Adventures in TrueNAS SCALE on QNAP Hardware

[kfp]

I have an odd problem on My TS-870 Pro:
I have upgraded CPU and RAM to max and replaced the DOM with a 4pin USB Cable with a USB to M.2 adapter and a 128GB M.2 (stuff I had flying around from another project).
Now I was able to boot the TrueNAS ISO from an external drive and successfully install it onto the 128GB SSD that's in place of the DOM.
BUT I can't get the system to boot from it. Not selectable in BIOS, neither in the DOM place, nor when I take the drive out of the 4pin adaptor and plug it into a regular USB port. Just not selectable in BIOS...
I booted Ubuntu Live on the QNAP and looked at the drive (when in DOM place) looks fine and has a BIOS bootable partition...

What am I missing?

 

[TheNewRacket]

not the same model but i did it for a ts-653a

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i imagine the process would the same. the question is, does this particular model able to display output onto a monitor to view the bios? and can either truenas core or scale have the necessary driver supports (i encountered an issue in regard to ethrnet nic support issue for 2.5gbe, which i heard was resolved in newer firmware releases for truenas).

If you own the model, you can try replicate the steps in the guide, see if it works, if it doesn,t, just undo the steps.

I spent yesterday trying to get this to work, so I can share some feedback. My biggest issue is that I can't get truenas scale to see my detached zpool that im transferring over from QuTS. It's on the drives and I can see it in shell when I'm searching on the qnap, but can't get truenas to see the same pool when I start it up frustrating still is that I got my pool back into QuTS, but none of the attached data. It's all there, again I can find it in the Shell, but file station/etc don't see any of the folders inside the pool's shared folder. The bear is finding a way to back up the 32 tb of data without getting another raid system to do an offload and transfer if I cant just prep the drives on QuTS to be imported in truenas

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

I spent yesterday trying to get this to work, so I can share some feedback. My biggest issue is that I can't get truenas scale to see my detached zpool that im transferring over from QuTS. It's on the drives and I can see it in shell when I'm searching on the qnap, but can't get truenas to see the same pool when I start it up frustrating still is that I got my pool back into QuTS, but none of the attached data. It's all there, again I can find it in the Shell, but file station/etc don't see any of the folders inside the pool's shared folder. The bear is finding a way to back up the 32 tb of data without getting another raid system to do an offload and transfer if I cant just prep the drives on QuTS to be imported in truenas

uh.... i am not sure about transfering the zfs created under quts with the intent to migrate it to zfs under truenas.

what i had in mind was, if u plan to make the transition/replace (quts to truenas) on the same qnap nas model unit, then you would first have backup to a SEPARATE storage device first (to create a backup), then pull out those drives, format them/remove the existing partitions.

Then procede the steps for converting qts/quts to truenas using the steps in the guide (the process is more or less the same even if it's a different qnap model. whether truenas supports the model i offer no guarantees but i suspect it will work).

Then you setup the truenas from scratch. Some hiccups u may encounter, is whether hard drives get detected, to ensure they are, u have to make sure the drives r initially populated and in correct boot order in bios. But for new hard drives added in future that does not get detected, you would need to check bios whether they r in proper boot order if they are not detected, one of the troubleshooting things u need to be aware of.

then once u setup your shares on truenas, then you can procede to recover your data from the backup u had prepared earlier. Now all your data should be restored by this point.




another experiment i did was interaction between a qts qnap os and a qnap truenas, for how to backup from the qts to the truenas, and recover data from the truenas to the qts qnap. I only managed to get backup one way rsync from qnap to truenas to work using hybridbackupsync on the qts. To recover, my solution was to use the HBS on qts, to do an active rsync which is basically a pull, in other to copy the data from the backup (on the truenas), and pull it to the qnap qts nas.

Some users on this truenas forum figured out how to get the truenas rsync module to fully work for both backup and restore (basically avoiding the need for having to use HBS to do this job), but i could not figure out how to get this to work, despite the many step by step guides all over the place. The process is not very straight forward for less tech savvy users such as myself :/

 

[TheNewRacket]

uh.... i am not sure about transfering the zfs created under quts with the intent to migrate it to zfs under truenas.

what i had in mind was, if u plan to make the transition on the same model, then you would backup to a SEPARATE storage device first (to create a backup), then pull out those drives, format them/remove the existing partitions.

Then procede the steps for converting qts/quts to truenas using the steps in the guide (the process is more or less the same even if it's a different qnap model. whether truenas supports the model i offer no guarantees but i suspect it will work).

Then you setup the truenas from scratch. Some hiccups u may encounter, is whether hard drives get detected, to ensure they are, u have to make sure the drives r initially populated and in correct boot order in bios. But for new hard drives added in future that does not get detected, you would need to check bios whether they r in proper boot order if they are not detected, one of the troubleshooting things u need to be aware of.

then once u setup your shares on truenas, then you can procede to recover your data from the backup u had prepared earlier. Now all your data should be restored by this point.

Assuming I can get QuTS to see the data again on the zpool I reimported, ill likely grab a 4bay Nas and 4 drives to do a transfer and maintain a backup. If not I'll just erase and start on truenas

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Assuming I can get QuTS to see the data again on the zpool I reimported, ill likely grab a 4bay Nas and 4 drives to do a transfer and maintain a backup. If not I'll just erase and start on truenas

yeh backups are critical. raid/zraid whether it be on qts/quts/truenas, is not a substitute for a backup stored on a separate device

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maybe is possible (i'm not a full blown expert), but i don't think it likely because it was created using a quts and not truenas. so i myself would not have dared tried to use those drives and think that truenas would detect those zpools.

i would just start from scratch (obviously having backups done first in preparation before doing that), cauz i know that works and u can be sure everything was done right from the start.

but if anyone had confirmed what u theorized is possible, that would be interesting to know o-O;

 

[TheNewRacket]

Im in the mode where the data is definetly there (I can find it in ssh), I just need to figure out how to get quts to see it so begin a backup and eventual offload

 

[kfp]

I have upgraded CPU and RAM to max and replaced the DOM with a 4pin USB Cable with a USB to M.2 adapter and a 128GB M.2 (stuff I had flying around from another project).

Hah! Turns out that there are USB to M.2 adapters that just won't support booting on UEFI... Installed on a USB Stick instead and no issues...

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Hah! Turns out that there are USB to M.2 adapters that just won't support booting on UEFI... Installed on a USB Stick instead and no issues...

dont use usb sticks. those usb flash sticks wear out so fast, to the point that truenas no longer recommend using them.

but if u do like i did, using a m.2 nvme external usb, it's better since it's booting off an SSD.

Some may or may not work but mine did. Mines an Orico M.2 NVME (M2PV-C3), you can google what chip it uses to see what alternative might work. i'm sure if u did a search on the forum others can confirm what works.

i think install direct onto the internal drives may also work (i didn't try this myself but i don't see why not), but it will require a slot or 2 if u do that. probly not an issue for a nas with many slots available.

 

[kfp]

dont use usb sticks. those usb flash sticks wear out so fast, to the point that truenas no longer recommend using them.

Uh, I just shelled out bookoo bucks for a Samsung Extreme stick with 400mb/s read/write :(
I guess I'll back up my settings regularly and collect empirical evidence ;)

(Update from Jan 2025 (three years later): the USB stick is still alive)

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Uh, I just shelled out bookoo bucks for a Samsung Extreme stick with 400mb/s read/write :(
I guess I'll back up my settings regularly and collect empirical evidence ;)

While possible, this is no longer recommended, since TrueNAS will burn out the thumb drive very quickly. Thumb drives just aren't engineered for the constant reads/writes TrueNAS needs.

What is recommended nowadays is a small SSD, like a DOM (disk on module), which plugs directly into a SATA port. A USB M.2 adapter also works.

As for forcing the small SSD to be the first in your BIOS's boot order, that's something you'll have to spelunk around your BIOS to determine.

TrueNAS on USB drive

Is it possible to install TrueNAS on a USB drive so I do not have to have a whole bay ate up by the OS? And if so HOW would I install TrueNAS on a USB stick so that the server boots to it every time? Thanks in advance.

www.truenas.com

 

[NugentS]

Uh, I just shelled out bookoo bucks for a Samsung Extreme stick with 400mb/s read/write :(
I guess I'll back up my settings regularly and collect empirical evidence ;)

Just make sure that:
1. You have a spare USB thumb drive, preferably good name and USB 2
2. You keep the system dataset away from it
3. You have a backup of the config file
4. Consider mirroring the boot USB to a second boot USB. Use a different manufacturer

 

[kfp]

Thnaks for the valuable input.

Now I have my pool created (had to reboot to get around the strange partition error) and am writing my backup. Via my computer and WiFi since the ext3 drive wouldn't mount... The speed is abysmal. Even under QNAP I had 25MB/s now I have beween 5 and 8MB/s
I did configure LAGG using standard parameters. I have a TS-870 Pro with 2.5GHz i7 CPU and 16GM RAM. Everything seems idling. The volume is z+2 with 6x 6TB WD Red Plus...

Did I miss to activate the turbo switch somewhere?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I did configure LAGG using standard parameters.

What do you mean by that? Did you configure your switch to match? LAGG only works when both ends are capable of using it and both ends are explicitly configured to do so.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I did configure LAGG using standard parameters.

Last time I tested LAGG on SCALE, there were still a number of issues (see previous posts in this thread). Suggest avoiding it.

 

[NugentS]

Can I suggest turning off LAGG first and running with a single interface first, test that and then try LAGG

 

[kfp]

What do you mean by that? Did you configure your switch to match? LAGG only works when both ends are capable of using it and both ends are explicitly configured to do so.

I set the swtch to LAGG/LACP as well, but there are a bunch of paramters to configure on Scale like MTU and some priority thingies which I didn't touch. I'm now hitting 25MB/s ingress on the network card and that was the same I had under QTS, so I'm thinking that I'm hitting some HW limitation. Will try to add drives as well... Also will fiddle with LAGG (which is finicky as can be to set up, I need to test the new settings for 60 seconds, within those I have to find the new IP, log in to the UI at the new IP and confirm the settings. Took me a couple of tries...)

 

[dragon2611]

I had to grab QNAP-EC and also the .deb package for Fancontrol to get the fans working on my TS-653D, with the Bios/UEFI on smart the thing was hitting 103c cpu core temp under load (Apparently critical is 105)

Will need to re-apply after an update.

Code:

sensors
qnap_ec-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1:        2311 RPM
fan2:        2243 RPM
fan3:        2257 RPM
fan33:       1161 RPM
fan34:       5108 RPM
fan35:       12140 RPM
fan36:       1222 RPM
temp1:        +25.0°C
temp6:        +33.0°C

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +82.0°C  (crit = +95.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +83.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0:        +83.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1:        +83.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 2:        +83.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 3:        +83.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

Code:

# Configuration file generated by pwmconfig, changes will be lost
INTERVAL=10
DEVPATH=hwmon0=devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0 hwmon2=devices/platform/qnap-ec
DEVNAME=hwmon0=acpitz hwmon2=qnap_ec
FCTEMPS= hwmon2/pwm1=hwmon0/temp1_input
FCFANS= hwmon2/pwm1=hwmon2/fan3_input+hwmon2/fan2_input
MINTEMP= hwmon2/pwm1=45
MAXTEMP= hwmon2/pwm1=75
MINSTART= hwmon2/pwm1=150
MINSTOP= hwmon2/pwm1=0

 

[trionic]

Apologies for the thread hijack - has anyone has success running TrueNAS (CORE or SCALE) on a QNAP TVS-h1288X? I'm replacing a 130TB FreeNAS server which is housed in 2x 24-bay 4U rackmount chassis but it's too LOUD. The QNAP hardware is ideal but the security is horrible and I have come to really like FreeNAS.

I did search the forums but found nothing, but that does not mean QNAP on a TVS-h1288X has not been tried.

If the answer's "yes" I'll start a new thread but I thought I'd ask here first since a few QNAP modders within earshot ;)

 

[dragon2611]

Apologies for the thread hijack - has anyone has success running TrueNAS (CORE or SCALE) on a QNAP TVS-h1288X? I'm replacing a 130TB FreeNAS server which is housed in 2x 24-bay 4U rackmount chassis but it's too LOUD. The QNAP hardware is ideal but the security is horrible and I have come to really like FreeNAS.

I did search the forums but found nothing, but that does not mean QNAP on a TVS-h1288X has not been tried.

If the answer's "yes" I'll start a new thread but I thought I'd ask here first since a few QNAP modders within earshot ;)

Looks to be x86, if you already own the unit I'd suggest connecting a display to the HDMI port and a keyboard and then seeing if you can get into the Bios/UEFI, you may be able to change the boot order from there.

I wouldn't suggest overwriting the DOM but you should be able to install onto one or more of the drives, the default install script for scale will use the entire drive, although it was possible to edit the installation configuration file to use a partition instead (That is what I did with my SSDs)

 

[NugentS]

Its likley that the boot rom isn't big enough for TrueNAS. Just pull it off and put it to one side - you can always add it back later if you need the QNAP software back. You may be able to replace it (I tried that without any luck - so I boot my QNAP from M.2 to USB convertors (a couple of 16GB Optane's - cos why not - they are dirt cheap))

Test with USB Flash drives first, then more to a more permanent solution.