Thinking about QNAP. Do you have one?

Channels DVR Server
#1

I've already got a Synology. But I use it for more things than Channels DVR and no longer have Channels running on it (I do use it for media storage though). And so was originally thinking about waiting for something like a DS922+ to come out and put 4 drives on there in RAID 10 to do more things + Channels. And back up to the older Synology. But that was until I started looking at QNAP. They make rack-mount servers with Intel processors and there is a new one about to come out, the TS-464U that looks great. I want it. I will probably still do RAID 10, and run rsync backups to the Synology for anything that is not Channels recordings (I don't really care about backing that up).

So I wanted to see what experiences users here have with QNAP, if its a good server for Channels, and any other things that you do with it.

#2

If you want to stick with Synology, they also make rack-mount units:

#3

Synology doesn't make a rack-mount that will hardware transcode though.

#4

Stay as far away from QNAP as you possibly can!

Just take a quick look at some of the user forum mega threads on Qlocker and Deadbolt ransomware attacks. QNAP has a long sorted history of hard coded credentials and vulnerabilities.

https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=160849
https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=164797

I have three QNAPs, which I have converted to https://truenas.com enterprise class, open source NAS software.

Channels provides a DVR plugin for TrueNAS

#5

Thats too bad that QNAP is insecure. The hardware is great and it would have fit nicely in my rack. Guess I will need to wait for something else for a new NAS.

#6

My experience with QNAP has been very positive. I've been running 5 different QNAP servers for over a twelve year period and haven't had any problems. I especially like the hardware - it's very reliable. And, I haven't experienced any operating system or malware issues, because the servers are not exposed to the internet - they are behind firewalls.

If you're looking for a 4 bay unit, ASUSTOR is another brand to consider for Channels. I especially like the AS6604T model. It has enough processing power, a 2.5 Gb/s LAN and has the option of adding 2 --M.2 NVMe SSD's for caching.

#7

Thats good to hear. I could certainly firewall it and ensure that the only open port is for Channels. But the fact that QTS is easily hacked and requires me to be very careful with firewalls, reverse-proxies, VPNs, etc, makes it not as useful. The TS-464 isn't even for sale yet, so I might as well just wait to see what the Synology DS-x22+ series looks like.

#8

According to a QNAP article from January, they make it seem like it should be OK if I just don't forward the port for the management interface (QTS web-UI).
And probably ssh too. The TrueNAS OS seems like it would work, but then I would be getting something brand new and immediately voiding my QNAP warranty.

#9

The QNAP people are really good at fixing QTS. They are constantly releasing new updates (a lot like the Channels guys). I wouldn't let the malware problem stop me from buying a QNAP. As you know, backups are really important these days. We all have to take extra measures to keep our files safe.

#10

yeah, I might do it anyway. I like the idea of the hardware and the form factor. And I do have backups. I am considering it.

#11

I especially like the way the premium QNAP servers are built using Intel processors. My favorite QNAP series is the TVS-x72XT. You can start with a simple Pentium and upgrade it to an i5 because the processors are in sockets and the software is written to accept multiple options. And of course, the graphics is upgraded by changng the processor too.

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#13

I love my QNAP. I have a TS473 with 32gb Ram, (3) 8tb NAS drives, two M.2 SSD drives, and an NVIDIA card for hardware decoding.
I have it running a Windows 2019 server in a VM. It runs PLEX and Channels DVR as native apps. Plus, it runs Ubiquiti management console in a docker under Container Station.
It sits behind a firewall, so I have not had any security issues.
The Channels DVR runs without any issues and handles ATSC 3.0 as well as on the fly conversions using my sometimes 4K media on the setup Virtual Channels.

You won't be disappointed with a QNAP.

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#14

@dbattenfl Thanks for posting! Thats encouraging. I've got my UniFi management running on a RPi, which makes it very easy to test any of the betas using the Debian builds. I might consider doing it in a docker container if it runs well. But am still waiting for the QNAP I want to be available to buy.

#15

I purchased a stripped version from Amazon and added the drives, SSD's, ram, then later the Nvidia video card for the hardware encoding. That way, I got exactly what I wanted.
Let me know if you need anything other help.

#16

I have an older 2 bay qnap. Its an arm processor and at least at the time the TVE docker container didnt support arm platforms. Rather than buying a whole new qnap I actually bought a cheap $150 mini dell pc off ebay. I threw linux on there, nfs mounted the qnap drives (I even added a cache layer as Im using 5600rpm drives), and then run everything through docker. I actually like this a lot better than just relying on qnap. The pc is a bit more powerful, plex runs fairly smooth, and docker pretty much runs everything I want it to.