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First time building nas

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nedman87

Newbie
Hi everyone, hoping you can help advice before any money gets wasted
:)


The plan is to setup a Nas on a vessel accross 5 floors with up to 30 people at a time able to access. Everyone needs to be able to access wirelessly using either phone/tablet or laptop. Ideally downloading files to watch rather than streaming to keep the network fast.

--The equipment I have looked at is:
Terramaster F5-221 5 bay NAS, cloud storage, intel dual core 2.0ghz, plex media storage, network storage.
-- 5x 8tb ironwolf NAS hard drives
-- 5x ubiquiti network router, 2.4/5ghz, 450/1300mbps 120m range, Poe injector

So the plan would be to have the NAS drive setup with a desktop computer, and a router on each floor conneceted by ethernet.

1. Is the hardware above adequate for this project

2. Which Nas software should we go with? (Windows would be preferred operating system just for ease of use)

3. Is plex the best solution for media access via the routers?

4. Is there any benefit to going with a drive such as an ironwolf over say a barracuda or mixing in ssd?

Thanks for any help you can provide. Never setup anything like this before.
 
1. - Possibly, but that would likely be conditional on a number of factors external to the NAS itself and how it is being used
2. - NAS appliances like that have their own OS installed, so forget windows and embrace something that is made for the job. Typically to use and administer a device like that you would only need a web-browser on any device. Some NAS manufacturers also offer dedicated apps for android and IOS devices as well - - - do your research.
3. - If you just want you users to download something to their local devices and then watch, there is probably no point in considering Plex. Also, Plex requires all users and the server to be logged-in to a central server which is controlled by Plex and not by you, therefore an always on internet connection to the outside world will be required for Plex to work. If there is an always available internet connection, then Plex is worthy of consideration for both client and server rendering of media. There are however many other ways of skinning the cat - for example, Kodi on the clients and say Jellyfin on the NAS.
4. - Ironwolf drives are built and optimised for NAS devices. WD Red similarly are optimised for NAS. Other models of drive would work ok but not be able to work at optimum. In an ideal world, use the best tool for the job or what the budget allows for.......
 
xero50 said:
1. - Possibly, but that would likely be conditional on a number of factors external to the NAS itself and how it is being used
2. - NAS appliances like that have their own OS installed, so forget windows and embrace something that is made for the job. Typically to use and administer a device like that you would only need a web-browser on any device. Some NAS manufacturers also offer dedicated apps for android and IOS devices as well - - - do your research.
3. - If you just want you users to download something to their local devices and then watch, there is probably no point in considering Plex. Also, Plex requires all users and the server to be logged-in to a central server which is controlled by Plex and not by you, therefore an always on internet connection to the outside world will be required for Plex to work. If there is an always available internet connection, then Plex is worthy of consideration for both client and server rendering of media. There are however many other ways of skinning the cat - for example, Kodi on the clients and say Jellyfin on the NAS.
4. - Ironwolf drives are built and optimised for NAS devices. WD Red similarly are optimised for NAS. Other models of drive would work ok but not be able to work at optimum. In an ideal world, use the best tool for the job or what the budget allows for.......
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your reply.

I have since been looking again and like the look of the synology DS418play.

Is it a better idea to allow everyone on to download only from the as to there devices and have a media player such as 4k firestick or nvidia shield to stream to the main tv?

Am I right in thinking the set top box would be doing all the work transcoding reducing the lag seen by other users downloading for their personal devices?
 
I have to admit that I am a fan of Syno', their appliances, their DSM OS, and the app' suites that they offer. There is also a thriving community surrounding all that too so good quality info and support is available.

It is not easy to answer your questions as there are so many variables involved. However, several broad principles will always apply.
When using something like Plex or say Syno's own Video Station there is a general negotiation and 'discussion that goes on between the client device and the NAS. The point of that discussion is held to determine the capabilities of hardware and software available prior to the actual rendering of the selected media. So for example, let's say that the media stored on the NAS is a film, .mkv, that is a blue-tay rip at 1080p H.265. If the client is say an Nvidea Shield chances are it (the Shield) will just say 'hit with all you got and I'll take care of the rest'. The reason it can do that is that the Shield has oodles of hardware and software resources available that allow it to handle everything. On the other hand, another client might be say Kodi running on a humble Raspberry Pi 2, which is a very capable device in many regards but there's no way that it'll be able to cope with media like that all on it's own, and therefore the NAS server will need to help it out somewhat.

On the other hand, if all you want to do is offer a central shared resource of files for people to access and do with what they will, then you job as the server admin just got allot simpler and easier. However, in working like that each client will need to have good quantities of local disk space available as media tends to take up quite a bit of room on any given disc.

Other considerations would be just how much simultaneous traffic that the NAS and the LAN can cope with at any given time.
 
xero50 said:
I have to admit that I am a fan of Syno', their appliances, their DSM OS, and the app' suites that they offer. There is also a thriving community surrounding all that too so good quality info and support is available.

It is not easy to answer your questions as there are so many variables involved. However, several broad principles will always apply.
When using something like Plex or say Syno's own Video Station there is a general negotiation and 'discussion that goes on between the client device and the NAS. The point of that discussion is held to determine the capabilities of hardware and software available prior to the actual rendering of the selected media. So for example, let's say that the media stored on the NAS is a film, .mkv, that is a blue-tay rip at 1080p H.265. If the client is say an Nvidea Shield chances are it (the Shield) will just say 'hit with all you got and I'll take care of the rest'. The reason it can do that is that the Shield has oodles of hardware and software resources available that allow it to handle everything. On the other hand, another client might be say Kodi running on a humble Raspberry Pi 2, which is a very capable device in many regards but there's no way that it'll be able to cope with media like that all on it's own, and therefore the NAS server will need to help it out somewhat.

On the other hand, if all you want to do is offer a central shared resource of files for people to access and do with what they will, then you job as the server admin just got allot simpler and easier. However, in working like that each client will need to have good quantities of local disk space available as media tends to take up quite a bit of room on any given disc.

Other considerations would be just how much simultaneous traffic that the NAS and the LAN can cope with at any given time.
Click to expand...

As you said the basic idea is that it's a central hub to store media content for the guys to download and watch content on there own devices.

In order for everyone to stream and play from it at the same time although likely to be rare may end in a bad experience.

Is it possible to setup that only ethernet access can actually stream (main tv via media box) and all wireless access is download to device only before watching.

Would be up to the guys onboard to make sure they have enough storage to download and delete before they leave as it will be full of the ships dvd library.
 
It would be possible to setup separate or multiple LAN's using a system like Ubiquity, or for that matter with most commercial grade network appliances.

Just a thought - - - will this network have internet access, and if so, how much bandwidth ??.
If it does have internet access with a decent bandwidth you could do worse than look at publishing a seedbox and do it that way.
 
xero50 said:
It would be possible to setup separate or multiple LAN's using a system like Ubiquity, or for that matter with most commercial grade network appliances.

Just a thought - - - will this network have internet access, and if so, how much bandwidth ??.
If it does have internet access with a decent bandwidth you could do worse than look at publishing a seedbox and do it that way.
Click to expand...

Nope there will be zero internet access and just be a self contained network.

We basicly want to lock down people being able to stream from it due to the reasons you pointed out with the hardware limitations. We cant control what they will be streaming off of hence prefer then to download and play.

As the as will be in the same room as the main day room TV we feel having 1 possible streaming device which will be of decent power shouldn't cause to much of an issue to the nas.
 
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