Step-through-step configuration of ZFS in QNAP QuTS hero
If you are looking
for a NAS server with a file organization that provides the best data
integrity, QNAP with the QuTS hero operating system is one of the best options.
This heroic new QuTS operating system is exactly the same as the popular QTS,
which the manufacturer uses in the vast majority of NAS, but it has a
distinctive feature: it uses the ZFS file organization, one of the most
advanced that we can find. today. ... Would you like to learn how to configure
ZFS on a QNAP NAS server step by step using QuTS protagonist?
What is the QNAP QuTS
Protagonist operating system?
QNAP's effective systems
for its NAS servers are QTS and QuTS hero, both based on the Linux operating the system, but there is a big difference between the two. In QTS, we will have an
EXT4 file system to store all the information, in addition, we can create
various types of RAID, configure SSD cache acceleration, and even Qtier for
tiered storage. In QuTS hero, we will have a ZFS file system to store all the
information with the highest possible integrity, in addition, we will be able
to create several RAIDZs, we will also have the ability to configure the SSD
cache to speed up the reading and writing speed of ZFS records. So the hero of
QuTS is still the same old QTS operating system, but now the datastore uses the
ZFS file system instead of EXT4 with everything related to protecting data
integrity.
QNAP makes different
models that are compatible with QTS or QTS hero, but not both at the same time.
However, computers like the TS-473A allow a particular operating system to be
installed in the operating system installation wizard, so we can choose between
QTS or QuTS hero. We must note that the QuTS Hero operating system requires
more RAM because the ZFS file system consumes more RAM for better performance,
and if you do not have 16GB of RAM or extra, you will not be able to activate
the deduplication function. so you should consider this when buying a NAS.
In the following
picture, you can realize the QNAP TS-473A NAS server modernized to the latest version of QTS, which agrees on us to change the operating system to QuTS hero.
Currently, there are
very few NAS servers are compatible with both operating systems, we must remember
that the head waitresses' RAM must be ECC and have at least 8GB or 16GB of RAM
for everything to work properly, which is why high-end NAS servers introduce
this system is operational. The system will not be available.
Once we know what the
QuTS Hero operating system is and all that it entails, we will do an initial
setup.
QuTS Hero initial setup
The first thing we must
do to install QuTS hero is to click on the QuTS hero button found in the
previous menu. The conformation wizard will tell us if we are sure that we will
migrate to another operating system and that all data on all disks will be
deleted, this is absolutely imperative if we are going to change from one
operating system to another. If you have data on QTS, you will need to take an
external backup.