[Leica] Tina's Drobos... Update: Handed over. Mission Success!

[Peter Dzwig]

Congratulations, Frank.

Peter

On 27/07/2024 22:48, Frank Filippone via LUG wrote:
> The project is done.  Tina now has a new, working library of her images 
> on her NAS.  I have turned over the NAS to her to use as she see fit.  I 
> will do the ongoing maintenance of it as required.
> 
> It is now organized into a simple to use seamless storage space of one 
> big HDD. or so it looks to her.  All her images are stored by country 
> and in alphabetic order.   This is in contrast to the before, when all 
> the images were scattered in multiple HDD, and she woud install whatever 
> HDD she needed to get to images form this or that country.  It is a 
> massive step forwards.
> 
> The reason I am writing this is to warn you that it is not as easy as it 
> looks... and that there are a lot of considerations to be made that are 
> techie.... and some pitfalls...
> 
> It really is a straightforward operation...  Setup the new box, copy all 
> files there, done.
> 
> The one thing I learned was that there are more considerations to be 
> made, and you should think those through first, rather than in the 
> middle of the conversion.  ( I will cop to the fact that the long time 
> of doing this project was because I did not check out all the items 
> needed, and needed to repeat several operations as I ran into dead ends.
> 
> How nerdy are you?  To run a NAS, and especially in this instance to 
> MAINTAIN it..... will require a different pool of knowledge than the 
> average home computer hack.  It runs differently.... it requires some 
> different thinking....  NAS also has its own language.... (Nerd?)   Its 
> own programs.  If you are not comfortable with that, get something 
> different.... or get your IT person at work to help you....
> 
> If you have spare HDD you wish to include in your NAS, you should figure 
> out the SMALLEST one... then install that one into the original array, 
> and use SHR Raid array design. That allows you to use different HDD 
> sizes and use all of the available space on each.... If you wait till 
> you are done, then try to install the smaller HDD, it will not accept it 
> as additional storage.  ( Larger, yes, smaller, NO)
> 
> Backup of the NAS.... the easiest way ( Synology based ) is to use 
> Hyperbackup and an external HDD array.  ( means external USB HDD.)
> 
> So plug one into the NAS, setup the SW, and life is good.....
> 
> Until it is time to do your BackBlaze off site backup.... which will NOT 
> WORK with NAS storage, even for the USB connected HDD you use for backup 
> locally,  for their $99/year cheapie plan..... Off to Amazon to get a 
> USB switch. It is a push button affair that switches your USB backups 
> fro m the back side of your NAS to the Computer, which BackBlaze will 
> accept.  When your BB backup is done, push the switch again, and back it 
> goes to the NAS.  Not totally elegant, but it works. There is a more 
> elegant automatic programmed solution, but that requires a $700 piece of 
> hardware to replace the $20 switch. Plus some fairly esoteric 
> programming and messing around with your computer.
> 
> NAS requires *wired Ethernet.*  There is really no way around this. 
> There are a few cheats.... and caveats....This can be done using a 
> simple wireless repeater (slows down the work, but is cheap and easy) or 
> a wire, which is fast, but might mean tearing into the walls to run. If 
> you have your computer already WIRED to the Internet, you could use an 
> Ethernet switch box ($20) and also meet this requirement.
> 
> The only reasons to go to a NAS is if you are a computer geek and like 
> to play with this stuff, you are in a real networked environment with 
> multiple users ( read that as in an OFFICE environment), or you just 
> have so many images or records and you need fast access to any one of 
> them 24/7.
> 
> If it were me, and I had less developed computer knowledge, my best 
> suggestion is to use a big, USB HDD array... up to 8 HDD in a  single 
> box for around $300.
> 
> HDD extra.
> 
> And with that, I will no longer be telling you about Tina's NAS.  She 
> appears happy.  That is all I wanted to accomplish.
> 
> Mission Success!
> 
> Frank Filippone BMWRed735i at gmail.com
> 
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-- 

Dr. Peter Dzwig