Brand new and have been lurking.. first step questions..

[hifiaudio2]

So a little background...

 

I currently have a Synology ds1812+ that is serving me well, but due to some media transcoding needs I am going to have, I want something much more powerful while keeping the Synology software. I have quite a few newbie questions that I don't seem to be able to find a post that directly answers. I have probably just missed it in the flood of information I am trying to take in, so if that is the case, I apologize. I am quite open as to what hardware to purchase, and that is one of the questions. All I know is that I would like a 12 or more drive hot swappable rack mount enclosure. The rest is pretty open. This would be a bare metal install.

 

So some of the questions:

 

1. First and foremost, I have about 12TB of data on my current 1812+ that I want to migrate over. Can the WD red 4TB drives that I have currently in a single raid 5 on my 1812+ be used to install DSM on this new hardware without erasing them? Is this reliable or risky? I don't have the data backed up elsewhere and can't think of a cost effective way to back this up beforehand.

 

2. What is the difference in some of the images or methods? GNoboot, XPEnoboot, etc? Why use one over the other?

 

3. Is there a current hardware list kept somewhere so I don't have to worry about drivers? I assume its

 

4. Once this is up and running, can I get updates from Synology when the update files are released, or do I need to wait for someone to hack them in some manner to make them work?

 

5. It looks like many of the links on here with images are for much older DSM versions. Is there a "most current" link, and why would someone choose to use an older one? (i.e why keep the threads for those links open if they shouldn't be used by noobs?)

 

I may do a trial install on a laptop I have lying around just to get a feel for how things go.

Thanks for any help to get me started!

[mervincm]

Why even chance it? If you build something new, so with 5 or 6 TB disks, you will only need to buy 3 or 4 disks to move everything over. and if you did move them, that would leave you with a diskless 1812+. That a hell of a nice NAS to leave diskless, at least use it to back up you new one!

hardware is very universal. Everything I have tried works (well some enterprise class 10gig ethernet cards didn't at first but..) desktop gear seams very well supported, some server class gear is a bit more picky. I would highly suggest you pickup a few new 5/6TB disks, round up a desktop made in the last 5 years or so (or older even if its a quad) and try it out. don't jump into buying anything but disks from the start if you have anything you can play with.

patch availability can really vary. reccently it has been as easy as on a real synology, with no extra wait. However when major new versions come out, there may be a long wait. You just never know. it is part of the reason why I run one real synology and a couple Xpenology copies

 

I don't think there is any reason at all to run any of the older versions, but I suppose there might be a third party driver added to one that the new team has not got around to yet.