NAS hardware useful life?

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
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Hello,

I have had a Synology 1512+ up and running 24x7 for about 7 years now. The only down times have been system upgrades and a 2 week down down time do to moving cross country. I’ve only had 1 drive failure as well and that was at the 6 year mark. On the the question…

What is the useful life of a NAS system like this? The processor isn’t taxed at all. I have both 1-Gig ports in a LACP /port-chanel so my bandwidth is fine. No dead fans or power supplies. Really it is running perfectly. However, 7 years of 24x7 is a long time and I would like to be proactive vs waiting until it dies and be up a creak until a replacement system arrives.

Assuming I replace it with the newer 1819+, can I just pull the drives from the current system, put them in the new chassis in the same order and have it magically work? That would be cool.

If I go FreeNAS Mini-XL+ then I might just keep the 1512+ running and have the FreeNAS backup data to the old 1512+. This wold be the more expensive option, but probably the better option in the long run.

I’m using IronWolf Pro drives so the are CMR. The issue is they have become hard to find as it seems everyone is replacing the’re old SMR WD Red drives.

Thoughts, opinions, facts are welcome.

Thanks…

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Hi speedD408,

The useful life is software related rather than hardware related. As long as the software for your device type is actively supported by synology, and as long as you keep your nas properly backed up, the hardware doesn’t really matter. You should always assume that hardware can fail at any time, because lightning strikes, flooding etc happen all the time.

Disk migration is possible: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General_Setup/How_to_migrate_between_Synology_NAS_DSM_6_0_and_later#t1.1

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Go with the FreeNAS Mini good long term software support. Stick with the Iron Wolf Drives. Storage ops do no overly tax the CPU unless running certain plugins.

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