Upgrading NAS from unRAID

[JoeFig44]

I've been running an unRAID NAS setup for over 12 years now, and noticed one of the disks (I have 4 running with parity for 4TB) as a red dot flashing.
Plus it is just slow for copying files, and seems to lock me out of being able to delete files unless I use a Telnet session to use Unix commands to delete this "locked" files. Pain in the butt.

My uses are streaming to a Roku 3 player over the network via Plex and direct streaming (no Plex) to a Oppo 103D player.
However, I do this by running Plex media server on an attached PC - so ideally would want to eliminate this computer by having the NAS run Plex Media Server.
Copying files to it over wireless network after downloading (large mkvs).
So essentially it's a media NAS for HD mkv files and for streaming FLAC music to Sonos devices.
What else could it do for me that's in the "modern age"?

1. What would I gain from upgrading to a "modern" NAS?
2. Which NAS is best to upgrade to? I figure I'd need at least 6TB of space.

 

[Spectre694]

I think you need to figure out exactly what you want with this NAS.

Do you want a dead simple plug and play full system? (synology thecus and the like)

Do you want a more powerful system based on a COW file system w/ check-summing/compression like ZFS or BTRFS on your own hardware? (FreeNAS, NAS4free, Rockstor)
Those also tend to give you full access to the underlying OS (BSD or Linux)

You can also make a unRAID, snapRAID, FlexRAID but they are generally limited to the performance of a single disk, not free, or simply not as flexible as other options.

Pretty much everything mentioned here has plugins/dockers for various apps like Plex, owncloud, transmission, and others. Plus Samba, AFP, NFS, FTP, DLNA are generally supported but that varies by exact version

Appliances are typically limited to 4/5 bays, ZFS and BTRFS can both handle as much space and as many disks as you want, unRAID and kin are generally limited to what you paid to be able to use or other limits.

For wireless though. You really should have the NAS itself wired up to the router rather than wireless connected to your network it'll give better performance and be more reliable. Anything that then connects to that router be it wireless or Ethernet will be able to see your NAS

 

[JoeFig44]

Really, I want dead simple. I never think about my unraid NAS until i have to experience it's slowness copying/maneuring through folders and when there's an issue, like now with a hard drive failing.

Would the QNAP TS-251 provide what I need with 6TB of storage?
Or is another one better?

 

[Spectre694]

Really, I want dead simple. I never think about my unraid NAS until i have to experience it's slowness copying/maneuring through folders and when there's an issue, like now with a hard drive failing.

Would the QNAP TS-251 provide what I need with 6TB of storage?
Or is another one better?

That is a two bay unit with RAID 1 and 0 support. RAID 0 (striped) means capacity of both drives are added together but if one drive fails you lose all data for the array. RAID 1 is mirrored. Capacity is equal to the smallest drive in the array but the failure of one disk means the data is still on the other.

The website has 8Tb as the largest compatible drives so it'll be limited to 8Tb in RAID 1 or 16 in 0. QNAP does have a plex app in their download center.

 

[JoeFig44]

Am I better off with a 4 bay one then and going with 2-3 TB each?

 

[Spectre694]

Am I better off with a 4 bay one then and going with 2-3 TB each?

That would work too. You could use smaller (cheaper) drives but you would need more to equal the same space in a RAID 5/6/5e/10. You could also make say two two disk array's but that is probably more trouble than it is worth.

P.S. also noticed you were complaining about copy speed of your old rig. NAS appliances unless you go for a high end SOHO or business class one typically top out at around 20-30MB/s write and 50/60MB/s reads.

 

[JoeFig44]

I have 15 year old Seagate 1.5TB drives in my 13 year old unRaid custom build machine (running Celeron processor).

Would these new appliances (not high end) be much faster anyways?

Also, currently I download torrents (Mkv files - 10-20GB each) and I do it manually using uTorrent and then upload manually to my current NAS.
Would I be able to automate this with a new NAS appliance?

 

[Spectre694]

I have 15 year old Seagate 1.5TB drives in my 13 year old unRaid custom build machine (running Celeron processor).

Would these new appliances (not high end) be much faster anyways?

Also, currently I download torrents (Mkv files - 10-20GB each) and I do it manually using uTorrent and then upload manually to my current NAS.
Would I be able to automate this with a new NAS appliance?

I wouldn't count on it being massively faster but it stands a pretty good chance at least a little faster. I'd need you to bench yours to give you a better answer. For torrents pretty much all of them either have their own client or have transmission with its web-ui so it can download straight to the box.

These typically come with either ARM or Atom processors so they aren't very powerful

 

[JoeFig44]

For the torrents, I'm unfamiliar with how it works.

If say I follow a TV Series, will it automatically download the latest episode when it gets posted as an available torrent? or do I still need to find it and download it?

 

[Spectre694]

For the torrents, I'm unfamiliar with how it works.

If say I follow a TV Series, will it automatically download the latest episode when it gets posted as an available torrent? or do I still need to find it and download it?

No torrents work the same as before. The only difference is the torrent client is now on your NAS so it downloads straight to there rather than another computer and then you upload it to your NAS