Hi everyone 
This is my first post here, and thus I am transforming from a silent reader to an active one. Glad to be here, and in advance: many thanks to all the great content that helped me on my way so far.
I am writing this post mainly to get some feedback if my setup makes sense, or if I should change something, or maybe to gain some new perspectives on any possibilities I might not see at the moment. Truth be told: I have been thinking and tinkering quite a while, exploring different options, but need advice from all you wise long-term users before going all in. I’m just trying to establish a base structure/foundation beforehand.
My main objective is to have DT as a hub that enables me to draw connections across all my content. That includes my Obsidian notes and reference materials such as PDFs and eBooks - and of course I’d like to take advantage of all the organizational power DT has handling sensitive as well as not so sensitive data. Also, I use DTTG (only for selective content). That said, I want to (kind of) keep it lean, which means I would like to minimize the needed storage on the device.
I use DT with a Synology via WebDAV, and want to have as much data on there as possible (opposed to having the content locally). I understand that databases live locally as DT works the way it does, while the sync store living on the Synology is used to sync. So, here is what I came up with, after reading quite a while and without claiming to understand everything just yet.
My Sync Stores:
- iCloud for inbox (trying to keep used space to a minimum since I would rather not pay more and more over time while space needed increases…)
- Library (On NAS, via WebDAV, Sync indexed content active, encrypted)
- Glacier (ON NAS, via WebDAV, Sync indexed content disabled, encrypted)
This would leave me with any database within library and inbox to be potentially accessible via DTTG or on a second Mac (e.g. work machine). This could be work related, reference material, project specific stuff and so on: Mostly PDFs, text documents, books, notes and so on.
Glacier is for everything that is stored on the NAS. It is index only so it turns up in searches and won’t be “out of sight” but on the other hand minimizes the local disk space required. Here I would store videos, personal documents, saved podcasts and other material that is unlikely to be needed on the go and has more of an archival character. Those contents will be accessed only from time to time. The plan is to gradually move data in library to the glacier if it is not used actively anymore.
I think this could work for my specific use case. Moving a file from library to glacier moves the file accordingly in the file system: yay! This actually should reduce the space required for the Library (on disk), while moving the file to the glacier destination (on NAS).
Why do I think this would minimize disk space needed locally? I did a quick test with a db indexing two PDFs that had 17 MB in sum. The indexed database, on the other hand (same PDFs), had a little more than 2 MB. I understand that I will use more space overall, but since the surplus of storage (to keep the index) lives on the NAS I don’t care because the cost factor here is insignificant and not part of a subscription. 
While I did the above test with an unencrypted database, I now set up the final two encrypted databases and added two identical PDFs:
PDF Size in Sum: 7,4 MB on disk
Glacier (indexed) db with above PDFs: 43,1 MB
Library (in DT) db with above PDFs: 52,6 MB
The one thing I don’t get is why those databases don’t change in size even if I delete both test PDFs and empty the trash and so on. I guess, this is some initial size an encrypted db just has, but I don’t know / can’t explain to myself. Maybe the sample PDF size is also too small to see that reflected in the db files right away.
To me, this seems to work. Just to be certain, though: Is there any blind spot in my thinking or anything I should be aware of?
If you read this far: thank you and I appreciate any feedback.
That’s a great heads up in terms of iCloud. So far, I’ve not had any severe hiccups. But it’s good to know in order to keep an eye on it.
