SSD upgrade recommendation for TS-470 Pro 16GB

[twr@twr.cz]

Hello,
I am planning to upgrade my TS-470 Pro 16GB / 4x HDD WD RE4 4TB in RAID 5 (Storage Pool 1 / Volume 1) running as a file server + VM server by an addition of QM2-2P10G1T with a 2xSSD (in RAID 1 configuration) as Storage Pool 2 / Volume 2 where I would move the VMs.
I am also thinking of moving the QNAP's system volume to the SSDs, with maintaining the current Storage Pool 1. As I walked through the forum, I've come to following scenario:

1) Back up my System Setting to an external USB storage
2) Turn off the machine, install QM2-2P10G1T + SSDs, remove the HDDs (Storage Pool 1)
3) Turn on the machine, initialize the SSD Raid, install the system, reload cofiguration backup from the external USB, create Storage Pool 2 on the SSDs.
4) Turn off the machine, return back the HDDs (Storage Pool 1), turn in on again
5) ?

Will that scenario work without loosing any data on the Storage Pool 1?
Thanks for any advice.

[storageman]

You can have two storage pools but you cannot have two system volumes. The default apps can only run from one place.

[twr@twr.cz]

Yes, OK. So how would I remove the system volume from the HDDs? Or is that not possible without reinitializing the original (HDD) array (and loosing the data)?

[storageman]

If the SSDs pool is just for running the VMs, just run VS and VMs from there.
Leave everything else as it is.

[twr@twr.cz]

Thank you.
Confirmed by the QNAP's support: "No, Its not possible to move it as long as the volume on the HDD Raid exist."

[twr@twr.cz]

After lot of considerations, I have tried to proceed according to my original plan. Fortunately, it has ended up successfully.
My steps were as follows:
1) Back up everything (just to be sure) to an external storage
2) Back up System Setting to an external storage
3) Turn off the machine, install QM2-2P10G1T + SSDs, remove the HDDs (existing Storage Pool 1)
4) Turn on the machine - the system was installed, (upgrade to the newest firmware), create new Storage Pool 1 (Raid 1) on the SSDs, reload cofiguration backup from the external USB - user accounts were restored and all apps succesfully reinstalled on the SSDs
5) Turn off the machine, return back the HDDs (original Storage Pool 1), turn it on again
6) Perform "Storage Manager” > “Disks” > “Recover” > “Scan All Free Drives” to recover the original Storage Pool 1 from HDDs - now labelled as Storage Pool 2
7) Control Panel > Shared Folders > manually redirect the shared folders to the Storage Pool 2
8 Move the VMs to the SSD Storage Pool 1
9) Delete the old system stuff from CACHEDEV2_DATA (HDD RAID)

[storageman]

So there were no issues with QTS having two system volumes?

[twr@twr.cz]

So there were no issues with QTS having two system volumes?

No, as far as I can see, no problems.
Just the Storage Pool 1 (SSDVol1) is marked as System in the Storage & Snapshots control panel.

[storageman]

Interesting!
I wonder if you boot again with just the HDDs it would label it again as system volume.
You probably don't want to mess with it further!

[twr@twr.cz]

Interesting!
I wonder if you boot again with just the HDDs it would label it again as system volume.
You probably don't want to mess with it further!

No, I am not going to try that
I hope this setup will work for some years to come, as did the previous one.

[chodaboy19]

Would the QNAP QM2-2P-384 work if the CPU has been upgraded to one with PCIe 3.0 support (i7-3770S)?

I cannot seem to find if the motherboard is wired x4 or x8 on the QNAP.

Is there a noticeable performance difference from running the OS from the SSD drives?