How long should I expect a NAS to last? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 9 months ago by akilou@sh.itjust.works to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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First off, I'd normally ask this question on a datahoarding forum, but this one is way more active than those and I'm sure there's considerable overlap.

So I have a Synology DS218+ that I got in 2020. So it's a 6 year old model by now but only 4 into its service. There's absolutely no reason to believe it'll start failing anytime soon, and it's completely reliable. I'm just succession planning.

I'm looking forward to my next NAS, wondering if I should get the new version of the same model again (whenever that is) or expand to a 4 bay.

The drives are 14 TB shucked easy stores, for what it's worth, and not even half full.

What are your thoughts?

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[-] Prok@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

My Synology NAS was running for 6+ years before I replaced it last year. And the only reason I replaced it was to upgrade the hardware to be able to act more like a home server running some more demanding services.

I've since given the NAS away to a friend who is still running it... As always back up your data just in case, but I wouldn't expect the hardware to crap out on you too soon

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

Oh, I don't need to back it up because I have two drives running in RAID.

😜

[-] Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 9 months ago

Raid is not a backup

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 26 points 9 months ago

Protip: The 'B' is RAID stands for "backup".

[-] maxprime@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

I like that!

[-] Prok@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

As others have said, you should really be careful treating your RAID as a backup. I for one do all of my backing up on Playstation 1 memory cards... I had to buy a couple storage containers to store them all, but I guess that technically counts as off-site

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago

Dude, it was a joke. I've heard the advice a million times

[-] metaStatic@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

RAID 0 naturally

[-] TheInsane42@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Ehm, probably 2 disks bough from the same batch. They usually die together. ;)

[-] jasep@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Same here. Last year I upgraded from a DS214+ and it was still running great. The only reason I upgraded to the DS220+ was so I could run docker containers.

I sold it for $200 which meant I ran it for 9 years for about $57 a year (CAD). I'm hoping to get even better bang for the buck with the new unit.

[-] reddthat@reddthat.com 1 points 9 months ago

I still have my DS1812 which I bought for ~1200 when it came out in 2012/2013 as well.

It only runs NFS/SMB atorage services. Still is an amazing unit. It has been through 7 house moves 2 complete failures, and about 4 raid rebuilds.

Considering it's 2024 now and it's been running for nearly 12 years, it's the reason I recommend paying out the arse for Synology hardware even if it is overpriced. I still get security patches, and I got a recent (2 years ago?) OS upgrade.
It can still run the occasional docker containers for when I need to get the latest ISOs or for running rclone to backup.

If I bought a new unit I would be happy for another 10+ years with it no doubt. As long as I purchased as much ram as possible to put in it because 3GB ram in this unit is what really kills the functionality, besides from the now-slow cpu

[-] Nyarlathotep@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 months ago

I have an 1813+ and it's also been a champ. Unless the computer inside it dies, I will continue to use it indefinitely.

However, I have offloaded all server duties other than storage to other devices. I do not ask my Syno to run Plex or any other services else besides DNS. As long as those SMB shares stay up, it's doing what it needs to do. And gigabit will be fast enough for a long time to come.