How to Install TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS Drive – Step By Step Guide
Have you always wanted to test out or run your very own TrueNAS Core NAS setup, but are intimidated by the building of it? It’s understandable. As respected as the ZFS-powered server software is in the IT community, it is not really as user-friendly at the start as many of the Turn-Key solutions in the market from QNAP. So, what if you want to buy an already built server from QNAP (so, its been 100% built, has a manufacturers warranty and is designed for efficient and cool 24×7 use) BUT you also want to use the open-source (i.e free) TrueNAS Core software with abilities like ZFS architecture, app jails, fast build/rebuild, RAID resilvering, triple parity and near limitless scalability? Perhaps you have an older QNAP that is long out of warranty and you want to experiment? Well, good news for you! It is actually surprisingly easy to install TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS, takes around 15-20mins and is completely reversible (if done right)!
Note – a FULL 30 Minute Installation Guide for TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS is available HERE on the NASCompares YouTube Channel
Important – It’s important to note that TrueNAS Core is NOWHERE NEAR as user-friendly as QNAP QTS/QuTS and before making any switch to a new NAS OS, it is important that you understand the process, risks and differences in the platforms. I made a HUGE QNAP QTS vs TrueNAS Core comparison video HERE that you can use to see how each software compares before making any changes to your NAS. This guide is designed to help you use your QNAP NAS to run TrueNAS Core as it’s primary OS. If you go ahead with this and use the same HDD/SSDs in the system that you are currently using in the QNAP QTS/QuTS Setup, it will likely format them, so IF you want to reverse your QNAP NAS back to its QTS/QuTS set up with all your data/drives the same, you will need to remove them before using the TrueNAS setup, put them to one side safely and use new HDD/SSDs for your TrueNAS installation. Lastly, although this whole process is reversible, you are technically using the QNAP in a means that the brand does not state as ‘intended use’ and this MIGHT lead to support/warranty problems down the line if a fault appears in the QNAP or the software installation that was the result of the TrueNAS Core installation (the bios records everything!). This is HIGHLY UNLIKELY but not impossible (eg you work a TrueNAS Core server so hard and/or push the CPU to breaking point running particularly aggressive TrueNAS jails and/or use the inline compression/deduplication expensively in TrueNAS and it burns out the CPU – this would not be covered by your QNAP NAS support, as they did not certify that the system can handle this.
TrueNAS Core Software on QNAP NAS Hardware – What You Need?
It is worth highlighting that having just a QNAP NAS is not quite enough and in order to get TrueNAS Core up and running on a QNAP NAS requires a few extra checks and use of a few items you might have already in the home/office, or a quick $10 shop online at most. In order to upgrade your system to TrueNAS Core, you will need to consider/have the following:
- A QNAP NAS Drive with (minimum) an Intel 64bit x86 CPU and a minimum 4GB of Memory (recommended 8GB+)
- Download the latest stable release of TrueNAS Core here as a system image (you will be converting this to USB later on) – DOWNLOAD
- Any Data that is currently on the QNAP NAS RAID that is mission critical to be backed up or moved (as it will be completely formatted)
- A USB drive to use as the TrueNAS installation drive ( I recommend THIS ONE here from Sandisk, as it is low price and incredibly small, even at 32GB)
- I recommend not using a USB larger than 32GB, due to the constraints of 1st party software to format larger than this in FAT32. Don’t be tempted to spend like $2 more for a 64GB, as the TrueNAS Core installation will occupy the full USB space (as you will create a system-image-USB) and space is utterly irrelevant when the TrueNAS Core installation is so small
- A Disk Image to USB conversion too. I recommend ‘Rufus’, currently in ver 3.19 and can be run in a portable .exe form that doesn’t require installation – DOWNLOAD
- A basic USB Keyboard (example HERE but really, any will do) and an HDMI Monitor (or simply any device that has an HDMI input – NOT output) such as a TV or Capture card
- Hard Drive and/or SSD media (you should already have these, but just in case) for your storage Pool / RAID
- Optional M.2 NVMe SSD of at least 120GB, but highly recommended – Installing TrueNAS Core is not unlike installing a Windows OS on a new PC, as you are connecting a USB to run the installer, but you need to target a drive in the QNAP NAS to install TrueNAS onto. Whichever drive you use, it will make that drive largely inaccessible for anything but the TrueNAS operating system. Therefore IF you are running a QNAP NAS that has internal m.2 NVMe SSD bays OR one with dedicated 2.5″ SSD bays, I highly recommend getting a low-capacity drive of between 60-120GB (these will be very cheap compared with larger HDDs that start in the Terabyte scales) and then use this for the TrueNAS software. This means that ALL of the main SATA storage bays of the QNAP are then used for your storage pool(s) (aka the RAID). Do NOT install TrueNAS on another USB drive during installation, as this is less stable.
- Optional – Download Advanced IP Scanner HERE, as it is a really useful tool for analyzing your network and finding your new TrueNAS Core NAS for remote access
That is about it. Most of these are devices are that you will almost certainly already have to hand.
Can I Reverse the TrueNAS Core Installation and go back to QNAP QTS?
Almost certainly YES! I say ‘almost certainly’, as there is one small caveat. When you make the change from QNAP QTS to TrueNAS Core on the NAS hardware, the drives (HDD and/or SSD) inside used in TrueNAS pools used in the new system software architecture. This works both ways if you want to revert back to QTS on the NAS too. You CANNOT use the Storage Pool, Volume structure, Folders etc of drives from a QNAP NAS in a TrueNAS setup (you will need to format these in TrueNAS). So, although the act of reinitializing the NAS to its original software is very easy (you just need to go into the BIOS of the QNAP using the same method in the guide below, then change the boot drive order BACK to the QNAP OS internal SSD), it will mean that any data that resides on the disks inside will be formatted. So, if you are choosing to make a change from one NAS OS to another, make sure you have your data appropriately backed up elsewhere OR move the drives that were in your QNAP (with their QTS/QuTS Storage structure) to one side safely and install new 3.5″ storage media for the TrueNAS pools etc. So, let’s begin the installation of TrueNAS Core on the QNAP NAS.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 1, Download TrueNAS Core
Head to the TrueNAS Core website HERE and download the latest stable release of the software to your local PC, Linux or Mac system. Make sure to remember where you downloaded it.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 2, Download Rufus USB Image Tool
Head to the Rufus website and download the latest version of that tool – I recommend downloading the standalone executable file here, as then it will immediately run when you double-click the file, without installation etc. It may redirect you to Github, but it will be the same executable file. Once again, remember where you downloaded it.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 3, Preparing the USB
Connect the small form factor USB Drive to your system (again, this is the one I used from Sandisk) and after a few seconds, it should appear as an available USB Drive. The drive MAY need formatting (you will be prompted to do so), if that is the case, then you can format it via the system prompts and by default, it will format it to FAT32 (as long as your USB is less than 32GB). If you are not presented with a system prompt to format your USB, then you can head into My PC, or My Computer via a windows computer and right-click the drive, select ‘format’ and format it that way.
If you have used the USB for other things previously, there is a chance that the drive has existing partitions in place. For that, the quickest way to completely remove any partitions is to open up the bottom-left windows system menu as normal, and then just type diskpart and open the command-line GUI tool. From there, use the command list disk to show the available drives that are connected, you will see your USB (normally disk 1 or 2, but can differ depending on your system layout and can be spotted by the storage amount). From there, type select disk # (where # is the drive number that your USB is shown as) and then type clean, which will then remove any index structure for the drive (i.e the partitions and existing format) and then you can go back to the My Computer/My PC page and format the drive to FAT 32 as normal.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 4, Creating a USB Installer Image of TrueNAS Core
Open the Rufus application and from there you will see the USB Drive (listed as NO NAME, or ‘UNTITLED’, ETC) at the top. From there, look to the select image/find image option (depending on the ver. of Rufus or your USB Image Creator tool of choice) and find the TrueNAS Core disk image you downloaded earlier). If the drive is not listed, it may have downloaded as a compressed/archive file. If that is the case, head to the location of where you downloaded TrueNAS Core (in your file explorer, not in Rufus) and right-click the file you downloaded. If the option to ‘extract‘ is visible, then you can extract it (i.e unpack it to the original form) in that same download directory. From there, head back into RUFUS and then the TrueNAS Core system image should be visible. Select it, then run the Rufus System image creator tool and create your USB bootable TrueNAS Core disk image.
REMEMBER! This will completely format your USB drive and any files that are on that USB will be destroyed. The system image creator tool will turn the USB into a pure boot image tool – the USB will not be usable for traditional storage again unless you completely format it again.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 5, REMOVE THE USB FROM YOUR PC!!!!!!!!!
Really, really important and sometimes overlooked. Once the USB creation is completed, you need to remove the USB (using the eject hardware safely option at the bottom right of your windows machine taskbar as normal). DO NOT accidentally leave the USB in your USB Ports for any longer than necessary. If you leave it in and your system reboots at any point (eg in a normal ‘end of day shut down, go home, reboot tomorrow’ scenario), then the system might boot directly into the TrueNAS Core installation and although it is easy to exit from, it can change your system default boot preferences, maybe even remove your primary boot drive as the OS drive – requiring a little messing with a windows installation disk to change it back. The odds of this are very small, but not zero, so make sure to safely remove your USB drive when the TrueNAS Core system image creator tool is completed.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 6, (OPTIONAL) – Install an NVMe SSD
This is an optional step, but one I would certainly recommend for newer-generation QNAP NAS devices. TrueNAS is a lot like a traditional computer operating system (eg Windows or macOS) in it’s architecture and will run at its best when the necessary boot files are located on a seperate, smaller and faster area of SSD/flash storage away from the general bulk storage. So, if possible/available in your QNAP NAS, I would recommend installing a smaller m.2 NVMe SSD drive and then using that as the target/location for your TrueNAS Core installation. This is not compulsory and you can also use a single HDD or SSD in one of the main storage bays of your QNAP, however, it means that this drive will unusable for general storage (i.e in any RAID configuration or storage pool). This CAN be negated with some creative portion creation, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Additionally, do NOT try to install TrueNAS Core on another USB drive that is connected to the system – this isn’t particularly stable and tends to result in a poorer TrueNAS Core experience. M.2 NVMe bays and their location in the QNAP NAS changes depending on the system. Some allow you to access these bays via the main HDD 3.5″ bays (eg the TS-464), whilst others (the majority) require you to remove the external chassis casing to access these bays (eg the TS-453E, TVS-872X, TS-873A, etc).
Reminder – TrueNAS is NOT a big program and you can use an SSD as small as 32GB and still have a tonne of provision for future storage space. However, M.2 NVMe SSDs are not available in smaller sizes than 120GB. Lower size than this and you will generally only find 2240 SSDs and/or SATA M.2 SSDs. These are still perfectly fine to use, but the performance difference between SATA and NVMe (PCIe) is HUGE! You can find many SSD options here on amazon for as little as $30 – Find Low Capacitiy and Low Price M.2 NVMe SSDs HERE on Amazon (already filtered the results)
NOTE – If you plan on upgrading the memory of your NAS to 4GB-8GB-16GB or higher (in order to use ALL of the features of TrueNAS Core to their fullest extent), I would recommend doing so at this point before rebuilding the physical chassis again, as many QNAP NAS have the 2nd SODIMM memory slot in really tight locations.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 7, Connecting the USB, Keyboard and HDMI Monitor
Next, we need to connect the external means to install TrueNAS Core on the QNAP NAS. Unlike when you set up your QNAP NAS for the first time, TrueNAS cannot typically be installed via the network like QTS. TrueNAS requires you to use a KVM (keyboard, Video Mouse – though you won’t need a mouse!) and go through the installation using a low-res graphical user interface. Now you will ONLY need this setup/items for the installation and initialization of your TrueNAS Core server and after that, you will be able to use the server over the network/internet as normal. You are going to need a basic USB Keyboard (not a Bluetooth or wireless one, as these may need drivers to run and you cannot install drivers at this point) and an HDMI Monitor/TV. You CAN use a mouse, but it is not hugely necessary and 99% of the choices in the setup of TrueNAS core can/will be via keyboard input. Also, I would also recommend connecting the NAS to the network during setup as this will allow the system to assume certain network values during setup that will save a tonne of time later. Once that is all connected, do NOT turn the NAS on yet – there is one small and slightly time-sensitive thing to do.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your QNAP NAS
Now that your QNAP NAS is all connected and you are ready at your keyboard/Monitor, turn the NAS on and wait till you hear a beep (should take between 5-15secs depending on the QNAP NAS). As soon as your hear that noise (and likely see a flashing character or underscore on the monitor screen), you need to continuously hit the F12 and/or DEL keys (not at the same time, just back and forth). One of these will result in the system displaying the blue BIOS menu (it changes between motherboards and QNAP uses a mixture of mobos in their Intel and AMD-powered systems). You need to be quick, as you only have about 3 seconds to do this before the QNAP will automatically boot from the small internal 5GB flash OS module that boots into QNAP.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New TrueNAS Installer USB
Next you need to tap ‘RIGHT‘ on the keyboard and head to the ‘Save & Exit’ option. At the bottom, you should see, under the ‘boot override‘ option, your USB Drive. Tap ‘DOWN‘ until you are highlighting the USB and then tap ‘Enter‘ or ‘Return‘ on your keyboard, as this will push the QNAP to boot from that USB and begin the TrueNAS Core installation. Later on I will show you how to force the system to ALWAYS boot into TrueNAS Core, but for now, we just need it to read from this USB this one time.
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 10, Rebooting and Starting the TrueNAS Installer
This next step is a bit of a quick one. Around 5-15 seconds after you selected the USB Drive in BIOS, the screen will display the TrueNAS Installer option page. Tap ‘Enter’ as soon as you see it, as the page is on a countdown and when it reaches zero it will (possibly, depending on the version) reboot and then you will have to repeat the last few steps again!), So, in order to avoid this, tap ‘ENTER‘ as soon as this page appears.
After a few minutes, the TrueNAS Core GUI/Command will appear on your monitor and all you need to do is navigate the config choices to set up your TrueNAS Core NAS the first time.
Important – TrueNAS Core runs at its best when it is run on a separate drive from your storage. Much like an Operating System, you can install TrueNAS Core on an available SSD in a SATA or NVMe SSD slot in the QNAP NAS, then (after initialization) you can go into the TrueNAS Core > Storage area and create a pool of storage using the available storage media bays,
It is NOT recommended that you install it on a USB drive, for reasons of speed and power-connections.
After you have completed the setup and are back at the initial TrueNAS Core boot menu, select the ‘SHUTDOWN‘ option (not reboot/restart, for reasons I will explain in a moment).
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 8, Remove the Boot USB Drive AND CHANGE BIOS!!!
Once your QNAP NAS has fully powered down, you need to disconnect the USB drive you installed earlier with TrueNAS Core boot loader on it. You need to do this otherwise, when you reboot the QNAP NAS, it can potentially reboot into the bootloader again. You can skip past this and/or it will not action a reinitialization without your input, but better to remove the USB and therefore allow the system to always immediately boot into the TrueNAS Core system you just created.
Next, you need to head back into the BIOS from earlier. Keep the Keyboard and HDMI Monitor connected and use the same method you used earlier during the initial boot of the QNAP (pressing F12 and/or Delete repeatedly when you hear the first QNAP beep after about 10-15 secs) and as soon as you are greeted with the familiar blue BIOS screen. From here, tap right a few times to highlight the ‘Boot’ option and change the option for Boot Priority #1. The default is QNAP OS, you need to change it to the drive you installed TrueNAS on (whether that is a SATA/NVMe SSD or one of the main storage bays).
This will change the boot order to allow the system when it is first powered on to always boot into TrueNAS. After this, you can click right again in the BIOS menu to select the option to Save and restart. The system will then boot into the TrueNAS initialization (first time setup).
TrueNAS Core on a QNAP NAS – Step 9, Reboot the NAS
Upon rebooting the QNAP into TrueNAS Core (can take up to 5 mins, but usually much quicker). You have two options with how to access the configuration and controls. You can use the HDMI+Keyboard if you choose for console/command level access. Alternatively (much more recommended), use a program such as Advanced IP Scanner, which is free and VERY useful anyway, or even network command prompt) to scan your local area network and find where the QNAP with TrueNAS Core is located (i.e it’s IP). This IP (eg 192.168.1.111) is what you put into the URL bar ofay web browser and it will load into the login GUI for TrueNAS Core. From here you will need to use the username ‘root’ in combination with the password that you created during initialization.
And that is about it. You now have TrueNAS Core installed as the default OS of your QNAP NAS. From here you can do anything and everything that his highly regarded ZFS powered server software offers. Head into the Storage area and start creating pools, as well as areas for caching and lots more features.
TrueNAS was recently updated to ver.13 in a stable release of the FreeBSD format, as well as new improvements in the Linux-based version ‘TrueNAS Scale’. The first thing you are going to need to do when setting up your TrueNAS Core > QNAP NAS server is set up your storage. Do this by heading into the storage tab and following the handy steps on screen. After that, you can pretty much do anything on your new ZFS NAS!
EXTRA – How to Reverse Your QNAP NAS from TrueNAS Core to QNAP QTS / QuTS Software Again
Now, it is worth remembering that switching your QNAP NAS to run TrueNAS Core instead of QTS/QuTS is not a one-way street and you can reverse this relatively easily. Do remember first though that:
- Any data on the HDD/SSDs inside the QNAP that were used in TrueNAS Core server setup will not be accessible/usable with the QNAP NAS system and will likely be flashed/formatted during the QNAP QTS reinitialization
- You will need your Keyboard and HDMI Monitor again in order to get back into BIOS
- If you kept your original QNAP RAID Pool on HDDs etc to one side (i.e you removed the already configured storage media in their RAID from the QNAP when you changed to TrueNAS and put these drives safely to one side), you should be able to migrate this data back into the QNAP NAS during re-initialization with ease. That said, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP FOR THIS DATA REGARDLESS
In order to reverse the QNAP NAS from TrueNAS Core back to QNAP QTS/QuTS Software, you need to (from a cold boot) access the BIOS menu again (so, at boot, with your Keyboard and monitor connected, press the DEL and/or F12 key over and over when the QNAP beeps, like before) and when you reach the BIOS menu, tap RIGHT until you reach the ‘Boot page. Then change the ‘Boot Option #1’ option from the TrueNAS installation drive back to the QNAP OS (internal flash 5GB module). Once that is done, head into the ‘Save & Exit‘ and then select ‘Save Changes and Restart‘. Doing this will restart the QNAP NAS and it will automatically boot into the QNAP QTS/QuTS boot sequence. From here your NAS will either automatically boot into the QNAP Setup page OR (if you have your original QNAP NAS RAID drives, with their Pools, Volumes, etc) it will just boot into the QNAP NAS software as normal.
You can find out more about TrueNAS in my full review below that covers everything I like and dislike about the platform:
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My TS451+ boot from USB via UEFI but doesnt boot TrueNAS with UEFI-Option…
What can i do?
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great video, i have a QNAP server and i generally dislike it very much. the apps are fantastic and the hardware computing power is pathetic. to get decent cpu performance you have to pay ridiculously more for it than putting truenas on a generic high speed PC. so this helps me see what it would be like to make the transition to a computer with some real horsepower vs the wimpy offerings from QNAP. i like QuMagie and my plex server, running vms containers ect are also nice. setup is easy and straight forward. but the bloody hardware is garbage or super expensive.
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I gotta look at truenas. I have to test and ready about performance running in a proxmox vm and drive pass through with other vms vs Nas on bare metal. My workload is pretty low, I just need the best preservation of data workout bitrot that I can get
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Hi, so i have a m.2 already installed in my qnap and it’s assigned as a cache drive. Can i still use it regardless? Or should i put a second one in and use it instead?
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Have no idea what is going on those permissions.
However.. on my xcp-ng server all i needed to do was to pass through an lsi controller and plug in a disk and by magic it picked it up immediately. Dropped in 5 more driver and a few seconds later i has a zfs pool.. v cool
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Very appreciated comparison, thank you!
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BIOS Asustor (он же материнская плата Acer) в принципе не предусматривает установку системы на диск. Только на флеш USB.
Потратил 5 дней разбираясь с этим.
Можно установить Xpenology но она рандомно перезагружается в неожиданных ситуациях без явных и видимых причин.
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Wondering if my TS-559 Pro+ would work well with TrueNAS. I believe it has an 1gb ram and an Atom 1.8ghz Dual core. Yes its 64-bit, but… eeeeeehh… Any thoughts?
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A helpful and clear guide to the install, and how to revert back. Very Good indeed. Thank You.
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I have a qnap 453D 4bay, but dubious to try as I have truenas core 13 on a 10th gen intel pc and it wont launch in uefa mode and doesnt support 2.5gb
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mate ..with the volume you speak at the noise of spinning disks and NAS hum is negligible .. lol
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I just want to say thank you! I have been watching your videos for a bit now and the passion, and need for the truth with no bull sh#t comes through along with the love of what you do. That’s why I can sit and listen to an hour about True Nas and it is compelling at 58 minutes just as it was at 2 minutes. So again thank you for the incredibly tedious and hard work that you do!
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I have 2 QNAP rack mount servers, an 8 slot + a 12 slot expansion chassis, and a second 12 slot server. The oldest just became very unreliable hardware wise (not disks, or expansion chasis, they are all fine) and the newer one has always been a bit flaky in the hardware department which support tried to help with. What I don’t like is QNAP just decided to quit providing system updates to the old one, then along comes all the hacking and security issues. I am currently considering options of a Truenas system or to go with a new QNAP system.
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With this does the front light panel still work properly
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Great tutorial.
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I just gave my old QNAP ts-453 mini a second life by installing Truenas with your help. Thanks a lot! I’m eager to try it out. I’m already running a XPenology pc as a “fake” Synology and it works a charm. Luckily I bought the 8 Gb ram modules with the QNAP back in 2015…
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Ive got the TVS-863+ with an 10Git-NIC. Does TrueNAS support it? Since I didnt have an M2 drive, can I use a 3tb hd for installation? I know its overkill.
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The only good QNAP unit is one that is running Truenas core. I sold of my other QNAPs 2 years ago as I was completely fed up with the startup/shutdown, firmware update times. I never had my opened to the internet, but the bugs they had. Some of their apps had crazy memory leaks and I would have to run the feature to reclaim the RAM. I installed two M.2 SSD and installed truenas on them as mirrored and currently have 6 12TB seagate EXOS HDDs with 2 spare bays empty. It has been running very well for about 1.5 years. It is my off-line archive unit that I connect power and network once a month to backup and turn off and disconnect again. I had to mcgyver the case as the TS-873A which had the Radeon chip ran very hot and they had a joke of a fan for cooling it. I cut in to the case and mounted an 80mm fan. It is noisy now, but the CPU SoC only get to 50C max instead of reaching 92C. I also replaced the the two internal fans with better ones as well. Also remove the DOM. Have 32GB of RAM and room to go upto 64GB of RAM. Of course installed a video card and room for a 10GB NIC. Friends don’t let friends use QTS. My main truenas uses a supermicro MB with Xeon Silver, 164GB RAM in a supermicro 3U rack chassis case with 16 bays for 3.5″ HDDs and a cage holding two 2.5″ SSD mirrored for booting. Three pools, with the biggest being 30TB for media.
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I always wonder why I should use an IP scanner, I guess most of us have an DHCP server (e.g. router/firewall) in the network, so you can simply lookup the NAS IP there ????
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How large is the eMMC storage on a 4TS53D/E, it might not be advisable to doze over it without some backup in place, but let’s say that:
a) I’m out of warranty
b) Im not co concerned about potentially perma-bricking the Device
Could I (At least), in theory install to this eMMC? Or would it be pointless, ’cause QNAP were careful to only bless it with just enough capacity to store its own OS
(i.e. QTS), on it?
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Could this be done on last gen systems without an embedded m.2 slot(s), via a QM2 Card?
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I just this year ventured into the universe of having my first NAS. I purchased the QNAP TS32-PX and I am thinking that I cannot switch this unit over to TrueNAS, can someone confirm that for me? I just looked at my manual and I don’t have any sort of port to connect up a monitor, only USB slots and Ethernet. The manual also names an unusual CPU which is Annapurna Labs Alpine AL324 4-core 1.7 GHz ARM 64-bit so I really am leaning to the conclusion that I cannot switch over but still prefer to get some opinions please.
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Wow, spot on the point. Great video, one of the best meaningfull comparations I ever seen. great job!
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Important information for anyone who is buying the newer ASUSTOR models. I bought the new AS6702T and it appears ASUSTOR started to block BIOS access. Mashing the ESC key game me a BIOS screen for a split second, I had to record a video to even see what it displayed, because after that it just stayed on the flashing cursor and nothing would happen. It said system BIOS and system VIDEO shadowed. No idea what it means exactly but I couldnt get to “normal” BIOS with any key. After about two hours I finally found that F11 would get me to UEFI shell, where it displayed all drives and a startup script (from ASUSTOR). Bit of Googling and typing bootx64.efi managed to boot the USB with TrueNAS install and finally managed to get it installed. Now, after restart, the NAS goes to the TrueNAS automatically. I installed it on new NVMe drive so hopefully it didnt screw the original OS, however Im not sure if I will be able to boot into original OS even after I take out the NVMe with TrueNAS install.. Ill probably test it later on. Just be warned.
@NASCompares it would be great if you could get some info from ASUSTOR regarding this. If they really did hardened the way you can get another OS on their NAS. I mean I get it they want you to use their software but still, shitty move imho
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If my goal is to have a NAS running TrueNAS in a small enclosure like a QNAP, is buying a QNAP or TerraMaster the best price-performance (and low-noise) option or is buying all the pieces separately better? (Time and effort to buy and assemble are not an issue). Thank you.
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Couldn’t you just do the installation on a PC and then move the SSD with the TrueNAS system to the Qnap? Could be a way to install TrueNAS on Qnaps without HDMI out like the TS-h973AX.
Someone installed Unraid on a TS-973AX by simply plugging an USB thumbdrive into the USB port and booted without changing the boot order in bios. Seems USB drives have higher boot order than the builtin flash.
Another possibility could be to blindly enter the bios and change the boot order.
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what are the possibilities for TS-251+, TS-253Be or any other Celeron based NAS that do not have M.2 slot?
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Looking forward for a installation and setup video for Unraid on a Qnap nas, like TVS h1288x with all setups of the temp. Sensors, fans, etc.
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Great video.
Polite request – can you sort out the audible thumps from banging the desk please? Either put a blanket over the desk and/or run the audio through a high pass filter set to around 100Hz to remove the low end noise pollution. I’m on ear buds and it drives me nuts…????
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Is it just me, but the last few videos have had sound synching issues. This is the only channel I experience this and its just the last few. It’s quite distracting
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So can qts be installed on non qnap hardware
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I have an extra ts-453be with 4gb and thinking of trying TrueNas. I know you said 16 gb is recommended but will 4 work for Testing/playing and then I can spend the $$ if I think it works ok.
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Thank u Sir
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Qnap makes excellent truenas hardware Like really excellent.
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Would love to see this same type of guide for unRAID on QNAP
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Think I’ll try this on my now retired 451+
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Thank you for the information. I have a couple of questions regarding this procedure: 1) What are the startup time difference between the original QTS (on eMMC/internal USB) to the TrueNAS on NVMe ?; 2) Will it be possible to install the QTS on the NVMe to compare startup times and loading of applications?
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How about a video on How to Install Jellyfin on a QNAP..please?
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Love this guide!!
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This was really interesting. Since it is reversible, it could be fun to try maybe Windows, other Linux distros just to see how they work.
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top guide, as usual, you’re great the most useful and resourceful guides, info, tips and tricks for NAS, amazing channel, incredible work; cheers!
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Great guide!
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Thanks!
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I have a QNAP running since 2009… no problems with the hardware, just had to replace a couple of HDs.
The system is out of support, so there are no more updates to to QoS for me.
I found out about the security issues by accident, and also watched the security related video from Tom of Lawrence Systems.
Currently tossing my options…
Great video by the way!
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Thank you so much for this video. It was just what I was looking for.
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Go watch the recent take of QNAP NASes from Tom of Lawrence Systems before you make your purchases. Btw, no short term deployment of TrueNAS users can fully understand the beauty of TrueNAS. TrueNAS are in fact more “commercial” than a QNAP.
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No mention that ZFS is not 100% licensed for Linux and what that means for the future.
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The reason I chose TrueNAS over any of the Linux based boxes is FreeBSD is simply not the target of malware that Linux is.
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The turnkey vs build-it-yourself argument is as old as the earliest PCs and later IBM clones. I purchased the TVS-h1688x which is way overkill for my house but it allows me future flexibility and the ability to sunset an ancient Dell I have from a data center running Windows Server. I have easily set up the same thing on a VM and it’s faster now. I did investigate the TrueNAS route but at the end of the day, I didn’t want to spend the time tinkering and I just wanted something that would just work without an extreme amount of effort. It hasn’t been perfect…I bought the thing right before QuTS Hero 5 debuted and I’ve been riding those bugs ever since. It has gotten better in the last couple of months. There are also at least one third party app that I wanted to run in my QNAP that is not a thing on TrueNAS. I do think that TrueNAS won’t be as susceptible to ransomware since I doubt a lot of small businesses are investing in it like QNAP or Synology.
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Is there a NAS that can also like a DAS? Basically devices on the network can connect to it over the network, but it can also has a USB port that can connect to a TV or a streaming appliance like Roku so videos from the NAS can play videos directly from it as an external harddrive?
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I am looking for an inexpensive NAS that has only one or two drives that has an HDMI port so that it can play videos directly from it onto the TV instead of over the network. This NAS will be sitting below the large TV in the family room. I currently have a Synology NAS that does this task but playing videos from it on the TV is cumbersome.
The Asustor AS5202T seems to be the cheapest NAS that can do this (or does it?) because it has an HDMI port, but it has the two 2.5Gbit network ports when I only need 1 port. It also costs $300. I am looking for a NAS that does this that is less than $200.
By the way, does the Asustor AS5202T support trunking or link aggregation so that both of its network ports can combine to increase its network speed to 5Gbit when plugged into a network switch that supports trunking?
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Have you reviewed XigmaNAS software vs TrueNAS in the past? Could be informative
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I have a TS-h973AX, bought mainly on account it enables using ZFS. The dumb thing I found out later as a long time freenas/truenas user is you can’t setup the system-dataset to another pool. So now with 5 spinning HDD’s as a RAIDZ1 pool every 5 seconds those drives are hit (noise!) with an update of the systemlog on the system dataset. On freenas/truenas you can direct the system dataset to a SSD pool. Maybe I’m missing something…
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I would never have purchase my Qnap tvs-h1288x-w With out your videos. Thanks for posting!! Very good info.
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i would only use ZFS when they allow you to expand your errays like raid5 lets you…
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At first a 1-hour video seemed long, but every point mentioned was pertinent. And it’s the weekend anyway, so. 😉
Only addition I would have liked is an overview of network shares management.
And you are spot-on my user usecase/profile: Home techie power user currently using a Synology that likes its simplicity but that still keeps an eye on other totally open source platforms for a bit more control/flexibility (and lot more verbose logs!!). And so I agree with every single of your comments.
Indeed, an “easy” mode in TrueNAS or more wizards across the system would be greatly helpful because I may be tech-savvy at some level, still maybe not quite the TrueNAS level.
So to have something to bridge the gap between current TrueNAS “complexity” and Synology DSM “simplicity” would be perfect.
The other thing that makes me hesitating from leaving Synology ecosystem is the turn-key/hand-holding/well-integrated (DSM/mobile) apps. But even there — and it’s one of the reasons I’m looking elsewhere — is that in the recent years Synology has seemed to neglect all their non-business apps.
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Compare this to UnRAID also.
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I would find it very interesting.
If u would test out TrueNAS scale ad the review u have made now about TrueNAS Core.
It’s out of beta and in the release channel.
And it opens up a tons of possibilities as a Linux user, because of docker and k8s.
I really trust and enjoy ur indept reviews.
It would be great to see that for TrueNAS SCALE.
Best regards from me.
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Adding a comment here to your most recent upload, hoping to get a reply. Watched 100’s of your uploads now. I need a new nas (4-10 bays). My old one died. Won’t be editing on it or doing anything taxing (fancy) with it, so not bothered with nvme caching etc. Just storing/accessing files locally via LAN. Best option? (Ideally with faster than 1.0GBe)
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I’d be all over TrueNAS (and/or Proxmox), but I have a QNAP TS-453D and for the life of me I cannot boot off the internal drives. No, I am not happy booting off an external USB drive. Do you, or anyone, have any tricks to be able to boot directly off the internal drives on a midrange QNAP device?
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Please compare to Unraid too. Thanks. ????
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There is a debian version of truenas called truenas scale
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Sweet! Great deep dive as always without being intimidating for us newbies rob! – bit the bullet last year on a tvs-h1288x due to your coverage and don’t regret it as it’s been great overall but with all the gross stuff that’s been happening in the qnap camp, definitely considering potentially repurposing it for a truenas. Possible?
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I’m looking into a NAS system. But I don’t know how much I want to do with it. Right now I only want storage. But I also bought a raspberry pi 4 just for experimenting, and now I have: an add sinkhole, VPN server, Home Assistent, link to smart meter, DDNS server, selfhosted Bitwarden, node red, ZigBee network, and on and on… In just three months. So yea.. it will probably not only be for storage and will take over all tasks from the pi, start media server, couch potato, radarr, lidarr, security cameras with AI face detection, etc. I think I just have to go with TrueNas because eventually I want it all….
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I was using freenas/truenas before I got a qnap for ease of use. Truenas wipes the floor with qnap, you just need some patience to get your head around the user interface. Please also advise everyone that you can run truenas on an old pc or in a virtual environment to test.
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Yayyyyy Robbie is back! I bought a qnap based on your review. Your info was great. Its a shame that qnap decided to, there is no delicate way of saying this, shaft thier user base. I really think this is a fantastic idea and would love to see more of your valuable input. Might be time to get the big hammer out and doctor my tvs-1282. Once more it’s good to see you with your enthusiasm for nas. You are back on the watch list. Thank you Robbie.
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Thanks for this look at TrueNAS. I’m eagerly awaiting your review of that IXsystems box you’ve got there as well as a “Setting Up” video on it. If at all possible it would be nice if you showed a basic, recommended system setup from the point of view of Joe, Jane and Baby Bag-O’Donuts.
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is there a light mode?
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I like to see a video how well Plex would work, for transcoding and server multiple users…????
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Wow, great timing on this review. Been thinking about setting up a freenas box myself.
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IX-Systems in the UK????
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Appreciate the DIY coverage!
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Will you cover TrueNAS Scale??
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Make a video on how to set up a personal web server, to host a website. If that is possible, using plugins and addons. On TrueNAS Scale.
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