@scottalanmiller said:

The real issue is that likely very few people have seen that unit to know what the settings look like.

Yeah, I know. The management UI is about what you'd expect from a consumer-grade device. It's pretty and functional, but very basic as to what it can do.

I have three servers, though two would be fine. I don't have what I understand as a "reliable failover system" or anything close to it, but if one server is down I am in a position to provide a degraded or limited service using the other server(s) which is generally enough to keep users happy and the business ticking over. It's in no way automated or anything like high availability, but it gives me options and in a crisis I like to have as many options as I can. The cost isn't anywhere near double, since you're not doubling up on disks or memory or CPU by spreading the load across two boxes.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Direct to Azure is pretty nice. Would like to see Rackspace support too.

@alexntg said:

it would be a "dream job" for a storage-inclined IT professional.

@ScottLongHDS Welcome!

It's pretty solid, but I don't like it compared to just using FreeBSD. The web interface brings problems and doesn't really buy you anything. Not like it has additional functionality.

I have a DS211J at home. I back it up to an attached USB hard drive as well as use iDrive from my laptop to back it up to "the cloud". I don't really use any of the extra features, just the shared folders and the time backup (kinda like VSS).

I have a client with a Rackstation 2211RP+ with an attached RX1211 expansion unit. It works very well and is rock-solid. Again just using the shared folders on an AD network.

@Bill-Kindle said:

@scottalanmiller Seagate surprised me with what a POS their NAS offering is. Not at all happy with it.

Drive makers don't make the best storage appliances. Just doesn't go together. Their interest is in selling drives. WD does a little better, but it is a weak offering too. It's RAID 5 only so that you have to buy super expensive RE drives.

@scottalanmiller Netgear needs to get on here! Who ya know?