Thecus 5200 Pro some questions

[onet]

Hello to everybody!

I' m a reader of your forum and I think there are many nice
skilled guys, who could eventually help me...

Since yesterday, I' m the proud owner of two Thecus 5200 pro units.
I' ve studied this forum, the manual, but I have some (maybe silly) questions....

My current firmware on NAS#1: 2.00.01, on NAS#2: 2.00.2 (beta),
5 x Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB SATA disks are mounted in each NAS.

The performance is pretty well, but...

1) Is it possible, to "downgrade" the firmware?
(e.g. from 2.00.2 --> 2.00.1)
I' m wondering, if there is a cheat or so, because within the
GUI it' s impossible (there is a very small note in the manual, that
it' s impossible, but the milk was spilt before reading)

2) One thing I would like to have is the possibility to shutdown the unit only with
the LCD-display and the buttons on the NAS.
(I know several NAS-devices, where you can find such a function)

3) If I make RAID 5, I can only choose max. 95% or 100 % to use for the
NAS. I only want to use I-SCSI for test purpose, therefore it' s waste of diskspace,
I would need 99% disk, and the rest for Iscsi to play with ... Is there a tweak ?

4) One disk got faulty within RAID 5. I replaced it with a new one (I' ve learned my lesson to buy
every time a spare disk ;-) ) but nothing happened, I asumed an auto-rebuild but - nothing.

5) Is it possible to give the LAN-Interface a separate Gateway-address (In the GUI it' s impossible,
but is there a tweak to make it with the command-line?)

6) Is it possible to use "add route-commands" (e.g. ip route...) within a ssh-session, which are
stored permanent in the routetable?



Thanks in advance

from a rainy Vienna

[jordi.c]

4) One disk got faulty within RAID 5. I replaced it with a new one (I' ve learned my lesson to buy
every time a spare disk ;-) ) but nothing happened, I asumed an auto-rebuild but - nothing.

Hi,

Welcome to the forum!

I don't understand the benefit of a spare disk. I have RAID5 with 3x500GB disks. When one fails I will buy another harddrive the same day and rebuild the array.

I think it is very seldom that more than one drive will die at the same moment so if you ask me it is waste of money. If you want your data secure than copy it to external harddrives.

What has happened in your case that you buy everytime a spare disk?

Kind Regards,
Jordi

[onet]

Hi,

You' re right, RAID 5 is reliable. But I' m working in an sensitive environment with 24/7
uptime, and on sundays you cannot buy anything (here in Austria).

My backup strategy is:

Nas #1 synchronizes with ---> Nas #2 (Backup NAS in another location)---> Backup on LTO-tapes

The "spare disk" can be used in an external diskcase for temporary data, nice to have
such a large one, size matters ;-)

In the past, I' d often problems to get (after some years) exactly the same disk,
and (specially some SCSI-Raids) are very picky, they dont like to mix different flavours of disks.

You are perfectly right, it seems to be waste of money, but its like a sort of
insurance for me...

Kind Regards

onet

[yhashkes]

I too recently purchased the same exact configuration, running the 2.00.02.2 beta firmware with 5 x 7K1000 1TB disks. I've been having an ongoing dialog with Thecus support re some problems I'm having, but so far no positive results. Perhaps we can compare notes re fan noise / temperature.

The system is extremely loud, mostly a loud turbine-like sound coming from the PSU fan. Running the INFO module (extremely easy to install) shows:

Fan 1 Speed: 1084
Fan 2 Speed: 3206
HD1 Temp: 47 (Raid5 1/4) - top disk, cooler than other 3
HD2 Temp: 53 (Raid5 2/4)
HD3 Temp: 54 (Raid5 3/4)
HD4 Temp: 51 (Raid5 4/4)
HD5 Temp: 37 (JBOD) - in spin-down mode, cool

I believe the system fan (Fan 1) is running too slow, while the PSU fan (Fan 2) is compensating and sounding like a loud turbine. The main fan is larger (and quieter) and should bear the brunt of cooling. The disk temperature is quite high, and could possibly contribute to early disk death. I do realize they are spec'ed for 60 Celcius, but IMHO they should be running no hotter than 50 for sustained periods.

I then placed a small room fan in front of the unit for 10 minutes, and measured fan speed/temperature:

Fan 1 Speed: 1087 (was 1084)
Fan 2 Speed: 3143 (was 3206)
HD1 Temp: 40 (was 47)
HD2 Temp: 45 (was 53)
HD3 Temp: 46 (was 54)
HD4 Temp: 45 (was 51)
HD5 Temp: 39 (was 37, spun up)

Much better temperature now, but the fan speed is effectively unchanged.

The fan models are:

System fan: ADDA AD0912DX-A76GL (D = Ultra Low Speed, 92mm, 1600 RPM, 28.0 CFM)
PSU fan: Sunon KDE1204PKVX (40mm, 7400 RPM, 9.1 CFM)

Are these the same on your systems?

I've seen on various forums that the N5200 (non-PRO) uses a slightly different system fan, the ADDA AD0912LX-A76GL (L = Low Speed, 2000 RPM, 32.4 CFM).

I wonder if it is possible the system is not taking into account that this is an Ultra Low Speed fan, and is calibrated for the Low Speed model?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[kjell]

I have a major problem with one of the disks becoming N/A. It happens at least once a week.
If I reboot the system, it is ok again, but I then have to add it to the RAID5 again and it takes a long
time. Basically, I can't use the system like this. Anybody else seen this problem ?

Rgds,
Kjell

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Onet,

1) In order to protect mis-downgrade make system damaged, as like V.1.xx.xx to V.2.xx.xx file structure changed, system would prohibit firmware downgrade to pervent from system damaged.

2) Current N5200 support shutdown from WEB & N5200 front panel, but have no plan to disable this fucntion from web interface, in some case like remote rescue or firmware update the shutdown from web is a plus.

3) Due to the iSCSI fucntion base on the RAID/NAS, thus need some volume to do system configuration, warp and etc.

4) In order to pervent insert the HDD have userful data already, thus we would need rebuild the RAID from web interface.

5) Current N5200 WAN/LAN useing same gatwway.

6) Form the offical Thecus role, N5200 doesn't support the SSH......

Yvon.

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Kjell,

Does the HDD show NA in the same slot? if always in the same slot and confirmed the HDD is helath, please contact with your reseller for RMA or check.

Yvon.