Possible alternatives to Thecus NAS firmware?

As anybody reading this forum and the other one will have no doubt noticed, there appears to be an undeniable pattern emerging with successive NAS firmware revisions which fail to live up to expectation and almost appear to be getting progressively worse, at least over the past year or so that I'm aware of.

A quick read of the various threads and you notice these issues fall into several general categories..

• Failure to correct bugs listed in the release notes as 'fixed'.
• Failure to address longstanding issues of broken (non core) functionality.
• (Lately) A high probability of rendering the NAS useless, requiring the user to find their own workaround if they would like to see their data anytime soon. (this bug is reportedly still alive and well after three successive updates - unacceptable by any standard).
• Basic screwups in the implementation of login authentication code, allowing a large surface area for attack.

As well as one user who took a look at the V3.xx code and reported it to be bloated and amateurish, or words to that effect.

The cute slogan "Founded in 2004, Thecus brings decades of R&D expertise.." is somewhat misleading these days, since clearly more effort is being invested into marketing than R&D or beta testing.

Anyhow, those of us who purchased this hardware are now stuck with it for some time, and since we can be unreasonable about these sort of things when we're gambling with multiple terabytes of data, what possible OS alternatives are there? The hardware in these devices appears to be generic PC components - how viable would it be to dump the flaky Thecus firmware and substitute something like FreeNAS, or a storage-oriented Linux distribution?

How can we salvage some sort of reliability from this awful situation?

as additions, you must have quick read about issues on software RAID in Linux world and you found that the same list and much more. ;)
You get what you pay.
And in my current sence, Thecus not so bad as you describe after quick reading. Just try to use it.
People often write about bad stories, than success.
**** happens anytime, anywhere and whith any vendor (have sence of that whith sun, hp, dec, hitachi and much more general vendor tm). For fix that you must build own universe.

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You get what you pay.

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Agreed, but as another poster pointed out on a similar thread, I think we can expect a tiny bit more without being unreasonable.

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And in my current sence, Thecus not so bad as you describe after quick reading. Just try to use it.
People often write about bad stories, than success.

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Oh I do 'try to use it' and I think I was quite fortunate really (10x N8800 and 2x N7700) compared to some of the other people on this forum and their experiences.

Here's the problem.

When used in a 'professional' setting (yes, Thecus also claims to be a player in that market as well), I can't approach a client and say "sorry for your loss of x terabytes, but you will be happy to know we 'tried to use it'." Or perhaps "sorry sir, the manufacturer used to support those 56 drives you just purchased, but now that they have actually tested them for more than 15 minutes, they're not supported anymore. Just run down to the local computer store and invest in another 56, and hopefully you choose models that have actually been tested this time."

It just doesn't work.

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**** happens anytime, anywhere and whith any vendor (have sence of that whith sun, hp, dec, hitachi and much more general vendor tm). For fix that you must build own universe.

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uh huh.

Well once upon a time I worked for DEC, and I can surmise with a small amount of certainty that our office doorbell software was more closely reviewed and pre-production tested than some of these 'bug fixes' we're seeing from Taiwan.

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Originally Posted by DoctorSAN

Oh I do 'try to use it' and I think I was quite fortunate really (10x N8800 and 2x N7700) compared to some of the other people on this forum and their experiences.

Well once upon a time I worked for DEC, and I can surmise with a small amount of certainty that our office doorbell software was more closely reviewed and pre-production tested than some of these 'bug fixes' we're seeing from Taiwan.

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with this ammount of NAS you can easy drop off all UI from Thecus and build own Linux distribution whith own quality testing. Just CLI and minimum of the used software and utils, u are need team with 2-4 people in a stuff. But today you spend less 100K$ in NAS hw, how cost u support this team? And may be best way to switch to NAS not based on Linux software RAID solution (still no any guarantie, but less chances)?
Thecus more focus on the SOHO and residential (nice GUI, wide functionality, unexpirence usage), that is missunderstanding?
Is it big difference in price DEC and Thecus NAS? Why?
OK, am sorry for my comments, just sence from home usage,
on a job I reject any usage of software RAID for any critical data (it spend much more MIPS 4 additional API support). ;)

Let me paraphrase some text from the Thecus site (this is the N8800 page)

Offering massive storage capacity, advanced features, and blazingly-fast performance in a 2U unit, the N8800 is poised to be the favorite NAS device for IT departments everywhere.

The N8800 delivers the performance and capacity that businesses demand.

What’s more, the N8800 supports iSCSI initiators, allowing IT departments to centrally manage and deploy storage for the entire network.

Every organization is different. That’s why the N8800 has been designed with flexibility in mind.

The N8800 can be the IT manager’s best friend. Automate backups with Thecus’ proprietary Nsync remote data backup application, or take advantage of version control via a snapshot function using the ZFS file system to create and restore remote backups. The N8800 can be set up to send email notifications of any system abnormalities to the system administrator, including if the system is forced to use the redundant power supply. IT support is tough enough. Why not choose a storage system that tells you when something is amiss?

Well I'll tell you what's amiss, mister Thecus, your 'cures' are turning out to be more harmful than the disease.

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Thecus more focus on the SOHO and residential (nice GUI, wide functionality, unexpirence usage), that is missunderstanding?

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Well that text above was taken from their website - does that sound to you as if the product is targeted at the residential & SOHO market? Don't take my word for it, visit www.thecus.com and see for yourself.

As I said, I don't believe it's unreasonable to expect such products to at least deliver some basic solid functionality, aside from the marketing hype.

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Is it big difference in price DEC and Thecus NAS? Why?

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DEC was dead and gone long before Thecus existed, and I don't recall much in the way of storage products being offered along the lines of contemporary NAS units, but I see where you're heading. Don't get me wrong, we use other 'brand name' equipment as well and don't expect miracles from cheap asian IT hardware, however I still maintain that it's not unreasonable to expect basic functionality to operate more or less as advertised, and that the manufacturer will make at least a halfassed effort to test firmware releases before they leave the factory rather than relying on the users to act as unpaid beta testers.

I like the idea of a collaboration to develop a third-party Thecus NAS-oriented firmware. Maybe the first step would be to create a mailing list dedicated to Thecus boxes hacking ? I've never found these forums particularly efficient for such things...

I've also looked at playing with an alternative linux kernel for the firmware, to get a more stable RAID stack and improved wifi support, but there are a number of technical challenges to perform that (how to get VGA output for example, the board has a IDC 10-pin connector that requires a special cable, how to have the BIOS boot from a USB disk, etc...).

nope,
I just say that software Linux RAID with web UI development and special chassi constructive, nothing more.
Off course, you are right to ask vendor about product promices.
But if you wanna build own sw with same functions and better quality why you think it can cost you less?
Who is the sponsor? Why you did not founded new NAS vendor?

In my exp, we are all, long time ago(more than 10 years), stay in status of unpaid beta testers in all tasks of the life, because wanna pay less and get more (it's ok, but in asian civilisations people can't say no, they do or killing semself). Samples arround as, in new cars, home electronics, goverments, world crysis... ;) Think about very simple thing like knife (not 4 ripping ;), so many variations in cost, quality and promices...

With best regards for you wishes.

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Originally Posted by poolshark

I like the idea of a collaboration to develop a third-party Thecus NAS-oriented firmware. Maybe the first step would be to create a mailing list dedicated to Thecus boxes hacking ? I've never found these forums particularly efficient for such things...

I've also looked at playing with an alternative linux kernel for the firmware, to get a more stable RAID stack and improved wifi support, but there are a number of technical challenges to perform that (how to get VGA output for example, the board has a IDC 10-pin connector that requires a special cable, how to have the BIOS boot from a USB disk, etc...).

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already done, look at:
http://www.onbeat.dk/thecus/index.ph...0PRO_Resources
http://naswebsite.com/wiki/Main_Page
on some post I read exp that add VGA connector, but why you need that if QNAP already has.

why have a NAS ans not just a full blown storage server at enterprise level anyway?

I have a full blown win2k8 fileserver but want to drop it for something that uses less power and more importandly creates less noise.
Unfortunately after copying all data across to my recently bought N2200 I now find that access from Win7 doesn't work so I can't approach protected shares at all from my workstations on the N2200 :surprised:
That I would call basic functionality !

Anyway, moving back towards the actual topic.
I've been googling around and also come across the previously mentioned URL but haven't found any info whatsoever for the N2200.
It'd sure be great if any details were to come out as to what kind of software is running on the N2200 or how to home brew modules 'cause the too little too late download manager sucks I'm afraid !

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why have a NAS ans not just a full blown storage server at enterprise level anyway?

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The question was posed more for those of us who are already stuck with this equipment. If it was being replaced outright, that would open up all sorts of possibilities.

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But if you wanna build own sw with same functions and better quality why you think it can cost you less?
Who is the sponsor? Why you did not founded new NAS vendor?

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Huh? Who said anything about building software??? My question was whether an existing OS like a Linux distro or whatever the FreeNAS people are doing these days would be viable with a few tweaks. The point was to explore the possibility of ditching the flaky Thecus OS in favor of something with a better pedigree.

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Originally Posted by Jay

why have a NAS ans not just a full blown storage server at enterprise level anyway?

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Me too, exactly what we did.

W2k8 storage server, 1U dell box, md1000 expansion disk system.

NAS quite happy with disks no longer on the Thecus compatible list, which WERE on the list when we bought the disks.

Now the Thecus is a redundant backup server and a DoorStop (Really, it is on a floor, holding the LAN room door open ) ;)

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Originally Posted by DoctorSAN

The question was posed more for those of us who are already stuck with this equipment. If it was being replaced outright, that would open up all sorts of possibilities.


Huh? Who said anything about building software??? My question was whether an existing OS like a Linux distro or whatever the FreeNAS people are doing these days would be viable with a few tweaks. The point was to explore the possibility of ditching the flaky Thecus OS in favor of something with a better pedigree.

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hey, pedigree not developed 4 the human, but if u drink little more it's a good snack. =8)
And did not scrach surface if u not wear space suit.
did you read this?: http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=125773759614235&w=2
bugs is arround as, u just can reflex much faster in your own enviroment (NAS vendor not, because have no so tight enviroments).
Here is a good illustrations did u plan 4 support 22xx series w u current 88xx|77xx?

Linux still open, not so big deal make own and load in current hw. But can u support this in life?

my experience in the NAS world (for home use anyway) is with the N2200 and i have to to its extremly disapointing, i know this is a bottom end unit but still it should do the basicis

the reason i wanted it was cause it said it was quite and was energy efficent, i also wanted something to use to schedule torrent downloads. it didnt need to be teribly quick it just needed to do thoes 3 things reliably. now it is quite and it is energy efficiant but the firmware is so bad it to the point it is unusable.

not to mention the lack of any kind of support from thecus, i read many storys of open tickets for weeks and weeks with no respone (my ticket has been sitting there for 2 weeks so far)

If you are thinking about getting and N2200 my advice is dont, save up the extra cash and get a QNap TS-219

but anyway back on topic

when i eventualy get my NAS working again i would be happy to help out in anyway on testing this new software, as i think the hardware is fine but the software and support is just shocking

I am also a disappointed user of N2200, their solution for slow system response and bugs of this NAS is to buy a more expensive product. I will never buy or recommend a Thecus product.

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Originally Posted by basil123

I am also a disappointed user of N2200, their solution for slow system response and bugs of this NAS is to buy a more expensive product. I will never buy or recommend a Thecus product.

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in my quick(2weeks) exp 4 home usage of n7700 - its very great platform in a cheapest way(just price of the same pc hw, about 1K$), has a good hw platform and reach sw inside (all main linux utils leaved in distributions like wget and so on). Hope to fix current big issue w WD20EADS HDD, and happy to use. Also have long time ago 2 hdd NAS (i-stor, raidsonic) based on ARM integration chip from storlink. It's cost less than 150$, but have much less hw resources and functionality inside.
Closed NAS 4 2xHDD (netgear) cost more than $250
Closed NAS 4 6xHDD (qnap) cost the same price but has one less HDD bay and less hw resources inside (but have newest linux kernel and support ext4 today).

There is no comparations in qnap, synology, thecus and more same devices today, inside its the same peace of the XXXX - software Linux RAID mdadm utility and marvell sata controller.
U can have quick look on public forums, the same issues and the same numbers of the happy and unhappy customers.

my 2 open TT have responce in this 2 holyday week, not support 2 resolve problems, just common first row psyhology support. ;)

its my 2c,
am did not protect the thecus, just try to be objective, because in my sence get what i pay and little be more. =8)

So while I was browsing around in despair trying to find any kind of info for cracking this software issue I noticed something on a picture in this review :
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/n...n2200-reviewed

While I have hade a look inside my N2200 unit I didn't open the whole thing up.
I noticed on the picture of the PCB in this review that at the top left there's a header.

Anyone any clues, could it be a serial terminal interface ? A way in :undecided: ???
Do any of the other models have that ?

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Originally Posted by Horgi

already done, look at:
http://www.onbeat.dk/thecus/index.ph...0PRO_Resources
http://naswebsite.com/wiki/Main_Page
on some post I read exp that add VGA connector, but why you need that if QNAP already has.

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Hi, thanks for the reply. I'm well aware of the naswebsite site, I've been populating content for the M3800 there. But I couldn't find any references there to VGA outputs or cables. Could you provide a more specific link ? Also, I'm not sure I understand your QNAP comment.

cheers
-poolshark

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Originally Posted by poolshark

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'm well aware of the naswebsite site, I've been populating content for the M3800 there. But I couldn't find any references there to VGA outputs or cables. Could you provide a more specific link ? Also, I'm not sure I understand your QNAP comment.

cheers
-poolshark

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sorry, I write about intel-based platform, not 2200 ARM-based, where console port linked 2 com off course.
Just 4 sample funny Windows instalations on 5200: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/e...c-9cf441467c2a

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Originally Posted by Horgi

sorry, I write about intel-based platform, not 2200 ARM-based, where console port linked 2 com off course.
Just 4 sample funny Windows instalations on 5200: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/e...c-9cf441467c2a

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Interesting link. Of course, he has it easy, since the box already has a serial port and a place-holder for the VGA connector. The N3200PRO and M3800 are AMD Geode based, and have none of the above. There's an IDC-10 pin connector on the board itself, visible on this picture to the left of the CPU :

http://www.poolshark.org/thecus/img/M3800_SiI3114.jpg

which, based on what I know about the Geode CPU and Geode-based boards, must be the VGA connectors for the on-board Geode VGA video driver.

So looks like I'll have to build a special cable for it. i'll post my findings on the NAS website and over here.

Just pulled the board out of my own N2200 out of curiosity.
Upon closer inspection the 10 pin header is labelled as "UART1" suggesting that there really is a backdoor.

I also find a J1 marked 2-pin header which isn't jumpered and a J3 marked 3 pin header which is jumpered on pins 1/2. No indication whatsoever what these last two headers are for. No sign of header J2 so far.

Let me just see if I can find an adapter cable in the attic to stick on it and see what happens. Keep you posted.

An update on this: I successfully connected to the VGA port of my M3800, usinga custom cable and a breadboard :-) I've posted the pinout info at http://naswebsite.com/wiki/Thecus_N3...rdware_Hacking

I was then able to go into the BIOS and change the boot order, to have external USB devices first in boot order. From there on, no problem to boot the M3800 into a linux distro on an external disk.

great way! what the next? opensolaris NAS? http://sourceforge.net/projects/velitium/files/

Its funny, I bought a n4100 several years back, and it was great at the time (loaded it with seagate 700gb's, gave me the storage I needed at the time).

Started to run out of space, so I bought a n5200 and loaded that with 1TB drives (seagate), again, rock solid device.

Then I decided to go for the n8800 - and given WD 2TB green drives (WD20EADS) drives were out (first 2TB drives on the market), and were **LISTED ON THEIR SUPPORTED LIST**, I went that route.

**BIG MISTAKE**

The 8800 has often randomly decided to hang (totally unresponsive, even the LCD display stops changing), the WD20's drop out regularly, luckily I have most of the data still on the 5200 because the 8800 wound up with major EXT3 filesystem errors and corrupted stuff.

Now, I'll be honest - maybe going with the WD20EADS drives was a bad idea, and I can understand them not being "enterprise/raid class" drives - but quite honestly *they should not have gone on the list without proper testing*. (Even Adaptec RAID controllers need new firmware, and say to jumper the drives to 1.5gbit, so I'll admit a good part of it is the drives).

Then I look at the firmware - give me a break, I go to the Thecus site and...
THE ONLY FIRMWARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD IN THE NORMAL GUI, WHERE MOST AVERAGE USERS WOULD GO, FOR *MONTHS*, WAS A 3.0.x ***BETA*** RELEASE???

Who in their right mind would do this?? There was no option to download a 2.x release anywhere, the only available option to the average user was a 3.x BETA. Not one single "approved" production release, no past versions, etc. This is what you expect customers to use?? Their choice is - a beta, or nothing?? Even now, the only release available on the main site is 3.0.8c, which reading here in the forums has issues. Why on earth is there no 2.x release available for download (for average users), only buggy 3.x releases?

Instead of focusing on the quality of the firmware, now they're focusing on foo-foo Ajax GUI crap. And worse yet, if I go to the GPL area of the Downloads directory - there isn't even *GPL source* (hello?) for the 2.x version of the 7700/8800 firmware anymore (Does anyone have a copy of this? At this point I'm *more* than willing to take a copy of the 2.x GPL source and maintain it myself).

FYI, technically this is *illegal*, in violation of the GPL - I can go download a copy of 2.01.10.14 (what I'm running on the 8800 now, since the Ajax GUI crap is... crap, to me), yet I cannot anywhere download a copy of the GPL source.

I agree with the other posts here, they seem to be declining heavily on their stability. At this point, given my experiences with the 8800, I would not recommend a Thecus product to anyone.

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Originally Posted by czth

The 8800 has often randomly decided to hang (totally unresponsive, even the LCD display stops changing), the WD20's drop out regularly, luckily I have most of the data still on the 5200 because the 8800 wound up with major EXT3 filesystem errors and corrupted stuff.

Now, I'll be honest - maybe going with the WD20EADS drives was a bad idea, and I can understand them not being "enterprise/raid class" drives - but quite honestly *they should not have gone on the list without proper testing*. (Even Adaptec RAID controllers need new firmware, and say to jumper the drives to 1.5gbit, so I'll admit a good part of it is the drives).

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It's ok, I bought FYBS 2.0 tb WD drives that *ARE* Enterprise drives and WERE on the supported list for a 7700. Same problems as you in the Thecus. I wasn't going to deal with this cr*p, so I got a Dell 1950/WD1000/W2K8 Storage Server Edition combination and plugged the 2.0 tb drives in there. Except for some DRIVE FAILURES (WD, you listening), which they replaced no questions asked, the NAS/iScsi has been rock solid. No failures whatsoever in quite a while now.

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Originally Posted by philhu

It's ok, I bought FYBS 2.0 tb WD drives that *ARE* Enterprise drives and WERE on the supported list for a 7700. Same problems as you in the Thecus. I wasn't going to deal with this cr*p, so I got a Dell 1950/WD1000/W2K8 Storage Server Edition combination and plugged the 2.0 tb drives in there. Except for some DRIVE FAILURES (WD, you listening), which they replaced no questions asked, the NAS/iScsi has been rock solid. No failures whatsoever in quite a while now.

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Gives new meaning to "RAID" - Redundant Array of INEXPENSIVE disks, when you are being told you have to spend more on the enterprise versions (inexpensive?), and then even those don't work. :-P

What amazes me isn't that a new drive had issues, I can expect that (even the 1.5tb seagates had firmware issues) - what amazes me is that its been a *year*, and I have yet to see on their site or on the board even a *technical description of the problem* with the WD drives, nor a fix (which, of course, is most likely impossible if you *don't understand what the problem is*).

My impression of Thecus is a couple of hacks who probably couldn't write a kernel driver if their life depended on it, slapping together a box with linux on it, with zero idea how to support a product or run a successful company.

Horgi - thanks for recommending velitium.

I would appreciate any feedback that you or others have - the email address appears in the FEEDBACK file in the src download.

ps - hoping to release a web gui for velitium by the end of march, then we will come back to the 88se6340 driver for the 7700...

Cheers,

Darren Mackay
(project lead for velitium embedded kit for opensolaris)

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Originally Posted by czth

Gives new meaning to "RAID" - Redundant Array of INEXPENSIVE disks, when you are being told you have to spend more on the enterprise versions (inexpensive?), and then even those don't work. :-P

What amazes me isn't that a new drive had issues, I can expect that (even the 1.5tb seagates had firmware issues) - what amazes me is that its been a *year*, and I have yet to see on their site or on the board even a *technical description of the problem* with the WD drives, nor a fix (which, of course, is most likely impossible if you *don't understand what the problem is*).

My impression of Thecus is a couple of hacks who probably couldn't write a kernel driver if their life depended on it, slapping together a box with linux on it, with zero idea how to support a product or run a successful company.

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I have come to the conclusion that Thecus cannot identify the problem because they use software raid/linux. They can't test as they are just using a packaged Linux kernel/driver-base with a locally written front end.

The 2.0 TB WD Enterprise drives are not cheap ($330 EACH) and WD did replace the 'early-adopter ' failures :) What really irks me is that I BOUGHT these drives due to them being on the supported list. Then they got pulled from the list and my raid went sour. Their answer, BUY MORE DRIVES! I just spent a ton on these due to their recommendations (We bought over 40 at once), and we were about to buy 4 more Thecus 7700 boxes!!

They must be pretty standard drives, because my Dell reports that they are not Dell-ceritifed drives on every reboot (In the log), but runs them without ANY incidents. Just in case, I've got them in Raid-6 config, with a standby hot spare. Alot of redundancy, but with it, I am sure I won't get a 3 drive failure at once! The MD1000 Dell box allows 15 drives, so actually, the cost of buying 5 Thecus boxes became only buying 3 Dell, so the price was only about 15% higher.

As I've mentioned, the 1 Thecus we have has been relegated to 7 1tb drives as a DR backup of a DR Backup NAS and a doorstop. (It really holds the internal IT Closet Door open!). I sometimes use it for large temp storage, and with 1tb drives it 'seems' stable with little usage.

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What amazes me isn't that a new drive had issues, I can expect that (even the 1.5tb seagates had firmware issues) - what amazes me is that its been a *year*, and I have yet to see on their site or on the board even a *technical description of the problem* with the WD drives, nor a fix (which, of course, is most likely impossible if you *don't understand what the problem is*).

My impression of Thecus is a couple of hacks who probably couldn't write a kernel driver if their life depended on it, slapping together a box with linux on it, with zero idea how to support a product or run a successful company.

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Unfortunately, this seems to be the false economy of dealing with these guys. The units are competitively priced, but you can't trust them for data storage, so what's the point? Might as well buy 3 of each and hope one is always working. ergo no more price advantage.

Just saw another post explaining how the posters ticket is stalled due to chinese new year. Around the time of a recent firmware (buggy) release, no contact could be made because of the 'happy lucky dragon boat festival' or some similar event. Are we dealing with professional software engineers, or some halfassed company operating out of a basement in Taipei? Oh wait, I have version 3 here.. I think I know the answer already.

But woooo the AJAX stuff looks really nice...

This is unfortunate, because the hardware looks good enough to me. I was happy with the M3800, because the hardware was almost exactly was I was looking for.

It's unfortunate we don't seem to have enough traction to create a community of developers to work on an open-source firmware revision. It wouldn't be rocket science really. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with linux/raid (i work in storage sw), but Thecus didn't exactly pick a slam dunk version of it: they decided to do their own version of the kernel which they clearly are not qualified for (and 2.6.23 ? wtf ?).

A simple respin of the firmware with the latest RHEL5 kernel would almost certainly be a very good improvement wrt raid issues and spurious rebuilds. Unfortunately I can't work on this without loosing my HDMI output...

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Originally Posted by darrenmackay

Horgi - thanks for recommending velitium.

I would appreciate any feedback that you or others have - the email address appears in the FEEDBACK file in the src download.

ps - hoping to release a web gui for velitium by the end of march, then we will come back to the 88se6340 driver for the 7700...

Cheers,

Darren Mackay
(project lead for velitium embedded kit for opensolaris)

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Thanks 4 thanking Darren, but I do not to do anything, u have great job (4 hobby?).
I think u job is what looking 4 peoples used Thecus NAS in proffesional enviroment.
As I see (poosible not right), thecus not have strong positions in low level OS support. Old linux kernel, trying change and test sata drivers in task to fix HDD problems, than hands off... More focus in nice view of user interface. I think, u can do a good cooperations project and can do the branch of the new fw 4 proffesional use (for n8800-n4400 platforms), whithout (or whith) web GUI. Try to connect thecus headoffice with this offer, who know, may be you get sponsor for your project and the best NAS in the market.

WBR

Is it possible to use the N8800 as an eSATA enclosure? I've been thinking of just putting an eSATA RAID card in my server and getting an enclosure for the drives and using the N8800 as a doorstop. But then I thought, could I somehow disconnect the sata cables in the N800 from the motherboard and connect them back to an eSATA card? Thus bypassing all the Thecus firmware issues and using a well known hardware raid controller.

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Originally Posted by jarmstrong5

Is it possible to use the N8800 as an eSATA enclosure?

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What sata controller chip-set is used in the n8800? is it the Marvell 88se6340 (which is used in the n7700) or different?

Cheers,

Darren Mackay

i don't really know. not being an expert on this I was thinking just use the N8800 for power and plug the drives direct to a RAID card in the server. Maybe mount a sata multiplier of my own inside it so that I only have to run 1 or 2 sata cables to the box. Is this a crazy idea?

Regarding the N2200, I managed to create a user module to submit root commands, so you dont really need the serial cable linkup. Uploaded to thecus.nas-central.org
Also at that site some guys are replacing Thecus firmware, I'll be seeing if I can get this to work on the N2200 sometime this year hehe.

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Originally Posted by jarmstrong5

Is it possible to use the N8800 as an eSATA enclosure? I've been thinking of just putting an eSATA RAID card in my server and getting an enclosure for the drives and using the N8800 as a doorstop. But then I thought, could I somehow disconnect the sata cables in the N800 from the motherboard and connect them back to an eSATA card? Thus bypassing all the Thecus firmware issues and using a well known hardware raid controller.

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Actually, for those of us who are giving up on the hope of Thecus one day releasing firmware that is halfway competant, this drastic solution might be worth considering. You would be basically gutting the chassis, and might need to tinker with the power supply/power switch relationship to have it start up without use of the motherboard, but sure.. why not?

An 8 drive expansion chassis is better than landfill, right?

If you have ever used Qnap or Synology firmware, you will instantly see just how awful the Thecus firmware / gui is - it is really a joke and unbelievable. QNAP is actually quite nice. Learn from my mistake - don't buy Thecus - there are too many other better NAS devices out there nowadays.

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Originally Posted by rrnworks

If you have ever used Qnap or Synology firmware, you will instantly see just how awful the Thecus firmware / gui is - it is really a joke and unbelievable. QNAP is actually quite nice. Learn from my mistake - don't buy Thecus - there are too many other better NAS devices out there nowadays.

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Word.

Don't forget Infortrend or Dell. Both have storage products approaching this price point with a much less creative understanding of the word 'enterprise'.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rrnworks

If you have ever used Qnap or Synology firmware, you will instantly see just how awful the Thecus firmware / gui is - it is really a joke and unbelievable. QNAP is actually quite nice. Learn from my mistake - don't buy Thecus - there are too many other better NAS devices out there nowadays.

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We had an episode last weekend where the cooling unit on the roof went out and the on-call support guy didn't missed all the pages going off at five minutes interval! As a result, two of my three N7700 died. Why not the third one? Because it was running with 7 x Seagate 2TB LP drives! There others were filled with the faster 7200RPM drives. At the time we purchase the 2TB drives, we treated the our N7700 with the LP drives as second-class. Well, look who won in the end. But we only speaking of drives.

Back to the NAS, we have four NAS from Fastora before the whole thing was sold to Synology. These are older ATA NAS boxes, but all of them survived the heat strike. These 'synology' boxes sent me a 'hot' message, then a 'very hot' message, then a 'graceful' shutdown. Wow!

Synology price is comparable to Thecus. I hope Thecus implement this feature in their future system or firmware releases or I won't be buying anything from them again.