RAID options

[armand]

I've finally got to the point of upgrading my old Synology 421+ to a 1621xs with 6x16TB drives.
As I'm also switching most of my photo stuff to Mac via MacBook Pro, I intend to use it as my main storage to be accessed mostly via 10Gbe network.
So the question is what RAID should I use. As the capacity is well in excess of anything that I need in the foreseeable future (big sale on HDDs), I care about speed and redundancy. I was tempted by RAID 1+0 but if the Synology Hybrid Raid is fast enough to saturate the 10Gbe for read/write, I would go with it for more flexibility if an HDD dies. I did buy an extra one identical to those 6 but SHR would give me the flexibility to use different HDDs should the initial ones fail.

[armand]

PS. the Synology will also have a 2TB NVME SSD for caching, with the possibility to add another one

[Chris_Brown]

I use a bonded connection with all four ethernet ports. It definitely improves R/W speeds. Something you might also consider.

[armand]

Mine only has 3 LAN ports, a 10Gbe and 2 1Gbe but it’s kind of irrelevant right now because I’ll be connecting the MacBook Pro via an OWC dock that has a 10Gbe LAN which didn’t get great ratings for stability in previous versions.

If I get something better on the Mac side it probably would be easier to just install a 25Gbe card in the NAS.
Also I didn’t have the option for SHR in this NAS and didn’t have the patience to see exactly why, so I went for a RAID5. If more speed will be needed, I’ll likely get a fast DAS.

[Joe Towner]

The 1621xs has a hardware RAID card in it - that's why it won't let you do SHR or SHR2.  It's a baby of the larger version rack mount units - it has the power to scale bigger.  The unit can also do RAID F1 if using SSD's for storage.

[BobShaw]

So the question is what RAID should I use.

As an alternative thought, none.
I used a Drobo 5D for many years and that was great. Unfortunately Drobo has virtually gone out of business.
I just bought a LaCie  1Big Dock 10TB.
It is just a single drive connected by Thunderbolt 3 and gives card slots and video as well.
If it ever fails you just pull out the drive and put a bigger one in and restore from Time Machine.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HPL12ZM/A/lacie-10tb-1big-dock-external-hard-drive-docking-station?fnode=5582a4bfdee933368ecfd9e6c20efed6a9004c262ced50ff62bf72e78fa5ad3f325a8ecc4193d7d5699ab4fd821f422dacfdcb273d4e62dcdd9e560e618e3b33fd2ae7e4dae9809058cdd29ef97481d085e0c0eb07ed7a166cddff3c1ea9ba6c

[armand]

It's already done, I'm using the Synology 1621xs in RAID5 as the "big drive".

A longer version is that I decided to use a MacBook Pro 16 as the only computer and dock it when I want a bigger monitor or just use it as it is when I want the portability. I do have the older photos in LR on the Synology, while the newer ones are on the Mac internal drive (I got a 4 TB). Once I'm done with editing them I move them to the Synology while I still have access to the smart previews for the entire LR catalog (and able to make edits) even when I'm not in the home network.
When I'm at home I can access the Synology either via the wired network (through a OWC dock with 10 Gb network and a 10 GB switch) if I want the most speed, or through the wireless and the switch between them is mostly seamless once I mount the Synology volume.