I can see the possible benefits of having an HDD attached to the core device for music files over a NAS - faster response and reduction in network traffic.
However, I continue to use my ReadyNAS because I am nervous about the vulnerability of the single HDD to disc failure.
I am curious how people use a NAS as backup in the case of single disc storage of music files. Do you just have a big enough capability NAS to make multiple copies or do you use some sort of disc mirroring software?
For me, itâs really simple - I just hook my high capacity USB drive to the QNAP NAS and let the QNAP Backup run every night on some selected folder on the NAS to the external USB hard drive, one of them is, of course, the music library folder,
Do not understand the difference. You can continue to use your ReadyNAS in addition to the local single drive. Just point Roon to the local single drive and backup that drive to the ReadyNAS.
âMD
This is only an issue with wi-fi and this wonât impact âsound qualityâ but rather the reliable delivery of data to your Bridge/ DAC.
My Synology NAS used to be my music source for Roon. I built a Nuc/ROCK and put in an internal drive. That internal storage is now the primary Roon music source.
The Synology now backs up the internal ROCK drive on a regular basis. It also backs up Roon database. I also use the Synology music files for JRiver. Yep, I still use JRiver to do things like transcode FLAC and other files to MP3 for my car and to move data to my Astell & Kerns player. (I never listen to music through JRiver anymore) All of that music on the NAS is backed up to another place.
The Synology does lots of other things too. It is a workhorse in a lot of ways, but is second string for Roon functions.
By this, I guess you mean you run in RAID 1. RAID 1 or any mirroring RAID is not an adequate backup.
Like many people here, my music files are on a USB drive and backed up to a NAS and to the cloud. Once my new machine build is completed, they will be moved to an internal HDD.
Yep, RAID by itself is certainly NOT a backup solution. Google âRAID is not a backupâ and you can spend the rest of the weekend reading horror stories about why RAID is not a backup.
My core is a desktop, SSD for OS and Roon library
Music files on HDD internal to core
BU to a series of USB 3 drives
All Ethernet from there no issues
I recently did a few tests with my ROCK-NUC. I listened for audible changes when shifting between external USB (2.5" 4Tb, no separate power), metwork storage and also two different internal drives, one hybrid drive and one big fat SSD.
Differences were very small and i would not take a bet on my ability to discern any changes.
My NAS is on the other end of a WLAN bridge (as in router 2.4Ghz WiFi to access point, acting as a WLAN to Ethernet bridge) and if any differences at all i preferred the NAS solution.
However, when i moved the NUC/ROCK server to the same switch and location as my NAS i liked it with itâs internal SSD just as muchâŚ
Make of this what you wish, inconclusive at best, yes.
And to make matters worse, the same ROCK with internal SSD storage placed in my listening room (like when i tried the different storage solutions) sounded itâs best so far, with an Entreq Silver Minimus grounding one of itâs USB portsâŚ
Many thanks for the helpful advice. Sorry, I wasnât clear in my earlier post.
Using a NAS for my music library has the advantage that the disc redundancy offers a degree of protection from disc failure. This is not a back up which is why I make copies to HDDs some of which are kept safe by friends.
Now, if I transfer the music library to a HDD attached to the NUC core I will lose the first level of protection of the redundancy provided by the NAS. I can make a back up to the NAS which is protected by this redundancy. However, my understanding is that in order to effect this back up I have delete the old back up to make room for the new one. At this point, I have less protection than at present, although I still have the fall back of my other HDD back ups.
Is my only truly safe option to substantially increase the capacity of the NAS so it can contain two or more generations of back ups?
I wondered about attaching a Drobo to the core to achieve the same redundancy currently provided by the NAS, but that would be quite a costly option.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but the more discs you have the greater the odds of a disc failure. Of course, the redundancy of RAID 1 somewhat mitigates disc failure.
If you are talking about Roon backups of its library, you can specify how many backups you want to keep. Past that specified number and Roon will delete the oldest backup, automagically. You should understand that Roon only backs up its library. To back up your music files you will have to use some other backup software.
If you are running ROCK on a NUC or Roonâs Nucleus, you canât run other backup software, but will have to use another machine
If you use your NAS to only backup Roonâs library, then you donât need any redundancy at all. Itâs just a backup. Unless your want to keep multiple differing versions of Roonâs library, losing the backup is meaningless.
If you keep your music files on either an external USB drive or an internal SATA drive, then you can use your NAS solely for backup. If you use your NASA solely for backup, then your donât need RAID1 and can use RAID 0 to double the disc capacity you are currently seeing under RAID 1.
IMO, a NAS is really only necessary if one needs to access files from more than one machine.
On the subject of backups, there is always backup to the cloud. I donât know how big your music file folders are, but 1TB of cloud storage on Amazon is $65 (?) a year. The first time you backup will take forever, but incremental backups after that will only need to backup newly added files since the last full backup.
You probably already understand all this, just underlining some points.
Thanks. Thatâs very helpful.
Itâs the security of the music files that I am concerned about.
Iâd still need more capacity with Raid0 avoid the need to delete the previous back up to make room for a new one.
Although NASs have served me well for the last ten tears or so, I would go down a different route if I was starting now. Unfortunately, I just bought a new ReadyNAS last year when my original one failed.
I am coming to the view that my best option is to stick with what I am doing now for the time being and revisit the issue again when I run out of capacity.
As you want, but if you use RAID 0 instead of RAID 1 then your capacity is immediately doubled.
Peace.
Roon core on my late 2012 mac mini. Internal 256gb SSD with internal 500gb HDD backup drive. Music library stored on two external USB drives; OWC Elite Pro 2x2tb HDD (mirror mode) and Elite Pro 1x2tb (HDD) backup drive. Easy, peasy. Automatic backup (kind of) in mirror mode and Time Machine backup every hour by the mini. All three 2tb drives are the same part number for interchangeability if need be.
Network bridge (SOTM) over ethernet 55-feet from my router. Could not be simpler. Works without a hitch; excellent sound quality with instantaneous switching from my iPad.
Last step not completed is to backup the roon library on the 1x2tb in addition to the 500gb HDD.
Russ
Time Machine backups may not result in a useable restore of Roon library.
For more info, search forum.
Thanks for the suggestion, Slim. That would give me an extra 1TB, but I have over 2TB of music. Thereâs no way round it, I need to upgrade the four 1TB HDDs in my NAS to 2TB or greater.
Unfortunately, the cost outweighs the benefit of having music file storage attached to NUC core. If I did buy the new discs, it would probably be worth stretching it to get a Drobo. I could reuse the old HDDs in the Drobo and attach that to the core. That would be the best of all worlds.
Four 1TB disks in RAID 0 gives you 4TB.
But half the reliability?
That is, increased odds of failure equates to less reliability.
Sorry I got into this thread.