Challenges using the Q'Center Server to upgrade Agents and Firmware

[Mr Davo]

Hi All,

I am currently using the Q'center Virtual Appliance (VA) to manage a significant no. of NASes.

I have now used the Q'Center VA (or Server) to upgrade the firmware on my NAS fleet on two separate occasions; on neither occasion has the process been smooth, or highly successful! In both cases I was left with a significant number of NAS units which I had to log onto manually and upgrade individually. Not only did I have to upgrade the firmware manually, but I also had to update the Q'Center Agent App manually (on each) as well.

I believe that the issues I have experienced revolve around the compatibility of the Q'Center Assistant (also now confusingly called Connect to Q'Center - see image below) and the Q'Center Agent. For those who are not overly familiar with how to configure a NAS for communications with a Q'Center Server (VA) it is first necessary to manually install the Q'Center Assistant (or Connect to Q'Center) App, and then using this App install the Q'Center Agent. Once the Agent is installed it can be configured with correct details to connect to the Q'Center Server.



Whilst it is possible to upgrade the Q'Center Agent App from within the Q'Center Server's web interface (as shown below) it is not possible to upgrade the Q'Center Assistant (or Connect to Q'Center) App.



This fact can lead to inconsistencies between the version of Q'Center Agent, and Q'Center Assistant (Connect to Q'Center) installed on a given NAS -



Even when there are no inconsistencies the Agent often fails to upgrade through the Q'Center Server, and instead shows the message 'Agent version is different, click here to update manually'.



Clicking the bell icon more often than not results in the same warning being presented again.

In my experience the only way to re mediate this issue is to -

1). Uninstall the Q'Center Agent App
2). Uninstall the Q'Center Assistant (Connect to Q'Center) App
3). Reinstall the newest Connect to Q'Center App
4). Reinstall the newest Q'Center Agent App
5). Re-enter configuration information
6). On the Q'Center Server (often need to) re-enter the NAS Admin password

My fleet of NASes consists entirely of TVS-471 models, and I have experienced the issue(s) above with firmware versions 4.2.0, 4.2.4 and 4.3.3.

I hope to achieve two outcomes with the aid of this lengthy post -

1). Share my experience, and hopefully get any feedback from other users who have had similar experiences when using their Q'Center Server
2). Bring this to the attention of QNAP so that further investigations can be performed, and a solution obtained.

Ultimately I am going to need to upgrade the firmware in my NAS fleet for the foreseeable future, and I would like see the process refined (and less manually) intensive.

Kind Regards,

Davo

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Try create a support ticket.

Issue catergory: app center
Q'center


Title you can label as feedback/suggestions.

Posts on forum don't necessarily get read by the staff that should be made aware of these feedback

I tried forwarding this to a staffer but not sure if it got through. so just in case, create a ticket as suggested from within QTS or here
https://helpdesk.qnap.com/index.php?/Default

best to email QNAP_RippleW here: ripplewu@qnap.com

moved thread to correct forum

viewtopic.php?f=345&t=118350&#p526319

Hi I am Ripple, product manager at QNAP. As Q'center V1.176 are currently released with several major bugs fixed and V1.2 will also be released with new features such as App management and more, we are now focusing on next year’s target for Q’center. Except from more bugs fixed , we aim to include a features demanded by you and other users always:
Monitor and management backup job for multiple QNAP NAS at Q’center.

To make sure that we do this thing right from the start, we wish that you can share your experience and thought with us to help us created a better product by providing following information:

1. If you have the need of backup or sync multiple NAS, what is your user scenario?
Backup all your family’s NAS or syncs the working document between different offices, sharing your true case with us and other as well.
2. What solution you use to conduct this task?
RTRR, Rsync, Snapshot Replica, use Cloud Backup QPKG with Cloud Storage or even third party solution, let us know what you choose and why.
3. What is the most difficult part when you try to conduct this task?
Hard to remember which NAS backup to where, did not know when a job is failure, or thinking backup 100 NAS data already let you headache.

You can answer those questions directly with this post and share your solution with other, or send your reply to ripplewu@qnap.com . Your answer might affect our result greatly as our development resource are limited to include all the backup solutions within one release and we are only at early stage in designing this feature.

So cheers and wish to hear your side of story then !

Thanks
regards
Ripple

viewtopic.php?f=345&t=117694#p521863


I too have a small fleet of qnaps specifically

TS-509 Pro (Intel Celeron)
TS-659 Pro II (Intel Atom)
TS-653A (Intel Celeron)
TS-128 (ARM)


So it would be a bit of a headache trying to manually upload firmware 1 by 1. So Q'center would definitely help with that

[Mr Davo]

Thanks Moogle. I will follow your suggestion and lodge a support request / email QNAP!