A couple of years ago, I purchased a QNAP TS-119 network drive for work. Used this device as a network storage for organizing shared access of employees to a number of databases (including database mail programs) and work projects. All these two years, the Qnap TS-119 worked properly (on average 10 hours a day) and did not cause any complaints. But a couple of days ago something terrible happened. NAS server is dead. From user computers, connection to network drives there was no storage.
After turning on the power, the “STATUS” LED indicator on the front panel of the drive constantly blinked red at intervals of 0.5 s. According to the article "What do the beeps and LED status on the network drive indicate?" from the qnap.ru website, this indication indicated that “the NAS system is in critical mode(failure of one disk of the array in a RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 6 configuration)". Unfortunately, the problem could not be solved quickly. Removing the hard drive from the device and then rebooting the drive, nor using “reset”, or other dances with a tambourine did not help around the device - did not give any results. By the way, the advice from the "Turbo NAS Troubleshooting Guide" from the manufacturer's website also did not bring results... Time passed, the work stood still, and the data located on the network drive was simply vital. It was decided to remove the screw from the drive, connect it to the computer and try to copy (restore) the data. The entire extraction and connection procedure was completed in just a couple of minutes. The only surprise was that the contents of the hard drive were not available for viewing from Windows (on a desktop computer). Windows 7 was installed on the computer), because there was file system ext3, used on Linux operating systems. But here a little program called ext2explore provided invaluable help. I will write more about it in the article "". The program quickly scanned the connected hard drives, found and mounted Ext3 partitions on the problematic drive. Next, the necessary data (files and folders) were easily saved on the backup hard drive and became available for further fruitful work :). Moreover, it is worth noting that the ext2explore program coped with this task perfectly, which cannot be said, for example, about the Ext2 Volume Manager program, which was able to recover only 40-50% of the information.
I don’t know what caused the QNAP TS-119 drive to “not work” - whether the device itself failed or the Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 hard drive used in it fell apart (possibly fell off boot sector, and according to user reviews, the screw is not particularly durable). When I have time, I’ll try to figure it out and add to this article. For now, I just want to give a little advice to all users of such NAS servers. If your device suddenly stops working for some reason, don’t despair. Use the simple and effective ext2explore program to save data.
P/S: I am adding to the article. It was time. I tinkered a little with the Qnap TS-119 drive and miraculously the device started working. I did the following. I removed the screw and turned on the device. Next, I pressed the “reset” button on the back wall. I held it for about 10 seconds until two appeared sound signals. Turned off the power and inserted the screw. I launched the Qfinder program from my computer. I went to the web interface, where the message “The firmware for the drives is not installed” appeared. It was suggested to install it from an existing disk or download it from the website qnap.ru. I used the last option and downloaded it from the site latest version 4.0.2 Build 0801. Next, I installed the firmware and configured the device in several steps. While the device is working. I use it now as file storage (not really important information:)). Good luck to all.
We all encounter the need to transfer files from time to time. Sometimes the file size can exceed 10 MB, which makes it difficult to send it via e-mail, not to mention transferring video or image files that can be hundreds of megabytes in size. If you have your own FTP server at home or work, you can easily share files.
Difficulties in setting up an FTP server on a personal computer
For non-IT professionals, creating an FTP server can be a daunting task.
- If you create it on a personal computer, you will first need to purchase equipment for an FTP server. Then you need to install the operating system and software on the computer, connect the computer to local network and keep it turned on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (if you need the FTP server to be available 24 hours a day).
- As software for operating room Windows systems OS, you can choose one of the popular FTP server solutions, for example, Server-U. However, such software is paid; In addition, you will need to spend time installing and learning the settings and operating procedures of the software. If you need a more stable and cheaper solution, you can install the Linux operating system on your personal computer and use the FTP server utility included in the Linux package.
The disadvantages of this solution are:
- Loud operating noise personal computer, high heat generation and energy consumption. The cost of running a server 24/7 can be quite high.
- For unprepared users Learning Linux and setting up your own FTP server can take a lot of time and effort.
How can you solve the problem using a QNAP NAS system?
QNAP Turbo NAS systems offer a new solution. Turbo NAS systems have a built-in FTP server. After installing the Turbo NAS, you can enable the FTP server through the web management interface and configure the necessary settings. The settings are very simple, so even unprepared users can easily configure the server. This guide walks you through setting up an FTP server on your QNAP NAS in a few simple steps.
Assigning a Static IP Address to the NAS and Configuring DDNS
Since you will need to open ports for various services on the NAT router and configure them to be redirected to the Turbo NAS IP address on the local network, changing this IP address is not advisable.
Go to page System Administration > Network > TCP/IP and click on to open the TCP/IP properties window. Assign a NAS to the system static IP address, and also be sure to specify the DNS server address, otherwise it will be impossible to connect to the trackers.
Most ISPs allocate one or more dynamic public IP addresses for connecting to the Internet (this refers to situations where a router sharing a single IP address obtains a WAN IP address from the ISP via PPPoE or DHCP). The server needs a static IP address or URL address so that users can easily get the server address to connect. If you are using a dynamic IP address, you can purchase a router that supports DDNS, or simply use the built-in DDNS support on your QNAP NAS. DDNS support makes registration easy to remember Domain name from any DDNS service provider that will identify the Turbo NAS on the Internet, for example: myqnap.dyndns.com.
Setting up port forwarding on your router
If your Turbo NAS is behind a NAT router, you will need to open ports on that router for services and configure those ports to be forwarded to the NAS's static IP address on your local network. This function is supported by most manufactured routers and is often called Port Forwarding, NAT server or Virtual server. For an FTP server, for example, it is necessary to redirect port 21 to the IP address of the Turbo NAS system on the local network, that is, redirect TCP port 21 to the address 192.168.1.34 (in this example). In this case, when the NAT router receives packets from the distributed network addressed to external port 21, the router will forward these packets to the IP address of the Turbo NAS system on the local network. In addition, to be able to connect to home system Turbo NAS from a distributed network, you can redirect traffic arriving on port 8080 (the default management port) to the IP address of the Turbo NAS system on the local network.
Some NAT routers have a DMZ setting. You can specify the address of the Turbo NAS system as the IP address on the local network for the DMZ. When using this function, all packets received from the distributed network to the local network address will be forwarded to the Turbo NAS, regardless of the port number.
After completing these two settings, you can connect to the FTP server on your home network from the Internet using the address ftp://myqnap.dyndns.com to upload and download files.
FTP Server Setup Guide
Go to page Network Services > FTP Service and enable the service FTP servers. You can also change the port used for FTP, define the maximum number of connections, configure Unicode support, and allow or disable anonymous login. After setting, click on Apply to save changes.
Setting up users and folder permissions
Access rights via FTP in the Turbo NAS system are the same as access rights to folders for network resources configured on the page Access Right Management. This way, after setting up user/group accounts and folder permissions, the same usernames and passwords can be used to connect to the FTP server on the Turbo NAS.
If you need to create or delete user/group accounts, or change connection passwords, go to Access Rights Management > User or Access Rights Management > User Groups.
On the page Access Rights Management > Share Folders you can manage shared resources and define access rights to folders (modes supported full access, read-only access and deny access).
In the example below, an account has been added guest123. On the page Access Rights Management folder was created mp3music, user guest123 access to this folder is allowed. After successful setup, users can connect to the FTP server with an account guest123 and the corresponding password; to files in a folder mp3music such users will be allowed read and write access.
To quickly check whether you can access the FTP server you just configured, enter address bar conductor Windows Explorer ftp://username:password@IP-address_Turbo-NAS ( for example, ftp://admin: [email protected]). If the connection is successful, a list of shared resources should appear that are allowed to be displayed for the corresponding account(with the ability to read and write files to these folders).
When connecting to an FTP server from behind a NAT router or firewall, you must enter the WAN IP address or the corresponding DDNS name as the IP address, for example, ftp://admin: [email protected].
To work with an FTP server, you can use a wide range of common FTP clients, for example CuteFTP or FileZilla.
Conclusion
FTP Server is one of the easy-to-use features of QNAP Turbo NAS systems. On Turbo NAS systems you can easily organize own FTP server. Setup is simple and quick using the web interface. Any user can handle setting up an FTP server. This task no longer requires the mandatory involvement of an IT specialist.
We continue the topic of network storage drives (NAS), which worries many. Not long ago we reviewed the inexpensive dual-drive model WD My Cloud EX2. I use more advanced (and noticeably more expensive) models at home - Synology DS 213, but it so happened that first one two-disk NAS arrived at the house, and then I realized that two disks were not enough for me, so I bought another two-disk NAS - same. And after that, I periodically began to think about installing one four-disk device, because it is more convenient than two two-disk ones. Well, at the same time, change the disks to more capacious ones, otherwise in my first NAS there are two disks of one and a half terabytes, and in the second - two. While I was thinking, representatives of the company QNAP, which produces very advanced and interesting drives, contacted me (I used the QNAP TS-459 Pro II in Moscow for a long time, and I really liked it), and offered to thoughtfully study the new QNAP TS-453 Pro model .“The beast runs to the catcher,” I thought and, of course, agreed. For this drive, I purchased four three-terabyte WD Red (the Red series is designed specifically for use in NAS), which I have been dealing with for a long time and which have not let me down yet.
Memory- 8 GB (DDR3) (can be installed from 2 to 8 GB)
Flash memory- 512 MB (per system)
Disk space- 4 × 3.5" or 2.5" HDD/SDD with SATA I, SATA II or SATA III interface
Maximum disk capacity- 8 TB
Maximum total disk capacity- 32 TB
Maximum capacity including expansion modules- 96 TB
HDD slots- 4 hot-swappable slots (lockable)
Network interfaces- 4 RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet connectors
Status indicators- status, LAN, USB, 4 × HDD
USB- 3 × USB 3.0 (front: 1, rear: 2), 2 × USB 2.0 (rear)
HDMI- There is
Supported- USB printers, USB drives, USB hubs, USB UPS and so on
Buttons- power, backup, reset
Display- LCD display monochrome for quick setup and system notifications
Dimensions- 177 × 180 × 235 mm
Weight- 3.7 kg (without hard drives)
Noise level- 34.1-36.8 dB
Energy consumption- 21-33 W
Cooling- 1 fan 9 cm, 12 V
Price in Moscow- 60-90 thousand rubles, depending on the configuration. The characteristics, of course, are very rich, but the device is not cheap. As many as four network ports (later we’ll talk about why this might be needed), five USB ports (and they are often very necessary), a good processor, 8 GB random access memory(such volumes are needed for multi-user work). Contents of delivery It comes in this nice packaging.
Inside: NAS, AC power cable, two Ethernet cables, screws for securing 2.5" and 3.5" drives, two drive cage lock keys, installation guide, warranty card.
On the bottom right are four bays for 3.5" or 2.5" drives. Above is a monochrome display with Enter and Select buttons, below the display are indicators: Status, USB, LAN. Bottom left is the power button and USB port 3.0 with a copy button, which is used to copy data from the connected media to the storage capacity. (This is very convenient to use when, for example, access to a computer is difficult, and just for speed of starting the process.) At the back there is a quiet 9-centimeter fan hole, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 4 LAN ports and Kensington Castle.
The drive bays can be pulled out very simply: just pull the plastic tab with your fingers. The drive in the bay is secured with four screws. I installed four identical 3 TB WD Red drives into this NAS. Sometimes, when performance is very important, such NAS can be equipped with three regular disks and a fourth SSD for use as a caching disk - this can significantly increase operating speed.
Eat
special program
QNAP Finder, which will find you QNAP drives on the network, but you can do without it: the NAS will be visible in the network environment and you can go to the admin panel simply by clicking on the corresponding icon.
When you launch it for the first time, the Quick Setup Wizard appears. If you choose home use, the wizard will immediately install all sorts of home multimedia applications. If you select business use, multimedia applications will not be installed - to improve productivity. (But, of course, they can always be installed later.)
Enter the drive name and administrator password.
It is advisable to automatically synchronize the date and time with the appropriate server. Network settings.
Because important data is still duplicated on different disks and in the clouds, so single-disk volumes suit me. For RAID, you can provide the option of hot-swapping a disk without turning off the drive. In this case, I chose RAID 5 for the test.
The initial setup was carried out - after that, when you log into the admin panel, this beautiful and convenient interface for managing the drive and various services opens.
When you click on the icon at the top left, a pop-up menu appears, where the functions presented on the desktop in the form of icons are duplicated.
On the top right there is an icon for monitoring resources - a lot of interesting things open up there.
Each section of the monitor can be turned into a separate widget and placed on the desktop. If you suddenly decide to rebuild the storage type, there is a special wizard for this.
Application servers. Plenty of choice, isn't it?
Storage manager.
The most important thing in a drive is the condition of the disks. For each disk you can view the corresponding information.
Set disk check parameters.
Data for each of the nodes (disks) of the drive.
Disk status. Here you can configure the snapshot creation system.
Snapshot is a technology that allows you to save different versions of the same files. (Something like TimeMachine on Mac.)
For each image, a storage period is specified.
All snapshots are stored in the Snapshot Manager.
Snapshots can be taken on a schedule.
Well, accordingly, you can view information about files in snapshots and, if necessary, restore the required versions.
If the drive has an SSD drive installed, it can be made caching - this will significantly improve performance.
Information about connected devices - I connected an external WD Elements drive.
You can customize the drive's reaction to connecting certain external devices.
By the way, if you need to share a connected external drive, it will always appear under the name USBDisk1, USBDisk2, and so on. And for some reason you can’t rename them. It's a pity, it's inconvenient. In Synology connected via USB external devices can be given any name.
Network configuration. Let me remind you that there are four network ports here. At home, all of them are unlikely to be in demand, but when used in an office, using several ports, you can solve the following problems:
- duplicate communication channels;
- dynamically distribute loads between ports;
- create individual addressing to different subnets.
Network firewall settings.
Settings standby mode, alarm indicator and caching.
Fan settings. It is best to enable automatic adjustment - it works well.
Notification settings.
After this you can start configuring shared folders, user groups, users and access rights.
But everything is simple there. First, create the folders you need. Moreover, several folders will be created there by default: Download, Multimedia, Public, Recordings, Web. For each folder, configure access for the appropriate groups.
Well, after that, create users and assign them the appropriate group with access rights.
You can also configure access types individually for each user.
Network services supported by the drive.
Here you can install additional applications from the corresponding App Center, where there are clearly over a hundred of them.
New applications can be selected based on various criteria.
What else is interesting there? Different kinds backups to remote network drives and back, folder synchronization, backup to the cloud (Amazon S3) and so on and so forth.
MyQNAPCloud is a service that allows you to easily and conveniently gain remote access to drive data and its services.
Access via the Internet to media data stored in the drive. (Access can be organized in a similar way from mobile devices.)
You can also publish through myQNAPcloud and various applications such as remote access to the admin panel, access to the photo server, video server, music server and so on. To use your NAS at home, you can use a variety of applications for working with images, videos, and music.
These applications work as follows. When they are turned on and the media library is turned on, the drive, in accordance with the settings (priority and schedule are configured there), scans the media data, saves preview images and relevant information. Network users have the addresses of a photo, video and music station. This address is entered into the browser - and the user is taken to the corresponding application with the necessary media data. Here, for example, is the page of a photo station. There you can organize albums, organize photos by shooting date and all sorts of other parameters.
Here you can also install various TV applications that will be broadcast directly from a drive connected to the TV via HDMI. And you can even set up video conversion on the fly if the TV receiver does not support a certain video format.
Well, a useful thing for both home and office is a video surveillance server. Connect several cameras and detect them using Surveillance Station.
And that’s it, the video surveillance server starts working, nothing else is needed. Performance We looked at the main services - now about performance. Test of one of the NAS drives using ATTO Benchmark. Well - very good indicators.
A set of tests for the classic Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. Working with a photo album.
Copying folders from a drive.
Copying folders to a drive.
Copying files from the drive.
Copying files to the drive.
Office work emulation.
Play High Definition videos.
Well, just copying large files from your computer disk to the NAS. The speed ranged somewhere from 83 to 95 megabytes per second.
I really liked the fact that when connecting docking stations with disks to the NAS via USB 3.0, the copying speed was no different from the copying speed to internal drives.
But on Synology on the same docking stations when connected via USB 3.0, the copy speed is external drives was like USB 2.0 - about 20 megabytes per second. And here - five times faster, great! Tom's Hardware compared the performance of various disk organization options.
And they also have an interesting performance comparison with other NAS. (Follow the link to look through the graphs of various test options.) In terms of performance, this NAS is, of course, noticeably faster than its competitors. But let's not forget about the cost - you have to pay for performance.
Network-attached storage (NAS) is still considered a rather exotic device, although its benefits are difficult to exaggerate. A good NAS can do more than just provide the storage space you need TV series downloaded from torrents vital data, but also take care of backup data, and also act as a multimedia server. Today we will take a look at the QNAP TS-412 network storage device, which is designed for home use and has four bays for 3.5-inch hard drives.
Specifications QNAP TS-412
Appearance and design
QNAP TS-412 looks small and angry system unit. With the exception of the front panel, the body is completely made of metal. On the front panel there are bays for four 3.5-inch SATA hard drives (with hot-swap support), status LEDs, a power button and a Copy button, which starts backing up data to a USB drive connected to the network storage (the connector for which is located as strangely enough, on the button itself).
At the back you can see a large cooling fan, two eSATA connectors, two gigabit Ethernet connectors and three more USB connectors.
Disks in the QNAP TS-412, as usual, are inserted into special slides that simply snap into place. The instructions say that the drives must be inserted into in a certain order, a similar sticker is present on the NAS case. We used WD Red hard drives with a capacity of 1 TB each for testing.
Overall, the network storage gives the impression of a high-quality and reliable device with a well-thought-out design. Personally, it seemed to me that he appearance, unlike the “Apple-like” Synology NAS, it is more suitable for the office than for the home.
Interface and setup
Even though QNAP TS-412 is junior model in the company's line of four-drive NAS, the entire interface of the device clearly hints that it came from the corporate world. To put it bluntly, there is no sign of user friendliness here.
When you turn on the device for the first time, it receives an IP address from a DHCP server (if it is present on the network). To find out its address, you can use the QNAP Finder utility (available for Mac OS X and Windows).
The QNAP-412 web interface immediately invites us to use the Download Station service (downloading files via HTTP, FTP and Bit Torrent protocols directly to network storage), remote access access files via the web interface or go to administration.
The login interface looks extremely glamorous. Alas, that's where the glamor ends.
When I first logged in with the administrator password, the device offered to update the firmware, to which I, of course, agreed.
After installing the new firmware and rebooting, we finally see the administration interface. There are so many settings that your eyes literally run wild; it will be simply impossible for an inexperienced user to understand them, especially considering that there is no “wizard” that allows you to quickly configure the basic parameters from scratch.
The “System Administration” section alone includes 12 sections, almost each of which contains additional subsections and settings. Here you can configure power management, bind services to a specific network interface, configure parameters network interfaces(including enabling support for jumbo frames, which is highly recommended to achieve optimal performance) and so on.
The Volume Management section allows you to create one or more volumes, each of which can be a separate disk or an array of several disks. RAID levels 0/1/10/5/6 are supported, as well as JBOD (one unredundant volume spanning all available drives).
Here you can see the status of physical disks.
The access control section allows you to create users and groups and assign access rights to them.
A separate section is devoted to the so-called “applications”, among which is the control center network cameras surveillance, multimedia server (DLNA), music server (iTunes) and others.
The drive can also act as a destination drive for Mac OS X's built-in automatic system Reserve copy Time Machine. For some mysterious reason the name changed network volume and user is impossible.
The Download Station utility already mentioned above has an interface very similar to the average BitTorrent client (and, as far as I understand, is based on the popular Transmission client).
Performance and Stability
We did not conduct synthetic performance tests, since most users are interested in one single parameter - the speed of copying files to and from the device.
When directly connecting a QNAP TS-412 network storage device to MacBook laptop Pro via cross cable real speed writing files to a RAID-5 volume using the SMB protocol was 27 MB/s, reading speed was 44 MB/s. At the same time, support for Jumbo frames was enabled.
At the same time, writing a large amount of information to the network storage is an excessive load for its frail processor. This is evidenced by the fact that while copying folders with a total volume of 9 GB to the NAS, the device’s web interface first began to open with long delays, and then completely stopped responding to requests until the end of the copying process. And in general, the administrative interface is not very fast.
The web interface, which does not display up-to-date information about the device status, deserves special mention. For example, after deleting a RAID-10 volume and creating a new RAID-5 volume, the old volume with the status “OK” was displayed in the web interface for more than an hour (!). This behavior makes it impossible to understand what exactly is happening with the device without studying the logs.
At the same time, after completing the setup, the device “just works” and does not cause any inconvenience to the user.
WD Red Hard Drives
The WD Red hard drives we used for testing are designed specifically for network-attached storage. If we compare them, say, with drives of the WD Blue or WD Black series, they have low speed, but at the same time provide high reliability, silence and stable temperature conditions.
I, in turn, can confirm that in the QNAP TS-412 these drives operated almost silently. The temperature of the disks, even during the restructuring of the array, did not rise above 33 degrees.
Bottom line
Frankly speaking, it is quite difficult for me to recommend the QNAP TS-412 for purchase. This device, on the one hand, will be too difficult to set up for a novice user, and on the other hand, it will not be productive enough for an advanced and fastidious user. My experience with Synology network storage devices and WD My Book Live suggests that these devices are more suitable for home use.
3 reasons to buy QNAP TS-412:
- opportunity installation of four drives;
- support for disks up to 4 TB;
- Conveniently implemented ability to download files from the Internet to network storage and save them directly to a network folder.
2 reasons not to buy QNAP TS-412:
- low productivity;
- confusing and uninformative interface.
QNAP Systems, Inc. (Quality Network Appliance Provider, QNAP) offers a wide range of multifunctional network storage devices, or so-called NAS devices (Network Attached Storage). This company produces a number of similar large-capacity drives for professional use (as a rule, such devices have the Pro index in their name and some of them are produced in a 19-inch form factor for mounting in a standard rack for installing networking and telecommunications equipment). The company also has simpler models - they are recommended for the home or small office. This article is mainly devoted to the home use of NAS devices, but with regard to the office use of QNAP network drives, we can mention, for example, the certificates they received from the well-known Russian company 1C (the latter recommends using these NAS as drives for organizing file servers and storage databases of their accounting programs).
However, the name NAS (literally translated - drives connected to a local network) does not accurately reflect the essence of these devices and does not give a complete picture of their scope. modern application. Therefore, while describing the new four-disk network drive TS-410, which QNAP Systems has added to its line of Turbo NAS devices, we will simultaneously provide explanations regarding some of the characteristic functions of such devices and indicate possible areas of their application.
NAS as a file server
A NAS device can indeed perform the functions of a stand-alone drive with the ability to combine hard drives into RAID arrays of any structure: the described device, for example, supports fault-tolerant configurations RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 5 with hot-swappable disks and JBOD, with increased capacity and changes to the RAID array level can be made without stopping the drive (Online RAID Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration functions). Such RAID arrays can be used as a centralized and reliable storage of any data (including photos, music and movies for home use), archiving and backup of information (as a Backup array), for storing programs and operating systems of home and office computers , as well as for any other tasks of storing data in digital form. Moreover, in the case of using a NAS device as a file server, you not only organize a data storage array, as if connecting several drives located in a stand-alone box through a RAID controller, but directly in the device itself you organize full access to data with all user rights and necessary restrictions.
Access control is carried out directly in NAS devices without the need for any external computer. By the way, for rewriting, backup or simply exchanging data between different drives over a local network or when connecting additional drives to the USB or SATA interfaces available on the device, you also do not need a computer. Thus, NAS devices are doubly attractive because they are easier to manage and at the same time consume much less power than a full-sized file server (for example, a QNAP TS-410 with four hard drives consumes only 12 W in standby mode, and with four drives - up to 20 W).
So, offline storage used as file servers have one thing in common - they provide disk space and other services without the need to access a full-fledged PC. This becomes possible thanks to the specialized operating system Linux Embedded. Despite the fact that the requirements for computing power and the memory for such an OS is minimal, we still advise you to pay attention to the characteristics of the processors used in a particular NAS device and the amount of memory, especially if you are going to use your system not only as a simple file server.
For example, the TS-410 described uses a Marvell 6281 processor with clock frequency 800 MHz and 256 MB of DDR2 RAM. This NAS device can be equipped with four SATA drives with a total capacity of up to 8 TB (and the drive sizes can be either 2.5" or 3.5"), which allows you to organize RAID arrays of various levels, including those that are inaccessible to most other NAS storages for home users.
It is impossible not to mention the importance of such administrative functions as sending notifications by email or SMS message when any disk in the array fails.
We also note the support Internet interface Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), which allows you to connect up to eight iSCSI devices. iSCSI is a SCSI over IP controller with a disk space saving function that encapsulates SCSI addresses into IP and vice versa. Thanks to this, iSCSI opens up new opportunities for NAS devices, allowing you to increase their capacity directly during operation by adding network drives and connecting geographically remote storages, combine disparate storage media into a single pool, etc.
It is also important to note that the TS-410 has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, which was previously typical only for high-performance professional devices. Using two network ports allows, for example, port aggregation to increase bandwidth networks, or configure different load balancing modes, or use network-attached storage to simultaneously connect to two different IP networks (creating, for example, a redundant Ethernet connection).
Power and Ethernet connections are made from the rear panel of the TS-410. There are also two eSATA connectors, three additional USB connectors (another USB connector is located on the front panel) and a fan to ensure air flow around the hard drives. The fan operates using SmartFAN technology, that is, with smooth speed control depending on the temperature. As a result, the noise level emitted by the device during operation does not exceed 35 dB (that is, it is at the level background noise which is considered to be typical for quiet rooms during the daytime - for example, the minimum volume for speech perception: 25-30 dB for whispering and approximately 35-45 dB for quiet conversation).
To archive or backup files from a USB device (flash drive or camera), you can do without a computer at all. If, for example, you have just returned from vacation with a flash card filled with pictures and urgently want to empty it, then the tedious procedure of copying photos from a digital camera can be carried out automatically - on the front panel of the device there is a USB port and a Copy button that activates the copy function from a USB drive to the disks of a network RAID drive. Just connect a camera or flash reader and press a button - the photos will be saved in the archive, and you can deal with them later on any home computer connected to the network. Similarly, you can quickly copy files from a guest’s flash drive, audio player, or mobile phone with USB interface. Additional USB ports can be used to connect printers and/or an uninterruptible power supply so that the NAS device can “softly” shut down during an extended power outage.
In addition, the TS-410 is equipped with two external eSATA ports, which allow you to conveniently and without loss of speed connect additional drives when expanding storage or backing up to external drives.
The dimensions of the device are very modest - 177x180x235 mm, weight without disks - 3 kg.
NAS devices operate in various network environments and are fully compatible with computers running Windows, Mac OS, as well as Linux and UNIX of any version. However, the scope of application of NAS devices is not limited to file server functions alone.
NAS as a home media server
To meet the needs of home users, NAS storage often provides access to audio and video files through a built-in media server. The TS-410 we are describing, thanks to the built-in media server (TwonkyMedia Server), supports a wide variety of UPnP/DLNA-compatible devices and players, including gaming ones Sony consoles PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.
DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a consortium of consumer electronics, information technology and mobile communications manufacturers that has developed universal communications standards for the digital home. According to the consortium participants, Digital technologies Living Network in the near future will have to unite all digital home devices into a single network with shared multimedia content sent over wired and wireless networks. Regular TVs, household players, video cameras, digital cameras, and other household appliances can be DLNA-compatible. A feature of such devices is the ability to connect them to a local network, just like computers, so that they can share access to music, movies and other media files stored on a single media server, such as the QNAP TS-410. Moreover, without any setup procedure.
Thus, if you install an application with DLNA/UPnP support on your iPhone or iPod, you will immediately get direct access to videos, music and photos uploaded to the disk arrays of your home network storage. And NFS-compatible digital HD players (High-Definition) will be able to receive a video stream over a local network directly from the server. By the way, this is where you will need the same performance that QNAP denotes with the word Turbo in the name of its NAS devices. The described model, for example, despite the fact that it belongs to the budget class of NAS devices, can provide speeds of up to 270 Mbit/s when writing and up to 185 Mbit/s when reading (in RAID 1 or JBOD mode, according to the Intel NASPT utility). Thus, from the TS-410 it will be possible to stream several video streams in Full HD format at once.
NAS as an Internet server and download manager
In addition to organizing a centralized data storage or media server for distributing audio and video content, NAS devices have other equally interesting capabilities and applications where they successfully compete with full-fledged computers and are an attractive alternative. For example, based on a NAS device, you can organize a compact, reliable and convenient FTP and web server for home use. This is very easy to do; fortunately, these services are activated in a few clicks, and, if desired, can be configured through the same convenient web interface. For an FTP server, for example, you can open anonymous access or limit it to authorized users only. For full-fledged work on websites, the TS-410 is equipped with CMS Joomla!, MySQL and SQLite DBMS, as well as a PHP interpreter.
The “Download Manager” built into the NAS allows you to download files via BitTorrent, HTTP and FTP protocols directly to the disk array without the participation of a computer, and you can manage tasks both locally (via your home network) and remotely (via the Internet) using the convenient QGet utility with simple and intuitive web interface (which, by the way, uses modern technology AJAX allows you to set and change most parameters not only without rebooting the device, but even without reloading the interface pages). Distribution/downloading of torrents is carried out with the support of DHT (from the English Distributed Hash Table - distributed hash table). DHT is a protocol that allows BitTorrent clients to find each other without the help of a tracker. DHT-enabled clients form a common DHT network and help each other find participants in the same distributions.
The NAS device offers advanced features such as secure protocol access, access control and automatic blocking by IP address according to policy, SMS notification, basic firewall and much more.
It is very convenient to use a NAS device as a print server, for which you just need to connect various printers to all available USB inputs.
Finally, using a NAS device, you can organize interaction with web cameras as part of a security system with video recording on the same disk array (the NAS device in this case will play the role of a completely autonomous network video surveillance station). As for the TS-410, this model supports up to four simultaneously working IP cameras, and the manufacturer clearly indicates compatibility with all common models and brands digital video cameras: AXIS, D-Link, IPUX, LevelOne, Linksys, Panasonic, Vivotek, etc.
conclusions
So, TS-410 Turbo NAS is a full-fledged multifunctional network RAID drive (0/1/5/6/5+spare and JBOD) with a Gigabit Ethernet interface that can provide access to your files both over a local home network and from anywhere on the planet via the Internet. In addition, such a NAS device can become the basis for creating your own web and FTP server, work as an autonomous manager for downloading files and torrents from Global network, as well as ensure the operation of a surveillance and security system for a home or mini-office.
In principle, the idea of a computer-based network storage device is not new; an FTP, media server, web or file server can also be organized using a regular PC, but a NAS device will be more reliable than a universal computer, economical to use and easy to learn.
Don't believe me? Then first try to find an equally compact and equally low-noise case for a universal computer. After all, even if you find something more or less suitable (or at least somewhat suitable for home use), you will not be able to organize hot-swappable hard drives there, nor the possibility of flexible configuration and configuration of the device without the use of peripherals and numerous stops and system reboots. And the compact four-disk TS-410 Turbo NAS can be set up and configured even from a smartphone! As for the various server functions required by such a device, we have already mentioned various services and network services that are provided right out of the box by the TS-410, can be activated in a couple of clicks and do not require searching, purchasing or installing additional software.
If you lack some of the usual features, then using the QPKG system you can easily expand the functionality of the NAS - for example, deploy your own mail server or install the Python development environment.
QPKG is an open platform for installing software from QNAP NAS devices with open source(Open Source). More information about QPKG can be found on the developer’s website (http://www.qnap.com/QPKG.asp).
Thus, in some cases, the TS-410 Turbo NAS may turn out to be a more convenient, cheaper and more accessible alternative to a computer for you, which does not require any special training or any complex settings. As for the ability to provide long-term autonomous operation, then no PC can compete with such a NAS device.
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