink your Raid0.

If a there is a hiccup with the disks and one loses sync then your PC becomes your recovery device. There is no rebuild option or redundancy in R0. Don't get me wrong, I'm normally a proponent of raid0 but there is a stipulation to it. You have to be ok with losing all the data on the R0 or have it backed up. IMO, you don't use it on your backup. You want that to be there when you need it.

I would suggest 2x16 raid 1 or 4x5 raid5.
Both will survive a complete failure of 1 drive.
The raid1 is easier to recover data from if the array goes down since each drive is an identical copy.
 
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CubsWin

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IMO, You need to rethink your Raid0.
I hear you, and Raid 0 makes me nervous as well. At the same time, the chances of my PC and one of the backup drives going down at the same time are incredibly low. That is the only real catastrophic scenario. Sure, I could lose my backups if I lose a backup drive, but those backups aren't absolutely critical unless I have also simultaneously lost a drive on my PC. With that said, I still would like to avoid Raid 0 if I can, possibly just going with a single 16TB drive. I could always add a 2nd drive later for Raid 1. I'm currently leaning toward NAS with 1x16TB, but haven't made a final decision yet.
 
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