TVS-EC1080+ Hardware & Maintenance Questions

[GeekStreetSolutions]

I have a TVS-EC1080+ and have a few questions about it (See Signature for Specs):

1. CACHE DRIVES: One of the mSATA Cache drives is about to fail (EOL). I have two replacement mSATA Drives (2x 1TB Samsung 860 EVO) on the way. Is is best to pull both drives, even though one has and estimated 31% life remaining?

2. OPERATING TEMPERATURES: Are these temps ok? Based on other peoples temps I would think they are abnormally high. They have always been like this though.

CPU: 59°C / 138°F
System Temp: 44°C / 111°F
Disk 1: 45°C / 113°F
Disk 2: 46°C / 114°F
Disk 3: 46°C / 114°F
Disk 4: 50°C / 122°F
Disk 5: 49°C / 120°F
Disk 6: 49°C / 120°F
Disk 7: 44°C / 111°F
Disk 8: 41°C / 105°F
Internal Cache Port 1: 50°C / 122°F
Internal Cache Port 2: 52°C / 125°F
System fan 1 speed: 928 RPM
System fan 2 speed: 921 RPM

3. PHYSICAL SYSTEM CLEANING: My NAS is out of warranty and was thinking about preforming a deep cleaning to remove all dust from the inside to see if it improves operating temps. Is it a good idea to open up the NAS fully to remove any internal dust or is it unlikely any dust has gotten inside.

[P3R]

Is is best to pull both drives, even though one has and estimated 31% life remaining?

I'd say that it's a matter of personal opinion and laziness. Personally I find it bad practice to replace things that haven't yet reached the end of their technical lifetime, both for monetary and environmental reasons.

Based on other peoples temps I would think they are abnormally high.

The middle disks look a bit high but I wouldn't call it abnormal. WD Red Pro aren't known to run cool.

What's the ambient temperature where the NAS is placed?

You can try to change to the manual fan setting and make sure that the fans spin up as I would expect them to do. If that improves the situation you could leave it like that for evaluation for a while, assuming the fan noise isn't a major problem in your environment.

Is it a good idea to open up the NAS fully to remove any internal dust or is it unlikely any dust has gotten inside.

Yes it's a good idea and no it isn't unlikely that you have dust in there.

I'm not familiar with the specific model but generally speaking the Qnap drive cages in these disk hot-swap chassis are normally filled with dust as the air is drawn in through there and over time it usually gets to the inside of the case as well. Depending on the amount of dust that accumulates in the drive cage over time it's a good idea to routinely shut down, remove all disks (remember the order), vacuum in the drive cage and each disk individually before reinserting the disks again. Opening up the case and cleaning the internals usually doesn't need to be done as often but if you've never done it before, it's high time now.

Be careful with the vacuum cleaner and avoid touching any electronic components with the tube.

[GeekStreetSolutions]

Thanks for the detailed response P3R!

What's the ambient temperature where the NAS is placed?

The ambient temperature is usually 69°F in the Winter and 78°F in the summer. Looking up the operating temps of all the components in the NAS, they appear to be under the max operating temperatures so I should be fine.

I have my NAS placed near the floor in the Navepoint server rack, mostly because I was hoping to keep dust away from the NAS but unfortunately had to remove the front and side panels on the server rack since I wasn't getting optimal air flow. So for now I have a Air Purifier with a Hepa Filter placed right in front of the NAS hopefully filtering the air enough. I will eventually get a replacement server rack with metal mesh panels and place some type of breathable mesh over the panels to catch the dust but don't think I will replace the rack anytime soon. I possibly will just make some magnetic mesh panels to stick on the open sides on the current rack for now.

Yes it's a good idea and no it isn't unlikely that you have dust in there.

I'm not familiar with the specific model but generally speaking the Qnap drive cages in these disk hot-swap chassis are normally filled with dust as the air is drawn in through there and over time it usually gets to the inside of the case as well. Depending on the amount of dust that accumulates in the drive cage over time it's a good idea to routinely shut down, remove all disks (remember the order), vacuum in the drive cage and each disk individually before reinserting the disks again. Opening up the case and cleaning the internals usually doesn't need to be done as often but if you've never done it before, it's high time now.

Be careful with the vacuum cleaner and avoid touching any electronic components with the tube.

Since the replacement mSATA drives I got were discontinued, and are so expensive to buy from most US sellers, I ended up buying from a seller on Aliexpress, hoping they are genuine. They may come a little late so I may have to disable caching while I wait for them to arrive, unless Im able to run caching with one drive only and if I can may run like that until the second drive reaches its EOL, which I will find out.

Once they do come however I will take the NAS offline for a weekend and preform a deep cleaning. Right now, in regards to tools on hand, I have just a cheap shop vac, a standard household vacuum, and a few dozen cans of canned air. I'm unsure of the effects of using a standard vacuum in regards to static discharge, and whether it would be wise to invest about $100 to buy a specialized computer vacuum to minimize static discharge, so that is something I also will research before cleaning. I will most likely only need it to remove the larger chunks of dust build-up and may be fine with just removing those by hand and blowing out the smaller dust particles outside with the canned air.

I have all the super important data backed up remotely to AWS Glacier, so failure due to static is less of a worry but still is a top priority. Once everything is cleaned and the rack is further protected from dust I will test out running the fans manually at a higher speed and see if that helps. Additionally setting up a more dedicated cleaning schedule will be on my to do list.

[P3R]

The ambient temperature is usually 69°F in the Winter and 78°F in the summer.

That's excellent but maybe it's hotter in the rack, even with the panels removed, if you have other gear there?

Looking up the operating temps of all the components in the NAS, they appear to be under the max operating temperatures so I should be fine.

Yes, but obviously cooler is better so keep on doing the things you planned and keep a close eye on temperatures.

They may come a little late so I may have to disable caching while I wait for them to arrive, unless Im able to run caching with one drive only and if I can may run like that until the second drive reaches its EOL, which I will find out.

Disable write caching temporarily and do only read caching as then your data is safe even when the cache hardware fail.

I'm unsure of the effects of using a standard vacuum in regards to static discharge, and whether it would be wise to invest about $100 to buy a specialized computer vacuum to minimize static discharge, so that is something I also will research before cleaning.

Wow, you're very thorough. I like that, people like you almost never have inexplainable odd issues that so frequently happen to the more adventurous users.

I've used household vacuum cleaners in computers for 35 years but then again I never touch the circuit boards or components with the vacuum and always grab the power supply of any system before touching anything else in it.

[GeekStreetSolutions]

The ambient temperature is usually 69°F in the Winter and 78°F in the summer.

That's excellent but maybe it's hotter in the rack, even with the panels removed, if you have other gear there?

Looking up the operating temps of all the components in the NAS, they appear to be under the max operating temperatures so I should be fine.

Yes, but obviously cooler is better so keep on doing the things you planned and keep a close eye on temperatures.

They may come a little late so I may have to disable caching while I wait for them to arrive, unless Im able to run caching with one drive only and if I can may run like that until the second drive reaches its EOL, which I will find out.

Disable write caching temporarily and do only read caching as then your data is safe even when the cache hardware fail.

I'm unsure of the effects of using a standard vacuum in regards to static discharge, and whether it would be wise to invest about $100 to buy a specialized computer vacuum to minimize static discharge, so that is something I also will research before cleaning.

Wow, you're very thorough. I like that, people like you almost never have inexplainable odd issues that so frequently happen to the more adventurous users.

I've used household vacuum cleaners in computers for 35 years but then again I never touch the circuit boards or components with the vacuum and always grab the power supply of any system before touching anything else in it.

Thanks for the info! I'll post back if I run into any issues. Regarding the equipment in the rack, I have the UPS pretty close to the right side of the NAS and a unmanaged switch near the top. I will play around with moving the equipment around and see what happens. The UPS is probably contributing to some of the heat in the case.

[P3R]

I will play around with moving the equipment around and see what happens.

There's most likely no need for that. Unless you can feel the air being noticeably hotter an inch from the front of the Qnap (where it gets the air from) then ambient temperature isn't a problem at all. I've never felt much heat from any household/SMB UPS or unmanaged switch.

The only reason I raised the concern was if you had something like bitmining equipment in the rack and it was in a less airconditioned room.

My Qnap is in a small utility room where the temperature is unfortunately 80-104°F and it's able to keep cool so I've already written off ambient temperature as being your problem.

It of course have other thermal and technical explanations but it's still ironic that me living in Sweden have a higher ambient temperature around my NAS in the winter than you, living in southern California, have in the summer.

[P3R]

So for now I have a Hepa Filter placed right in front of the NAS hopefully filtering the air enough.

As a test, try removing the HEPA Filter for 6 hours giving free airflow to the chassis.