QNAP TS-670 Pro

[chwhnd2005]

If I'm doing this wrong I apologies, I'm 71. I just bought a used QNAP. It was listed as a QNAP TS-670 Pro with a i7 3770s and 16GB RAM . The sticker on the bottom says TS-670 as well as the box. Did I buy a PRO or not? I tried to find a way to compare the two, but failed. I'm thinking that the additional RAM and CPU upgrade is what makes this a PRO, but I'd appreciate someone in the know telling me that.

[dolbyman]

If you bought this unit with an I7, you got a 'tinkered' with device, as stock is i3-3220.

Also please be aware that this device is out of support and will not get any updates (function or security)

https://www.qnap.com/en/product/status? ... -670%20Pro

[OneCD]

Comparing the hardware specs (ignoring the differences in CPU and RAM), it might be possible to determine the model externally.

• The TS-670 was shipped with an installed PCIe card containing 2 x 1GbE ports (for a total of 4 x 1GbE ports).

• The TS-670 Pro wasn't shipped with this card and has a blanking plate installed (and has a total of 2 x 1GbE ports).

Somewhat oddly, the 'Pro' model was shipped with 2 x 1GbE ports less than the non-'Pro' model.

Of course, there's nothing stopping someone installing the additional PCIe card afterward. This would give the 'Pro' model the look of the non-'Pro' model, but with extra functionality.

[chodaboy19]

There is no significant difference between the TS-670 and TS-670 Pro besides the PCIe add-on card. (Since the RAM and CPU have been upgraded)

The TS-670(Pro) have been getting security updates: https://www.qnap.com/en/download?model= ... y=firmware

QTS 4.3.6.1750
build 20210730
Date: 2021-08-02

But they won't get any new feature updates unfortunately.

[dolbyman]

The TS-670(Pro) have been getting security updates: https://www.qnap.com/en/download?model= ... y=firmware

Probably catastrophic security holes that would result in (more) bad press if left unfixed. Same with the decade old x19 ARM units. Out of support but got a couple of security updates this year.

[chwhnd2005]

Like I said earlier I'm 71, so I'll post here and wait to get chewed out. My TS-670 PRO identifies itself in the window as a PRO so nuf said there.
Now for a real problem.

After experimenting a little with it I purchased a QM2-2P-384 Card and installed 2xFalcon 2TB M.2 PCIe SSDs. I installed the card alone, booted and proceeded to install, it worked fine. The first SSD became the System and I later setup the second as a Plex Cache. I then installed six 16TB Seagate HDDs and created a RAID5 with a single pool with Shared Folders Plex, Archives and Backup. PCIe1 remained System and PCIe2 Cache.

Everything was working just fine until 2 days ago. First sign of trouble was Ples’s inability to Match Video. Second problem yesterday was a warning that System Volume on PCIe1 M.2 SSD was Read Only and the File System had a problem with the recommendation I run Check File System, which I did, but it stalled multiply times at 25% and then 50%. I then Backed up the system settings. Today I got a “Missing Disk” error.

I shut the NAS down and removed all six HDDs and tried to boot. I got a “No Disk” error. This leads me to believe that the QM2-2P-384 Card had failed. I reversed the two SSDs on the Card and tried to boot, still no joy. I installed the Factory Default BIOS Settings and tried again, no joy. I removed the QM2-2P-384 Card and installed a spare 500GH 2.5” SSD in slot 1 and the system Booted normally and installed the system.

Now I have the RAID5 Drives with 30TB of Plex video and 30TB of backed up data. What do I do now?

[dolbyman]

Use just the regular HDD's boot the NAS up and reinstall the systems (just use Qfinder .. do not factory reset anything) on the plain disks. Plex server should not see too much improvement in terms of performance from system files on SSD.

[chwhnd2005]

Thanks. When you say "regular HDDs" do you mean the original six 16TB HDDs that I took out and numbered so I would know where they go. These disk are not “plain”, they are a RAID5 with 30TB of my video and another 30TB of backed up data. I don’t have any other copies of this data. I actually don’t know where a home owner can backup 60TB. Are you saying I should reinstall them in the correct order and boot the NAS. Once it boots you say I can use Qfinder PRO, which I have on my computer, to reinstall the system.

[dosborne]

My main NAS has as relatively large capacity and if fairly full (about 30TB) so I had to resort to using an old and slow 2-bay NAS which I upgraded with 18TB drives. Ultimately these days, the most viable solution for most people is a second NAS. Fortunately, the backup doesn't have to have the same level or processing power or bells and whistles, just enough bays to support the required number of high capacity drives to do the job.

I was lucky that a pair of 18TB HDDs would solve my backup needs for $435ea.

[dolbyman]

With lots of data come lots of backups...simple fact..sadly very painful and/or expensive to learn for some people

With the plain HDD I meant the spinning disks...the OS is on the disks so the NAS should start with only the HDDs inserted

[chwhnd2005]

Oah, so the “System” folder on the NAS is just for installing the Aps and not the same as the “System” folder under Windows. I thought placing System on an SSD would increase system response, as it does under Windows. For Aps only there would not be an appreciable benefit, right?

As to Backups, I have a current Windows System Backup on the Computer and a Historical series on the NAS. I also have Complete Backups of past computers on the NAS. After switching from Apple to Intel in the 90’s I have just gotten larger HDDs at each computer upgrade until I needed the NAS to handle the massive video library and all the backups. I like Osborne’s idea and if I am able to recover my current NAS I’ll follow his suggestion.

Thanks again. I appreciate the fast, polite, nonjudgmental and helpful responses. I’m an old Main Frame, MS DOS, Windows Guy and am just getting familiar with Unix and QTS and at 71 my synapses don’t seem to snap as fast as they once did. The QNAP Manuals don’t cover everything, it took an extremely long time for me to figure out that Cat1 were earlier EOL NAS’s and Cat2 were newer Intel Based units, “I think,” and the Cat version has some bearing on recovery.

[FSC830]

The main difference between Cat1 and Cat2 devices is not hardware, but the firmware.
Cat1 devices running a so-called "legacy" firmware, which do not allow setup pools, use of snapshots etc.
The raid can administrated with mdadm commands. Cat2 devices running a "HAL" firmware which allows to setup a static volume (like a volume at a Cat1 unit), Thin- and Thickpools, use of snapshots etc.

But in all Cat2 devices an additional LVM layer is used, that makes troubleshooting more difficult, not only the mdadm commands are needed, also the commands for the LVM.

Anyhow you wrote:

Thanks. When you say "regular HDDs" do you mean the original six 16TB HDDs that I took out and numbered so I would know where they go. These disk are not “plain”, they are a RAID5 with 30TB of my video and another 30TB of backed up data. I don’t have any other copies of this data. I actually don’t know where a home owner can backup 60TB. Are you saying I should reinstall them in the correct order and boot the NAS. Once it boots you say I can use Qfinder PRO, which I have on my computer, to reinstall the system.

I strongly recommend to find an other backup solution if the NAS is the one and only location the data resides!
If NAS fails for any reason, all ist lost!

Regards

[chwhnd2005]

Ok, now what. After reinstalling the 6 HDDs in the correct order I still get the "Disk Missing" error. Qfinder PRO 7.7.0 gets "Failed to Login no response from server". What exactly does "reinstall the systems (just use Qfinder .. do not factory reset anything)" mean, because Qfinder doesn't seam to do anything except identify the NAN.

Is there a way to upload screen shots because I have lots of this issue.

[dolbyman]

So there was talks about cache .. how was this setup ?

"Plex cache" as in .. had some Plex files that drive, as a dedicated storage
or
"Plex cache" as in .. I setup a single drive as cache (read + write?) and when it died, it killed my pool

if it's the second one, you probably look at a complete resetup of the NAS

[chwhnd2005]

I did one of the SSD as system, which I now understand to mean where apps are stored. The second SSD was a read write cache for the Plex Folder. At the first sign of trouble I turned the cache off from within QTS and verified that it was successfully turned off. At that point I was still able to watch Plex Video. I never got any warnings about the cache or cache drive. I got the file system error only on the other SSD. The RAID5 array never exhibited any problem.

When It set up the NAS originally only the QM2-2P-384 Card with the two 2TB SSDs was installed. The six bays were vacant. I created only one storage pool on the first SSD for what I thought was the "Windows like" System. I then shut down the NAS and installed the six 16TB drives, booted and created a DAID5 with one pool and three Folders, Archive, Backup and Plex. I ran just fine until a few days ago.