Home NAS 4k Server and Backup System

I would like to set up a home network backup system for backing several PC’s and Macs in the house. I have one Mac–mini serving as a media server with i-tunes library consisting of both purchased and private music, video files and digital photographs. I have a growing library of digital home movies consisting mostly of vacation videos from Sony 4K camera mp4 files. These files can be 10 – 14GB per just 30 minutes! I also have older photos and videos converted from scans and burned dvd’s. Right now I have 2 LaCie Thunderbolt drives, 2TB and 4TB that back up everything. I also have a Synology DS216ii that use to backup the LaCie drive. The problem is that nothing is Raid-configured to safeguard against disk drive failure. All of the above use conventional spinning drives. I had one of the LaCie hard drives fail on me earlier this year. I did have the backup on the Synology and I was able to replace the LaCie hard drive connected to the Mac-mini and I was up again after a weekend of copying files.
I am considering buying a Synology DS1817+ and configuring it with 6 or 8 Samsung 1TB SSD’s. I think that will give me 6TB of storage for now. Understand I am not an expert at all on any of this. I just read a lot. I have quite a few questions.
If I start with just 4 or 6 SSD 1TB drives in the 8-bay Synology DS1817+, can 1, 2 or 4 more in the future using a Raid 6 configuration? It is my understanding that I can lose up to two disks in a Raid 6 configuration. How do you go about configuring the system?
Is there another or better system that you would recommend? My budget is $2,000 to $2,500 or possibly a little more if necessary.
I can access my current Synology DS216ii from any device on my home network now and I absolutely love that feature. I can play a Alaska vacation mp4 video from my bedroom LGOLEDC8 TV. I love this setup! I just want to protect my data files.
I would have no idea how to backup this much data offsite.

Quite often people choose not to have a RAID but maximum capacity thinking they can survive possible server downtime while recovering from backup. But it can take ages. With a RAID, data recovery will be done automatically in the background. The DS1817+ (or ds1618+ -6bay option) will allow you to stream HD and 4K media in your local network. If you would want to stream 4K while away from home you would need transcoding capability. Biggest 4K capable NAS from Synology is 4 bay DS918+. Many people ask them to release bigger capacity 4K NAS but they don’t listen. So way around is DS918+ with expansion dx unit. This gives you 9 drive raid box. But again for local streaming ds1817+ will be fine.

No need to fill it with SSD, but if you do you will notice a massive increase in file caching and indexing. You can start with just 4 and enable raid6 or SHR2 and add more storage later. Very easy process. With a RAID5 you can lose one drive and data is still there and accessible. With RAID6 (or SHR2) you can lose 2 drives and still access data.

If you want to have an offsite backup consider BacBlaze- they offer unlimited cloud storage per device. That is a good offer.

It will be difficult to find something more user-friendly then Synology. Enjoy the experience!

For backing up your NAS do consider BackBlaze. You can try it for 15 days free if you don't believe its good. But the main reason is unlimited backup size. Everyone else like Dropbox, Amazon, and others charge per gigabyte. But  with this one there is no price difference either you backup 2 bay or 8 bay NAS. The other great feature is version control. So even if you get hit by ransomware type of virus or simply deleted or mistakenly changed few files. You can restore your data from historical backup versions and get all data back.
You can get it for free here and try:
Home: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af9rgr
Business: https://www.backblaze.com/business-backup.html#af9rgr
Comparison with other service providers: https://www.backblaze.com/best-online-backup-service.html#af9rgr

 

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Home: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af9rgr Business: https://www.backblaze.com/business-backup.html#af9rgr Comparison with other service providers: https://www.backblaze.com/best-online-backup-service.html#af9rgr