Upgrade to a new NAS: some doubt!

[salvsalvo]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering to upgrade my QNAP experience and buy a new NAS.

I currently have a TS-212P, quite old and basic actually. I'd like to buy the TS-251D but I've some doubt:

- In order to set-up the new NAS without losing all the data I've on the current one (I don't care about settings but I need to keep my files safe), do I have only to put the disc from the old to the new nas? or it'd be safer to start with a formatted disc and then simply transfer data from the old to the new nas?
- On the TS-251D (with 8GB of RAM), could I virtualise a light linux distri like Xubuntu or Lubuntu? is something the nas could afford?
- Any cons about the TS-251D? It looks a pretty decent NAS, for a personal cloud with qsync, light virtualization and pc backup management. What do you think?

Thanks in advance

salvsalvo

[dolbyman]

Start from scratch with the new NAS and copy the data over, migration would result in a crippled legacy volume. (and the old NAS can stay as your backup target.. always have backups!)

Virtualization should work fine within it's performance limitations (it's a Celeron)..

The big problem will be "personal cloud" ...as exposing the NAS to WAN directly is extremely dangerous ... several successful ransomware campaigns were launxhed this year alone, resulting in thousands of users losing their data for ransom

[salvsalvo]

Thanks for your time and your answers.
So do you think services like myqnapcloud to connect to the nas over internet are not reliable? I stopped using qsync more than 1y ago for this type of concerns but I didn't find any satisfying alternative solution (e.g. sync.com is nice, encrypted, etc...but the don't have a client for linux, pcloud free plan is not encrypted, etc...)
Thanks

[dolbyman]

qnapcloud is a name for a range of services

qnapcloud link is tunneled through qnap servers and does not require exposing your nas (but is speed limited and qnap could eavesdrop)
qnapcloud ddns is just a ddns service that will link your public IP to a hostname. While there is nothing wrong with that, forwarding ports from WAN to your NAS will result in bombardment of automated penetration scans,test,bruteforce and targeted attacks

couple of examples of the last couple of months
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... s-devices/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... overy-app/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... p-devices/

[salvsalvo]

so, at the end of the story, it's ok to use a NAS for storing files in a local environment (like home, accessing the nas using the local IP) but not using it for external access (like dropbox or something like this).
I used qnapcloud link, speed is not my main concern, I'd like only to avoid using services like dropbox etc... and keeping my files really private.
I'm not able to find a good solution...
thanks

[dolbyman]

if you really want to selfhost you could:

- setup a isolated network segment with no acces to your lan
- setup a vm on your nas with ubuntu or some web hardened distribution
- setup nextcloud (e.g.) on it
- keep an eye on security fixes
- keep an eye on traffic and cpu usage

worst thing that could happen this way is hijack of the vm ...just kill the vm or revert to an earlier snapshot...well actually if they hijack it and host illegal files on it ..you still get a knock on your door from law enforcement ..so be aware

[salvsalvo]

thanks for your answers