Looking to upgrade from DROBO storage solution
Hi, I posted this on the Plex forums and got no replies after a week. Was hoping for some feedback here. Sorry that its so long!
I have been using Plex since it was created and before that used XBMC on a modded XBOX back in the day. I have been running an M1 Mac Mini with a Drobo as my PMS since the M1 was released and had an Intel-based Mac Mini doing the job before that. It has been excellent and reliable. I have OTA Live TV and record frequently from there. I have a household with 4 kids, and my PMS is shared with about 10 people outside my household. Its pretty normal to have 3-4 people viewing content at once while transcoding a recording from OTA. I have spent years curating my content, so protecting it from loss is important to me. I currently have 44TB of content both movies and TV.
I need advice on replacing my Drobo. The company went out of business. I would like a new solution with redundant storage. I prefer to have the storage device connected directly to the Mac Mini. I have looked at Synology and UGREEN. They are obviously NAS solutions, but I assume I can have them connected via Thunderbolt. Just looking for speed and stability. I have miraculously had an 8-bay Drobo for years and never had a drive failure or system crash (did have a crash on a 4 bay unit a long time ago). I am thinking about moving the Drobo offsite and starting with all fresh drives with the new system. I would probably set up some kind of mirroring protocol so the Drobo is a true offsite backup. I should mention that I did build an UnRaid server a long time ago when it was still fairly new, but I would really prefer something a little simpler. I own a business, and between that and 4 kiddos, I am not overflowing with spare time to tinker any more than is necessary.
So what do you recommend for redundant storage? I don’t really have a budget. I know we are talking $3,000 anyway to get an 8 bay system with maybe a half dozen drives that get me 60TB or more of effective storage. I have been so pleased with the M1 Mac Mini that I would prefer to continue using it as my server rather than go to an NAS as the server. It also prevents me from having to direct people to a new server who are not tech-savvy at all. My two concerns are 1) transferring the data without losing integrity (I am looking at software but understand systems like Synology have that baked in) and 2) maintaining all the MetaData when I direct my server to new content folders even though it will be all the same data (I haven’t done the reading on that in the tutorials yet but plan to).
Also, I have a Netgear Orbi system that is several years old but running strong (RB850 with 3 satellites). The Mac Mini is wired directly to the 850. I have an HDHomeRun for the OTA. And I have Gigabit service through AT&T since I have sharing all info, both useful and unneeded.
Sorry, I know that is a lot of info but thought the more the better to get the best recommendation. Again, I appreciate any advice.