New TVS-h674 User

[amnm]

Hi, I am a new TVS-h674 user and I have a few questions:

1) In the past I was using single disk volumes (no RAID) and I was doing full backups. I care about the data but not so much about the uptime. Now I am considering using RAID5 in addition to the backups.
- Will this NAS cope well with 6x18TB in RAID5?
- How long approximately will the initial RAID5 build take? Also how long approximately in the future will it take to rebuild the RAID5 if one hard drive fails.
- In case of a one hard disk failure, will it be possible to back up any unbacked up data before rebuilding or it will be time consuming because of calculating the missing blocks from the parity?
- Will RAID5 affect the durability of the hard drives? Sorry I hear a lot of issues with RAID and that is why I am concerned.

2) I am not planning to use my NAS from outside my LAN. Is there any reason why should I register or create a myQNAPCloud account? I feel that my NAS may be more secure if I do not.

3) When I perform my backups, I usually do manual checks to make sure that the current data on the NAS is valid but this is not an easy task especially if I want to perform backups on regular basis. I do not want to override my valid backup data with corrupted ones o the NAS. Is there a tool that compared the data on the NAS with the backed up data and gives a report of added, deleted and modified files before actually performing the backup?

4) I am also struggling with the disks being active while no activity is taking place which is most of the time. I have the system pool running on an NVMe SSD. It will be great if there is a small command or app to force the system to go to sleep and wake rather than keep switching the NAS hardware OFF and ON.

Thank you very much

[dolbyman]

1) On ZFS RAID build (initial) and rebuild is fast (rebuild is depending on the data utilization)

Not sure why data is suposed to be bad for durability of drives..no idea what you have heard

2) No ..but without port forwards, security should be a non issue no matter what

3) Yes data verification is vuild into HBS3

4) HDD sleep is a can of worms, even more so when you realize that the OS is on ALL internal drives (spanning RAID1)

[amnm]

Thank you dolbyman. Always helpful.

Regarding point (1), I hear a lot with RAID that a rebuild is required. Which means hard drive failure or other problem. I only had a couple of hard drive failures in the past when I was not using RAID. That is why I am asking whether RAID affect the durability of the hard drives.

Regarding point (3), how to use HBS3 to generate a report of the changed files to check before performing the backup? For example, with my current backup policy, all the modified data on the NAS will replace the data on the backup hard drives. If the data on the NAS get corrupted, due to malware for example, my data on the backup will be overwritten as well with the corrupted data.

[dolbyman]

Never had any problems with RAID...helped me save a lot of time though (quick swap and rebuild vs long resetup and backup restore)

If you want to verify files there is a function you can use at the end of the backup (called verify)
If you want to keep versions, you use a container (versioning qdff)

[amnm]

quick swap and rebuild vs long resetup and backup restore

Doesn't this mean that there are hard drives failures with RAID?

If you want to verify files there is a function you can use at the end of the backup (called verify)

I did not know that. I will search for it. I hope that the verification is happening before the backup starts and not after the backup is finished. Otherwise, it will be too late.

[dolbyman]

hard drives always fail..no matter if single or array

The file verification is based on checksum match, accidentally or malicious changed files would not be caught that way (it's for transmission/storage errors)

[amnm]

The file verification is based on checksum match, accidentally or malicious changed files would not be caught that way (it's for transmission/storage errors)

It will be great if HBS can have a dry run mode or diff only mode because the worst that can happen is overwriting the valid backup data with corrupted data.

[amnm]

I have one more question regarding RAID5. If I do not have a UPS protection and I get an unexpected power outage, will this cause the whole RAID array to fail or only the file being written will be corrupted?

Also as a confirmation, if I am using QuTS hero and choose RAID5, it will actually be a RAIDZ. Is this correct?

Thanks again.

[dolbyman]

Raid5 = RAIDZ correct

You not only risk your filesystem but also sensitive NAS electronics..just get a UPS

[amnm]

Does any one know whether the CyberPower VP1600ELCD UPS will work with the QNAP TVS-h674 NAS or not. It is not in the compatibility list. I do not know whether this means that it is not compatible or not tested.
Basically I would like my NAS to be able to monitor the status of the UPS and automatically power off cleanly when it detects that there is a power outage.

https://www.cyberpower.com/au/en/product/sku/vp1600elcd

[ColHut]

I do not know, but cannot see why it would not work off the usb connection for notification. However, note the the SLA batteries are not user replaceable, if that matters to you.

Regards

[dolbyman]

However, note the the SLA batteries are not user replaceable, if that matters to you.

Really ? I never had this UPS but a UPS with non replaceable batteries is like a printer with not ink/toner replacement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQj2xmR-zCM