PVE Troubleshooting Notes (1): Saying Goodbye to QTS Lag, Installing PVE System on QNAP TS464c

Introduction

A few years ago, I had already realized the shortcomings of the QNAP system. I even wrote an article about it at the time. In short, I deeply regretted buying this QNAP NAS, constantly thinking how much better it would have been to get a small PC and tinker with it myself.

I always wanted to reinstall the system on the QNAP ts464c, but I kept postponing it for various reasons like lack of time.

This time, taking the opportunity of moving house and giving the QNAP a thorough cleanup, I decided to go all the way and directly install the PVE (Proxmox Virtual Environment) system.

I must say, while the QNAP's QTS system has a "flashy" interface, its underlying foundation is actually a kind of "reverse optimization" of Linux: bloated services, countless unnecessary background processes, combined with a closed system architecture. The result is—even a simple restart of the NAS takes about ten minutes, like waiting for a pot of old hen soup to simmer.

After installing PVE, the situation improved dramatically. The system is clean, the boot process is swift and efficient. From pressing the power button to accessing the management interface, the startup is completed in less than a minute. Shutdown is also instantaneous, without the annoying wait of services being "forcibly elegantly" terminated to drag out time. You can even feel that the hardware has finally been "liberated," as if breaking free from the shackles of QTS.

In other words, QTS limits a device capable of many things to a "NAS-only" foolproof box. PVE, on the other hand, gives you complete control—whether it's running a software router, deploying Docker, setting up a virtual machine cluster, or simply running a multi-system test environment. A NAS can instantly transform into an all-purpose server, offering both performance and freedom.

More importantly, installing PVE on a QNAP does not damage the original QTS system structure. QTS is actually a system solidified in the motherboard ROM. By installing PVE on an independent SSD, you can achieve dual-system coexistence. If you need to switch back to QTS in the future, simply enter the BIOS and change the boot item back to the internal storage—it's safe, lossless, and highly reversible.

For those who want to evolve their QNAP from a "NAS" to an "all-purpose server," PVE is undoubtedly a highly cost-effective tool.

This article records the entire process of installing PVE on the QNAP ts464c. The length is substantial—it's already close to 20,000 characters by now. Students using the QNAP ts464c can refer to it.

About PVE

Proxmox VE (abbreviated as PVE) is a Debian-based open-source virtualization platform that integrates KVM virtual machines and LXC container management. It features a powerful web management interface and supports enterprise-grade functionalities such as clustering, high availability, backup snapshots, etc., making it highly popular among tech enthusiasts and professional users.

In contrast, QNAP's native system QTS is more oriented towards user-friendly NAS usage. Although it includes built-in virtualization support (Virtualization Station), it has significant limitations in terms of customization freedom, performance tuning, and system extensibility. PVE, on the other hand, not only provides complete low-level control but also allows running multiple system-level virtual machines and containers with ease, truly unlocking the hardware's potential. Compared to traditional Linux systems like Ubuntu Server, PVE eliminates the need for complex setups involving KVM, LXC, web management platforms, etc., offering an out-of-the-box solution ready for virtualization tasks immediately after installation.

Download & Verification

First, download the ISO from the official website (I have to complain a bit - the rate limiting on the official site is quite annoying; using multi-threaded tools like IDM will get your IP blocked shortly after starting the download).

https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/proxmox-virtual-environment/iso/proxmox-ve-8-4-iso-installer

After the download is complete, verify the SHA256SUM.

For Windows, use the PowerShell command:

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 ./proxmox-ve_8.4-1.iso

For Mac, use this command to verify:

shasum -a 256 proxmox-ve_8.4-*.iso

Check if the output SHA256SUM matches the one on the official website.

Creating a Ventoy Bootable Drive

You can download Ventoy from the official website.

However, I installed it directly using scoop.

scoop install ventoy

Remember to select the MBR partition table type when creating the drive; otherwise, the QNAP ts464c's BIOS will not recognize the USB drive as a bootable device.

Simply place the downloaded ISO file onto the USB drive (it can be in the root directory or another folder; Ventoy automatically scans all subdirectories).

Installation of PVE

Choice of File System

For the sake of stability and simplicity, I chose the most commonly used ext4 as the file system for the PVE installation disk.

However, during this process, I also took the opportunity to learn about several other options.

Introduction to Common File Systems

• ext4: The most classic and reliable Linux file system, with good compatibility, low failure rate, but does not support snapshots.
• xfs: Excellent for large files and high performance, does not support snapshots, but has superior write performance.
• btrfs: Supports advanced features like snapshots, compression, and self-healing, suitable for users who need flexible volume management.
• zfs: The most feature-rich, supporting snapshots, compression, self-healing, and RAID management, essentially a complete storage system.

Explanation of RAID Types

When selecting xfs, btrfs, or zfs, PVE will automatically help you build a RAID configuration if you have multiple hard drives inserted:

Available for xfs / btrfs

• (raid0): High performance, but no fault tolerance. If any single drive fails, all data is lost.
• (raid1): Dual-drive mirroring, high security, but storage capacity is halved.
• (raid10): A compromise of performance and safety, requires at least 4 drives; creates 2 pairs of RAID1, then combines them with RAID0.

Available for zfs

• (raidz-1): Equivalent to RAID5, tolerates 1 drive failure.
• (raidz-2): RAID6, tolerates 2 drive failures.
• (raidz-3): Tolerates 3 drive failures (generally not needed).
• ZFS also supports compression, snapshots, and self-healing, but it has high memory usage, with a recommendation of at least 8GB of RAM.

How to Choose?

Scenario 1: Only Plan to Install One System Drive, Using a Single Hard Disk

• Recommended: ext4 or xfs (ZFS is unnecessary, btrfs is somewhat wasteful)
• Safe option: ext4

Scenario 2: Plan to Use Multiple Disks for RAID, Many Virtual Machines, Heavy-Duty Use

• Recommended: ZFS + raidz-1/2
• ZFS's advantages lie in data integrity, snapshots, and compression, making it suitable for virtual machine storage

Scenario 3: Pursuing Highest Performance, Not Concerned About Disaster Recovery

• Optional: xfs(raid0), but not recommended for critical data

Scenario 4: Want to Tinker and Try Something New

• Optional: btrfs(raid1) or btrfs(raid10), but stability is slightly inferior to ZFS

Installation Complete

After installation, the system will auto-restart. Remember to press F2 to enter QNAP's BIOS and modify the boot order.

It's working! Seeing the PVE grub interface now, smooth sailing.

Enter Management Interface

Initial Configuration

Connect to the PVE server via SSH, or you can also use the shell directly from the management backend.

Modifying Software Sources

Modify Debian software sources: https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/help/debian/

Modify PVE sources: https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/help/proxmox/

You can also try the USTC mirror: https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/help/proxmox.html

Modifying CT Template Images

I tried the Tsinghua mirror and got a 403 error, but switching to USTC worked fine and was very fast~👍

sed -i.bak 's|http://download.proxmox.com|https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/proxmox|g' /usr/share/perl5/PVE/APLInfo.pm

The /usr/share/perl5/PVE/APLInfo.pm file belongs to the pve-manager package. After upgrading this package, you'll need to replace the URL again.

After modification, restart the service.

systemctl restart pvedaemon

Modifying TurnKey Linux Images

https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/help/turnkeylinux.html

TurnKey Linux provides a series of pre-installed and pre-configured virtual machine images ("appliances") containing server software for different purposes.

I saw a recommendation for TurnKey's fileserver image on a forum post last time: https://v2ex.com/t/1135908

First, replace the default source URL https://releases.turnkeylinux.org/pve in the /usr/share/perl5/PVE/APLInfo.pm file with https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/turnkeylinux/metadata/pve.

sed -i.bak 's|https://releases.turnkeylinux.org|https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/turnkeylinux/metadata|g' /usr/share/perl5/PVE/APLInfo.pm

Execute systemctl restart pvedaemon to reload the configuration.

According to the documentation, you also need to create a configuration file to modify the content of aplinfo.dat.

mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/pve-daily-update.service.d/
cat > /etc/systemd/system/pve-daily-update.service.d/update-turnkey-releases.conf <<EOF
[Service]
ExecStopPost=/bin/sed -i 's|http://mirror.turnkeylinux.org|https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn|' /var/lib/pve-manager/apl-info/releases.turnkeylinux.org
EOF

Reload systemd.

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start pve-daily-update.service

Test. If the modification is complete, the following output should appear:

$ grep -c http://mirror.turnkeylinux.org /var/lib/pve-manager/apl-info/releases.turnkeylinux.org
0
$ grep -c https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn /var/lib/pve-manager/apl-info/releases.turnkeylinux.org
110

Install Essential Tools

apt install htop iotop iftop vim curl net-tools

References

• PVE Official Documentation
• If it's just for NAS, the TurnkeyLinux Fileserver image is very suitable
• All-in-One NAS [Pioneering (Troubleshooting) Guide]: One-stop setup guide for PVE+Win+Truenas+Docker+Remote Gaming+Media Server
• Getting Started with Proxmox VE Storage