QNAP TR-004 4 Bay Desktop NAS Expansion - Optional Use as a Direct-Attached Storage Device

Product Information

in regards to spindown, afaik, if you power off the nas, this would automatically put the connected tr-004 into a spindown state if i read this correctly. this feature was mentioned on reddit if not mistaken. The TR-004 provides an alternative method for users to expand their NAS storage capacity. By connecting the TR-004 to their NAS and using the Storage & Snapshots Manager, users can easily configure and manage their storage expansion. The TR-004 supports a variety of QNAP NAS storage and file management functions, allowing users to build storage pools, find files with Qsirch and organize files with Qfiling. Function

how r u configuring it to begin with ? since you plug direct into the 431, can i assume you are managing it via qts and not independently using the tr-004 windows management app? Note that I get read speeds ~150MB/s still under this configuration. A couple interesting tidbits. First, when I connect the unit directly to a Windows PC, I am able to write at ~100MB/s! What's very interesting is that at first, I would get slow write speeds ~40MB/s on the Windows PC. I enabled write caching in Windows for the device (I guess it defaulted off because it's external storage) and then I got the 100MB/s speeds I quoted above. It's like write cache is disabled on the NAS - however, I verified that in Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> General tab, Enable Write Cache (EXT4 delay allocation) is enabled. I've also tried with and without Control Panel -> Network & File Services -> Win/Mac/NFS -> Microsoft Networking -> Advanced Options -> Enable Asynchronous I/O enabled. I also tried disabling the "Enable Write Cache." It seems like the combination that gives the best performance for the internal RAID is for Enable Write Cache to be enabled and Enable Asynchronous I/O to be disabled (which I believe is default config out of the box).I then pulled a drive from the array, and got three very loud beeps and the status light blinking red. There are three drives in the TS-332X in RAID-5 but writes to those work great - ~300MB/s from PC to NAS. It seems only the TR-004 is affected. Note: Use only QNAP memory modules to maintain system performance and stability. For NAS devices with more than one memory slot, use QNAP modules with identical specifications. spindown is good for saving on electricity bill, and MAY prolong life. I say MAY, because if you are spinning up the drives too often, it MAY instead be negatively affecting longevity i suspect. If you won't be triggering much spin up/downs on a highly frequent basis, it may be worth doing.

Hi all! I have a QNAP TS-332X with a TR-004 attached to it. QTS is 4.3.6.0895. The firmware ver on the TR-004 is 1.0.4. Inside I have white label Western Digital WD80EMAZ 256MB Cache - pulled from WD 8TB Elements Desktop Hard Drives WDBWLG0080HBK-NESN. Using TR-004 to manage drives, not software management, via dip switches. Warning: Using unsupported modules may degrade performance, cause errors, or prevent the operating system from starting. anyway if you are interested on the topic, you can google "spindown vs 24/7 hard drive", there should be an answer on reddit or on quora on the subject. There are 2 camps, those for spindown, and those for keeping the disks on nas running 24/7. The TR-004U can only be used as an individual storage pool or volume on the NAS. Its storage pool/volume cannot be combined into the connected NAS. NAS applications cannot be installed on the TR-004U.The storage pools and volumes in the expansion enclosures are configured via the QTS operating system. From people's experience here and what I've seen, I'd almost have to conclude that TR-004 shall have never been advertised as it can be used as a NAS storage (for its poor performance with RAID 5), as was described in the product manual and the advertisement video https://live.qnap.com/en/video/show/2430 or on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5_ahKpjF6A. But I do hope there is a solution that can make TR-004 as a NAS storage pool with RAIDs truly functional.