if i'm not mistaken, natively this nas supports m.2 sata?
https://www.qnap.com/en/product/ts-453d/specs/hardware
because it says requires addon card. These addon cards may be possible to add m.2 NVME. Make sure you check that whatever hardware you get is in the compatibility list for your nas. go to the product page, there is a compatibility list there.
are those seagate drives nas rated? e.g. seagate ironwolves? (this is what i use). Be specific :}
for initial setup check out videos by rob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPPB0oG1EQQ
mike also has a couple of basic videos as well on his channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jawyy3vJKyI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpnk_nL58RM
and also by qnap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhVkfun3Hk
i'll explain the basic steps for initial setup
1. remove the qnap nas from packaging, plug in the ac power adapter, then add the ethernet cable from the NAS to a Switch. This switch is then connected to your router, or direct to the router itself.
2. power on the QNAP, press the power button. You have to remember not to long press the power button since that can do other stuff, check your manual downloadable from the product page to learn more about that.
3. on your desktop or laptop, install the qfinder app. Get this app from the qnap website for utility apps. Using qfinder, it will detect if your nas is detected by your pc. If it's detected, procede to the next step (remember hit the refresh if it's not listed)
4. then update your QNAP OS. You can do this a few ways. Using qfinder, or typing in the lan ip of the qnap nas then update via qts. Update your qts first thing.
5. Then initialize the nas. Go to qfinder and do smart initialize. It will pop up the qts browser and instruct you step by step for setting up the nas.
6. once done you can then login to qts via the lan ip typed into a web browser. If your not sure how, go qfinder right click the nas listed, then click open web administration.
7. Once in qts, i recommend you setup a static ip for your QNAP. It's under virtual switches.
If your router DHCP is say 192.168.0.40 to 192.168.0.150 with a subnet of 255.255.255.255
you can then set a lan ip that isn't the same as your dhcp e.g. 192.168.0.1-39 , 151-255
make sure the lan ip you pick also is not the same as any other device on your network.
The reason you set a static is so that your lan ip for the QNAP is fixed and doesn't constantly change. Yes you could just have simply let qnap use dhcp and let the router assign for you, but i find that setting a static ip on the qnap itself more reliable.
8. in windows 10 on your desktop/laptop, go to credential manager and add an entry for your NAS. Also make sure that network discovery is enabled if it isn't already.
9. Go to QTS, storage & snapshots. You can create your volumes here. First, setup the 2x m.2 nvme as a raid1 volume.
after that create the single disk volume for your 12tb hdd.
10. then go to qts shares, select the HDD volume as the location. You can use your own share names. examples of what i use is Storage1,Storage2, Storage. And within those shares, i create sub folders e.g. videos, music, pictures etc. Up to you how you want to organize that.
But basically once shares are created, you can then go to your windows 10 pc to browse for your NAS, open with file explorer, then browse those shares to copy/cut/delete files as you want.
But because your stuff is on a USB external drive, you should transfer your stuff from there onto your NAS by connecting those external usb to the qnap, then browse the contents using filestation, then copy the stuff from there to your QNAP created shares. When it completes, you should be able to access your stuff from the qnap via windows 10 windows explorer, OR via filestation in qts. Up to you how you want to access you files.
I don't use versioning so someone else can explain that.
If later you do add more hdds, probly add 2-3 more 12tb hdds so you can then do raid5.
http://www.raid-calculator.com/
if all you needed was 12tb of storage max i would have just used 4x 4tb or 4x 6tb hdds for raid5.
on side note, 2x 500gb used for qnap qts os, qnap QPKGS (native apps), vms and etc. Yes you setup for that. But however i'm not sure that 500gb is sufficient space for all of that, especially when tally in the ubuntu vms. I too had 500gb ssd x 2, but i don't use the vms too much so for myself this is fine. But for you not quite sure. Perhaps 2x 1tb m.2 nvme ssds would have been better. The pricing for 1tb m.2 nvmes aren't too bad these days
PS: raid scrub for your raids should be scheduled to be done once a month You have to configure for it if it's not setup yet.
2x16GB of RAM is this ram compatible? for myself i bought my own ram to replace the original. I checked the qnap forum first to find ram that was compatible with my nas model.
https://www.crucial.com/upgrades/qnap/qnap-nas
https://www.kingston.com/en/memory
there is also the ram from the official qnap store if you prefer
https://shop.qnap.com/
If you replace ram with non qnap ram, make sure you keep the original. or you may end not getting technical support if they claim you are not using the original ram by qnap. be mindful of that