Personal Data Preservation Plan: (2) NAS Basics

Preface

It's been several months since I got a NAS last National Day. NAS devices are a bit of a hassle to tinker with, and how useful they actually are varies from person to person—they weren't as handy as I'd imagined, so this series I promised never got updated~

There's another reason too: these NAS systems are heavily customized based on Linux, and for someone like me who's used to Linux, they feel awkward and uncomfortable to use, with restrictions everywhere…

So after using this QNAP NAS for a few months, I decided to reinstall the system as a proper Linux Server, or Proxmox VE. A real NAS should be treated as a highly customizable server, not something you hold your nose and use QNAP's customized pile-of-crap system.

PVE, short for Proxmox Virtual Environment, is a Debian-based Linux system with KVM as the VM kernel. Hardware compatibility is excellent. The interface isn't very capable—many operations require the command line—but its extensibility is almost unlimited.

Since I've decided not to use QNAP's crap system, before reinstalling I'll try out most of the features it offers, make a record of them, and then say goodbye to this crap system~

What's a NAS

NAS, full name Network Attached Storage, which literally translates into Chinese as network-attached storage.

Put more simply, it's a little server you keep at home (or in the office) to use as a private cloud drive. Of course NAS performance is quite strong these days, so using one as a server to host a few websites is no problem either.

The main function is storing files, combined with RAID (mostly software RAID) to achieve redundant storage, which can to some extent guarantee data safety.

Usually each NAS vendor has also customized a system that, paired with various apps, can do file sync, remote download, sharing, and so on.

And most NAS systems are customized based on Linux and can also support docker, so you can run lots of third-party services to extend functionality. Therefore they can in theory be used as a Linux server. (As for why I say in theory, I'll explain later)

Common NAS Brands

The more mainstream NAS devices nowadays fall into two types: Storage NAS, focused on storage; and Platform NAS, an integrated platform type, meaning they come with their own operating system.

The common ones are Synology and QNAP. Both are pretty expensive, commonly known as buying the system and getting the hardware thrown in, same deal as Apple, but the systems aren't even that great. Of the two, Synology is a bit better, but the price is also a lot higher.

There are actually lots of NAS brands. For some reason they've been hyped up these past few years, and many domestic brands have joined in to compete, but nothing particularly good has shown up yet.

• ASUSTOR (ASUSTOR) - ASUS subsidiary, hardware and software are both decent, but value for money is said to be very low
• Western Digital (Western Digital) - ARM hardware architecture; the old system is based on a heavily modified Linux, the new system is based on a heavily modified Android; heavily gutted, expandability and playability aren't great
• Netgear (netgear) - the system has ESXi certification, seems pretty impressive, just isn't sold in China
• Buffalo (Buffalo) - a Japanese company, software is average
• TerraMaster (terra master) - from Shenzhen, decent value for money, software is so-so
• Thecus (Thecus) - a company from the same place as QNAP and Synology; the software ecosystem is said to be decent too, but it doesn't seem to have self-operated business in mainland China
• Orico (Orico) - also from Shenzhen, mainly sells hardware, the cases look nice
• ITE2 (ITE2) - an established manufacturer; the system is actually Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, focused on service, very low value for money
• Drobo (drobo) - American, basically does enterprise-grade stuff

And there are a few more—those who know, know

• HP (HP)
• U-NAS (u-nas)
• Hikvision (hikvision)
• UGREEN
• Huawei

About QNAP

The NAS I bought is a QNAP TS-464c. I've been using it for almost half a year since last National Day, so let me talk about my impressions of this brand's NAS.

I'll start with the conclusion:

• (For users who know Linux) The hardware is too expensive, value for money is extremely low, the software is underwhelming—you could say the experience is pretty terrible.
• (For ordinary users) The software still isn't friendly enough. The entire install and usage process is full of technical jargon, and the official docs don't really explain or guide you through it—users need some ability to teach themselves. There are also quite a few issues during use; it's not worry-free or easy to use.

I'm a programmer by profession and work with Linux a lot day to day, so I'm fairly familiar with using Linux. After getting this NAS, I wanted to turn it into a home server, only to run into a problem at the very first step.

This QNAP customized Linux has no package manager. The official app store has very little content—common software like git isn't even there. You need a third-party package manager, Entware, to install things. That's not a huge problem in itself, but the root directory is read-only. No matter what changes I make, they get reverted after a reboot, pretty much like those restore cards in internet cafes~

Alright, I can understand this—QNAP is afraid users will mess around and break the system. But that takes away a lot of the playability.

It also supports docker, so most software can be started via docker, which also gets you autostart on boot. Or you can write a script yourself and run it manually each boot—after all, a NAS doesn't get rebooted often.

But soon I ran into another problem. I wanted to set up my own DNS service, only to find that this QNAP-modified system already has a service occupying port 53…

Then I wanted to use swag for a full HTTPS reverse proxy, and again this modified system had occupied port 443…

So for reverse proxy you can only use the built-in one.

OK, this is just a bit of complaining. This only sacrifices some customizability and playability; the impact on daily use isn't that big. Next I want to talk about a very unreasonable design: software installed from the app store has no sandbox mechanism! And it even runs with root privileges!

QNAP's software ecosystem is decent among NAS brands. I had always assumed that software installed from the app store ran in a sandbox, isolated from user data—until one day I downloaded Xunlei…

Files downloaded by Xunlei were stored in the Public shared folder. When I wanted to rename a downloaded file, it told me I didn't have permission. Weird—I don't have permission to modify my own files?

So I connected to the NAS over ssh and looked at the files Xunlei had downloaded—the owner was actually root. Then I looked at the Xunlei process, and holy crap, it was running with root privileges.

What does that mean? This Xunlei is running on the NAS with the highest privileges, can scan all my personal files with no obstacles, and can upload them however it wants. I wouldn't even notice any of this without going through the terminal. Terrifying when you think about it~

I don't know if QNAP has any review process for listing software, but with no sandbox and everything running as root, that's already an enormous risk—forget about security.

Recap

The main issues with QNAP's customized system

• Root directory is read-only, so you can't customize
• Lots of weird built-in services occupying ports, not conducive to tinkering yourself
• Software has no sandbox mechanism and all runs with root privileges—huge data security risk

Honestly, all those flashy NAS features are just icing on the cake. The most basic file-storage function is basically just opening shared folders over the SMB protocol. On basic file storage, QNAP is adequate, but you can't say they do well at guaranteeing data security—after all, the software doesn't even have sandboxing. Can you really trust listing reviews alone?

As for other expandability and such, it's so-so. With docker it's not bad.

But the user interface has to lose points. It's so ugly, gives a very primitive feeling. Are Taiwanese UI designs really stuck in aesthetics from over a decade ago? Feels like they can go toe-to-toe with Japan—Sony and Canon apps are also ugly as hell… Really not as good as domestic ones on this point~

Any brand recommendations?

Q: After all that, can you recommend something?

A: No. If you don't have enough storage, I suggest buying a 4T HDD and using it with a drive dock. Cheap and works well.

PS: Domestic NAS products might do well on ease of use, but expandability will be a bit weaker. Worth trying if you get the chance.

Users who can tinker with Linux can get a desktop PC and install a regular Server Linux to play with, or go straight to PVE.

Next Steps

My next plan is to reinstall this QNAP NAS with a PVE system, then install an open-source NAS system like OMV on it, plus an Ubuntu Server or Debian as a server and test environment.

Before that, so as not to have wasted these several thousand RMB, I plan to try out most of QNAP's features first, and see whether this retro-styled software is really unfit for use~

References

• Refusing junk hardware starts with me—An introduction to NAS brands - https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/360429085