Dual boot OS protection

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HagenB
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Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

Hi,

i'm just about to purchase a new NAS.

Reading through the hardware specs of the ones i was interested in i found a feature called "dual boot OS protection" and so far was not able to find out what functionality it offers.

Could anyone point me to a location where this feature is described in detail?

Thanks for your support.

Regards

HagenB
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

A week is gone and no reply yet so did i post this in the wrong sub-forum? If so could an administrator please move my post to the proper sub-forum - thank you.

Or is "dual boot OS protection" just one of those "fancy sales arguments" or is it a feature being to complex to be explained to a "plain" user?

In both cases i probably should reconsider my choice ...

Regards

HagenB
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dolbyman
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by dolbyman »

Probably no answer..because nobody knows..I have never seen such a feature on qnap

So asking qnap via ticket would be best then
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

dolbyman wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:37 pm... I have never seen such a feature on qnap
Thanks for replying to my post!

Here just three (out of many) QNAP hardware specs (watch out for the line "Flash memory):

https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/tvs- ... -i3-8G.pdf
https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/ts-4 ... 1D2-4G.pdf
https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/ts-2 ... 53D-4G.pdf
dolbyman wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:37 pmSo asking qnap via ticket would be best then
Could you please point me to the place where i can create such a ticket (although i am actually asking for information and do not want to file a bug).

Regards

HagenB
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dolbyman
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by dolbyman »

here you go

https://www.qnap.com/en/support-ticket/

you can also ask presale and tech questions..qnap does not come here..so a ticket is pretty much the only way to contact qnap
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

dolbyman wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:50 am here you go

https://www.qnap.com/en/support-ticket/

you can also ask presale and tech questions..qnap does not come here..so a ticket is pretty much the only way to contact qnap
Thank you very much for your prompt answer.

To use the QNAP service portal i would have to create an ID which in it self would not be a problem but it seems you have to register a product by giving a serial number (https://www.qnap.com/en/support-ticket/#f02) and i do not (yet?) have a QNAP product ...

Regards

HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by Techthusiast »

Hello,

My understanding of the QNAP “Dual boot OS protection” is that it is a core/underlying feature of QNAP’s “Turbo NAS” QTS operating system common to many (or most?) QNAP NAS models manufactured after the feature was introduced in approximately (I think) Year 2011.

For those NAS’s that have it, the “Dual boot OS protection” physically resides on the NAS’s Flash DOM (Flash Disk-On-Module). To the best of my knowledge, the feature provides a structure that automatically alternates system boots between two otherwise identical operating systems to provide boot-time and operational fail-over protection for the QTS operating system.

In addition to the fail-over protection, it is said to also provide bandwidth load balancing (applicable to environments using multiple ethernet links) and multi-IP sharing capabilities (applicable to environments with workgroups in different subnets).

Although a bit outdated as of now in Year 2020, there is a short video slideshow available on YouTube in which the “Dual OS Benefits” were described. Please have a look here:
QNAP Turbo NAS Dual OS and System Live Update (dated April 7, 2011)

Hope this helps.


Best regards,
Techthusiast
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation!
Techthusiast wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:05 pm... the “Dual boot OS protection” physically resides on the NAS’s Flash DOM (Flash Disk-On-Module). To the best of my knowledge, the feature provides a structure that automatically alternates system boots between two otherwise identical operating systems to provide boot-time and operational fail-over protection for the QTS operating system.
Ah, i see.

So it probably works like Android (> version 6) which uses two partitions to keep the operating system. An OS update always goes to the currently non-active partition. On re-boot the updated partition is used and if it fails to boot the system just falls back to the non-updated partition.

That is a feature good to have!

However i don't understand how this should be related to bandwidth load balancing (applicable to environments using multiple ethernet links) and multi-IP sharing capabilities (applicable to environments with workgroups in different subnets). Nevertheless both are nice features to have ...

Regards

HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by Techthusiast »

Hello,

You are very welcome, I am glad to assist.

Regarding the additional features that “Dual boot OS protection” is said to provide (such as the "bandwidth load balancing" and "multi-IP sharing"), I understand your concern but unfortunately do not have any additional information to supplement the April-2011 YouTube video linked-to in my earlier post.

Given that the 2011 video slideshow is both short on details and dated from 9 years ago, I would please note that there is a likelihood that the feature(s) may have been updated or otherwise changed since that time. For more up-to-date information, I would kindly recommend that you please reach out to QNAP Pre-Sales Department (via their "Contact Us" webpage) and please update here accordingly should you find any new details.


Best regards,
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

Thanks again for your help!

It is always good to know where one can ask for information.
Techthusiast wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 8:40 pm... Regarding the additional features that “Dual boot OS protection” is said to provide (such as the "bandwidth load balancing" and "multi-IP sharing"), I understand your concern but unfortunately do not have any additional information to supplement the April-2011 YouTube video linked-to in my earlier post.
I downloaded the "QNAP QTS 4.4.x User Guide" (https://docs.qnap.com/operating-system/ ... -en-us.zip) and both features are described starting at page 344 under the headline "Configuring Port Trunking".

So i guess both are features provided by the OS and available on all QNAP NAS which run that OS-Version.

Regards

HagenB
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rafale
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by rafale »

I don't think port trunking has anything to do with the Dual OS.

My understanding and experience of the dual OS is actually a bit different. The core OS of the NAS is indeed stored in the DOM which is a small flash drive (likely NOR flash) on the NAS. When one installs and configures a NAS, the QNAP requires you to have another drive inserted. It technically is to copy over the content of the DOM over to that drive, creating a partition on it. It then subsequently stores all of the QTS additional files in there. I have purposely done this on SSDs in an attempt to make system boot faster. You will thereafter always boot from this created partition on your additional drive unless... that partition gets corrupted or the drive is removed. In that case, the NAS will failover boot to the DOM again. That's the protection. The rest of bandwidth load balancing and multi-IP sharing don't have anything to do with the dual OS protection.
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HagenB
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Re: Dual boot OS protection

Post by HagenB »

rafale wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 3:05 am I don't think port trunking has anything to do with the Dual OS.

My understanding and experience of the dual OS is actually a bit different. The core OS of the NAS is indeed stored in the DOM which is a small flash drive (likely NOR flash) on the NAS. When one installs and configures a NAS, the QNAP requires you to have another drive inserted. It technically is to copy over the content of the DOM over to that drive, creating a partition on it. It then subsequently stores all of the QTS additional files in there. I have purposely done this on SSDs in an attempt to make system boot faster. You will thereafter always boot from this created partition on your additional drive unless... that partition gets corrupted or the drive is removed. In that case, the NAS will failover boot to the DOM again. That's the protection. The rest of bandwidth load balancing and multi-IP sharing don't have anything to do with the dual OS protection.
Thanks for replying to my post.

While roaming the internet i found this link: https://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/Firmware_Recovery

I downloaded one of the recovery images and had a closer look at it. It contains two OS partitions and the GRUB config file (placed in the ESP) shows some sort of switching between those two OS partitions if one fails to boot.

Nevertheless chances are that (parts of) the OS are copied to the disk array during system installation to speed up operations or to keep the DOM hidden. But that's hard to tell from just looking at the recovery image.

As far as bandwidth load balancing and multi-IP sharing capabilities are concerned i think that those are features offered by the OS and are not related to dual boot OS protection. However those features are quite useful and it is good to know that QNAP offers them.

Regards

susejunky
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