Why Drobo when you can QNAP?

 

TS 419P 01

I recently spent a good amount of time finding a RAID solution for my home office.  My requirements were fairly minimal:

  • Supports RAID5
  • Supports Time Machine to backup all my Apple Macs
  • Wireless
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Supports at least 4 drives

My original intention was to purchase a Drobo but several conversations with Drobo users I found out they use a proprietary disk format that would require drives sent back to Drobo to pull data from in the event of a failure.  I have also heard of issues with the devices, so after a bit of research I found QNAP.

The price of the Drobo with the ability to support connecting wirelessly AND via ethernet was pretty high compared the QNAP.

QNAP has a ton of options for storage, too many really but their site is good and pretty easy to match requirements to features.  I ended up with the QNAP TS-419P.

This device supports Time Machine as well as integration with Windows networks and Linux.

Feature Frenzy

QNAP does exactly what I need but offers so much more, including a huge list of possible supported uses, including:

  • Apache server
  • MySQL Server
  • iTunes Server
  • Personal Cloud Server
  • …and so much more.

I won’t repeat the list here, but needless to say, this device can do almost anything imaginable.  The combinations are almost endless.

Making a Good RAID Choice

I have been involved in hardware configuration for a really long time, setting up networks for clients used to be a focus of mine.  Back in the day we often sold clients on using hardware RAID 5 to ensure good performance and great redundancy.

When looking at a personal NAS solution I learned a lesson; RAID 5 is not as fault tolerant as I thought.  Per Wikipedia I learned the entire RAID set would be lost if there was a 2-drive failure:

RAID 5 (block-level striping with distributed parity) distributes parity along with the data and requires all drives but one to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive. A single drive failure in the set will result in reduced performance of the entire set until the failed drive has been replaced and rebuilt.

It was important to reduce the risk to a hardware failure when making this choice.  I learned RAID 6 allows for two hard disk failures and still maintain the consistency of the RAID set:

RAID 6 (block-level striping with double distributed parity) provides fault tolerance from two drive failures; array continues to operate with up to two failed drives. This makes larger RAID groups more practical, especially for high-availability systems. This becomes increasingly important as large-capacity drives lengthen the time needed to recover from the failure of a single drive. Single-parity RAID levels are as vulnerable to data loss as a RAID 0 array until the failed drive is replaced and its data rebuilt; the larger the drive, the longer the rebuild will take. Double parity gives time to rebuild the array without the data being at risk if a single additional drive fails before the rebuild is complete.

The QNAP-419P hold up to 4 drives and with RAID 6 a minimum of 4 drives is needed, so you lose a fair amount of storage in a RAID 6 configuration.

Hard Disk Choices

QNAP makes it very clear which hard drives they recommend and support.  It’s important to pay attention to this list as the drives they recommend are not your run-of-mill drives you might find at BestBuy but more mission-critical drives with high mean-time between failures (MBTF).

The specifications for the QNAP say up to 3TB drives are supported in each bay.  I could only find 2TB varieties and they were a bit pricey so I went with a Western Digital 1TB WD1002FBYS from NewEgg.  The description indicates it is a drive for server or storage applications.

Bottom line, this is for backups and you want something fast and reliable so don’t skimp on the hard drives.

Performance

The includes gigabit ethernet connection combined with my 802.11n router makes backups really fast.  My old Time Capsule used to seem to take forever for small backups, never mind large ones.  The QNAP seems to be able to lay the backup down in no time.

Conclusion

I really love this solution and can’t say enough good things about it.  I discover new uses for it all the time, ones that I didn’t know I’d use and new ones coming out in QNAP’s regular updates.

The only minor complaint I have with the device is the occasional hum I hear.  It sounds like the case vibrating to me, when I touch the case when the noise starts it stops it right away.  I did read in the QNAP forums that other users of this model have a similar complaint but they claim it is the power supply humming, so I’m really not sure which it is.  Overall, a very minor annoyance.

I use this to stream all my audio and video content too all my computers, a feature I didn’t think I wanted but would be lost without it.

QNAP beats Drobo hands down, I mean not even close.

 

  • http://www.morgancraft.com Morgan Craft

    where did you purchase the device? newegg or amazon does not have it.

  • http://accidentaltechnologist.com Rob Bazinet

    @Morgan, I purchased from NewEgg. The model I bought was this one – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107033&cm_re=419P-_-22-107-033-_-Product

    Looking at the QNAP site, they have changed the model of the 419P to 419P+, http://qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=183, so that probably explains why NewEgg doesn’t have it in stock.

    CDW shows the new model here – http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=2254621

    Searching around you may find the original 419P I have but personally I would get the 419P+.

  • http://www.accidentaltechnologist.com Anonymous

    @Morgan, I purchased from NewEgg. The model I bought was this one – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107033&cm_re=419P-_-22-107-033-_-Product

    Looking at the QNAP site, they have changed the model of the 419P to 419P+, http://qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=183, so that probably explains why NewEgg doesn’t have it in stock.

    CDW shows the new model here – http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=2254621

    Searching around you may find the original 419P I have but personally I would get the 419P+.

  • http://www.morgancraft.com Morgan Craft

    that helps explain it then, thanks for the links and the great writeup!

  • Mswanberg

    The problem with RAID, that Drobo solves wonderfully, is incremental upgrades. In a Drobo, all drives do not need to be the same size, and if they’re not, there isn’t any space wasted. And if you need more space, you can pop out the smallest drive and replace it with a larger one… easy peasy. And no downtime.

    As far as redundancy, I believe the larger (read: more expensive) Drobo arrays (5- or 8-bay models) can suffer 2 drive failures before there’s an issue. I would say that is very rare, though. And since Drobos show you drive status on the device itself (colored lights), knowing when a drive is about to fail is an easy thing to do and remedy.

    In the end, for ease of use (particularly in a home-office situation where you want to spend your time working/playing and not rebuilding RAIDs), I think Drobo wins hands down.

    As for those other functions, that definitely makes this product interesting. But then, a $400 Acer WHS box with a Drobo attached gives me all the functionality with all the data reliability that I need… albeit for a heftier price tag.

    Thanks,
    -Mike

  • David

    Hi have both a 4 disc Drobo and a QNAP and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I use the Drobo via firewire 800 connection to a 27″ iMac, primarily as a video production storage. I like the fact that it doesn’t need discs to be screwed into a caddy, so disc exchange is fast. I have had one disc failure and the Drobo performed flawlessly in both continuing to work with no data loss and automating rebuilding when a new and larger replacement disc was added.

    The QNAP doesn’t appear to offer automated addition of discs, meaning that I can’t add larger storage without starting from scratch, but it does offer all sorts of clever ‘server’ type ability without an expensive adapter (The standard Drobo doesn’t come with network access).

    Why Qnap when you can Drobo?

  • http://www.accidentaltechnologist.com Rob Bazinet

    I agree, being able to upgrade on-the-fly is so nice. I was concerned with having drive issues and having to send back to Drobo to get my data. I was warned from several people about this.

  • http://www.accidentaltechnologist.com Rob Bazinet

    Both devices have their place. I was concerned with Drobo from the warnings I heard. I didn’t have the knowledge so I heeded to those warnings.

    You are right, as with any true raid solution you can just add drives on the fly. I love those clever sever apps, they really help sell the QNAP.

    Maybe if I had the extra money I would buy a Drobo to check it out. Maybe someone from Drobo will see my post and send me one to review. :-)

  • Kenneth Henseler

    What do you mean send the drives back? If you have multiple drives in the Drobo and a drive does fail, you don’t have to recover the data from it; simply replace the failed drive and Drobo will automatically rebuild the BeyondRAID with no hiccups. Obviously, don’t be silly and use your Drobo with only one or two drives though as this defeats the purpose of redundancy, ya know?

    But thanks for the interesting article!