Too many QNAP Sync apps

[jawz101]

QSync Central
Cloud Drive Central
Connect to Cloud Drive
Hybrid Backup Sync - Beta
Cloud Backup Sync - Beta
Backup Versioning

... and then I think some need CloudLink, QTS SSL Certificate, probably Network & VIrtual Switch tweaks... heck... I don't know.

How about MySSLHybridQLinkCloudSyncBackup? ugh. Buzzwords

How am I supposed to know what is recommended today and for what? I imagine someone left, a new idea was made, and suddenly a new app was born to replace or add one new feature.

Regardless, the mess of QNAP-developed Q-apps is very confusing. I hope you all can consolidate and deprecate some apps because I'm hesitant to use one over another if some may do the same thing.

Also, make it easier to distinguish what relies on the myqnapcloud and what doesn't. Personally I don't want to use so many variables in a setup, I don't want to rely on UPnP and all of that.

Just doesn't seem entirely intuitive what you end up turning on to accomplish one thing. At one point I had a bunch of file serving, UPnP, and DLNA settings on and eventually turned it all back off and I could still use the packages and built-in functions without any of them on.

I guess protection from ignorance is what I'm getting at.

[albumman]

QSync Central
Cloud Drive Central
Connect to Cloud Drive
Hybrid Backup Sync - Beta
Cloud Backup Sync - Beta
Backup Versioning

... and then I think some need CloudLink, QTS SSL Certificate, probably Network & VIrtual Switch tweaks... heck... I don't know.

How about MySSLHybridQLinkCloudSyncBackup? ugh. Buzzwords

You forgot the built-in Backup Station which is the only one I need.

[Trexx]

Crash Course:

mYQNAPCloud = Easy way to access your QNAP remotely
QTS SSL Certificate = Method to help secure/encrypt that remote access

QSync = for between PC's (and some mobile) and QNAP (think private dropbox)

Hybrid Backup Sync = eventual replacement of Backup Station (main backup app)
Cloud Backup Sync = add-on module for HBS to enable backup to cloud providers
Backup Versioning = add-on backup module to allow you do have multiple versions of a file. So if you have a spreadsheet that changes daily but the filename stays the same, without BV you will always only have the latest version of it backed up. With BV, you could have say 7 versions of it (represent each of the last 7 days copies)
Connect to Cloud Drive = File Station add-on to enable access to cloud providers (think more like file manager w/cloud visibility). Nothing to do with HBS.
Cloud Drive Sync = similar to HBS w/Cloud Backup Sync option but in a stand-alone app. Does offer some options for more of a real-time syncing to cloud vs. scheduled backup to cloud.

If you are new to NAS, you may want to look at some of videos that QNAP has published to help get more familiar with features/functions:
https://www.youtube.com/user/QNAPTV

[jawz101]

So they could get rid of Backup Station and just have Hybrid Backup Sync with Cloud Backup Sync, Backup Versioning, and Cloud Drive Sync rolled into into one thing, and just make the add-ons preference checkboxes instead of separate apps.

I'm just turned off by the feature creep. Things like proxy, DHCP, DNS, WINS, and LDAP servers are not something I'd put on a box like this in an enterprise and they could simply remove a bunch of the other apps and focus on virtualization to handle bells and whistles.

[Trexx]

Long term I think Hybrid will replace Backup Station, but Hybrid is still in "beta" release. As for the other modules, by having them modular makes it easier to add/update them w/o changing core backup program. It also reduces testing time required as changing core backup program would require testing across a much wider range of QNAP products.

So when new cloud providers become hot/cold, they can add/remove them by releasing an updated Cloud module. And if you aren't using any of them, you don't have to have the extra code "bloat".

[jawz101]

I guess my other concern is with trust. I am leary to use some of the open source packages because they probably don't practice reproducible builds.

[DanTheMan]

So they could get rid of Backup Station and just have Hybrid Backup Sync with Cloud Backup Sync, Backup Versioning, and Cloud Drive Sync rolled into into one thing, and just make the add-ons preference checkboxes instead of separate apps.

I completely agree. QNAP should focus on one working backup solution that provides local, remote and cloud backup including backup history. As it stands, all backup functions that provide a backup history are still in beta (Hybrid Backup Sync - BETA and Backup Station with Backup Versioning BETA). Even worse, for local backup to a external hard drive, backup history stopped working or is suddenly not supported any longer.

I guess my other concern is with trust. I am leary to use some of the open source packages because they probably don't practice reproducible builds.

That's interesting. Could you elaborate on that, i.e., your concerns with trust and how deterministic compilation would build up trust?

As I see it, deterministic compilation is mainly relevant internally to QNAP only,, i.e., their developers, their build and release system. It guarantees that a given source code always builds into the same binary artifacts. Customers would most probably not be able to reproduce builds and create compilation artifacts for comparison as customers don't have the build system and all of the source code. Or am I misunderstanding the concept?

[bysbox]

So they could get rid of Backup Station and just have Hybrid Backup Sync with Cloud Backup Sync, Backup Versioning, and Cloud Drive Sync rolled into into one thing, and just make the add-ons preference checkboxes instead of separate apps.

I'm just turned off by the feature creep. Things like proxy, DHCP, DNS, WINS, and LDAP servers are not something I'd put on a box like this in an enterprise and they could simply remove a bunch of the other apps and focus on virtualization to handle bells and whistles.

This is a bit off topic, but . . . .

For someone like me who has NAS, Router and Ipads only, some of the features are welcome. IMO they are for people like me who have streamline setups. I use the VPN server app, it runs fantastic! It's much faster and was a lot easier to setup than VPN on my router (which was a horrible experience). I used WINS and LDAP before when I had Windows boxes.

And virtualization on some of the NAS servers just to run those services is very slow round about way for those services for small environments, at least from my experience. I had VM's running on my NAS before for DNS/Sync and decided I would never do it again. Why eat up resources on VM server and clients for services like DHCP or DNS that used minimal resources on the QNAP NAS? And then I have to babysit a VM server and clients with OS's? No thanks. Just let me run those services natively on the NAS.

In an enterprise environment that would be different, as most enterprise users have separate DC's, Backup DC's, Name Servers for WINS and DNS (if you are that large), File Share servers etc. But I always got the feeling QNAS NAS firmware targeted the small Home/SOHO users. I mean it has Plex server and Skype! For those people (and I include myself in small HOME/SOHO) those extra services are welcome. Don't want to use the services? Turn them off.

[babuja]

Hi guys, also confused about so many option here. Also no idea of pros cons of using snapshot volume or snapshot shared folder compared to all other options. Can some one clarify?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[jawz101]

I guess my other concern is with trust. I am leary to use some of the open source packages because they probably don't practice reproducible builds.

That's interesting. Could you elaborate on that, i.e., your concerns with trust and how deterministic compilation would build up trust?

Reproducible builds mean if you compile the source code yourself you get the exact same thing every time. Like, if you compared all of the file hashes you produce to the original program's source code, it would be an exact match. This guarantees nothing has been tampered with.

Say, if Mozilla made Firefox and compiled it, then I download their source code, and compile it and we compare the file signatures, they match. Now, if QNAP published a Firefox app it should match as well. If not, they changed something in the code.
Some open source projects have steered towards reproducible builds. This usually means not making code that generates timestamps or inserting details about the computer on which it's built on in the code and whatnot at build time. That way the code is always going to turn out the same end result for anyone.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Hybrid Backup Sync = eventual replacement of Backup Station (main backup app)

even after hbs went to stable for quite a while now, backup station still remains.

i suspect because legacy qnaps are still using backup station an/or are also stuck on a lower version of HBS. so they kept backup station around because of those legacy units.

i would recommend using HBS latest when possible *except when a bad version crops up like it does every now and then.

HBS comes with cloudbackup sync, it's a set. they just made it modular but their both come together. another reason for that is probably for maintenance. if one is working fine, but the other needs fixing, they'll fix just one and leave the other alone. so faster updates perhaps because the apps in function are modular/split up.