TVS-473: m.2 cache for virtualization

[aarbee]

I copied a set of ISO files. In total 9GB.
Copied it twice.
And the temp was between 46C (114F) and 50C (122F)
I consider that as ok.

[aarbee]

UPS only a pro?
Found out what con there is about the UPS.
Without UPS, the kill a watt meter, measures between 30 an d40 watt, while idle.
With the Back-UPS Pro BR900G-GR it is a constant 48-58 watt.
About 50% raise in electricity. I am not sure how long I will keep that thing on. Cost money and only does do something in case of a desaster.
Family counsel was not charmed about it.

[dolbyman]

sure the UPS batteries where fully charged when you measured ? after most UPS go int very low power trickle charge(?) mode

[P3R]

With the Back-UPS Pro BR900G-GR it is a constant 48-58 watt.

If you look at the efficiency diagram for the UPS you'll notice that it isn't very efficient at very low loads. That's one reason not to buy a too large UPS for a low power NAS.

Cost money and only does do something in case of a desaster.

I recommend that you only connect the UPS when you know that disaster will strike.

Insurances are the same. They cost money and are totally useless until bad things happen, but at that point they're pretty nice to have...

Family counsel was not charmed about it.

Ask them how they would feel about losing all the data on the NAS?

[aarbee]

They hope that my backup is ok. Else I get hit or so .
Rebuilding from a backup will cost some work. For sure.

So for these things counts the same as a powersupply in a pc.
So it was better to use the old BKR500?

So if I connect a switch to it, it would hardly be noticable? Was planning to connect the nearby switch to it.

On the otherhand I had the old 239 good for 30watt+ and a laptop good for 25 watt+. So I am better off anyway.
Or insert bigger disks? HGST 4TB instead of those 2.5" 1TB WD.
Sorry for being a bit cynical.

Thanks.

[P3R]

They hope that my backup is ok. Else I get hit or so .
Rebuilding from a backup will cost some work.

Both work, time and above all risk. Backups can fail as well...

So it was better to use the old BKR500?

I don't know what a BKR500 is but if it's a smaller UPS then from an efficiency standpoint it may be better. But then again a small low end UPS may have an overall worse efficiency than the larger one so not easy to say.

UPS efficiency is usually much better when at 20-30 % load or more. On the other hand, the larger UPS have the advantage that it will allow longer running times on battery...

So if I connect a switch to it, it would hardly be noticable?

Depends on what switch but if a smaller home switch, it probably won't make much difference.

On the otherhand I had the old 239 good for 30watt+ and a laptop good for 25 watt+. So I am better off anyway.

Exactly! You've written here that you have 2 VMs running on the NAS so you have a very capable data storage with a nice stable power supply and the equivalent of 2 additional computers running at a total of only 48-58 W. You should be happy instead of complaining.

Or insert bigger disks? HGST 4TB instead of those 2.5" 1TB WD.

With larger disks, the NAS/UPS will use more power in total even if the efficiency improves sligthly.

I configure my NASes to store my data as safely as possible. My data is worth much more to the family than a what the power cost.

[FogDucker]

Hi all,

Months have passed since my original post and I thought I'd provide an update for the benefit of other users that may be looking to use QNAP for virtualization.

I've been running a Linux and Win10 VM for several months, just off the 4 spinning disks in RAID5. My experience in using both VMs hasn't been great. It's usable, but slow. There is a lag that makes either VM a bit frustrating to use. Doing light accounting over VNC was painful. Using Thunderbird in Linux was not a nice experience. On my Win10 machine, there are 6 services that I rely on that never auto-start, even with a delayed setting.

So, I bought 2x 275GB Corsair M.2 sticks, configured them as a RAID 1 volume and move my VMs there - BOOM! Fantastic performance! Those Windows services? Startup no problem. Everything is snappy and exactly as I want it and need it to be.

My sticks are running at 55 to 60 degrees, without a heatsink. From what I've read, anything under 70 should be fine, but I'd love to hear from other Qnapp'ers about their experiences.

Best $280 I've spent all year!

--
Marc

[schumaku]

Hello Marc,

Great information, thank you! Instead of using VNC you might consider to use Windows Remote Desktop (RDP).

-Kurt

[storageman]

Hi all,

Months have passed since my original post and I thought I'd provide an update for the benefit of other users that may be looking to use QNAP for virtualization.

I've been running a Linux and Win10 VM for several months, just off the 4 spinning disks in RAID5. My experience in using both VMs hasn't been great. It's usable, but slow. There is a lag that makes either VM a bit frustrating to use. Doing light accounting over VNC was painful. Using Thunderbird in Linux was not a nice experience. On my Win10 machine, there are 6 services that I rely on that never auto-start, even with a delayed setting.

So, I bought 2x 275GB Corsair M.2 sticks, configured them as a RAID 1 volume and move my VMs there - BOOM! Fantastic performance! Those Windows services? Startup no problem. Everything is snappy and exactly as I want it and need it to be.

My sticks are running at 55 to 60 degrees, without a heatsink. From what I've read, anything under 70 should be fine, but I'd love to hear from other Qnapp'ers about their experiences.

Best $280 I've spent all year!

--
Marc

If you think they fly, wait till you try NVME m.2s!

[Trexx]

If you think they fly, wait till you try NVME m.2s!

I will be make the sacrifice for the sake of science to do that testing Storageman for the greater community good. Just let me know what email address you would like me to send my shipping information to so that you can send me the QM2 card and PCIe NVME's

[FogDucker]

Hello Marc,

Great information, thank you! Instead of using VNC you might consider to use Windows Remote Desktop (RDP).

-Kurt

Hi Kurt,
I tried RDP, but wanted one solution for Windows and Linux. I especially liked that I could use VNC via QNAP rather than having to configure it per VM. If I'm not on my LAN, I'll VPN in or use ScreenConnect for convenience.

[Trexx]

Not sure how that email has anything related to "too hot" as it says that for sequential usage, caching isn't the best way to go. For those use cases, QTier or an SSD volume is a better solution.

I have m.2 SSD's w/heatsinks and with proper ventilation they work just fine.

[flagator]

Hi all,

Months have passed since my original post and I thought I'd provide an update for the benefit of other users that may be looking to use QNAP for virtualization.

I've been running a Linux and Win10 VM for several months, just off the 4 spinning disks in RAID5. My experience in using both VMs hasn't been great. It's usable, but slow. There is a lag that makes either VM a bit frustrating to use. Doing light accounting over VNC was painful. Using Thunderbird in Linux was not a nice experience. On my Win10 machine, there are 6 services that I rely on that never auto-start, even with a delayed setting.

So, I bought 2x 275GB Corsair M.2 sticks, configured them as a RAID 1 volume and move my VMs there - BOOM! Fantastic performance! Those Windows services? Startup no problem. Everything is snappy and exactly as I want it and need it to be.

My sticks are running at 55 to 60 degrees, without a heatsink. From what I've read, anything under 70 should be fine, but I'd love to hear from other Qnapp'ers about their experiences.

Best $280 I've spent all year!

--
Marc

Same boat but still in the planning stages for more RAM and a pair of M.2's so really appreciate the update. Thank you Marc!

[aarbee]

My experience wise: Use RDP is fast.
But only for Windows environment.

Please have a look at mRemoteNG.
This is a freeware tool, in which you can connect to servers/pc's via RDP or VNC.
Per connection you can select the wished protocol.
There is even an runtime version.
I use that to manage about 30 windows servers.
But I have seen that VNC is possible as well.

I use on my QNAP 1 Windows server as virtual machine. This virtual machine has 2 cores and 8 GB internal memory.
A Linux test virtual machine has 1 core and 4GB memory.

Hope you can use the tool.

Link: https://mremoteng.org/