New firmware 2.1.0

[spikehome]

see also http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=142&t=10052
i had already the beta's running with also iscsi.
Many more features are there.

[Dennis Wood]

Looks like the few issues with the beta code have been resolved here...the UPS works properly now.

What totally amazes me is the huge increase in "loaded" write performance over September's firmware. Back then, two workstations hitting the NAS would bring write speeds down to 10MB/s ... total. Now, using the unit in load balancing mode and attached to a Procurve 1800-24G, we're seeing an honest 76 MB/s aggregate sustained write speed. Given that the NAS unit is in RAID5 mode this is very, very respectable. Two workstations can run large simultaneous backups to the TS509 at about 38MB/s each!

We've gone full circle here from me being royally #$^&5 at buggy code to being genuinely impressed with the efforts made to address issues and improve performance. There has to be nearly 2 dozen new features/refinements piled into this code update, including support now for 4 network cameras in the surveillance station.

[Chaplin]

(...) [Before you start]
If you are using the older firmware versions (v2.0.2 build0924 or earlier) with 1.5TB drive(s) in your NAS, DO NOT upgrade this firmware through the Web Admin directly. Please go to QNAP.com, download the latest QNAP Finder (v3.3.2 build1017 or later) and update the firmware via it.(...)

To obtain the best performance, you should not choose the HD Seagate 1.5Tb?

Seagate did not completely solve the problem still with new firmware...

[spikehome]

also the iscsi is very nice

[Chaplin]

To make sure of better performance, would this disk be better? Western Digital WD1001FALS (1TB 3.5" SATA II 32MB BLACK 7200RPM)

Better than a Caviar 1Tb?

Thanks!

[Dennis Wood]

Chaplin, 7200 rpm, and 1TB with 32MB cache in any make of drive should perform pretty similar in the NAS units. We've had good luck with the Seagate ES2 7200 1TB drives with 0 failures in 12 drives.

If you're doing the code update and are using a USB signaling UPS, pull the plug on the UPS and make sure a message is recorded in the event log. If not, power down the unit (unplug it), switch USB slots on the UPS data cable, and reboot the unit. One unit was fine with an APC 950 and the other required this power down/swap USB ports procedure with an APC 650.

[MrFixit]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has this security working that can help me get it properly configured?

I have tried several times now but I can't seem to get it to authenticate. It may be a bug or something wrong with my setup - I just don't know.

Any takers?

EDIT

OK, I finally seem to have it working. I was / am totally confused about which password & secret goes where. I eventually tried several permutaitons and got it working. Phew.

[Dennis Wood]

Mf, did you do some comparative testing? I'm wondering if the decreased overhead of iSCSI makes any difference in terms of file transfer speeds when mapped drives are used as opposed to iSCSI.

I've been doing a bit of research so I guess I'll run some tests here sometime too.

[MrFixit]

Originally Posted by Dennis Wood

Mf, did you do some comparative testing? I'm wondering if the decreased overhead of iSCSI makes any difference in terms of file transfer speeds when mapped drives are used as opposed to iSCSI.

I've been doing a bit of research so I guess I'll run some tests here sometime too.

Dennis - you beat me to it - I was going to ask you the same question!

So far using Lightroom (the TS-509 holds all my RAW files from my cameras – around 8 to 13 MB each) it doesn't really feel any faster, although i have yet to use it in anger (another shoot coming up soon!) and I have not yet performed any specific tests.

Obviously Lightroom usage is not going to push Gbit bandwidth or NAS read/write performance much - it is network latency that I am most keen to reduce as this impacts the “user experience” of Lightroom.

[Chaplin]

Originally Posted by Chaplin

(...) [Before you start]
If you are using the older firmware versions (v2.0.2 build0924 or earlier) with 1.5TB drive(s) in your NAS, DO NOT upgrade this firmware through the Web Admin directly. Please go to QNAP.com, download the latest QNAP Finder (v3.3.2 build1017 or later) and update the firmware via it.(...)

To obtain the best performance, you should not choose the HD Seagate 1.5Tb?

Seagate did not completely solve the problem still with new firmware...

For Seagate 1.5Tb:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.../11/11/2125227