New Server vs. Synology NAS

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amyTFD
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New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by amyTFD » Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:28 am

Our server is aging and slowing. We recently approached our IT contact and he has talked to us about putting in a Synology NAS running MySQL instead of a new server. Sounds like this should be good in theory, but curious if anyone has done this setup. We are thinking about setting this up on its own network first and then worst case scenario ... we have an expensive backup. Any concerns? Problems or foreseeable issues with this type of setup?

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drtech
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Re: New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by drtech » Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:59 am

When I tried running on a NAS, I got pretty poor performance because NAS's in general have low power processors that won't keep up with your database as well as a dedicated server.
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

enamelrod
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Re: New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by enamelrod » Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:57 am

i second the poor performance

kellyb
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Re: New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by kellyb » Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:51 am

I have, and love our Synology NAS. However, I think it is way to weak as a server to handle OD. I find it's best use a a private cloud with file syncing, like a personal, private Dropbox.

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drtech
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Re: New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by drtech » Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:00 pm

A couple years ago I setup a proxmox virtual machine setup using CEPH as the storage solution. Couldn't be happier. It spreads the server over three machines hosting the data. If one machine goes down, the virtual machine just reboots on one of the other machines and keep running. Then you can figure out what is wrong with the broken one and in the meantime you are still online. Haven't had any computer go down yet in real life (only in trials) but in theory it is great. It does take three servers, but if you shop ebay, you can get some previous generation dell servers or workstations with nice xeon processors for about $300 each. I got Dell T5500 xeon 6 core with 24GB ECC RAM workstations for $300 each. So my 3 servers cost me $900 total (+ the hard drives) and that is what I am using now on the setup I just made for my home. This basically duplicates what I did at the office a few years ago and store all my data securely.

This does take some work to get it all setup with CEPH, but if you want to make it simple, just buy one of those Dell Xeon workstations off ebay, setup with windows 10 on it and run that as your server and you will have lots of speed for very little $.
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

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Arna
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Re: New Server vs. Synology NAS

Post by Arna » Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:21 pm

A word of caution regarding Drop Box- Drop Box can corrupt your live data. Of all the data restores and recoveries I've done, it's the Drop Box stories that I remember and tell over and over again (as horror story examples). I've had numerous customers lose everything because their corrupted files uploaded to Drop Box, overrode good backups and vice versa. That's not to say Drop Box is a bad product, it just needs to be configured correctly and tested constantly. It should also not replace periodic physical backups.
Entropy isn't what it used to be...

Arna Meyer

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