NAS: Avoid data corruption from power failures

So I got this 1 terabyte beauty of network storage where I can stream high-definition video onto my TV (at a gorgeous 5MB/sec videorate) and suffered on the weekend the first power-outage.

Although it was a self-induced incident (lesson learned: turning off the circuit-breaker switches everything off in the house), it brought back the reality, that with Eskom’s “guaranteed” services and the risk of cable-theft it would be only a matter of time until the diskstation would suffer an outage. Unthinkable what could happen when 1 terabyte of storage with read-heads flying at 7200RPM over the disk-surface come to a grinding halt in the middle of file-operations.

I was in dire need of a reliable UPS – such as the Back-UPS CS 350 from APC.

The Synology DiskStation makes it actually quite easy for you: You install the UPS, connect it via the USB cable to the diskstation, and it will automatically configure the UPS:

With a complete power-failure, I will be able to continue operating the NAS for another 80 minutes. I did however configure it to shutdown after 30 minutes.

Major thanks go to: Riaan Strydom (Skype: riaan.rks) from RKS Computer Solutions. I was able to order the UPS on a Monday morning and had it delivered within 5 hours the same day. I had tried to source an APC UPS for 4 days, and no other company had stock or did not even bother to respond. Well done Riaan – excellent customer service!!