Migrating to a new NAS - some questions

Plex Media Server
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Server Version#:1.32.7.7621-7000

Dear all

I just bought an upgrade for my homeserver setup and moving from a DS918+ 12TB to a DS923+ 24TB, running the latest DSM version DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 6. My old NAS had at least 8GB of RAM where my new one only has 4GB RAM installed. I know it’s upgradeable up to 32GB but do you guys have any experience with 4K Streaming and 4GB of RAM?

What about the SSD-Caching feature (more here: https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/genericssdcache?version=7) does it bring a lot of benefits or performance boosts in relation with Plex Media Server and 4K video streaming?

My next question is due I bought a complete bundle with new HDDs, I want to migrate my whole files to the new NAS and also built up my Plex Mediaserver on there. It would be nice to keep my history and the whole database (I adjusted a few things like Thumbnails etc.). Is there anything I need to keep an eye on for a succesful migration?

My last question is about my RAID setup, I had RAID 5 for 8 years now and never had some issues with it, a year ago one of my HDD went dead but could by easily changed. Is there any better RAID which performs better for meda streaming?

Thanks for your input and have a nice start in the month!
Voegii

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The DS923+ has an AMD R1600 CPU. It has no GPU, so hardware accelerated transcoding is not available. See Plex NAS Compatibility List.

SSD Caching will be of little help to Plex.

From the SSD Cache web page you linked: …the benefits of using SSD cache are limited on certain workload patterns, in particular, large sequential read/write operations (e.g., HD video streaming) and entirely random data reading patterns.

It will benefit Plex if the DS923+ supports using the SSDs as a storage volume. You can move the Plex Data Folder to the SSD. PMS will feel more responsive to users - cover art, thumbnails, etc will populate faster on clients since the read speed of the SSD is much faster than a HDD.

Have all users enable Sync Watch State & Ratings on their account.

See Move an Install to Another System.

Do not copy the preferences.xml file to the new NAS (the “Move Additioal Settings…” section). This will let you run PMS on both servers at the same time. You can then switch to the new server when you are comfortable it is stable and working as intended. You will have to share the libraries on the new NAS with users, but you will not have to re-invite them.

I’ve always used Synology SHR protection, their custom version of RAID. It has better support for mixing drives with differing capacity. There is less of a penalty than when using RAID 5.

Look at the Synology RAID Calculator. Add two 12TB drives and two 8TB drives. Then compare SHR vs RAID 5. SHR has no unused space.

Not that big of a deal if all your drives are the same size. However, it comes in handy when upgrading storage. With SHR, you do not have to upgrade all four drives before you see the added storage. You see the benefit after upgrading just two drives.

As far as performance, I’ve a DS918+ with four drives using SHR. I get read/write speeds of 100+ MBytes/sec from my PC, both connected to the same gigabit switch. It is more than adequate for streaming 4K HDR, which tops out a little over 100 Mbits/sec.

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Dear FordGuy

Thanks a lot for you fast reply. I will stay with the pre-configured DS923+ and will upgrade it’s hardware if I am facing performance issues. For now I don’t see any big improvements for my setup by upgrading to SSD-Caching and / or more RAM. My DS916+ was still able to stream 4K media in the network until now.

I’ve started Data Migration with it’s onboard Migration Assistant and now waiting for it’s completion. After that I will override my Plex Data Folder on my 923 with the files from my 916. Let’s see if this worked as intended.

Again, many thanks for your detailed help and have a great day!

Best,
Voegii