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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 12:28 pm 
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2.0TB storage
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I have just installed one of these to replace my HP EX495. I have had the AS6204T for about a week so far.

The "as bought" configuration has a quad core Celeron N3150 (Braswell) running at 2.06GHz and 4GB of DDR3 RAM.

Ports
USB (front) = 1, USB3 (rear) = 2, USB2 (rear) = 2, 2 ESATA ports, 2 Gb LAN ports and an HDMI port. I installed three 4TB HGST server drives (7200 rpm) running RAID5 and use the 4th bay for backups to be taken offsite.

First impressions are as follows:

The build seems very solid, size is 7.3"H * 6.69"W *9"D.

Operating the NAS
ADM is their web interface to the NAS. On the whole, very nicely done. I do have some issues with some of the fixed size dialog boxes which makes reading things like log display almost as one cannot expand the dialog box at all.....that suggestion has been passed up the line from the TS folks. ASUS have a downloadable PC program to allow backups of a PC to the NAS. Bay4 (in my case) can be setup as an "MyArchive" (removable) disk. BTW, the diak trays (drives are screwed in) are far superior to my EX495 system. Extra drive trays cost $33 each direct from ASUSTOR. They do NOT have a storage box capable of holding the drive (when out of the system) and mounting tray securely. I am using Amazon generic boxes at the moment for this purpose. I have suggested to ASUSTOR that they sell a box capable of holding a drive (mine are 3.5" but the NAS will also accept 2.5" drives)...that suggestion has been passed up the line from the TS folks.

ASUSTOR Tech Support
Tech Support, by the way, is out of Taiwan. They do have the ability to TeamViewer into the NAS but the 12 hour time difference (from US EST) can be challenging. I have found the support staff to be reasonably quick to respond but I believe that ASUSTOR could do with hosting TS out of the USA for US customers.

Backups

Backups seem, to me, to be very slow. This is just by me timing backup starts and ends. My PC backs up about 76GB which takes almost 3 hours. The "Backup Plan" software (as far as I can tell) doesn't do incremental or differential backups.

Remote logins.

I did have a problem logging in remotely initially. Setting up my "CloudID" (ASUSTORs term for a remote login ID kept giving me messages about having 2 routers. That confused my initially as I don't. Then, I remembered that my cable modem is also a router. My modem was "bridged" before it was replaced by Brighthouse a few months ago. I called Brighthouse and asked them to check whether the modem was bridged (it was not). They changed that from their end. I still could not login remotely. I updated my TS request to say that "bridging" the cable modem didn't fix the issue. They wrote back (the following day) - remember that 12 hour time difference - saying that they could. I tried again and it worked. I am guessing that maybe I tried too quickly for somewhere on the web (maybe routers needed updating somewhere else?). Anyways, it does work now.

Link Aggregation.
The AS6204T supports this (has to be turned on in ADM->Settings). However, it doesn't seem to work (yet). Another TS request to ASUSTOR is ongoing on this topic. I have also raised an question with Linksys (as my WRT1900AC AFAIK also supports it. The NAS reports on it's front panel display that one of the LAN poirts is "Lost" and the one is "Connected".

Summary (so far).

The ASUSTOR seems a very nice box. I think it has a few warts to iron out (mentioned above) but in general I would recommend it heartily.

UPDATE1 (10/07/2016)
The URL below contains a full description of the sleep mode of the AS6204T NAS:

http://www.asustor.com/online/College_t ... 104&lan=en

Power consumption for the AS6204T is:
Operation 27.5W
Disk Hibernation 13.6W
Sleep Mode 0.95W


UPDATE2 (10/09/2016)

I am fighting with setting up backups for all of my PCs.

On my desktop (Win7), I have a scheduled backup setup and running to backup my desktop to a pre-established shared folder on the NAS.

On my laptop (Win10) and my wife's desktop (Win10), the PC based Backup & Restore software is complaining that the username and/or password is incorrect when trying to set up a scheduled backup job even though I can logon to ADM as that same user and change the password (even though it was not wrong when using it in the Backup & Restore software) to a known password and still it barfs on them. This is the subject of an ASUSTOR TS request.

I believe that ASUSTOR could have a more centralized (read via the NAS) solution to backups.

As it is, the "Backup & Restore" functionality is contained in the web based ADM interface (except for setting up PC backups). PC backups use a totally separate PC based install of their "Backup Plan" software. In my opinion, it would be much better from a user standpoint to have all "Backup & Restore in one place (ADM in ASUSTORs product). The ADM software is not capable, at present, of waking up a sleeping PC to take a backup of that PC.

So, to centralize backup would mean changing the PC based software program to be able to wake up the PC (assuming a scheduled job existed) to take the backup but having the PC backup setup itself take place in the ADM software and transmitted to the PC based software for the schedule.

This approach keeps everything nicely in one place for controlling backups (under ADM) and would enable unattended PC backups to take place.

_________________
ASUSTOR AS6204T, 12 TB RAID-5 over three drive bays (3 * 4TB HGST drives), 2TB Fantom Esata backup drive

"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is." [Attributed to L. P. "Yogi" Berra]


Last edited by kevmeist on Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:03 am, edited 4 times in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:06 pm 
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Thx for the info,
It looks like a stout little box, how does it do in the noise department, I'm assuming no worse then a server.
Shame about the backups, but if you set them at a time that works for you, backups are always good.

Also, bravo for offsite backups as well lololool Most don't and wish they had.
Good Info
Again, Thx. And enjoy

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[X510 /2 in box]
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:twisted: Fear the Cloud :twisted:


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:24 pm 
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2.0TB storage
2.0TB storage

Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:22 am
Posts: 190
Location: Rockledge, FL
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Quieter than my HP EX495. I don't have a way of testing the noise but seem to remember that it was pretty quiet. The review below (which I didn't see in my pre-sale research) seems to show 34 to 40 dba.

http://www.nikktech.com/main/articles/p ... =&start=12

I keep a weekly backup to the ESATA drive (the AS6204T seems to have some deficiencies here (also a TS question to ASUSTOR), weekly backups of the PCs (not fully established yet) and monthly father/son backups (this is where the offsite rotation takes place. With all the data sitting on the NAS, the PCs themselves don't change a lot.

_________________
ASUSTOR AS6204T, 12 TB RAID-5 over three drive bays (3 * 4TB HGST drives), 2TB Fantom Esata backup drive

"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is." [Attributed to L. P. "Yogi" Berra]


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 7:00 am 
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2.0TB storage
2.0TB storage

Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:22 am
Posts: 190
Location: Rockledge, FL
Thanks: 31
Thanked: 1 time in 1 post
Having used this piece of hardware for several months now, I have a few observations.

1. Their tech support is very responsive (a little awkward at times as they are in Taiwan) but they can use Team Viewer to look at things if you need that to happen. For me (in Florida) those sessions occurred after 10PM.

2. I still have an issue with logging on and cannot seem to get the certificate accepted, other than every time I logon. They suggested using a piece of software to help there, but I would have to pay for it just to see if it helped. They offered to look for another solution but haven't offered one.

3. Their backup approach is kinda disjointed (to me). They have some software (called Backup Plan) that runs on the PC to take PC backups to the NAS but that software cannot wake the PC up. The NAS is capable of having events occur (like "sleep" and "wake up") so I can wake the NAS up easily but NOT the PCs. Therefore, a semi-manual approach is needed. I need to have unattended backups running! The timers that I can setup in the NAS do NOT allow me to, say, run a backup to the 4th bay on, say, the 20th of the month. The wakeup timers and the backup timers use different scheme to set those events that do NOT allow a backup on a once per month schedule.

Other than that, I am impressed with the AS6204T. Robustly built box, easy drive insertion and removal (much easier than the HP EX495 that I had before). Recommended overall.

_________________
ASUSTOR AS6204T, 12 TB RAID-5 over three drive bays (3 * 4TB HGST drives), 2TB Fantom Esata backup drive

"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is." [Attributed to L. P. "Yogi" Berra]


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