Several threads that discuss very large libraries can be found on the forum. I can’t recall that in any of those a NAS was the recommended hardware platform. Still, if you find a NAS that ticks all the marks, feel free to buy one – but I’m sure you pay more than needed for the custom OS and built-in functionality you don’t ever use when using the device just as Roon Core (and this is also true for smaller libraries). There is a reason Roon Labs offers the Nucleus(+) and ROCK.
One of the threads about very large libraries as example:
What I still don’t understand is: even if you have a ROCK or Nucleus or whatever, what will you put the data on for a large library other than on a NAS?
I skimmed the article, it didn’t talk about any alternatives to NAS.
Maybe something like this…
@Jim_F What is the backup plan for this single drive? A second USB drive and some sort of software to sync them?
Roon can backup to an attached USB drive. My Nucleus backs up every night and keeps 30. Another routine backs up once a month and keeps 12. Of course, you need to backup your music files outside of Roon. I wasn’t really thinking about a single drive. I have no experience with that except a Dell laptop for “away from home” running Roon core with a handful of local music files.
If you think that your library is still small enough to be handled by a Nucleus+ or ROCK, local means USB connected I guess (no other alternative connections). Something like for example:
Or with RAID option and even higher speed:
If you build your own Roon Core to your specification for a really big library, just choose a suitable case that allows you to install as many drives as you need.
The QNAP DAS is interesting. I guess I could put Roon OS on a NUC and then connect this guy to it.
Yes the problem with this kind of thing B is that by the time you’ve budgeted for backups etc you’re taking thousands of dollars.
Really the only solution for large libraries are NAS or DAS as pointed out by @BlackJack
I’m not sure that’s true. There are lots of people here with very large music libraries. Some use a NAS, others don’t. Presumably, you already have your music backed up and hard drives are hard drives regardless of how you use them.
The nice thing about NAS/DASs from my perspective is that once you set up the correct RAID (in my case I use simple RAID-1 replication) the data redundancy is built in.
With other stuff you have to have adobe other software that does the backup etc. I found those to be pain in the ass.
A RAID with redundancy just keeps your data online (available) in the event of a drive failure. A backup allows you to recover from data loss. There are many reasons for data loss. Google gives me:
As you can see, hardware is ranked pretty low. Sure, all drives will fail sooner or later but with a backup you can always recover. Something (recover from data loss) you can’t do with redundancy. Also mirroring has the highest cost for redundancy of all the RAID levels. That money is mostly better spent on a backup solution in personal/home use environments IMHO.
PS: A NAS can be the right choice to hold your backups, it’s designed as a (data) storage solution primarily, but for that use case you then don’t need a power house with x86 compatible processor and lots of RAM.
I have a windows machine with 2 HDD (16TB and 6TB) library is 330K tracks. Memory is 32GB SSD M.2 NVMe boot drive Windows 10 CPU is 10700 in a fanless case. music is backed up to a NAS - this is what a NAS is best at. I use FreeFileSync to keep things in Sync.
You can use external drives (USB) on a ROCK/NUC setup too.
you asked for guidance… don’t shoot the messengers. NAS has been tried by meany and I can tell after my experiences its a no go for a large library, or even a small one if you plan to use some of the more demanding features in Roon…but hey its your money, spend as you see fit. and for the record I have 4 Synology NAS’s that could run RoonServer and none of them cut it.
I’m not sure where large library’s are coming in but he already said the above so I’m guessing small library…
PLUS
“and I am not planning to use digital signal processing.”
Hi there,
I’ve been running ROON on the DS220+ for about 6 months, the memory has been expanded to 10GB, there are 2x SSD WD Red 4TB in the NAS. Even if the requirements are not met, it runs stably and without failures over 2 rooms with different Roon bridges. However, I don’t run a DSP or similar. I previously had a Nucleus, PrimeMini with Core i3 and Core i7 as a separate Roon Core and didn’t want to have two devices anymore. In terms of sound, I don’t notice any difference in my composition.
No deterioration, no no problems. About 3000 albums, Flac / 24Bit / DSD.
BR
Thorsten
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I heartily disagree. I have a 2TB library with ~41,000 tracks. I’ve been using a Synology DS 918+, and apart from a couple of temporary and minor issues not unique to the NAS - all of which are solved - my experience has been awesome.
Part of that awesome experience is that I get to play the very same music collection and playlists that I use at home in Roon when I am away from home (through DS Audio and Audio Station). That seems to be quite difficult for non-NAS users to achieve.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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With the availability of streaming services, users can have large libraries without the need for local files at all. As more was left unsaid than not in the OP, this seems to be a general request “On which Synology NAS can the Roon core be installed” and other users popped in with their own specific questions.
As far as I can tell, the link I posted already covers all the current NAS devices the RoonServer app can be installed on (minus some exotics that are probably of no use for the OP anyway but including even the ones I personally would stay away from).
Ok yes your point regarding RAID not being sufficiently for backups is a good one. I guess because of my bad experiences with both SSDs and spinning platters dying soon after buying has me mostly concentrating on hardware failure.
BTW don’t mean to shoot any messengers. It just seemed to me that (now correctly phrasing it) if your primary concern is hardware failure then a RAID NAS price performance is hard to beat.
Also my Roon use model is very simple: doesn’t have any fancy convolution, HQPlayer etc. So the NAS works well for me at least in the last couple of years.
That’s an excellent point about having access outside the house with a NAS. I’m planning on getting to do something over the next few months regarding that with a Pi softether setup and Roon running on phone + DAC.
Well, yes, but not with our own painstakingly-curated metadata. I have highly refined track dates, album artwork, genre information, playlist assignments, etc., none of which would or could exist in a streaming service, but that both DS Audio and Roon share access to…
No one said something else, I just replied to Phil_Ryan, trying to answering his questions/concerns.