QNAP H686 -- Let's Install TrueNAS!

[@TrueNAS]

Fantastic video! There has never been a better time to repurpose that old (or new) hardware!

[@keyboard_g]

TrueNas comes without all those lovely QNAP backdoors.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

that's probably the only way to safely use a Qnap device, nuke the stock firmware and replace with an OS that follows basic security principles and is updated regularly

[@magoid]

is the only way to be sure...

[@rudysal1429]

@@magoid this is the way

[@NicholasLoomans]

Also the only way to use any router

[@Lorondos]

In QNAPs defence, they have been pretty proactive in updating their firmware, I have a QNAP NAS from 2015 and has had regular firmware updates to this date. Their handling of the whole deadbolt situation, was rather poor however. My major critique from my experience, there tends to be odd limitations in the OS regarding the ability to use certain file systems and other features that seem to come and go with each release.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Lorondos regular firmware updates don't mean much if they don't solve CVEs from 2 years ago.

[@alwaysraiders]

Thank you for this. I thank you for this. I actually emailed QNAP yesterday to find out why my TS- 877 is not quts hero compatible. They said it is at end of life so thank you for this video

[@marcin_karwinski]

I guess it's time someone at Qnap noticed this and had a light-bulb moment and decided to sell their boxes without the OS installed on that small 4-16GB SATADOM, just with larger OS storage capacity - say 32-256GB SATA DOMs... They could capitalise on hardware R&D, and in theory offer it cheaper cause you're not paying for the OS and software support features of the regular product... which also had quite a few holes/issues that made people notice Qnap in a wrong way... And thus such an offer could suddenly allow them to make a lot of $ for small investments, allowing users an option even in the BIOS to eg. run a setup of QuTS/QTS/QTSEnterprise over the net as a remote boot/deployment option...

[@K3rm1tFr0g]

Thanks for the great video Wendell.

[@Legion-495]

If anyone wondered. Yes Wendell is active on level1forums. And noice. I built my own NAS and just recently upgraded my Truenas Core to Truenas Scale. My suggestions. Show this upgrade process. Show how to use Plex and set correct permissions as docker. Same for Nextcloud. And my biggest issue. Getting a VPN for the Homenetwork. Preferably with a GUI option like the openvpn access server. I know Truenas got a OpenVPN service. But setting it up so it may detects and reaches the whole local network is super confusing. I always struggled with what settings the openvpn service needs. More often than not it was just guesswork and only halfbacked for me.

[@andrewjohnston359]

Try pritunl for a gui based openvpn/wireguard server

[@zetabyte0076]

Good matter approached for that video. TrueNAS, I enjoyed this trick so much. Congrats! See ya next video!

[@questionablecommands9423]

4:35 I remember quite ... fondly? ... the day I saw a pen test guy pull a hard drive out of a photocopier. The hard drive was NTFS formatted...

[@TriStruggleBus]

I’m on a TS-451 which isn’t supported by QuTS Hero. I’ve upgraded it to 16G ram years ago, I bet it would work well with Zfs. As one of the disks is dying I’m considering to do this also… Reddit says it can be done.

[@djstraussp]

Here we gooooooo. TS-653d with QTrueNas Scale. FTW !!!

[@SomeRandomPerson]

Huh, well that's neat. I wish this had come out about 12 months ago when I was starting to look for a new NAS. I wanted 8 Bays of 3.5" + m.2 + 10G in that kind of quiet and small form factor (apartments don't have room for rackmount gear), and this seemed like the best option. iXSystems are great for doing TrueNas, but their hardware just isn't what I'm looking for -- besides that, not available here in Australia

[@staticzord6985]

Excellent video, please make installation of TrueNas Scale and show other QNAP models if possible. This video-board hack was awesome (most QNAP don't have HDMI/VGA nowadays).

[@aimannorazman7959]

Intro: Levelonetechs Channel: Level1Linux jokes aside, these seem like awesome OS conversion on a off the shelf NAS with some pcie expansion, and ecc support! Like DIY but much better, if you will.

[@DeeDee.Ranged]

Got an old QNAP TS-459 Pro and as thhe QNAP OS wasn´t supported anymore replaced it with OpenMediaVault (OMV) on USB 16GB instead of using the USB DOM abt. 5 years ago. Stil working fine.

[@jonathannoneofyourbusiness4123]

I love it. This will be my next big project. :)

[@ninjmnky]

Realtek NICs work just fine ™ under TrueNAS Scale, as Debian is way less picky about its hardware.

[@blender_wiki]

Using realtek NIC in a production environment is always bad idea unless you dont care about bad performance

[@AinzOoalG0wn]

i noticed for qnap 2.5gbe, initially with truenas core it didn't work. but using truenas scale worked. i believe later there was an update for truenas core that said they added support for the 2.5gbe nics, so it may work now without having to resort to the alpha/beta truenas scale which is not recommended for production yet afaik.

[@sheldonkupa9120]

Yepp, was my first thought, truenas scale is worth considering. I just like it as i suck at bsd😃

[@SimonQuigley]

Realtek is trash.

[@leemachiin]

👍 this is awesome. Has anyone ever tried this with an old netapp or synology?

[@rossmpostpro]

Woah woah, 16gb isn't enough for TrueNAS? I'm sure I'm running mine off a small flash drive... Thanks man, love the content as always.

[@Mr_Wh1]

That thing cost 1970 USD here in Denmark. Yes, 1970 USD... Sorry, but for that price I can put something together that is better. Disks included within the budget.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

I do like iX systems. I know the id of the Motherboard, and I can now make my own, because it will be a project for me. If you are time-short, then pre-built systems are very necessary. Now starts the search for optimum ram, and then, a 10Gb/s NIX for my workstation.

[@kaseyklynstra2210]

3:18 I've been running TrueNAS off a 16GB SSD for years now... I was under the impression that you couldn't store anything to the boot SSD besides the OS (no VMs, plugins, jails, etc.), so I'm curious what your reasons are for that?

[@Maxjoker98]

I've never used such a device or OS, but my guess is that the rootfs is simply on there, and without further mounting(entries in fstab or whatever) containers and applications etc. will be stored on there. So if you're just using it as a network connected storage device, it's probably fine, but once you want to make good use of the hardware, e.g. by running a few containers, you'll quickly run into issues.

[@abzzeus]

It used to be that people ran boot on USB pen drives, so it wasn't possible to run VMs etc due to speed Now that we've move up in size, speed and reliability to SSDs, it is potentially "possible" abet difficult BUT I'm not recommending investigating as it is easier to have seperate boot / VMs /Jail volumes (with them on ZFS) where you can monitor manage and move if required. How much is a pair of 120GB SSDs? $40? Boot is literally that - boot, you can backup your config move the data drives to a new installation, restore config and you're good to go (I've done it)

[@wayland7150]

I'm using a pair of USB 3 32GB Sandisk thumb drives. This saves money and SATA ports which I can use for actual storage drives. It seems fine, no problems at all.

[@Maxjoker98]

@@wayland7150 It is probably fine, as long as you don't have many writes on your root fs(e.g. mount / read-only, put containers on actual storage). It goes without saying that storing irreplaceable data on such an USB stick is a bad idea.

[@wayland7150]

@@Maxjoker98 As long as you have your keys and config backed up it should be fine. Just make a new install and your pools pop right back in.

[@MarlonSardini]

Don't agree, I would avoid QNAP, but if I were forced to use one I'd immediately replace their junk software, especially the Hero version, with TrueNAS. Had loads of issues with my TVS-h1288x, one day it even decided to simply delete one of my pools. Gotta love backups. The hardware has also major cooling issues. Mine idles at 60-70°C, at 50% load it rushes to 90°C in seconds and stays there even with the fans screaming. Only after installing three additional Noctua 60mm fans the heat is being kept at bay (-20°C).

[@zstation64]

The TS-h973AX is a super machine for this, Ryzen V1500B SOC, ECC DDR4, 2x 2.5G Intel NICs, an Aquantia 10G NIC, 2x U.2 NVMe/SATA 2.5" bays, 2x SATA 2.5" bays, 5x 3.5" bays. I'm currently running unRAID on mine, but toying with going FreeNAS Scale when I get a few days to tinker. I have a pair of Micron U.2 drives, a pair of WD Red SSDs, and 3 18TB WD Whites in it, and it performs great, can get well over 8Gbit transfers going between two client machines on 10G - limited by the RAM and storage on the clients.

[@ragdolltech3526]

I've been angry about obfinscated computers since I was a kid, if anything people just become more angry about EVERYTHING as they get older Wendle!

[@royng8677]

Thanks L1, this video is great. I can leave qnap hell. But I want to point out one thing that at “2:50” mention the dom should be USB 2 interface (so call 9pin or some say 10pin) instead of SATA. ~Why I know that since I am also a one of “victim” of H686.~

[@MooTaters]

Considering QNAP's track record of handling vulnerability(s) they were warned of and given a grace period on by security professionals...I guess I'm glad you made this as I may do it, unless I sell it all to swap to a TrueNAS mini x+, which is cheaper with more ECC RAM and dual 10GbE, though 1 less 3.5" bay, might just be the better option. Only thing is TrueNAS doesn't tell you the exact CPU you're getting.

[@wtf9165]

Did this on a TS-253A, have TrueNAS Core running of 2 USB Sticks

[@speedbird737]

really happy running QuTS on my Qnap h-1688X - with all the apps I could ever need - some people never happy

[@nerdkidleo]

Realtek and freebsd, please just get along guys.

[@Marc_Wolfe]

Yes, I'm certainly annoyed when "the computery bits are obfuscated".

[@mrcpu9999]

My wanting to do this comes from the fact that you can only run ZFS on the internal drives. If you add their SAS expander to a QNAP device running hero, you still can't put a ZFS filesystem on the external box. And I think that sucks.

[@shawnhank]

@wendell I have a TVS-h1688x and was thinking about installing TrueNAS Core on this box to see how it goes. Wondering if the Thunderbolt and 10 Gig Fiber NICs (QNAP branded) would be supported by TrueNAS. Any thoughts on this? Thanks for the great video.

[@krausshusha2694]

Having just watched Lawrence Systems' report on QNAP security, I suddenly understand Wendell's prevarication about why you'd want to do this.

[@josel.flores4617]

TrueNAS won't fit on 16gb? I highly doubt that.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

TrueNAS will probably even fit on a 4GB Disk, since a boot environment usually uses less that 2GB - but upgrading to a newer version might become a problem

[@aeiplanner]

Doesn't QNAP have some hardware with built-in Thunderbolt connectivity options? It'd be nice to throw TrueNAS on that and have it connected directly to a mac for video editing.

[@mrdali67]

Cool video, I only miss a list of "features" that I get from installing a 3'rd party OS like TrueNAS instead of the onboard one that like you said is already optimized for their hardware and offer build in ZFS support

[@staticzord6985]

How many watts and volts has the power supply that comes with QNAP H686?

[@eliparshan2515]

Should this belong with Level1BSD and not Level1Linux?

[@godslayer1415]

TrueNAS is based on Linux - not BSD.

[@danbrown586]

@@godslayer1415 TrueNAS CORE--which is what's being installed here--is based on BSD. SCALE is the new kid on the block, and is Debian Linux-based.

[@teddybear9152]

Will this work on a TS-653a?

[@Catge]

Wendell lost a good amount of weight in just a year. That's great to see

[@chromerims]

That SATA-DOM (disk on module) is another L1 "cheat code"! How cool? 😎👍 Kindest regards, neighbours and friends.

[@amessman]

1:40 but what standard is it?

[@noelsoubrayentassin6013]

bonjour je suis francais est ce que avec le model TS6X53D JE peux installer synology ou trunas

[@ChrisM541]

The H686 is close to £1000, unpopulated - will a basic small form factor/HTPC self-built PC, with TrueNAS installed, not give you much, much more potential at a much lower cost?

[@zepesh]

Computer Janitor song #shorts

[@mikethomas8594]

love it

[@MedievalChips]

thank you for this videо, just got a qnap myself maybe I will try this :)

[@leviathanpriim3951]

Neat thanks Wendell, I wonder if this is something a passive cooled gtx 1030 could help with

[@wayland7150]

Are you sure that's enough GPU power for a text interface?

[@krausshusha2694]

0:44 oh c'mon you missed out on a golden opportunity... "... you can't stop."

[@BlackLinerer]

Was this recorded 2020?

[@sirusvirtus5885]

Awesome 👍👍👍👍👍

[@wiebowesterhof]

I have a HS-210 and it basically borked the files when one of the drives failed and it then decided to drop the 'new' disk before finishing the mirror. Very frustrating. As I can barely buy anything where I live, I am now looking at the TS-253D (which I can buy). It has an Atom CPU, not a proprietary one. Would that be able to take TrueNAS Core?

[@borys4206]

Could you please do a review of the steam deck!

[@criptoportugal]

Love this kind of hack 😄👍

[@hiddeninthewires2308]

This has ipmi why would you put an external gpu card?

[@Tofflus]

are there any reason why TrueNAS core is used instead of TrueNAS scale?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

He wants to test the speed of ZFS on BSD (what Truenas Core is) vs the speed of ZFS on the Qnap firmware.

[@JonathanSteadman2003]

Love your videos. :)

[@b2bb]

*With a pleading face*: Not TrueNAS Scale, Papi Wendell?? _engagement_

[@nikolaskallias8162]

ok now turn that qnap nas to a synology one with xpenology

[@thumbnailqualityassurance7853]

It's not a SATA DOM. It's just USB.

[@rudypieplenbosch6752]

Interesting

[@hermannpaschulke1583]

I guess QNAP's OS is based on Linux?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

yes, all NAS have a Linux-based firmware.

[@jmonsted]

@@marcogenovesi8570 (except for the ones that don't, like Netapp)

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@jmonsted Netapp makes SANs.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

@@jmonsted afaik netapp uses something based on FreeBSD and ZFS?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Felix-ve9hs I'm not sure they use ZFS, most of their drives need to be formatted with 520 byte sectors and do the integrity checking like old raid controllers do. ZFS sure doesn't need that.

[@RupertoCamarena]

I was thinking unraid...

[@SoLDMG]

Right on time. I'm gonna try TrueNAS Scale, if the speed is better than Core, I'll keep it. If not, it gets banished into the Dark Crevices forever and I'll run Rocky Linux in a VM for any Docker stuff.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

afaik TrueNAS Scale (or any ZFS on Linux for that matter) is still a bit slower than TrueNAS Core (or ZFS on BSD)

[@SoLDMG]

@@marcogenovesi8570 I’ve read the same online (Core being 2-5x faster) but my home server is not that fast anyway. Best way to find out is to try I guess!

[@wayland7150]

If you've got a fast CPU will it actually matter? If the point is you want to run VMs and Dockers on the same box then maybe it's worth it. Obviously if the data transfer is slow then it's a no go.

[@SoLDMG]

​@@wayland7150 I couldn't even get the Scale installer to boot on my system. Core works fine. System is cobbled together from stuff I had in the attic: FX6100 (with 4 cores disabled), 16GB DDR3, 4 4TB HDD's (new). So yeah idk.

[@jmonsted]

Holy crap, that thing is expensive.

[@strandvaskeren]

Yeah, but it works on older qnap's too, just remember to check the cpu specs. Personally I prefer to run plain Debian rather than Truenas, works fine. I guess you could even run Armbian on some of the Marvell cpu stuff, all though I haven't tried it.. yet..

[@Xxx_EvilSmurf_xxX]

I kinda want to see ubuntu on it, running as a desktop. lmao

[@abognasar6]

What about that round port just above the top RJ-45 port? Is that a serial jack? Can you use that instead if you dont have a compatible gpu? Or does it not support BIOS interaction? And what kinda weird adapter/cable would you need?

[@LogicException]

0:00 Activate Windows please ;)

[@darkphotographer]

don't see the point to buy a device like that at 2000$ just buy a normal pc and you will have money left over to buy actual storage

[@darkphotographer]

ok is pretty and conviniant , but thats it ,

[@shephusted2714]

this is not something you want to do unless you want to undercut qnap and sell better nas plus cheaper to boot - with a better mb you have better cooling, better expansion options - you may have to shop around a bit but nas is nas - truenas has been around - putting the os on the nvme is a good way to go vs sata dom - you can do raid1 for better fault tolerance

[@wayland7150]

It would be great if someone made a case with SATA/SAS bays already wired and it's own PSU. Just add an mATX board.

[@LA-MJ]

realtek ethernet huh

[@leonkernan]

Does anyone still trust Qnaps OS? Because they shouldn’t, they’re a buggy insecure mess.

[@klemmonade]

Im never a fan of custom form factor NAS/Servers, I dont get why people buy them either, they are always overpriced af.

[@Quettesh]

Not everyone is capable of setting up their own unRAID/TrueNAS/OMV... machine. Most people don't even know how to build a computer but they need NAS. Just because you don't get why doesn't mean there are no situation where they are a good solution. Synology DSM so easy to set up than even people who have only basic experience with networking will manage it.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

this is a turnkey NAS, a significant part of the price is the stock firmware with web interface and apps and services. Of course it will lose to a barebone server

[@danbrown586]

They do tend to be expensive, but size and noise are important to lots of people. I built my parents a NAS (using TrueNAS) on a HPE MicroServer Gen8, and it's fairly compact (and certainly quiet), but it's still quite a bit bigger than a 4-bay QNAP or Synology. And you aren't going to get 4 bays, in a "normal" computer, much smaller than a MicroServer.

[@Paper-if7hp]

Cool. But next time can you splay it out, coat it with neoprene, and dunk it in a mineral water filled fish tank decorated with superheroes?

[@Cobinja]

3rd