Camera setup and nas storage

[fordracing19]

Looking at a Qnap ts451 and adding 3 3tb drives and getting several of the cameras that 8mpg has along with a dome and a fisheye. What software would i need. Is there a better setup?

[ceyko]

Don't know much about Qnap, but synology has built in camera software - just license per camera and I believe 2 come free with it.

Only downside is for any NAS w/cameras - it's constantly running so HW failures are more likely.

[fordracing19]

Would I be better off just installing some tb drives in my office pc? It stays up all the time. Only issue is if someone steals it or it became disconnected in a burglary.

[ceyko]

same/same - with the cameras up, the NAS/PC is up and depending on your setup it is constantly writing. Just keep that in mind when doing your setup for redundancy and try not to use bottom of the barrel drives.

Also, backup your backups.

[roliath]

According to backblaze, 3TB drives have pretty high failure rates. Perhaps you could look into something else if you plan on keeping this running for a long time.

[fordracing19]

Are 4tb drives better for reliability?

[ceyko]

Are 4tb drives better for reliability?

Do a RAID 1 or 5 configuration, keep spare drives and backup your backups.

[roliath]

Are 4tb drives better for reliability?

I moved away from all my seagate 3tb's to wd red 6tb. I haven't had too many issues with them.

Check out crashplan for offsite backups, and do what ceyko said (keep a damn spare drive!).

Read up here if you are really interested. I like to cite Backblaze simply because they publicize all their data and they RUN through drives like crazy.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/

[abecx]

I bought BackBlaze terminator for work and put all of our tertiary backups on it. One of my favorite devices, very well put together.

[fordracing19]

Let me add that the nas would be for video surveillance only. Looking at 6 cameras now and maybe an outdoor later

[ceyko]

Yeah, the only point I'm was mentioning is that you're basically streaming video/audio to the device 24/7. It'll be working 24/7 so expect things to not last forever (Most NAS devices these days have a sleep/standby mode - which is nice cause it reduces wear/tear on device and drives.) - that's where the spares...etc come into play.

My last company, we helped monitor a few client's security systems and these were high end systems. Usually a problem 1-2 times a week and those were setups that are out of most of our price range. Key is for it to stay working while/until you replace drives and such.

MOBO type failure, not much you can do there - but the rest you can plan for easily enough. To be extra paranoid, keep extra cameras/NAS devices as cold spares as well.

[fordracing19]

Dang. I can end up investing more than anyone could ever steal.

[ceyko]

Or you can buy cheap and be fine for 5 years. Never can be certain, just providing advice - depends how important the data is to you and how paranoid you want to be.

Another option is log to one drive, just have the one drive backup up weekly and back that 2nd drive up monthly to a 3rd drive.

Ways to get creative, just need to figure out what ya want to do.

[Gasser64]

Dang. I can end up investing more than anyone could ever steal.

Do you absolutely need that much space? If not, you can just got the cheap route, and plug a HDD in an external enclosure, into the back of your router. If its so equipped, I believe most of the new ones are. There is just a USB port on the back. If you don't have such a router, and you need to upgrade to the more modern AC signal, (as opposed to wireless N, and the older G) then you might go ahead and just buy you a router, and a USB 3Tb drive.

The router I would recommend for a budget would be the linksys EA6500.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linksys-EA6500-V2-Smart-Wi-Fi-Router-Dual-Band-4-Port-Ethernet-/171734366179?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27fc2a77e3

They're roughly $100 from the store, but they can be had on ebay for half that, refurbished or open box. Then you just plug your 3Tb External hard drive into the back and wam bam, network attached storage.

There is one possibility if you need more storage, but I haven't a clue as to whether or not it would pan out. It just might, I'd ask around on the computer forums. But you might be able to plug 3 of those drives into a USB hub, and plug the hub into the back of the router. Windows just might see all 3 drives, but I couldn't tell you for sure if this would work. I don't see why it wouldn't, but there have been times when I've said that and it didn't work out.

So for $50, plus the price of 1 (or maybe 3) external USB drives, you might be able to do it. VS what... $400 minimum for what you're looking for, in purchasing a NAS? I think I'd at least check it out, for that kind of potential savings.

[abecx]

You can offset this issue by running more memory, and then only tell your unit to save after something spectacular happens, similar to how dash cams work.

You can also decrease FPS, or record only when motion is detected etc...

Or you could just use VHS.