QNAP TS-101 and TS-201 NAS Servers
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The System Tools menu provides a number of useful options for notifications, system updating and backup/restore functionality. Alert Notifications can be configured so messages are sent to up to two e-mail addresses. Basically, there are options for sending messages when an error or warning occurs, when only an error occurs, or the option can be set to disabled. This could be useful for those reliant on system up time for web or file access. The unit can also be cycled to shutdown and restart with a single click. The Hardware Settings screen offers options to control hard drive standby times from 5 minutes to 5 hours. A visible light can be set to illuminate when the hard drive's free space drops below a certain threshold, warning of low disk space. Another excellent option is for the unit to power itself back on after a power failure.
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The System Update window provides the ability to easily upgrade the system's firmware when an update is available. While the unit doesn't auto detect when an update is available, it does offer a link to quickly check for an update and download as needed. The Backup/Restore/Reset Settings menu provides the ability to quickly backup, restore or reset all saved settings, including user profiles, network settings and other critical settings. One of the more useful features is the Remote Replication function. With Remote Replication, the data from a specified directory can be configured to back up to another location, be it a server in another country or another computer on your personal network. This helps ensure that your data is safe and backups are available in case of disaster.
The Device Configuration menu is one of the few areas where the options differ between the TS-101 and TS-201. This is expected as each unit offers very different functionality in this area. For the single drive TS-101, the menu offers four choices, SATA, eSATA, USB Disk and USB Printer options. The SATA Disk options are fairly straight forward, permitting formatting, error checking and scanning for bad blocks. With the TS-201, the choices are greater, with various options catering to a multi-disk configuration.
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With the TS-201, the two disks can be configured in one of four ways. The first is simply to have two independent disks. The next option is to set up a RAID 1 array for disk mirroring, making for the most secure setup out of the four choices. RAID 0 can also be set and works well even with mismatched drive sizes. We had no trouble creating a RAID 0 array using a 74GB Western Digital Raptor and a older 250GB Maxtor drive, athough you will sacrifice some capacity on the larger drive. The last choice is to create a Linear Disk Volume which loads all data on one drive and then shifts to the second as the first fills up.
As we stated earlier, the TS-101 is the only device of the two to offer eSATA support as well as Q-RAID 1 for both eSATA and USB Disks. In the configuration screen, the eSATA and USB drive can be set up using Q-RAID 1, which allows either drive to mirror the internal SATA disk of the TS-101. Both units provide USB Disk settings for USB drive formatting and summary information, while the USB Printer menu simply shows a brief status window and offers the option to clear the print spooler.
