Is it feasible to use my BI machine as a RAID 1 NAS?

justinonemillion

justinonemillion

n3wb
Jan 2, 2017
10
1
I currently have a dedicated BI Machine as follows:
  • Dell Optiplex 9020
  • i7-4790
  • 8GB RAM
  • 250GB SSD
  • 4TB WD Purple
  • 4TB WD Blue
  • 5 cameras of various specs
  • Currently recording at approx 2040 kB/s and 170 MP/s, CPU is at 13%.
I run everything thing at moderate FPS (8-13 FPS) to get more historical footage (wish I would have bought the 8TB WD Purple). I plan on adding 3-4 more cameras at some point and will probably run it all around 250 MP/s.

With that said, I want to add at least 2x8TB of RAID 1 to my network. I'd be looking at about $250 for the diskless NAS then $400ish for the drives. I don't want to spend the time building a DIY NAS from a Raspberry PI or some other project that consumes a bunch of time learning how Linux works which is why I'm leaning towards shelling out the money Synology or TerraMaster, etc.

I'm wondering if instead I could setup my BI machine to run a software NAS and take advantage of the extra processing power I have available. I think it might be easier setup than a turnkey NAS also. I'm not familiar with NAS devices or software NAS other than the basics--really, the same goes for BI though. Anyone has some insight if this a route worth going for? Has anyone tried it?
 
I guess I didn't mention that the NAS isn't for the cameras. It's for my wife's photography business so she has some redundancy and not putting all her trust in an almost full 2TB external drive.
 
You can use Windows Storage Spaces and setup RAID 1 that way. You could then configure file sharing so you could access the share on the network. I'm not a Windows user so I can't help with the setup but I'd bet there are tons of tutorials on Youtube specifically about how to accomplish this.

I don't see an issue with this (as far as BI in concerned) for just keeping pictures on there. It won't add any appreciable load to the system for occasional access.
 
  • Like
Reactions: justinonemillion
Certainly you can run it within Windows as long as the BI computer has physical room and enough SATA ports and power supply capacity. Also consider an online backup service if you have sufficient internet upload speed. Backblaze offers a pretty good value if you need a lot of storage space.
 
  • Like
Reactions: justinonemillion and SouthernYankee
bp2008 said:
Certainly you can run it within Windows as long as the BI computer has physical room and enough SATA ports and power supply capacity. Also consider an online backup service if you have sufficient internet upload speed. Backblaze offers a pretty good value if you need a lot of storage space.
Click to expand...

There are some space constraints but I could live without the CD-ROM and I take out the WD Blue and put it in a USB enclosure. I think that would free the sata ports too. I guess my question is how much processing power does RAID 1 require? I'm not informed on the subject but my uninformed guess is that integrating the RAID stuff wouldn't eat up very much system resources, especially since it wouldn't be accessed very often. But also, is there some significant disadvantage doing it this way vs going the diskless route?
 
justinonemillion said:
I guess my question is how much processing power does RAID 1 require? I'm not informed on the subject but my uninformed guess is that integrating the RAID stuff wouldn't eat up very much system resources, especially since it wouldn't be accessed very often. But also, is there some significant disadvantage doing it this way vs going the diskless route?
Click to expand...

No noticeable difference for RAID 1. Its just a mirrored write. No parity calculation involved.

Advantage of a dedicated NAS like Synology is its foolproof to setup. Lots of hand holding. They are also small and quiet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom