Best VM Performace in a 2 Bay NAS is?

[JoeFrat]

Hi all,

Fantastic resource here, my crash course in NAS went much easier with all the info and reviews here. Many thanks!

My question:
I am looking for a 2 bay NAS, using RAID1, and supports 4tb in size(not tons of data)
It's main purpose will be Server and PC backups, file storage, and possibly a VM or three. VM is not a requirement as I have Server 2012 and hyper-v VM's already, but it would be nice to be able to run another VM for windows domain training/linux/whatever. The VM's will be basic installs with not much hd space and not much software, at least for now. I will have a usb external drive for backing up the most important files on the NAS.

I ran through the live demo's for Qnap and Asustor this morning, and for me, I found the Asustor UI much more to my liking. That said, I am not beholden to Asustor if Qnap or Synology have better VM performance. I will of course max out the internal ram on whatever device I purchase.

Models I'm considering are:
Asustor AS5002T
Asustor AS5102T
Qnap TS-251+
Qnap TS-253A

Per the reviews here, the Asustor has the best speed overall, but reading around says they are new and an unknown entity with regards to quality of hardware long term. This doesn't put me off though.

I am leaning towards the Asustor AS5102T.

Which of the above, or one not listed, will give me the best VM performance currently?

 

[L&LD]

I can't recommend any two bay NAS. Not enough processor power, ram, LAN ports and most important; drive bays.

QNAP or Synology, with QNAP usually giving the better hardware for less.

NAS and / or RAID is not a backup (know the difference).

A four bay or larger NAS with expandability to or beyond 16GB ram and an i3 or higher processor along with installing the NAS OS to the first two drives in RAID1 is what I recommend for not only system stability but for maximum dependability and availability as well.

Depending how much these will be depended upon, I would recommend another identical model to back up the main NAS to and be able to switch between them effortlessly.

In addition, you will need additional external USB 3 drives to backup the content of the NAS'.


As you can see, depending on how valuable the data is and how valuable the service the NAS will bring to a network will determine how far down this rabbit hole you will go.

Of the models you list above, they should perform identically with VM's (a quick search yielded identical processors). The only differentiating feature are the OS used by each NAS and the supported VM's, of course.

I would consider a four bay or larger NAS, even if you only populate a few of the drive bays initially.

 

[thiggins]

Hi Joe,

It sounds like you understand the limitations of a two-bay NAS regarding running a VM. Not gonna be the fastest thing. But for mucking around and general learning about VMs, it's a decent way to go.

Between QNAP and ASUSTOR, I'd go with QNAP. They introduced VM management first and are the furthest along in features. I can't say, however, which vendor has better VM performance, because I haven't benchmarked it.

QNAP VM also has Virtual Switch, so you don't need a physical NIC per VM.

I'd say it's a toss-up between the TS-253A and TS-251+.

I've been running IxChariot V8 on a TS-251 for the past year. It mostly just serves licenses, so I don't need it to do much. Virtualization Station was easy to use. I don't know much of nuthin' about VM configuration and I was able to configure a VM, load the package and get it running.

 

[sfx2000]

Asusstor and QNAP take different approaches to solve the same problem - QNAP's solution is KVM/QEMU, and Asusstor is Oracle's VirtualBox (at least it was according to a conversation with RMerlin).

Both are good... QNAP's solution has more time behind it, and that's what I use...

QNAP's VirtualSwitch, introduced with QTS 4.2/VirtualizationStation 2.0, is pretty interesting, esp. on the port limited devices like the 2-bay NAS boxes mentioned, and it works fairly well...

 

[sfx2000]

QNAP VM also has Virtual Switch, so you don't need a physical NIC per VM.

Depending on the application - virtual switch can be much faster if you VM is accessing resources hosted on the NAS... runs at RAM speed...

 

[sfx2000]

I'd say it's a toss-up between the TS-253A and TS-251+.

One gets a bit more resources out of the TS-253A over the TS-251+ -- the 253A has a slight advantage as it's GPU can do 4K, and it's a quad core N3150 vs. the TS-251+'s dual core J1800..

The N3150 is clocked lower (1.6GHz/Turbo 2.08GHz) vs the J1800 (2.41Ghz/Turbo 2.58Ghz) - but for most purposes, the chips are similar - the N3150 also supports AES-NI, so if encrypting the filesystem, there is some upside with the TS-253A...

Both are good - so if one doesn't need 4K output, and depending on price, the 251+ can be a really good deal...

 

[JoeFrat]

L&LD, I am fully aware that Raid1 is not a backup. I have multiple flash drives and a cd or two, plus I will be adding an offsite backup for the most critical data, of which if I'm honest is about 15gb, maybe even less. I really want the redundancy of Raid1 for copies of the VM's that I run in Server 2012 and the VM on my windows 10 w/s. Maybe even a bare metal restore image for the server itself.

My total used hard drive space, across all machines is just under 1.5tb, I don't have a lot of data, and certainly not anything that can't be rebuilt rather quickly other than the server box, which prompted me to look at NAS for easy backup/recovery. Does a 4bay unit really make sense here?

thiggins:
I would really only be using the VM for training purposes. If I want to really fool with say a Linux box, I will build a hyper-v VM on my windows 10 machine. It's got plenty of processor and ram, plus its all SSD. The fact the NAS box could do VM was just a bonus.

sfx2000:
Is there a huge difference for a basic VM between how Qnap does it vs Asustor? The VM will truly be just a base install to connect to a domain and test login scripts, AD, etc. I am waaaay behind on my server 2012 skills and was looking to spend some time catching back up.

Thanks for the replies, I am learning a ton here.

 

[sfx2000]

Is there a huge difference for a basic VM between how Qnap does it vs Asustor? The VM will truly be just a base install to connect to a domain and test login scripts, AD, etc. I am waaaay behind on my server 2012 skills and was looking to spend some time catching back up.

six of one, half a dozen of another... both will likely support your needs. QNAP's solution, for what I've seen, is pretty solid - I don't have an AsusStor device to compare against, and I don't use VirtualBox...

check with the vendor and explain your use cases... both have good pre-sales teams...

 

[coxhaus]

I guess you know Thecus makes a NAS with Microsoft Server2012 on it for the OS. Wouldn't it be easier? I have never run one as I have a home built server.

I was keying off your statement on being waaay behind on Server 2012 sills.

 

[L&LD]

L&LD, I am fully aware that Raid1 is not a backup. I have multiple flash drives and a cd or two, plus I will be adding an offsite backup for the most critical data, of which if I'm honest is about 15gb, maybe even less. I really want the redundancy of Raid1 for copies of the VM's that I run in Server 2012 and the VM on my windows 10 w/s. Maybe even a bare metal restore image for the server itself.

My total used hard drive space, across all machines is just under 1.5tb, I don't have a lot of data, and certainly not anything that can't be rebuilt rather quickly other than the server box, which prompted me to look at NAS for easy backup/recovery. Does a 4bay unit really make sense here?

thiggins:
I would really only be using the VM for training purposes. If I want to really fool with say a Linux box, I will build a hyper-v VM on my windows 10 machine. It's got plenty of processor and ram, plus its all SSD. The fact the NAS box could do VM was just a bonus.

sfx2000:
Is there a huge difference for a basic VM between how Qnap does it vs Asustor? The VM will truly be just a base install to connect to a domain and test login scripts, AD, etc. I am waaaay behind on my server 2012 skills and was looking to spend some time catching back up.

Thanks for the replies, I am learning a ton here.

Well, first off, I would add that CD / DVD / Blu-ray is not a backup either. Not if 1.5TB of data changes often enough, at least.

But if all you really want is a backup 'box' that sits on your LAN, then I would recommend the Qnap TS-253A. And you'll get to play with the VM features it has too.

However, I would be using both drives independently (not in RAID) to have saved backup images to both. And with your most important data being (additionally) incrementally backed up also to both drives. RAID1 used here would be a huge detriment and depending on how you setup the backups (daily to drive 1 and weekly to drive 2 for example), will give even more safety net than a simple RAID1 array would.

 

[stevech]

L&LD, I am fully aware that Raid1 is not a backup. I have multiple flash drives and a cd or two, plus I will be adding an offsite backup for the most critical data, of which if I'm honest is about 15gb, maybe even less.
Thanks for the replies, I am learning a ton here.

Your main backup is not USB3 or eSATA, as most do?

 

[JoeFrat]

I have one folder that can change often, its the current years' F1 and V8 Supercar races in hd. Once I watch them they get deleted. My music folder has grown exactly 1GB in about 5 years....I'm beginning to feel like the only person that doesn't have TB's of data laying around

About the raid 1 statement, can you explain further why it's a detriment?

Well, first off, I would add that CD / DVD / Blu-ray is not a backup either. Not if 1.5TB of data changes often enough, at least.

But if all you really want is a backup 'box' that sits on your LAN, then I would recommend the Qnap TS-253A. And you'll get to play with the VM features it has too.

However, I would be using both drives independently (not in RAID) to have saved backup images to both. And with your most important data being (additionally) incrementally backed up also to both drives. RAID1 used here would be a huge detriment and depending on how you setup the backups (daily to drive 1 and weekly to drive 2 for example), will give even more safety net than a simple RAID1 array would.

 

[stevech]

On my rather fast, high power consumption quad-core 3+GHZ desktop PC, Oracle/Sun's VM is nice, but it feels slow.

I for one would not use VMs on an affordable NAS. In data centers, that's a fat server solution, though I now see a trend to a decided module-PC. Say, 16 3x3 inch CPU modules on a baseboard, data center VMs are used only for very light loads.

 

[JoeFrat]

No it's not, I have been quite a bit lax in backing up since I got some really big flash drives for free during my last PC upgrade cycle. As the data is also spread across 4 HD's currently, I just used the flash drives for longer term storage in case of massive meltdown. The CD was actually done long ago and has about 1GB of tax files, pics, important papers etc.

I do plan on an external USB for the NAS when its all said and done.

Your main backup is not USB3 or eSATA, as most do?

 

[JoeFrat]

I did not, and just went and looked at it. Very nice but I don't need all the features that it has I think, any VM's that I setup to train on will most likely be deleted when I am finished.

I guess you know Thecus makes a NAS with Microsoft Server2012 on it for the OS. Wouldn't it be easier? I have never run one as I have a home built server.

I was keying off your statement on being waaay behind on Server 2012 sills.

 

[L&LD]

I have one folder that can change often, its the current years' F1 and V8 Supercar races in hd. Once I watch them they get deleted. My music folder has grown exactly 1GB in about 5 years....I'm beginning to feel like the only person that doesn't have TB's of data laying around

About the raid 1 statement, can you explain further why it's a detriment?

RAID1 is a detriment when a virus, deletion or other catastrophe happens to your NAS data. With two separate drives and two separate backup schedules for each will prevent that data failure possibility too and give you multiple backups to choose from.

 

[JoeFrat]

Update:
I went back through the live demo's for both Qnap and Asustor this morning, and after really getting in and clicking all the buttons, the Qnap UI actually flows better than the Asustor when in deep. I still think the main screen is a little too busy, but it I understand how it works together much better now.

That said, It looks like the TS-253A is the winner.

Suggestion on a usb backup drive to backup the backups? You know, you can never say the word backup enough

 

[L&LD]

I would use a WD or Hitachi hdd in an external enclosure such as a Vantec 3.5" USB 3.1.

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/668

 

[JoeFrat]

Thanks L&LD, and thank you to all of you for the advice and insight offered, I appreciate it greatly.

 

[stevech]

I use a 2.5" 2TB USB3 drive to external backup of stuff that is VIP or hard to replace. USB3 powered. Small. It's normally kept out of sight. No cables or power cube hassles.

Some NASes have eSATA - which is faster.
But my USB3 - I plug it in once a week or so and let 'er run for 3 hours or so, doing incremental backup. It's my secondary backup.. the primary is the 2nd independent drive as a volume. No RAID.