This.

I came to Synology after years of managing regular Linux (Debian) servers, then Unraid, and then Synology.

Synology was the most expensive thing I’ve used but I also _never_ think about it. The same could not be said for previous setups.

I want a stupid-easy NAS, plug-and-play, hotswapable bays. I’m not interested in having to shut down a tower and open it up to swap/add drives.

I have 2x12-bay Synology’s and I haven’t found an equivalent product yet (open to options).

▲

nine_k 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I’m not interested in having to shut down a tower and open it up to swap/add drives.

How often do you actually do this? In 15 years of running my own NAS boxes, I so far had to do it once. I, of course, choose slow, middle of the range disks.

	▲	joshstrange 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I never went more than 1, maybe 2, years without needing to open it up. To be fair, I was adding drives over time as I could afford them and I had a large range of drives of various ages that slowly died out or needed to be replaced with larger capacity drives. It’s partly the annoyance of being in a cramped space filled with drives but also the downtime. Family and friends use self-hosted software than runs on my main server and uses the NAS(es). Shutting down a NAS means shutting down the software. Yes, I can let them know ahead of time and “schedule downtime” but I dislike needing to do that unless I have to. It just makes the system feel less stable for them and I want to provide a great experience. With hotswap bays externally accessible I don’t have to stop anything. I’d actually be fine with UnRaid (I still run it as my “app” server) if there was a case with 12 or more 3.5” hotswap bays. I looked into large JBOD servers but between fan noise and rack mounted servers often being in a whole other class (one I have much less experience in compared to desktop tower builds) I’ve never been able to convince myself to get one. My Synology 12-bays are quiet and easy to work with so even at ~$1.5K they were a steal in terms of maintenance and upkeep (for me).

▲

Marsymars 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have a similar lack of interest in opening up a tower to swap drives. QNAP has some nice JBOD enclosures. If you don't want any 2.5" drives their biggest enclosures are 8-bays, so you'd need an ATX tower with three available PCIe slots to run all the SFF cables for 3x8 drives. You would need to manage your own software stack with Unraid or w/e.

▲

aidenn0 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They make hotswap bays that fit in 5.25" drive bays, and you can find NOS towers that have the necessary number of drive bays.

There are also 3d-printale cases where you buy a SATA backplane and screw it in.

It doesn't solve your software problem (though maybe TrueNAS might work?).

▲

MangoCoffee 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

agree. i have two synology NAS. i just set them up and forget it since i don't open for outside access.

its a great backup for all your important files.