Making Big Changes to My Home Network and NAS Setup
I’m making some big changes to my home network and NAS setup, which should save me a lot of time when testing laptops. Synology sent over the 6 bay DS1621xs+ NAS, and I’ll be using 4 16TB Seagate NAS drives for it in RAID 6. My older NAS was a larger 8 bay unit, but I had 8 4TB drives, so this is offering more space with half the drive count while still having some room to grow. It should hopefully last a while, but I do create about 50GB of video content each week.
A Rough Diagram
Alright, so I’ve got the old setup on the left, and new setup on the right. The main difference is that with the old setup, I’ve got the PC directly connected to the NAS with a 10 gig connection, and that’s just because before now I didn’t have a 10 gig switch, and this did the job. Now both PC and NAS are also connected to my 1 gigabit switch up here, and that connects out to the WiFi and Internet and all that stuff. This is also where all my test machines connect to, so all my laptops and test PCs, and these are limited to 1 gigabit speeds of this switch.
The Bottleneck Issue
Every time I test a gaming laptop, I need to copy 2TB of files from this NAS over to the test machine, and as you may have noticed, I test a lot of laptops, and it’s actually pretty common for me to be copying to two machines off the NAS at the same time, which basically results in this 1 gig connection becoming the bottleneck. So the two machines that are connected to my 10 gig network will only see speeds limited by the 1 gigabit switch I’m using now. That’s a problem because it slows down both of my test machines and makes testing less efficient.
Upgrading to a 10 Gig Network
I've upgraded to a 10gbit network with this switch, which has greatly improved my network transfers. With the new NAS and the 10 gig network, I can now copy files much faster than before, which is going to make a huge difference in testing. This is also good for streaming and other high-bandwidth tasks.
Backups
I’ll setup my older NAS as a local backup target, that way everything from here can copy over to that each night over the 10 gig network. Like other NAS solutions out there, Synology lets you install apps to add more functionality. I’ve installed the Amazon Glacier app to backup important files to the cloud each night.
RAID 6 for Redundancy
I’m using my drives in a RAID 6 array, so two disks worth of space are lost for backups essentially, but this allows for up to two drives to die at once without data loss. This is reassuring because I can still access most of my files even if one or two drives fail.
Installing Apps and Features
Like other NAS solutions out there, Synology lets you install apps to add more functionality. I’ve installed the Plex media server app, which allows me to stream TV and movies from my NAS directly to my 65” LG B9 OLED TV. This is perfect because I have a large collection of movies and TV shows that I can easily access on my TV.
Gaming on a NAS
I've actually got a separate video here where I compare the difference between running games on a NAS or a local machine, definitely worth checking out if you’ve got a huge game library.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI’m making some big changes to my home networkand NAS setup which should save me a lot oftime when testing laptops.Synology sent over the 6 bay DS1621xs+ NAS,and I’ll be using 4 16TB Seagate NAS drivesfor it in RAID 6.My older NAS was a larger 8 bay unit, butI had 8 4TB drives, so this is offering memore space with half the drive count whilestill having some room to grow.It should hopefully last a while, but I docreate about 50gb of video content each week.A rough diagram is probably going to be theeasiest way to explain the differences betweenthe old and new setup.Alright, so I’ve got the old setup on theleft, and new setup on the right.The main difference is that with the old setupI’ve got the PC directly connected to theNAS with a 10 gig connection, and that’sjust because before now I didn’t have a10 gig switch, and this did the job.Now both PC and NAS are also connected tomy 1 gigabit switch up here, and that connectsout to the WiFi and Internet and all thatstuff.This is also where all my test machines connectto, so all my laptops and test PCs, and theseare limited to 1 gigabit speeds of this switch.Now every time I test a gaming laptop I needto copy 2TB of files from this NAS over tothe test machine, and as you may have noticed,I test a lot of laptops, and it’s actuallypretty common for me to be copying to twomachines off the NAS at the same time, whichbasically results in this 1 gig connectionbecoming the bottleneck.So the two machines that I’m copying toover here will only get about half 1 gig speedeach.Now of course with the new setup with the10 gig switch this isn’t an issue.I can have two 1 gig systems copying off theNAS at the same time, as this is now 10 gig,so it’s not a bottleneck - or at least onethat I’m pretty unlikely to hit.It’s also beneficial for some of the newerlaptops that 2.5 gig ethernet connections.Again I need to copy 2TB of games off theNAS for each laptop that I test, so now ifI have a 2.5gbe laptop I can take advantageof that and speed this process up.Basically this just means the rest of thenetwork gets much more bandwidth to the NAScompared to just being limited to my PC only.Now in the future I also plan on setting upa dedicated WiFi 6 network that connects directlyto the NAS with the 10 gig link.WiFi testing is an area that my laptop reviewshave been lacking, and that’s simply becausethere aren’t that many access point thathave a port faster than 1 gig ethernet, becausethat ends up being slower than the WiFi 6speed, so it would result in a bottleneck.I don’t yet have the WiFi router availablethat I want as it’s coming to Australiaearly this year, but basically the plan isto hook it up to this and then run an iperfserver on the NAS.Now this Synology NAS has one built in 10gigabit port, which I’ll be using to connectto the 10 gigabit switch.Instead of connecting the WiFi access pointto the switch and blow one of my few expensiveswitch ports, Synology sent a dual 10 gigabitPCIe adapter, so it is possible to installadd on cards like this to expand the capabilitiesof the NAS.They’ve also got another one that lets youconnect an M.2 NVMe SSD to act as a cache.Speaking of cache, this Synology NAS modelallows you to install two M.2 NVMe drives,you just need to take out the drive bays toinstall, no tools required, they just clipin place.You need two SSDs for a read-write cache,or one for a read-only cache.I’m just using a 1TB SSD from ADATA, butSynology also offer cache drives with protectionfrom power loss.The downside is these cache drives have slowerspeeds, but they offer better reliabilityso that’s the trade off.As I run my NAS on an uninterruptible powersupply, basically a big battery, I’m finewith instead preferencing performance, grantedunless I use two SSDs I can’t write to thecache anyway, so I shouldn’t have importantdata to lose in there.Just as a quick test, here are the crystaldisk mark results over 10 gbit connectionto my old NAS.With the new NAS we’re looking at doublethe sequential read speed even without anycaching, then with the read cache some ofthe reads improve a little, but not too muchin this particular test.Being able to cache frequently accessed filesshould speed things up, especially when we’renot limited to a 1 gig ethernet network, thoughthat said, in the tests that we just saw Iwasn’t seeing too much difference, at leastin Crystal Disk Mark.I might just need two drives to be able totake advantage of the write cache.The memory is also easy to upgrade, there’sa little hatch underneath that’s held inwith two screws which gives access to twomemory slots.Mine came with one 8 gig stick of ECC memory,to get another ECC stick is around $180 USD,so I might do that in future for dual channelif needed.The Intel Xeon processor is soldered to themotherboard, so no upgrades there.It seems to be a 2015 model, but at leastit has hyperthreading unlike my older 2012CPU in my older NAS.I don’t really do heavy processing on theNAS itself and this has been fine for me.I’m using my drives in a RAID 6 array, sotwo disks worth of space are lost for backupessentially, but this allows for up to twodrives to die at once without data loss.In addition to this, I’ll setup my olderNAS as a local backup target, that way everythingfrom here can copy over to that each nightover the 10 gig network.Like other NAS solutions out there, Synologylets you install apps to add more functionality.I’ve installed the Amazon Glacier app tobackup important files to the cloud each night.Although each NAS can sustain two drive failuresat once, RAID still isn’t a backup, butgiven I’ll have two separate NAS machinesstoring the same data each in RAID 6 and backingup to the cloud, I think I should be prettysafe.Another thing I use my NAS for is for streamingTV and movies.Yeah there are online streaming services,but I have my own collection too, which iseasy to view on my 65” LG B9 OLED TV withPlex media server, another application thatis readily available to install on the NAS.So with the new NAS I’ve got more storagedue to the larger drives, I’ve added SSDcaching to help improve performance, I’vemoved up to a 10gbit network with this switchto improve my network transfers, I’ve goteverything backing up to the cloud, and atthe end of the day I can kick back and watchstuff with Plex.You could even run your games off the NAStoo.I’ve actually got a separate video herewhere I compare the difference between runninggames on a NAS or a local machine, definitelyworth checking out if you’ve got a hugegame library, so I’ll see you over in thatone.Otherwise if you’re new to the channel thendon’t forget to subscribe for future techvideos like this one.\n"
