RT-AC68U with really BIG USB disk

[Valle]

Welcome to the forums @Valle.

So, to clarify, you have 8, 4TB partitions between two enclosures?

Hi
I have 8 partitions. 4tb each. (2pcs 3,5"hdd) in a RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-3740-C31 Harddisk-array. This is connected to the usb 3.0 port with a high speed onverter usb C to usb a.

 

[Valle]

I use a Asus rt-ac5300 (with two 16tb) 32tb hdd total 4tb each in partition size. I have NO problem at all. NO problem to stream 2 HD movies at the same time or copy to the drive and meantime looking at a movie.

Before that i did use a single 10tb seagate external hdd for serveras years(partitioned (4,4,2tb) works great also.
Soon i will do a test with openwrt or dd-wrt and change software in a router to see If I can have no limit of partitions/sizes so i can use 64tb and abowe.

 

[Deldarius]

I don't see this ending well. A small drive to run scripts, ok. Running a file server, not so much.

Years ago I tried it, after a fashion. 4x3tb drives via a powered usb hub on an AC-68U. While it "worked" it was wonky. Not worth the hassle. I went nas as soon as possible.
I would not even reattempt it on my current GTAX6000.

So,
Your choices are really limited to 2.

1. You can return the router and get a Synology router, then you can hook up whatever drives you want.
2. Get a dedicated nas, which you can transfer to a newer router, when the time comes.

But, this is just my $0.02 cents

 

[sfx2000]

Going with drives 4TB and larger...

They can work - the challenge is the number of files that can accumulate there and this can run into 100K or more... numbers, not sizes...

One can get to a point where the filesystem in use can consume a fair amount of RAM, and then you have applications like Samba and DLNA - this can run the device out of memory to just mount the FS.

This might (or might not) end well - but @Deldarius mentions - a small drive to keep log files and add-ons is likely ok, even light file sharing, but it's not really intended for heavy duty work like a dedicate NAS box, whether from a NAS vendor or DIY.

 

[Valle]

Going with drives 4TB and larger...

They can work - the challenge is the number of files that can accumulate there and this can run into 100K or more... numbers, not sizes...

One can get to a point where the filesystem in use can consume a fair amount of RAM, and then you have applications like Samba and DLNA - this can run the device out of memory to just mount the FS.

This might (or might not) end well - but @Deldarius mentions - a small drive to keep log files and add-ons is likely ok, even light file sharing, but it's not really intended for heavy duty work like a dedicate NAS box, whether from a NAS vendor or DIY.

I dont know exactly what is heavy duty work is. If not copying several TB between hdd (raid) and at the same time stream through wifi 4k movie to tv. Or 2 4k at the same time. From the same hdd. I never have any tiny hangs or whatever.
I going to get a nas. Not because transfer speed or stability is better. I work with computers and nas daily at work. It's my living. It's because of better raid in nas. A good router is the key (Asus RT-AC5300) And If you know how to do the setup it's no problem at all.

 

[IVB]

As promised, I will report on the results.

The router is flashed with Merlin firmware.

The 12 TB drive is connected to USB 3.
The disk is partitioned into 3 partitions: 2 GB for swap, 2 GB for Entware, the rest of the space is for sharing. The disk was partitioned right on the router using the gdisk utility from Entware. Partitions for Entware and data are formatted in ext4.
There were no problems with either partitioning or formatting.

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         4196351   2.0 GiB     8200  SWAP
   2         4196352         8390655   2.0 GiB     8300  Entware
   3         8390656     23437768703   10.9 TiB    8300  Share

After rebooting the router, both ext4 partitions were automatically mounted, both partitions are available in the router's graphical menu.

/dev/sdb2 on /tmp/mnt/Entware type ext4 (rw,nodev,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/sdb3 on /tmp/mnt/Share type ext4 (rw,nodev,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)

There were no problems with the router's operation when copying (via Wi-Fi) data to and from the disk.

I'm going on to the next task - launching the torrent client.

 

[Offler2]

Adding my 2 cents.

Went through this table:

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1047043/

In my attempt to turn RT-AC68U into a fileserver I used Samsung 870 QVO 2TB in USB enclosure and USB 3.0 port. I am even considering upgrade to 8TB version of this drive.

As for the data, those are DVD and BD images stored for my Android stream box which uses KODI. I own original discs so data on this drive are expendable.

I was a little bit concerned about filesize up to 8gb, therefore initially I just put my DVD collection on the drive, but tests with Blurays soon confirmed that the router and FTP service can handle filesizes over 8GB. So I loaded it with Dune 2, UHD Bluray 70gb and it works and plays...

Now... regardless if its DVD or Bluray of any size, memory consumption on the router can go as high as 90%.

 

[bennor]

Now... regardless if its DVD or Bluray of any size, memory consumption on the router can go as high as 90%.

Which is expected behavior when attempting to use a router with it's limited hardware and which is not designed as a NAS/file server, as a NAS/file server. There are a number of past discussions on high RAM usage when using external USB drives attached to the router (here and here and here for example). Some have indicated their router has locked up under heavy USB usage.

There are ways to clear the cache on the router when the RAM gets pegged over 90%. It only works for a short period of time, the memory will max out eventually as one uses the USB device. For example, using SSH:

sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
or
sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
or
free && sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches && free

One user setup a CRON job to clear the cache daily. See this link.