QNAP NAS 412 Turbo NAS - A huge step backwards in my life

[Gazzip]

Hi All,

Really hoping that somebody out there can help me, or at least let me know that I am not alone?

Yesterday I got my brand new and shiny 8TB QNAP 412 NAS delivered. I have finally got it configured, working and loaded up with music, but I have hit a bit of a problem. Speed.

I control my Squeezebox Touch using iPeng and my iPad and up until yesterday when I switched from my PC to the NAS my music was at my fingertips. Now it is still at my fingertips but with a 2 minute wait whilst it tries to load my album lists, artwork etc. If I look at the resource monitor on my QNAP browser caching the artwork alone is pushing the NAS's CPU useage up to 90%! Surely there must be something wrong here?

Anybody else having or had a similar problem? As this is looking to be unuseable.

For information I have the NAS and my Squeezebox plugged in to a gigabit switch and I stream Fla and Apple Lossless files.

 

[nads]

go onto Qnaps forums and ask about what you can do.

I run a readynas duo with 512mb of memory (2 times what it came with) iPad2 and iPeng gigabite net work but the squezze boxes are connected wirelessly a little slower than it was on the PC.

you have let it cash what it needs to etc...

 

[hammill]

I have the same NAS with 2x2 terabyte drives running the squeezebox server and play via a touch.I have no performance problems. How much music do you have? I have a couple of hundred albums worth at the moment

 

[Gazzip]

I have about 400 albums, most of which are Apple Lossless with approx 50 being in FLAC format. Do any of you guys use the Erland Custom Browse or Multi Library plugins?

Nads, you ask if I have left it o Cache? It only seems to do this as I scroll down the iPeng browser window on my IPad. If I try to access anything that hasn't cached then the NAS CPU bangs straight up to 100%, freezes, and a reboot is required.

Having done the standard google searches to try and fix this tthe general consensus is that the NAS is not powerful enough to run Logitech Media Server successfully. Surely this cannot be true? QNAP actually advertise the Logitech Media Server as being able to run on the NAS.

 

[nads]

like i said go onto the forums Qnap and http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?18-3rd-Party-Hardware

and nope i dont run any add ons and use the readynas version of logitec media server,

 

[hammill]

I have about 400 albums, most of which are Apple Lossless with approx 50 being in FLAC format. Do any of you guys use the Erland Custom Browse or Multi Library plugins?

Nads, you ask if I have left it o Cache? It only seems to do this as I scroll down the iPeng browser window on my IPad. If I try to access anything that hasn't cached then the NAS CPU bangs straight up to 100%, freezes, and a reboot is required.

Having done the standard google searches to try and fix this tthe general consensus is that the NAS is not powerful enough to run Logitech Media Server successfully. Surely this cannot be true? QNAP actually advertise the Logitech Media Server as being able to run on the NAS.

I have a combination of FLAC and MP3. I control the touch from a web browser or through the free Android app. I don't know what cache you are referring to nor do I have the plugins you mention. I would suggest trying the built in browser interface to see if there is a problem with iPeng -as I said, I have no problems at all. Also, what version of the server and the QNAP OS are you running, I have 7.6.1 and 3.8.0 Build 20121114?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Running a 412 with 4x3TB drives here, and with various server packages running for testing purposes, including the built-in one, Twonky and MinimServer (the last of these transcoding to WAV at the moment), and have none of the problems mentioned by the OP.

 

[Gazzip]

Thanks Andrew,

Can I ask are you controlling the LMS with an iPad or other such device? If yes which App are you using and is everything loading straight away, (artwork, album lists etc.), with no problem? Also is the NAS's CPU clocking at 100%?

Are you using NAS firmware version 3.8.1 and LMS 7.7.2?

From the responses received it sounds like a problem with my setup, so if I can parrot evertthing that you guys are doing and get my system set up the same then I should be good to go or able to confirm that I have a problem.

Thanks,

Gazzip

 

[bigboss]

http://www.whathifi.com/blog/how-to-build-a-nas-to-store-your-music

 

[AnotherJoe]

Log onto the NAS using putty(or similar) and use the 'top' command to see what process is using the CPU.

 

[hammill]

You do not need putty to look at resource usage on the QNAP (useful though putty is). Using the Administration tool, look under System StatusResource Monitor

 

[Andrew Everard]

Can I ask are you controlling the LMS with an iPad or other such device? If yes which App are you using and is everything loading straight away, (artwork, album lists etc.), with no problem? Also is the NAS's CPU clocking at 100%?

Are you using NAS firmware version 3.8.1 and LMS 7.7.2?

Not using LMS, firmware is 3.8.1 Build 20121205, CPU currently running at about 15% streaming 44.1kHz/16-bit WAV, or around 50% streaming 192Khz/24-bit FLAC transcoding to WAV.

/sites/whathifi.com/files/images/newsarchive5/resource.jpg

Servers running: QNAP's own DLNA Media Server, Twonky and MinimServer, with control via Kinsky, Lumin and Naim n-Stream into Naim NDS and Linn Akurate DSM players.

Control apps running on iPad mini, everything connected via Ethernet using a Netgear 8-port unmanaged switch except the iPad, which is connected via Wi-Fi provided by an Apple AirPort Extreme.

The NAS is running dual Ethernet connections, and houses four WD Red 3TB drives in RAID 10.

Oh, and the music being played right now is

 

[AnotherJoe]

You do not need putty to look at resource usage on the QNAP (useful though putty is). Using the Administration tool, look under System StatusResource Monitor

You need the top command to give you the info to diagnnose the problem. The resource manager is not enough.

If he runs top and posts a screenshot might be able to solve it.

 

[lesmallett]

You need to go into your LMS settings and click on the advanced tab. In there is a drop down and select performance. Under Artwork pre-caching make sure it says pre-cache album artwork. You might also want to set the server priority to -20. Then just rescan your library.

I also advise switching off all the plugins that you don't use, probably things like facebook and amazon etc.

 

[Gazzip]

Thought I should post an update on this. My experience is that the Qnap server did not like a mix of FLAC and Apple Lossless. It seemed to confuse it. I re-ripped all 800 of the 1000 Apple Lossless albums I own to FLAC and the server ate them up. No more delays. This may or may not be the issue but doing this worked for me. Hopefully this may help others.

G