NAS with dual 2.5gb Nics how to make the most of it.

[3s1k]

Hello,

I just purchased this NAS, Asustor Lockerstor 4 AS6604t. It has two 2.5gb NIC's that can be aggregated to 5gb. My router is an Asus AX86u that has a 2.5gb port as well. My PC is on Wifi6 because I'm on a different floor than the modem and router but my PC also has 2.5gb NIC.

I do video editing and want the NAS to be the primary source of all my data. I would be transferring 4k footage back and forth when editing or backing up new footage. My question is what is the best way to set this up? I was planning on a direct connection between the 2.5gbs of the NAS and my PC but then it wouldn't really have any network connectivity with the rest of the house.

Another thought was if possible, connect the NAS 2.5gb to the Routers 2.5gb port. But then the limitation would be the wifi6 between my PC and the router. I have an older Synology DS212j with a 1gb nic and I connected it to my router. I tried to backup 3tb of data to it and I could barely watch any netfilx as it was congesting the network so much lol.

What are your thoughts or suggestion?

 

[L&LD]

With 2x RT-AX86U's myself, I use 2x QNAP QSW-1105-5T 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5GbE Switches to connect my wired devices and provide wired backhaul between them. Working great for over 6 months.

Wow, the price has increased by 30% since I bought them.

 

[3s1k]

With 2x RT-AX86U's myself, I use 2x QNAP QSW-1105-5T 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5GbE Switches to connect my wired devices and provide wired backhaul between them. Working great for over 6 months.

Wow, the price has increased by 30% since I bought them.

That is a good idea, I forgot I can do a mesh system with the Asus routers. I'd really hate to spend $250 on another router and more $$$ on switches. I'm really trying to make do with what I have right now lol.

 

[Tech Junky]

Not sure about this but, putting the 2 ports into a LACP configuration and then the same on a switch would get you 5gbps on the NAS / network.

On your PC you could also connect both ports and then just add a USB 2.5 or 5GE dongle to feed it back to the network.

Another option is to return it and build your own NAS with a PC. For the $550 you could easily put something together that has better performance using a pre-built PC and adding NIC's / drives to it.

SFF PC's ~ $150
NIC 4-port 5GE ~$200

 

[L&LD]

If you need 2.5GbE speeds (and it seems you do), more money is required to do it 'right'.

Don't forget, you may just need a single QNAP QSW-1105-5T for right now. Add more as needed.

As long as you're not transferring files from multiple computers to your NAS, I would not do the LAG connection. First, because the switch may not support it. Second, because you'll lose a port for no reason.

One thing to note, I am using only Cat5e Ethernet cable between all equipment with the longest being 100' between the two RT-AX86U's with full 2.5GbE speeds and again, no issues.

 

[3s1k]

I may have underestimated this project lol. I would only be transferring files between my primary PC and the NAS. The initial setup would have the largest network load since its roughly 3tb of data. I could ADHOC that NAS/PC to move the data then move the NAS up to the router and use the 2.5gb port.

I'm debating on moving the cable modem and router down to my office and I can hardwire everything to the AX86u Or doing a cat6 run from the router to my office. Another thing to add to the mix is my ISP just started offering 2gig internet which I get a free upgrade from my 1gig plan. I need to upgrade my modem but haven't yet because there have been some issues with the newer 2gig modems. Since the wife and I work from home I need a stable connected. When I do upgrade I will either need the 2.5g port for the wan connection or LACP ports 1 and 2 for the new 2gig connection.

I think you're right, I may need that QNAP QSW switch.

@Tech Junky - I was looking into building my own. I do have a Dell SFF pc laying around but it only had space for 1 disk. Also, it has a proprietary MOBO connector and power supply so I can't swap it into another case and add more drives.

 

[Tech Junky]

LACP for me works great to my cable modem to exceed the 1GE limitation to get the free overprovisioned BW from the ISP.

LACP on a NAS can work to your benefit as well if you set it properly and have disks that can push higher throughput to saturate the single link speed.

Building your own using a similar 4 disk approach in a Raid 10 configuration can yield 400MB/s using spinners and if you were to tier things a bit and SSD's on top of it you could saturate a 5GE path easily. Other Raid modes though can boost throughput but tax the CPU more with recalculating the bit each time something changes.

I use QNAP parts for networking because they're a decent price and available for purchase. Particularly used their AC2600 to provide WIFI to my network before switching over to an AP for WIFI6. I use their 5GE NIC currently though because I handoff 1 port to the AP at 2.5GE which was necessary before rebuilding to a MOBO that has a 2.5GE built in.

If you keep the current NAS + NAS configuration putting them onto the same switch will alleviate the streaming issue while doing backups.

Or you could cheat a bit and get a 4-port 5GE card and pop it into your PC and connect both NAS to it and send traffic back on the spare ports. Or a 2.5GE 4-port card for slightly cheaper doing the same things.

QNAP QSW-1105-5T 5-Port $98.01
TRENDnet 5-Port TEG-S350 $130.24
QNAP 6-Port 10GbE & 2.5GbE (QSW-2104-2S-US) $159.00

Syba Dual 2.5 G SD-PEX24066 $39.99
QXG-5G4T-111C ~$220

@Tech Junky - I was looking into building my own. I do have a Dell SFF pc laying around but it only had space for 1 disk. Also, it has a proprietary MOBO connector and power supply so I can't swap it into another case and add more drives.

There's ways to make use of it. First thing I would do is probably add a USB 3.2 2x2 20gbps card and use a DAS attached to it. On the other hand if you deconstruct it a bit you could add a HBA to it for 6 SATA ports and then plop a NIC into it from above on the cheap.

Using the HBA / SATA connectors you could simply put the drives into a "cage" and stick it next to the PC or strap it to the case.

Or return the NAS and use a DAS (direct USB) and share it from a PC on the network.

FS5RU3 $242.99

 

[3s1k]

I just started looking into this SFF Dell PC and apparently it's not compatible with any ATX stuff including PSU's. I was looking at DAS with 6+ drive bays but that started to push me into NAS price range so I decided to go with that. There were some cheaper NAS but this one had really got hardware and more future proofing so to speak.

I was thinking of that 4port NIC also. So many options and decisions.

 

[Tech Junky]

@3s1k

You really need to be in a mATX sizing like a Node 804 if you're want to be compact / sleek about it yet have room for drives. SFF PC + DAS is just a work around to get started.

I put together a 804 setup as it has room for 8 x 3.5" drives of which I had 5 mounted for a Raid 10 4 + 1 backup. Several slots in the back to mount things / tons of fan positions to keep things cool / easy to work with.

The DIY router is one stepping stone and as you grow into more features it's easy to port over the disk into a new system. If you plan it out with the intent to do a router / switch / NAS then skipping the skinny box / DAS will make more sense.

I run Plex on mine so I went a bit more aggressive to handle the video files it produces more quickly in post processing. Transcoding makes the CPU work hard for on the fly streaming but, it handles it.

I build from scratch but, some systems don't do the proprietary thing and even when they do you can gut them and put them in different cases usually. It just requires a bit more creativeness to get it done vs picking components specifically for what you want to do.

 

[dosborne]

If the priority is your PC for video, then that should be the hardwired connection.

If you want secondary access, and to give the Nas network access, then use the second port to connect to a cheap router (maybe you have an old spare) that you can connect in mediacentre mode? (Or powerline adapters?)

That's what I would do based on your initial post.

 

[3s1k]

Thank you for showing me that case. I heard of Fractal but never seen that case before it can hold a lot of drives lol. I was thinking of taking the processor, ram and m.2 from that Dell computer and just getting a mobo and case for something like that.

I just received my NAS and have been setting it up and transferring file to it. So far so good. To get the bulk of the data on there I ended up plugging my external hard drive directly to the NAS to copy the data. That would prevent me having to move 3tb over WIFI to the NAS. I then can move smaller batches of new files when after I'm done filming. I haven't given up the idea of a DIY NAS just yet as I was hoping for something that had more drives bays for a RAID 6 or 10 configuration.

I'm still looking at the 2.5gbe switch too, just trying to figure out how I'll connect it to my router on the other floor or move all all the equipment downstairs and make it look nice in the space I have.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yeah, the 804 packs a punch for drives. 8 x 3.5" in the one side so the heat doesn't affect the MOBO / CPU. On mine I took a couple of fans and mounted them on the bottom to pull air in to cool any cards on the MOBO when I was running Dual GPU's it helped to push from the bottom and the fans on the top to pull exhaust in addition to the ones in the rear pulling on either side of the dividers for MOBO / drives.

There's additional drive capacity in the front panel for 2.5" drives as well. When I was working on my ADL upgrade I was thinking of gutting the old board and putting in the upgrade but ADL mATX boards lack some of the key upgrades and had to shift to a full ATX to get those. IIRC I could squeeze 9 or 10 fans into it and it always stayed silent in operation if you're noise sensitive. Using the Arctic PWM PST fans gets around the limited headers on the mATX MOBO too w/o hitting voltage limits using 2-3 per header.

There's a window if you're into RGB but, I did zero lighting on mine to keep it subdued and not bring attention to it. The only lights then are the HDD activity and a slim blue power indicator on the front.

The rebuild I went with Fractal but a Meshify 2 and that has even more room for 3.5's. I think the mount holds up to 11 + a couple of more spots in various locations. Even with the solid panels it's easy to squeeze a bunch of fans inside as well.

 

[3s1k]

Just an update. I decided to update my computer case to a Fractal Meshify 2 XL and to most likely return this Asustor NAS. Although the NAS is nice, I can cram more drives into the Meshify 2.

I was thinking of installing Hyper-v on my Win10 computer and then run TrueNas Core in a VM. I'm not sure if I should do that or keep it simply and use Storage Spaces again. I was hoping to do a Raid-10.

 

[Tech Junky]

I've thought about doing the HV thing as well but just don't "need" it to do windows or multiple OS's.

Going with an OS selection depends on personal preference.

https://www.slant.co/topics/19199/~operating-systems-for-a-nas-file-server

I'm not saying one is better than another but, if you're familiar with one base OS over another when it comes to commands / troubleshooting then that makes sense.

For me a debian based system like Ubuntu was more familiar to me from using it on and off over the years and being handy with commands / packages. It's not tied to any specific skin / app / GUI that limits the options of what you can do overall with the same HW.

The 10 Best Linux NAS Solutions | FOSS Linux

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www.fosslinux.com

Sure the GUI options and underlying FS are different per app. The GUI for me just isn't something I need. It does make things more eye appealing and in some cases easier to manage without having to open a terminal to run some commands in to accomplish things. The nice thing building off a non-specific OS is you can add / try different options as you want w/o being locked into a specific system to manage your data.

Some of them use EXT and others go ZFS. EXT is less restrictive while ZFS has some quirks.

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You can keep it simple or make it as complicated as you want.

 

[3s1k]

Yea that makes sense. I primarily work from home and also use this as my gaming/content creating PC. I didn't want to build another PC as to limit the amount of computers my significant other knows lol. We currently have 3 in the house.

Once I get the XL case and built I'll figure out what I can do or what limitations I face. When I'm rendering videos I need all my CPU resources so I don't really want to dedicate that to a VM permanently.

 

[3s1k]

I decided to keep it simple. I used eight 3tb drives and used storage spaces 2-way mirror. It have me about 10tb of useable space. That's about triple the size of my current data. I figured, by the time I fill that up I'd probably have more drives or larger drives.

I used a Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL in storage mode. The smaller case is an NZXT H500i. Very nice case but to small. This Meshify 2 XL case is massive but works perfectly for my scenario. I decided a NAS isn't needed since I don't share files across the network or to other computers. Also, If I decide to run PLEX off my computer I have more resources than the NAS I had purchased.

I appreciate the help and the conversation. I definitely learned a lot.

 

[Tech Junky]

@redjr

You should make your own thread and be specific about the NIC model you're using.

 

[redjr]

@redjr

You should make your own thread and be specific about the NIC model you're using.

Sorry junky. Kinda got it figured out. Deleted.