Answered Advice needed for creating a home server for use between different computers.

Chris50

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Hi everyone,

Im thinking about buying a server and setting up some sort of home network which would allow me to access any file on any of the PCs at home from any PC. To go into more detail, I work from home quite a bit. We have a small business which we an my Wife run. For this we have two PC's both running on W10. We also have a home PC again running on W10. A perfect scenario would have a central PC/server which we could keep all of our business files on and access directly through one of the other PCs so that any new files or edits to our work is accessible by all PCs. I think I'm right about something home server based for this but TBH my knowledge on this side of computing is zero.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and if you need more info please do ask.

Thanks in advance, Chris
 
What about going for an office 365 subscription you can get them for around 7.99 a month a user. That comes with 1TB of storage and backup etc, you don't have to worry about losing files etc.

It allows two or more people to edit same document in real time.
 
What about going for an office 365 subscription you can get them for around 7.99 a month a user. That comes with 1TB of storage and backup etc, you don't have to worry about losing files etc.

It allows two or more people to edit same document in real time.


I have to be honest, we already have an Office 365 account and didnt even know this could be done via Office. Like I said in the op, I know bugger all about this side of computing. :thumbsdow

Thanks for this, i'll definitely look into it. :clap:
 
What router do you have, mine has a USB port to which I have attached a small HDD, this is shared across the network and can be accessed from any PC on my network, I could also set it so that I can see it via the internet but I havent bothered sorting that bit out.

if you have USB on the router the only expense is the HDD to run.
 
The challenge you have is how important is your business data, if you lost a hard disk or even a nas, what impact would it have on your business.

A single hard disk particularly on a router is a single point of failure....
 
Thanks for that Chester. So if I was to buy one of these " Synology DS218+ 2 Bay Desktop NAS Enclosure | Ebuyer.com " and stick a couple of drives in it or even just one drive this should do the job I think. Im guessing that any users would connect to it wirelessly?

Chris
Essentially yes. As you're going to store business data on there I'd go with 2 disks to get some redundancy. I'd also think about getting the DS418Play Synology DS418play 4 Bay Desktop NAS Enclosure | Ebuyer.com 4 bay instead & get the largest disks you can afford. In terms of backup you could use your Office 365 storage as a backup destination.
 
The challenge you have is how important is your business data, if you lost a hard disk or even a nas, what impact would it have on your business.

A single hard disk particularly on a router is a single point of failure....

To echo this - hard disc drives are mechanical devices and they all break down eventually, it's only a matter time. Thusly, one might consider things like RAID arrays that avail continued access to data in the event of a disc failure and every business (indeed everyone) should be making regular backups of important data. Not to mention that in most territories there are data protection regulations to be complied with depending on the data your business holds.

In terms of the kit, the choice is either a NAS or a full-fat file server (ie a box such as a microserver running an operating system such as Windows, Linux or "Mac Server" depending on your preference.) If you just want basic file serving maybe with some "permissions" (access control) with a relatively simple "aimed at the lay person" type user interface, then a NAS might be the best option - some of them are quite cheap. There's an FAQ about NAS pinned in this forum.

NAS/file servers are not usually connected to the "infrastructure" using Wi-Fi, (though technically they can be,) for performance and reliability reasons. But that doesn't mean you cannot access them using Wi-Fi - as long as your router avails Wi-Fi (and these days they all do) and your NAS/Server is connected to your network "somewhere," you will be able to access it using Wi-Fi connected devices. The data access mechanisms make no distinction about which network transport is used (Wi-Fi, ethernet, etc.)
 
The challenge you have is how important is your business data, if you lost a hard disk or even a nas, what impact would it have on your business.

A single hard disk particularly on a router is a single point of failure....
When using cloud storage, a single Internet connection is also a SPOF. Also Microsoft seem to be in hot water with GDPR breaches, and that's just with stuff that's been uncovered so far!
 
When using cloud storage, a single Internet connection is also a SPOF. Also Microsoft seem to be in hot water with GDPR breaches, and that's just with stuff that's been uncovered so far!
Yes I don't disagree however is normally a temporal one rather than we do have a backup plan don't we.... :devil:

Alternatively if you store files locally then on one drive you continue working on them till your internet connection resumes.

Gdpr is going to catch a lot of people out :)
 
First I would find out how much business data you have and where it currently resides. Try and gauge how much this data grows by per month.
Second how much personal data do you have and what is it made up of ? e.g. files,pictures,videos
Again try and gauge how much this data grows by per month.

How much data you have will give you a starting point for how much space you will need initially for the server. You would be looking for the space to last a reasonable length of time.

For the small business you describe I think a NAS from either Synology or QNAP would be the best bet as it would cover all your requirements. The only downside would be cost.
If you were looking for a cheap server then there is one on sale in the classifieds -
For Sale - Dell poweredge T410 plus i5 6600k pc 16GB DDR4
You would need to check with seller about availability etc.

Do you have a backup strategy ? All businesses should have one. The sort of standard just now is local backup(say to usb hard drives) and cloud backup. Another consideration for business backups is how will the data be stored ? Do you need to encrypt it ?
 

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If it is business only (not sure as the original post doesn't specify) then why go to the bother of buying a machine to maintain\patch\repair etc. plus have an offline backup strategy when you could just go full-on cloud-based with Office 365.

Yes, you may have issues if you lose your Internet connection but it gives more flexibility and resilience without any of the associated headaches and costs.

I wouldn't personally want my business data stored on a used machine with no warranty\support.

Local backup strategies are reliant on people remembering so to plug stuff in and remove etc.

I personally would want to spend time doing business and making money than learning how to set up my network\server.

I appreciate that people might argue against this solution\MS but since the OP already has an Office subscription why pay more?
 
I think you need professional advice :)

If it was for personal use, you could wing it. But as it is your business and i assume your income? You don’t want to be caught out by anything.
 
Professional advice:

Buy a DS218+, stick 2x 2Tb WD RED hard drives in a SHR configuration in it, buy 2x 2tb usb external hard drives.

Setup the included Synology backup software to backup the NAS to USB, and rotate the two backup drives daily/weekly whatever.

Leave one drive plugged into the NAS ready for the next backup, keep the other USB drive somewhere well away from the NAS, in a drawer in a different part of the house.


I'll put this bit in big letters:

ONEDRIVE IS NOT A BACKUP SOLUTION

( If we stop and think about what one drive actually does, it'sfairly obvious as to why OneDrive can't be used as your backup destination. ;) )
 
I would be worried about professional advice that included the words "whatever" ;) :thumbsup:

Unless there is a need for local storage I don't see what the advantage of buying local storage NAS or otherwise is, particularly in this context.

If you are going locally then you should really look at some sort of UPS to provide power for the NAS to cleanly power down. A backup regime like this is prone to human error and people forget especially over time. Also, do they ever test a restore works ...

Heaven forbid if there was a fire as there is no off-site solution so no disaster recovery.

The use of One Drive is not a backup solution but is a pretty good way to store files that can be accessible from anywhere. One Drive is going to be a lot more available than a local NAS with the issues of maintaining and\or recovering data from it.

With the O365 you can both edit the same file at the same time and retain version history, something you can't do with a local version on a NAS.
 
No, Microsoft Office 365 does not back up your data..

Just thought I'd throw that in there. There are solutions, but O365 isn't a complete one in its own right.

That's why you need to sit down and work out what is important to the you\the business.

That is a company advertising its backup solution which is mainly geared at email and SharePoint so it will paint a negative picture.

A local NAS isn't going to particularly protect your emails any more.

You can put protection policies in place for sensitive type of information and also undelete on onedrive :)

Retention and GDPR come into it too :)

It can be a minefield...

I am not defending or involved in selling O365 but I still think its a better solution than a local NAS and the hassle involved with it. For the record I have both btw :)
 
What about going for an office 365 subscription you can get them for around 7.99 a month a user. That comes with 1TB of storage and backup etc, you don't have to worry about losing files etc.

It allows two or more people to edit same document in real time.
Totally agree, it is 2018 nearly 2019...Running your own small business server for tasks like that is something rather old fashioned. Especially if you already have Office 365....We use it in our office with a much larger team, works just fine...
 
some professional advice - I did similair work for a company, who wanted onsite and offsite backups

I purchased a Dell Server for 700 pounds and added 2x2TB drives - I then installed FreeNAS to provide file services - with FreeNAS I set up snapshots every 4 hours - this was to be used for instant recovery of any files. I also encrypted the drive with the built in encryption - this was to meet GDPR requirements.

For onsite backups I setup another desktop with an external USBN drive and using robocopy and a script I wrote, it does daily backups and also month end backups.

For offsite backups, I set up another FreeNAS server at another location and using the rsync tool within FreeNAS, it does a sync of the data to the remote server every 6 hours.
 
some professional advice - I did similair work for a company, who wanted onsite and offsite backups

I purchased a Dell Server for 700 pounds and added 2x2TB drives - I then installed FreeNAS to provide file services - with FreeNAS I set up snapshots every 4 hours - this was to be used for instant recovery of any files. I also encrypted the drive with the built in encryption - this was to meet GDPR requirements.

For onsite backups I setup another desktop with an external USBN drive and using robocopy and a script I wrote, it does daily backups and also month end backups.

For offsite backups, I set up another FreeNAS server at another location and using the rsync tool within FreeNAS, it does a sync of the data to the remote server every 6 hours.
Some professional advise, or you can just use your existing office 365 subscription :)
 
some professional advice - I did similair work for a company, who wanted onsite and offsite backups

I purchased a Dell Server for 700 pounds and added 2x2TB drives - I then installed FreeNAS to provide file services - with FreeNAS I set up snapshots every 4 hours - this was to be used for instant recovery of any files. I also encrypted the drive with the built in encryption - this was to meet GDPR requirements.

For onsite backups I setup another desktop with an external USBN drive and using robocopy and a script I wrote, it does daily backups and also month end backups.

For offsite backups, I set up another FreeNAS server at another location and using the rsync tool within FreeNAS, it does a sync of the data to the remote server every 6 hours.

That's great if you are a company\individual being paid to do that on behalf of the company with the data.

It's not, however, something I would recommend that an individual like the OP who has "zero knowledge" (his words) should even attempt to do. If it is something that you want to do at home then go for it but people are in business to make money doing the business thing not messing about with IT.

I do hope you tested your solution and regularly check back as most of the time it's when it goes wrong that you find out that the backups only ran for a day and we don't have data for the last 6 months oops ... :facepalm:

Encryption cures all your GDPR woes too ... :lesson:
 
The script I wrote emails the results of the robocopy jobs with any errors or failed files.

The offsite job using rsync also logs to a file so can check for any failures or errors

On top of that every 6 months I perform a disaster recovery, where as all files are restored to a temp server and confirmed the data is correct.

I have implemented complex backup solutions based on IBM Tivoli Storage Manager however the above was a very simple implementation.
 
The script I wrote emails the results of the robocopy jobs with any errors or failed files.

The offsite job using rsync also logs to a file so can check for any failures or errors

On top of that every 6 months I perform a disaster recovery, where as all files are restored to a temp server and confirmed the data is correct.

I have implemented complex backup solutions based on IBM Tivoli Storage Manager however the above was a very simple implementation.

And again that's great if you are offering that service to a client but sorry its not professional advice to tell a client to do that and if he only has one site yours doesn't work.
 
And again that's great if you are offering that service to a client but sorry its not professional advice to tell a client to do that and if he only has one site yours doesn't work.

I am providing the OP with some guidance on what he can achieve, if the OP's data is critical to his business, then he will need to pay someone to implement a robust backup solution - or he can just go down the route of using some cloud storage like Google Drive or OneDrive.
 

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