TS-669 Pro and Vantec NexStar 400MX-S3R eSATA enclosure

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 2:32 am

Hello QNAPers,

I am attempting to attach a Vantec NexStar 400MX-S3R to my 669 Pro as an external backup drive and, for some reason, the QNAP is not recognizing the eSATA connection. Is there anything required to enable eSATA support? If I use the USB 3.0 connection it seems to work fine.

bT

pwilson · Post by **pwilson** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:15 am

bittwiddler wrote:Hello QNAPers,

I am attempting to attach a Vantec NexStar 400MX-S3R to my 669 Pro as an external backup drive and, for some reason, the QNAP is not recognizing the eSATA connection. Is there anything required to enable eSATA support? If I use the USB 3.0 connection it seems to work fine.

bT

What SATA controller chip does your Vantec NexStar 400MX-S3R use? Does it use FIS signalling? I don't see your external multidrive USB3.0/eSATA Enclosure listed on the QNAP External Storage Device Compatibility List.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:19 am

Hi Patrick,

You are correct. The Vantec does not appear on the list of external multidrives not known not to work. However, eSATA is a standard. Perhaps I should ask which version of eSATA the 669 supports. The Vantec manual only says:

- For eSATA Speeds, System Must Support eSATA Specifications
- For eSATA, System Must Support Port Multiplier

I suspect the last item may be the rub.

Cheers

pwilson · Post by **pwilson** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:47 am

bittwiddler wrote:Hi Patrick,

You are correct. The Vantec does not appear on the list of external multidrives not known not to work. However, eSATA is a standard. Perhaps I should ask which version of eSATA the 669 supports. The Vantec manual only says:

- For eSATA Speeds, System Must Support eSATA Specifications
- For eSATA, System Must Support Port Multiplier

I suspect the last item may be the rub.

Cheers

Yes eSATA is a standard. QNAP Firmware has only limited support for eSATA-PM however, hence the question on the eSATA chip used by your Vantec. Does it use FIS–based (frame information structure) switching? If it doesn't then it isn't compatible.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:32 am

Patrick, Vantec doesn't disclose that bit of information anywhere or I would have answered your question straightaway. I'll stick with USB 2.0 for now.

Thank you for clarifying what is supported and what is not.

Cheers

pwilson · Post by **pwilson** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:37 am

bittwiddler wrote:Patrick, Vantec doesn't disclose that bit of information anywhere or I would have answered your question straightaway. I'll stick with USB 2.0 for now.

Thank you for clarifying what is supported and what is not.

Cheers

Yeah. That's a shame as they make quality hardware. I unfortunately don't own one of these, so I can't simply pop the cover and look.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 1:05 am

I have no problem popping the cover. I live in the embedded world so I am at home there. I figured that stuff was implemented in the PM stack or in an unlabled ASIC. Should I be looking for a chipset or a CBS/FIS jumper?

bT

pwilson · Post by **pwilson** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 1:08 am

bittwiddler wrote:I have no problem popping the cover. I live in the embedded world so I am at home there. I figured that stuff was implemented in the PM stack or in an unlabled ASIC. Should I be looking for a chipset or a CBS/FIS jumper?

bT

No idea. I don't own one of these, so I can't tell you anything about it.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:09 am

Patrick, I figured I'd cut to the chase so I called Vantec directly. They confirmed that they support CBS only.

pwilson · Post by **pwilson** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:43 am

bittwiddler wrote:Patrick, I figured I'd cut to the chase so I called Vantec directly. They confirmed that they support CBS only.

That is unfortunate. On the other hand, you should be able to use it under USB, so it shouldn't be a complete loss.
Thanks for taking the time to share this unfortunate news with us. Hopefully this will help other people considering this device.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:43 am

It is a great little device and is small enough to store in a safe, SCF, etc. Just remember to use the USB 3.0 port on your NAS and it will really scoot!

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:37 am

Update: I have been using 2 of these devices on the USB 3.0 ports and they are working very well. Fast, cool, and reliable.

However, I added a third enclosure on USB 3.0 and now my QNAP is calling it USBDisk2 instead of USBDisk3. So, two of the enclosures now have the same name. I cannot find any way to force the name to change.

schumaku · Post by **schumaku** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:25 am

In general, to address the same external storage under the same shared folder name - put a labels on each of the file systems.

bittwiddler wrote:However, I added a third enclosure on USB 3.0 and now my QNAP is calling it USBDisk2 instead of USBDisk3. So, two of the enclosures now have the same name. I cannot find any way to force the name to change.

It's somewhat hidden in the forum (and probably documented nowhere beyond): Unless I'm very wrong, QNAP does only support one external storage device per port, and no USB hubs. As there are only two USB 3.0 ports ... Give it a try and temporary plug #3 on a dedicated USB 2.0 port.

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:40 am

sorry for the confusion. #1 and #2 are running on USB 3.0 and #3 is running on USB 2.0. Sorry. I am unable to find where to add the labels to each of the filesystems. Each enclosure is formatted as EXT4.

BTW, I am using these drives for Backup Station as backup to an external drive. Each backup job needs to be able to reference the drives in a unique manner.

bT

bittwiddler · Post by **bittwiddler** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:45 am

This stuff is really flakey. I just powered down #3 and now the NAS is showing both #1 and #2 as USBDisk1.

I am running version 4.0.7.

bT

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