Trexx wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 8:18 pm
For boot drive, you could get by with m.2 SATA > USB external drive as the TS-653a isn’t going to have the bandwidth to fully saturate an NVMe drive. Unless the NVMe version is cheaper.
Even 2.5” external SSD USB combos are fine as well, just a little bigger.
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this makes sense. i was just considering it because i also needed an external m.2 usb for testing purposes, and i don't have m.2 nvme if i needed one also to test things out. there is a sale going on tomorrow that is why i was looking.
well i'll just keep comparing then the prices
anyway this is my plan (either for the ts-509 pro or the ts-653a, not sure yet).
things i need
- usb flash drive (16gb??? 32gb if the price isn't much more. checking the virtual market place comments, there are a lot of warnings about possible fake goods, it's worrying
you know the saying if it's too cheap it's probly too good to be true)
- m.2 nvme ssd OR m.2 sata ssd (probly on price), and a matching external usb enclosure for it
- QNAP NAS with eol firmware (ts-509 pro is the prime candidate, but ts-653a has better hardware and also getting on with age. sadly neither of these models have any ssds in them fyi. hoping arc can be run on the same external usb ssd? if that's an option, i'm not too familiar with zfs)
- monitor
- keyboard
- mouse
so download truenas, put onto the usb flash drive, plug that and the external usb onto the qnap. also plug in the monitor, keyboard and mouse
boot on qnap. enter bios (f12? delete? f2? f8? it's one of those, can't remember which). disable auto booting from the dom. set it to auto boot from the external usb ssd. Then boot up direct from the usb flash drive.
then follow the guide for setup for the rest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-wQwC4bDgc
at this point whenever you boot the nas, it will load truenas.
if for some reason you want to go back to qts, you can boot down, boot up, go bios, change the auto boot back to dom, then remove the external usb. then boot up. Now it's back to the original. I've heard some people physically remove the dom, but if you set it not to boot from dom anyway, i don't see the harm leaving it as is
any part of these steps did i misunderstand? :
If the qnap model had a m.2 ssd already inside the nas, i may have tried testing if i could install truenas onto that. but for now i don't have a nas that needs to do that yet
(no problem using qts as long as it gets security patches and actively maintained) but it would save me the trouble from requiring an external usb enclosure for a ssd.