NAS with Lightroom?

So my current set-up is: iMac running Lightroom Desktop LR Catalog saved to system drive but photos imported into it as referenced files Original (referenced) RAW files on external USB3 drive. This works fine. Unfortunately the other day my Time Machine drive failed and I've now bought and returned 2 separate 6TB USB 3 drives for being too noisy (fan noise in the external housing). So I'm considering switching to NAS. I have two options with the NAS 1. I use it purely as a Time Machine backup drive and keep using my other USB 3 drives for my photos. 2. I move all my photos etc from the USB 3 drive to the NAS and point the catalog at the new drive. I then connect a USB 3 drive to the NAS and have the NAS automatically backup to the USB 3 drive. I like the idea of option 2 but having never used a NAS I'm not sure how LR will perform pulling in photos from it. The NAS I'm looking at is fairly powerful in that it has a quad core 1.4Ghz CPU and 1GB of DDR4 RAM and capable of over 113MB/Sec sequential read/write but is certainly in the mid range in terms of budget. It's also only a single bay unit, I'd love to go with a 3 or 5 bay and use RAID 5 but my budget doesn't stretch that far, so there is no RAID overhead to consider. Just wondering if there are people out there using LR with a NAS and not just as a backup device and if it works well or is just too slow and painful?

So my current set-up is:

iMac running Lightroom Desktop
LR Catalog saved to system drive but photos imported into it as referenced files
Original (referenced) RAW files on external USB3 drive.

This works fine.

Unfortunately the other day my Time Machine drive failed and I've now bought and returned 2 separate 6TB USB 3 drives for being too noisy (fan noise in the external housing). So I'm considering switching to NAS. I have two options with the NAS

1. I use it purely as a Time Machine backup drive and keep using my other USB 3 drives for my photos.

2. I move all my photos etc from the USB 3 drive to the NAS and point the catalog at the new drive. I then connect a USB 3 drive to the NAS and have the NAS automatically backup to the USB 3 drive.

I like the idea of option 2 but having never used a NAS I'm not sure how LR will perform pulling in photos from it. The NAS I'm looking at is fairly powerful in that it has a quad core 1.4Ghz CPU and 1GB of DDR4 RAM and capable of over 113MB/Sec sequential read/write but is certainly in the mid range in terms of budget. It's also only a single bay unit, I'd love to go with a 3 or 5 bay and use RAID 5 but my budget doesn't stretch that far, so there is no RAID overhead to consider.

Just wondering if there are people out there using LR with a NAS and not just as a backup device and if it works well or is just too slow and painful?

I've never tried it myself, but try looking at Victoria Bampton's [link=www.lightroomqueen.com/]Lightroomqueen[/link]. She's very knowledgeable, and will probably have an article on the subject somewhere. Alan P.

I've never tried it myself, but try looking at Victoria Bampton's Lightroomqueen. She's very knowledgeable, and will probably have an article on the subject somewhere.

Alan P.

[quote]Just wondering if there are people out there using LR with a NAS and not just as a backup device and if it works well or is just too slow and painful?[/quote] It will depend on if you have previews built as most of the time Lightroom works from the previews on the local drive. I use a NAS for my stuff but I use it in a "hierarchical Storage" way: Stuff from the last month or so I keep on my local SSD Stuff from the last year I keep on a local HDD Everything older than that lives on the NAS So the more likely I am to work on stuff the faster the storage it is on.

Quote:Just wondering if there are people out there using LR with a NAS and not just as a backup device and if it works well or is just too slow and painful?


It will depend on if you have previews built as most of the time Lightroom works from the previews on the local drive.
I use a NAS for my stuff but I use it in a "hierarchical Storage" way:

Stuff from the last month or so I keep on my local SSD
Stuff from the last year I keep on a local HDD
Everything older than that lives on the NAS

So the more likely I am to work on stuff the faster the storage it is on.

I keep the last 8 years worth on the local data HDD but backed up on the NAS. The catalogue is also stored on the HDD and backed up on the NAS. My second catalogue is for images older than 8 years and these images are stored on the NAS (backed also to a USB drive). The catalogue for this still sits on the local HDD and backed up on the NAS. It is not often that I need to access the older catalogue but just did so and all was fine. Initially it is no slower anyway as the catalogue is on the local disk; I think it has to be. However, looking at images where you zoom in so it has to access the original file from the NAS was possibly fractionally slower than accessing files from my HDD. My NAS is a 4 bay but only 3 disks installed but I do have a RAID configuration. Dave

I keep the last 8 years worth on the local data HDD but backed up on the NAS. The catalogue is also stored on the HDD and backed up on the NAS. My second catalogue is for images older than 8 years and these images are stored on the NAS (backed also to a USB drive). The catalogue for this still sits on the local HDD and backed up on the NAS. It is not often that I need to access the older catalogue but just did so and all was fine. Initially it is no slower anyway as the catalogue is on the local disk; I think it has to be. However, looking at images where you zoom in so it has to access the original file from the NAS was possibly fractionally slower than accessing files from my HDD. My NAS is a 4 bay but only 3 disks installed but I do have a RAID configuration.

Dave

The main thing is that the Catalog is on a fast disk.

The main thing is that the Catalog is on a fast disk.