Setup: Monitor and Control (Network, Hardware, Resources, & Logs)
Network Configuration
The network configuration is important for multiple reasons, although not always. The first page contains all the basic settings such as the names and IP addresses.
Since the N4810 has two LAN ports, it also supports link aggregation and trunking with all the options this includes.
You also find a Quality of Service (QoS) feature within the network settings. It allows you to assign bandwidth limits to specific services.
Those who wish to connect to their NAS remotely and don’t have a static IP address will find the Dynamic DNS (DDNS) feature very useful. In its simplicity, it allows you to connect to a domain name rather than an ever-changing IP address.
System Information
With a unit that runs headless most of the time, it’s important to keep track of the health status and hardware information too. Luckily, there are plenty of options for this too.
Which services are running is also quickly viewed here. A quick way to check whether the connection error is due to an actual connection error or whether the service got disabled somehow.
Full hardware information might not be relevant most of the times, but it’s still great to have. We can see how many CPU cores and how much memory the NAS has as well as keep an eye on the network, USB, and storage drive setup.
Activity Monitor
While the previously mentioned system information only provides basic information on the hardware, its usefulness is limited. The activity monitor, on the other hand, provides a lot more detailed information on the current and previous system utilisation.
Hardware Settings
There are a few hardware settings available too and behaviour that you can change. For example, you and use the EuP mode, define power rules, and set the fan speeds.
You can also create a power scheduling based on daily event or named day events.
Logs and Notification
Basic system event are important and as such always logged and easily viewable through the control panel.
More advanced logging such as access logging will have to be enabled first.
Was there any testing or investigating into what the 2.5 hard drive connector in the top of the unit can be used for?
I bought one of this for half price on the chance the 5th drive connector was usable: and it is! You can use it as a boot drive or a cache drive or for a parity check drive. You can also flash the in-built MMC drive with a different OS. If you buy one I strongly suggest doing so, as the OS from Thecus is an ancient bug-ridden under-developed barely-supported mess. No, really, the version in the box is Fedora 12, and there’s an upgrade to effectively Fedora 16. I recommend using OpenMediaVault instead.
Thanks for the confirmation that the 5th SATA part indeed is fully working.
Is it possible to use the display and the buttons with an alternative linux distibution like debian? Is it possible too, to control the fan (with fancontrol package)?
Thx
John,
I’m on my 3rd thecus NAS. The first was a W5810(windows storage server) which I could not get to work correctly; got an RMA then resold. the second was/is the N4810; same as before, it did not work correctly, got an RMA, but was not able to secure a reasonable (?) resale price. So, I’m keeping it.
Regarding the 5th drive, I was not able to access a connected drive installed in my initial N4810. Tech USA told me that that drive was not powered by the backplane since the 2 on-board SATA chips only supported two HDs each (only 4 of the 5 slots on the backplane -the ones directly accessable from the front bays). their info was that the 5th could be used only if powered by a separate Sata controller that connects to the DOM (MMC drive?).
So, my question(s) to you:
– how are you powering that drive (I guess as your new boot)
– where is the DOM (under the HD cage?) and is that the alternative power source for the 5th drive, and
– if you flash the DOM for another OS, is there any other way to power the 5th drive or force it to be read by the system?
Sorry to be so long, but still looking to see how best to use this machine. I agree with you in respect to it being under-developed.
Is it possible to use the display and the buttons with an alternative linux distibution like debian? Is it possible too, to control the fan (with fancontrol package)?
Thx
Hello,
I have the same questions to John like Thomas.
I am very interested in this NAS and would like to use the 5th SATA connector for a system SSD to boot a debian or ubuntu server linux.