Multi HDD Dock

[troothdotcom]

I am currently running my Jellyfin server on an old laptop running Ubuntu Server OS. I have a 8 TB Seagate Barracuda external HDD connected with a Sabrent Docking station and I haven't had any issues. I want to purchase a second bigger external HDD and connect to to my server but instead of having to but a new single HDD Sabrent docking station I was hoping to by a dual or event a multi (4) docking station. I went on Amazon and looked some up but the only multi docking station that I liked isn't compatible with linux and all the dual ones I found left me confused. Was I reading wrong when I read that the docking stations go to sleep? and I even read that I can't access both drives at once? I need the server to be able to access both drives at all times and never got to sleep. I am looking for any and all recommendations If you could please help me with this I'd greatly appreciate it. 

Thanks in advance.

[abpjf]

just curious - why aren't you considering just going to a NAS solution instead of something that's external plug-in JBOD?

[Deleted User]

i have had one of these in service for the last 4 years - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KY73BNQ
- only as jbod though
you'll find the USB speed matches or exceeds the physical drives' speed that you put in it
currently there is a 20TB seagate in it with a spare so i know it supports up to that much
(1x20, 2x16, 1x8 installed)

that one replaced a 2 bay that i had in service for several years prior to that, very good brand no issues at all

[troothdotcom]

just curious - why aren't you considering just going to a NAS solution instead of something that's external plug-in JBOD?

Honestly? Because I just hadn't thought of that as an option and was trying to go with the simplest and most affordable solution with what I already have. 

If I did go with a NAS was what I need?

[Deleted User]

just curious - why aren't you considering just going to a NAS solution instead of something that's external plug-in JBOD?

Honestly? Because I just hadn't thought of that as an option and was trying to go with the simplest and most affordable solution with what I already have. 

If I did go with a NAS was what I need?

you're on the right track, a full NAS is just overhead if you already have a server in place (and a server can do more than a NAS performance wise)

[abpjf]

a NAS would offer you greater flexibility overall (not the least of which it won't be limited to it's host machine, anything on your network would be able to access a NAS), and better redundancy protection. yes, a NAS would generally cost more than an external JBOD chassis, but it's worth the difference IMO. you'll probably want a 4-bay device, should give you (with 20TB drives, say) ~60TB storage (20TB would be used as parity for single-drive failure redundancy - more than that would simply give you "less" total storage). you're looking at around $100-per-bay in general for a NAS.

[Deleted User]

a NAS would offer you greater flexibility overall (not the least of which it won't be limited to it's host machine, anything on your network would be able to access a NAS), and better redundancy protection.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tech...erformance

and samba runs on almost everything, nfs is native to linux so it's really not hard to make a storage array accessible with just a server

[troothdotcom]

a NAS would offer you greater flexibility overall (not the least of which it won't be limited to it's host machine, anything on your network would be able to access a NAS), and better redundancy protection.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tech...erformance

and samba runs on almost everything, nfs is native to linux so it's really not hard to make a storage array accessible with just a server

Yeah, I already have samba set up on my server and can access my server storage on any of my other devices including my android devices. I just want to grow my storage capabilities at an affordable rate.

[Deleted User]

not sure storage and affordable can really be used in the same sentence
but i suppose the cheapest option is just buy a 16tb seagate external desktop drive
they usually contain nice Exos drives so you can shuck it later on if you buy a multi-bay enclosure (or NAS even)

the enclosure i mentioned above plus the drives to put in it would not necessarily fall into the 'affordable' category

[abpjf]

"affordable" is relative, the paradox of storage is that the per-GB $ goes DOWN the larger you go; a typical 20TB HDD prices out at about 1.5CENTS per GB (~$280 for the drive). if you want to maximize (pun intended) current capacity + growth, I'd suggest going as large as you can afford. 20TB would likely take you a while to fill up, and by the time you do, the same capacity drive (or larger) will very likely cost even less.