starting off with 873

[LeeEC]

What I have;

qnap 873
2x 1tb ssd m2 (installed internally) (self installed)
24gb ram memory (self installed)
TP link N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (this has been plugged into the top slot that the rear USB 3 card was plugged into, and the USB 3 card has been put into the lower slot (this was because the antenna of the TP link would block access to the USB sockets if the TP-link occupied the lower slot) (again self installed, BUT as yet untested)(I assume that they will be auto detected BUT this is not an urgent issue and is not at present a priority for me).



what I would like to do;

Use 1st ssd to store programs and operating systems and use part of this ssd to act as cache etc. To that eventual end, I would like to allocate approximately 500gb of this 1st ssd for operating systems and program files etc. The remaining space on this 1st ssd can be reserved for cache and swapfiles etc.I will be aiming (eventually) to use virtual machines for, windows, android, mac, and some form of Blackberry support aswell as other qnap programs using the 500gb allocation.

use 2nd ssd soley to store music files WAV format (copied via my laptop cd player using EAC copying software, via the Qnap 'direct usb connection' facility on this Qnap model), and relavant pics and track info. that I can copy to my Ipod classic and blackberry passport phone as required, and access the music files via my windows pc. NO remote functionallity from a cloud etc is required at this time as I do not wish to complicate matters for myself.

NO raid functionality is required with the above ssd's. I intend to keep the original cds, and have decided that the redundancy provided by raid options is not required (in my case) for the music files.

At a later date, for other files (stored on as yet un-purchased hard drives) raid will become a necessity, but that is sometime in the future and is not something that I will be seeking to tackle until the time comes.

I have been mucking about with this thing for months now, hoping that I could get somewhere using common sense, but to no avail,

I am fully prepared to start from scratch, eg reformating the ssds and restoring factory settings etc, as I will lose nothng in doing so, as all I have been able to do so far is install the firmware and Qnap Qfinder Pro 6.1.1.

I have looked for tutorials etc online but they seem to assume basic NAS knowledge (that I do not have).

Any help to start me on the right path with my immediate goals will be massively appreciated, even if it is just a small part of the jigsaw.. Baby steps are fine with me, (please explain things as if your talking to a 5 year old).

[P3R]

TP link N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (this has been plugged into the top slot that the rear USB 3 card was plugged into, and the USB 3 card has been put into the lower slot (this was because the antenna of the TP link would block access to the USB sockets if the TP-link occupied the lower slot) (again self installed, BUT as yet untested)(I assume that they will be auto detected BUT this is not an urgent issue and is not at present a priority for me).

A highe-end server like this should be connected with wires. Wireless connection of it is a bad idea because it have worse performance (already wired 1 GbE will be a bottleneck), is unreliable, have much worse security and often give the administrator a hard time.

Yes Qnap marketing and some newer users like wireless but I doubt you will find any experienced people recommending it or being interested in assisting. Should you need any help with it it's better to contact Qnap support. Those guys are paid to do the dirty work of supporting wireless on a server, we're not.

Use 1st ssd to store programs and operating systems and use part of this ssd to act as cache etc. To that eventual end, I would like to allocate approximately 500gb of this 1st ssd for operating systems and program files etc. The remaining space on this 1st ssd can be reserved for cache and swapfiles etc.I will be aiming (eventually) to use virtual machines for, windows, android, mac, and some form of Blackberry support aswell as other qnap programs using the 500gb allocation.

RAID (RAID 1 in this case) is always recommended for at least the first volume in the system. But okay, I can understand this configuration as a temporary solution if you can't afford any mechanical disks at this point. Remember though that when (not if) the first disk fail, you will have a hard time recreating the NAS configuration. Later when you start buying disks for your NAS, you should be able to migrate the first disk to RAID 1, if it haven't failed on yet by then.

You can't use part of an SSD for caching and the other part for anything else. It's always all or nothing. In addition to that it would be no point in caching a SSD with another SSD. Even if it had been possible, it could only make things slower. The excess RAM that you willl have now (until you start using virtualization) will automatically be used for caching.

Creating a smaller first volume on the first SSD is a good idea as long as it's large enough for your current need, as that will keep the rest of the disk available for other future uses (caching isn't an option though) once you know what you want. If you need to increase the volume for files later, that will always be possible also so there's no risk for "painting yourself into a corner" with a smaller volume. I would use a Thick volume.

NO raid functionality is required with the above ssd's. I intend to keep the original cds, and have decided that the redundancy provided by raid options is not required (in my case) for the music files.

RAID can't really protect you data anyway so it's always the backups (in your case the CDs, which is fine) that do that. We use RAID to keep the system available despite disk issues and to give the administrator convenience and peace of mind.