I have a big problem.
I'm running out of storage.
The internal SSD on my MacBook is full,
so are all of my external drives,
and I have no more room for my collection of, hint,
uh, um, uh, Word documents.
So, like any normal person, I went out and devised a plan,
a plan to supercharge my storage capability
to over 100 terabytes in two separate locations
that can not only sync files and data between them
but can also be accessed from anywhere in the world,
all without having to use expensive cloud storage solutions
like iCloud or Google Drive,
which don't even support the sheer amount
of storage capacity I need.
Oh, and I'll also be able to edit 4K footage
in real-time from them.
The solution? A NAS or network-attached storage.
Now I have made a video on this previously,
so I will link that in case you want to check that out.
Also, quick thanks to Raid: Shadow Legends
for sponsoring this video
and helping fund my NAS and technology addiction.
Raid: Shadow Legends is a visually stunning
fantasy-themed turn-based role-playing game
that brings console level experience to your phone.
You'll explore millions of champion combinations
and master countless tactics
as you take on Raid bosses, dungeon runs, campaign battles,
and PvP arena matches.
After playing this game for a while,
I've been really impressed
with the characters, in-depth graphics, and soundtrack.
My favorite champions so far have been Sicia Flametongue
who can hit the whole enemy team with HP Burn debuffs
or Archmage Hellmut who is hard to get
but is worth it as he's really good in any part of the game.
This is a great time to get started in Raid,
so make sure you click the link below
or scan the QR code to get some bonuses.
I'm talking about a free Epic champion, Vergis,
200K in silver, one energy refill, one XP boost,
and one Ancient Shard
so that you can summon awesome champions
as soon as you get in the game,
and all this treasure will be waiting for you here.
Okay, so first things first, let's build the NAS.
Now I already have a NAS in my home office,
it's a six-bay Synology NAS.
But I also need one at work,
so I went out and bought
some 16-terabyte drives from Seagate and paired it
with a DS1821+ eight-bay NAS enclosure from Synology.
This particular NAS gives me a couple
of different upgrade options
and should give me enough storage capacity
for the next few years.
It can fit up to eight hard drives in the toolless trays,
has multiple connectivity options on the back,
and an expansion port for network card
for 10-gigabit ethernet connectivity.
Now the first upgrade I wanted to make
was actually adding more RAM to the system.
This has a few benefits, like improving performance
of many small frequently accessed files,
like quickly generating thumbnails
for videos and photos.
Out of the box, it comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM
but I upgraded this to the maximum 32 gigabytes.
Next, I installed a 10-gigabit ethernet card
in the expansion slot.
This will allow me to connect the NAS directly to my laptop
and get super fast speeds, up to 1 gigabyte per second,
perfect for transferring massive amounts of data
and editing 4K footage in real-time.
Okay, time to install the hard drives.
Now these are specialized drives designed to work 24/7
in a NAS environment.
I bought six of them
with plans to add two more in the future
as I don't need the full capacity right now.
And installation was super easy,
again, using the toolless tray that came with the NAS.
Now that the building phase is done,
it's time to actually set up the NAS.
Synology makes this super easy,
and their DiskStation Manager software
is surprisingly really easy to use.
I installed a few updates, gave my NAS a name,
and selected a RAID type.
No, not Raid as in the sponsor of this video,
RAID as in redundant array of independent disks.
I won't go into too much detail
about the different RAID types you can choose,
but, as this particular NAS will have eight drives in total
and it is business critical, I decided to go
with something called Synology Hybrid RAID 2 or SHR-2.
It essentially means
that even if two separate drives fail at the same time,
I won't lose any data.
The trade off is I lose a bit of total storage capacity,
and the speed of the NAS is slightly reduced compared
to other RAID types.
Then I had to create a storage pool,
which is where I'll actually be storing all of my data.
By the way, if you're interested in a detailed NAS buying
and building tutorial video,
let me know down in the comments below
because I'll be able to go into a lot more detail
about this entire process.
Now building this storage pool depends on how big it is.
With my RAID type and with only six drives installed,
the pool is around 56 terabytes in size,
and it took about 18 hours to finish building it.
Then I tweaked a few settings
and set up something called Synology Drive ShareSync.
In a nutshell, it syncs whatever is on one NAS
to the other via a two-way sync.
So if I save a whole bunch of footage and data
to my office NAS, for example,
all of that is going to sync through to my home NAS,
kind of like iCloud or Google Drive.
It's an incredibly powerful feature for people like me
who are split between two locations.
Okay, so why is this ShareSync feature so good?
Well, using myself as an example,
I have a massive library of previous videos,
footage, music effects, and projects.
It's currently about 8 terabytes in total,
and the problem is whenever I produce content
for my business, I often need access to all of this data.
By having two separate NAS setups at home and the office,
I'll always have access to this massive amount of data,
and it will sync and update
whenever I change or add something.
Okay, so that's enough about the NAS itself.
Let's head upstairs to the production level
and see how we've actually got it set up.
Okay, so I'm going to take a slightly different approach
in showing you guys how I have my network set up now.
So this is, as you can see,
the official Created Tech office.
It's not quite finished yet.
As you guys can see,
it's still in a little bit of a shambles.
But here is the eight-bay Synology NAS all set up.
Now again, very, very temporary setup.
I do need to install a UPS here.
In case we lose power, everything's safe on the NAS.
I've also got a 10-gig switch there,
so that means if other people want to connect to this NAS
and get a 10-gig connection, they can.
But at the moment, I've just got it set up
with a single 10-gig cable coming out of the back,
and that snakes along the ground here.
Again, guys, forgive me, bare with me as well
because I'm still setting up this office.
And that connects directly into my desk setup here.
So I have a standing desk,
also an ergonomic chair from Autonomous.
I've also got these 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro,
that's my personal computer/work computer.
I do basically everything on there.
I have a 32-inch monitor from Dell.
Really, really good screen.
I do have a review on that,
so I will link that down below as well.
Now, as you can see, I have the 10-gig
two Thunderbolt adapter sitting on my desk.
Typically, I will actually have
this cable managed underneath the desk,
so out of sight, out of mind.
And if we swing around the back here,
this is a CalDigit Thunderbolt dock.
You'll notice that that particular 10-gig adapter is plugged
into the back of this Thunderbolt dock,
so that means I only have to connect my laptop
or my MacBook with a single Thunderbolt cable,
and then I get access to everything here,
so internet, screen.
And also, obviously,
the 10-gig connection coming out of the NAS.
Now the advantage is, like I've said, guys,
I can come over here with a camera, plug it in there,
and if I've got hundreds of gigabytes of files
or even terabytes of footage,
that's just going to go straight on this NAS,
which has about 55 terabytes of space at this time.
And then like you would've seen me do before,
I set up something on Synology
that's actually going to upload all of that data
via the internet and send it to my home office NAS.
So if I'm editing something here, for example,
with all of the footage on the NAS,
a few hours later, it will also be on my home NAS,
and I can continue where I left off at work.
So there you have it, there is my new NAS setup.
I didn't want to go into too much detail in this video
because it can be a very, very complicated
and in-depth topic,
as I'm sure some of you guys can appreciate
if you're a CIS admin or you work in IT, for example.
There are no limits to the depths of NAS and storage
and networks and all that kind of stuff.
But if you want to know anything more, let me know down below.
But apart from that, I will catch you guys in the next one.