Getting Aquantia AQtion 5Gbps external USB Ethernet card to work on QNAP

[gustavo1spbr]

Hi! Trying to upgrade the ethernet speed on my QNAP TS-453Be, I purchased a Sabrent NT-SS5G external 5Gbps Ethernet dongle. Sabrent provides Linux drivers on their website but I have no idea how to make this work on QNAP.

This dongle runs on the Aquantia AQtion chipset.

Any ideas?

Thank you very much.

 

[L&LD]

If QNAP doesn't offer a similar option for your NAS model, and you value your data, I would not attempt this.

But, maybe it's possible?

Are you now maxing out the possible 2x 1GbE LAG connections?

TS-453Be | Quad-core multimedia NAS with PCIe slot for diverse application expansion and greater efficiency

The TS-453Be features a simple physical design that can easily fit into office and home environments. It provides a PCIe port that can boost its functionality: a QNAP QM2 expansion card can be installed to add M.2 SSD caching/10GbE connectivity and support for Qtier auto-tiering technology, or a...

www.qnap.com

The PCIe port supports installing a 10GbE network card, a QM2 dual-port M.2 SSD/10GbE card, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 card or a compatible PCIe wireless adapter.

If that external dongle is USB based, I think you're asking for trouble (for your data) trying to get it to work on the NAS.

 

[Tech Junky]

I use the sabrent on my laptop when syncing to my server. My server runs Linux as does any NAS unit. Should just be able to plug it in and work. If not then there should be a console app on the NAS for command line access to install things.

I used mine the other day actually and windows had a fit until I removed the drivers and reinstalled them but then worked just fine.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

@Tech Junky @L&LD

Now that the Synology issue is fixed (thanks again for the help), I'm turning back to the QNAP TS-453Be, which used to be my main NAS, and I will now setup as the backup storage for the new Synology DS-923+

QNAP has its own proprietary 5Gbps USB dongle, the QNA-UC5G1T. I just google'd around and found out that it uses the exact same chipset as the Sabrent NT-SS5G that I'm trying to get to work. They are both based on Aquantia AQtion 5Gbps controller/chipset.

However, QNAP's own prop dongle is said to be plug-and-play, while Sabrent's is not being recognized at all - as if it was not even plugged in. Sabrent provides Linux drivers on their website, but I have no idea how to manually install than on a QNAP NAS.

Any ideas? Thank you very much!

 

[gustavo1spbr]

If QNAP doesn't offer a similar option for your NAS model, and you value your data, I would not attempt this.

But, maybe it's possible?

Are you now maxing out the possible 2x 1GbE LAG connections?

TS-453Be | Quad-core multimedia NAS with PCIe slot for diverse application expansion and greater efficiency

The TS-453Be features a simple physical design that can easily fit into office and home environments. It provides a PCIe port that can boost its functionality: a QNAP QM2 expansion card can be installed to add M.2 SSD caching/10GbE connectivity and support for Qtier auto-tiering technology, or a...

www.qnap.com

If that external dongle is USB based, I think you're asking for trouble (for your data) trying to get it to work on the NAS.

I'm currently limited to 1Gbps on this device. Going to 2Gbps by bonding 2 cables will be a fallback alternative. Primary route I want to implement is achieving 5Gbps with the Ethernet USB dongle. QNAP sells its own prop device for that, but I happen to have acquired a Sabrent alternative that runs on the same chipset.

update:
I just tried bonding the 2 LANs to at least get 2Gbps. I chose the load balancing setup (as opposed to failover) and it was good to go in 5 minutes. However, when transfering a single large file (which is often my use case), it seems the transmission is not split between the NICs. One of them is fully used at 1Gbps, and the other remains nearly dormant. Hence, unless I'm doing something wrong, I think 2x 1GbE will not address my needs.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yup, same aqc chipset inside. The only thing I can think of is the qnap version might spawn the driver install when it's plugged in. The sabrent doesn't as it pops a CD image on windows with the 86/64 driver zip files.

As to load balancing. If you multi stream drops it will pick a link for each. It won't use both at the same time. My TB enclosure does the same and the speeds drop over time unless I drop multiple folders individually then it hits 3GB/s. Otherwise it might drop to 600MB/a on larger transfers single thread.

If you can get shell/cli access to the qnap you should be able to get the sabrent working with a modprobe or similar command to invoke the driver to load.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

Yup, same aqc chipset inside. The only thing I can think of is the qnap version might spawn the driver install when it's plugged in. The sabrent doesn't as it pops a CD image on windows with the 86/64 driver zip files.

As to load balancing. If you multi stream drops it will pick a link for each. It won't use both at the same time. My TB enclosure does the same and the speeds drop over time unless I drop multiple folders individually then it hits 3GB/s. Otherwise it might drop to 600MB/a on larger transfers single thread.

If you can get shell/cli access to the qnap you should be able to get the sabrent working with a modprobe or similar command to invoke the driver to load.

Indeed Sabrent spawns a virtual CD with zip windows drivers, which does nothing on Qnap/Linux. I don’t know how to get to command line on Qnap, nor to manually install the drivers if I get there. Unless I find a step by step tutorial, I guess I will just end up buying the Qnap dongle.

As for load balancing, I’m not sure I understood. A single file copy always represent a single thread and therefore can only go through one NIC, is that correct? To benefit from load balancing, one needs to be copying several files at once?

I was curious how you get 3GB/s! That’s more then 10GbE…

 

[Tech Junky]

Linux

I recall not needing to do anything for Linux to get it working as it's built into the kernel which is why some kernel updates broke it awhile back.

Yet another issue I have with off the shelf devices using Linux. They use out of date kernels and don't patch things in a timely manner.

Load balancing is based on a stream of data. Each stream will use one port at a time. If you drop a TB of data in a single drop it will only use a single stream. Filezilla works well as you can setup threads for moving data and you should see bot ports become active at the same time

3GB through thunderbolt 4 using an Acasis enclosure and sn770 drive.

 

[Tech Junky]

Oh, just ordered a micron drive that's 16tb and does 6GB+ for $1100 with an adapter card. Should be interesting once it shows up next weekend.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

Oh, just ordered a micron drive that's 16tb and does 6GB+ for $1100 with an adapter card. Should be interesting once it shows up next weekend.

Where can we buy these sort of SSDs? I once looked on Amazon and could not find it. That's an interesting price point.

 

[Tech Junky]

Where can we buy these sort of SSDs? I once looked on Amazon and could not find it. That's an interesting price point.

Yeah, they don't show up under normal searches for consumer terms. Do a search for micron 7450. There are a few brands and models for this sort of drive but the 7450 hits the sweet spot for price and performance.

Amazon.com

 

[gustavo1spbr]

I recall not needing to do anything for Linux to get it working as it's built into the kernel which is why some kernel updates broke it awhile back.

Yet another issue I have with off the shelf devices using Linux. They use out of date kernels and don't patch things in a timely manner.

Load balancing is based on a stream of data. Each stream will use one port at a time. If you drop a TB of data in a single drop it will only use a single stream. Filezilla works well as you can setup threads for moving data and you should see bot ports become active at the same time

3GB through thunderbolt 4 using an Acasis enclosure and sn770 drive.

Understood. It seems that load balancing will be a cumbersome and incomplete solution for my home LAN. I will need to stick to straightforward 10GbE and 5GbE.

And it seems there isn't a single record on the internet of someone getting the Sabrent 5GbE dongle to work on QNAP, and I don't have the tech wiz myself to figure out how to do it. I will have to just suck it and buy a QNAP dongle instead.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

Yeah, they don't show up under normal searches for consumer terms. Do a search for micron 7450. There are a few brands and models for this sort of drive but the 7450 hits the sweet spot for price and performance.

Amazon.com

Just did a quick search. No stores I know to be reputable came out. Would you recommend any store?

 

[Tech Junky]

Path of least resistance = KISS.

There shouldn't be a huge price difference between the two if you hunt based off model number. That's how I got my quad 5ge nic for $200 shipped.

 

[Tech Junky]

Just did a quick search. No stores I know to be reputable came out. Would you recommend any store?

I posted the link to the one I ordered. Since it's Amazon it's risk free if it doesn't work. There's a bunch of sellers for it as well.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

I posted the link to the one I ordered. Since it's Amazon it's risk free if it doesn't work. There's a bunch of sellers for it as well.

Wow I'm drooling. But I would have to upgrade my motherboard to be able to use one of these. I'm still stuck on PCIe 3.0 and only one NVME port.

Maybe I'll have to upgrade this motherboard after all. Has served me well since 2017, upgrading from a Ryzen 7 1800X all the way to Ryzen 7 5800X. I don't feel I need more computing performance, but the lack of NVMe ports is killing me right now!

If you don't mind me asking, what PC motherboard do you use to support this SSD?

 

[Tech Junky]

motherboard

Right now just a Z690 ASRock. For my all flash first attempt I swapped it for a GB Aero G because it had 5 M2 slots. 1 for OS / 4 for raid was the intent.

I sent you a PM w/ the drive info / adapters.

 

[gustavo1spbr]

Hi. To close this topic, I have quit trying to make this work, and just sucked it up and ordered the proprietary QNAP dongle.

For what is worth, I post below a link to the closest solution I found, which provided steps to make the QNAP dongle work on a Synology NAS. It is similar to what I was trying to accomplish because both QNAP and Sabrent dongles run on the same chipset. But I am not smart enough to convert a QNAP dongle --> Synology installation into a Sabrent dongle --> QNAP one.

GitHub - bb-qq/aqc111: DSM driver for Aquantia AQC111U(5Gbps) based USB Ethernet adapters

DSM driver for Aquantia AQC111U(5Gbps) based USB Ethernet adapters - GitHub - bb-qq/aqc111: DSM driver for Aquantia AQC111U(5Gbps) based USB Ethernet adapters

github.com

 

[L&LD]

With important data, I would not go any other way (as stated a week ago).

It's not just a matter of 'smart enough'. Sometimes, that comes to bite you in the behind too.