Picked this up last September. This is my remote backup server that lives at a "remote site". Never even booted the stock OS, added 2x 16gb sticks of Ram, 2x 512 GB SSDs, 2x 10TB Hard Drives and installed TrueNAS Scale and tailscale. I also added Jellyfin, and the usual Arr media apps. Set this up for the people that are kind enough to host my remote server to give them their own media server. Has been running absolutely flawlessly for 9 months without so much as a hiccup.
Sorry for the late question. But do you reckon if all I'm planning on using is plex as a media server, TOS will be adequate. I'm not that tech savvy for installing TrueNas etc.
I ditched TOS and installed trunas on an nvme in my TerraMaster F4-423 and it works fine. I bought mine for the hardware and always intended to install trunas from the start on one of the nvme drive and install 32gb ram. I admit i am pretty much a noob and youtube videos has been alot of help, trunas has been excellent on my system, the only issues have those i created myself. The Terramaster F2-423 also has 2 x nvme drives inside next to the empty so-dimm slot just like the F4-423. I assume you updated to TOS 5.1 if not this may resolve the issues you are having then again maybe not, thnk you for the video it was good of you to leave in the mistake with the sas drives both for the amusement and education value. Take care, God bless one and all.
Hey, it is what it is man. Gotta be criticisized to improve, and I think you laid out a great roadmap for improvement for this device. Hopefully they'll listen to you.
The software is perfectly adequate for checking out if the nas sees you disks and connects to the network before you reformat it with debian, omw or proxmox.
So glad to see i´m not the only one with those problems. Got the f4 423 for review and its not better either. And they require you to buy Terramaster branded Ram, if you use TOS only. Their´s is not cheap.
I'd be interested to see what you think with other software on there. But by then for a 2 drive unit (and at that price) you kind of have to ask why I guess. What I do like about Terramaster is you can easily upgrade hardware and swap OS on them. As others have mentioned TruenNas ftw.
Throw 32GB of RAM in it and slap TrueNAS, Proxmox, or UNRAID on it (preferably test all 3 because I want you to suffer) and see how the hardware performs.
One of the few redeeming features of these TerraMaster units is that they are not nearly as locked down as their competitors systems. I even recall seeing someone running Windows Server on one.
I agree. I was seduced by the price and admittedly I don't have any knowledge of NAS in's and out's. I bought it primarily to host a Plex server. The trouble for me started when I decided to backup to a USB drive so I can physically protect the backup at another location. It took me 6 whole weeks to accomplish a simple folder backup. Their software is horrendous. I used USB Copy app and waited days at the recommendation of their help desk all to no avail. I don't understand how they can release a backup software that has NO INDICATION of its progress. All I got was "Backup is active" - that's it. 6 weeks and two new external Hard drives later I solved the problem by simply purchasing a Mac backup software and mounting the drives on my MacBook. That took a few days but at least now I have my backup done. Frustrating that simple and basic software design principles aren't being used. Sorely lacking in both documentation and usability.
On the intel versions you can actually distro hop on them. I have a couple of the 5 bay versions and I run redhat on them. Just open the unit up, the root drive is just a standard usb flash drive. The worst part about them is the software, TOS their OS has way too many critical CVEs that were solved by every other Linux distro.
The 'excuse' I always see people mention when I complain how overpriced these things are is: 'but you're paying for the software'. If you're putting your own OS on it then it's just a rip off IMHO.
@@repatch43 Not really. You are getting a somewhat decent hardware bundle for the price - PARTICULARLY when you compare to the weakest bottom of the barrel ARM CPUs that other vendors put in devices in that same price range - that comes with 4GB of RAM by default (plus it is expandable!) in a nice NAS case that has link aggregation with 2 x 2.5Gb Ethernet, actually CAN transcode 4K video comfortably and consumes little energy. And even though Synology software is pretty nice, I'd rather use OSS alternatives and not trade a software lock-in for another so I'd always replace the vendor software with the likes of Jellyfin, PhotoPrism, SyncThing, Navidrome, Tailscale, etc. anyway. Terramaster TOS is very immature indeed but it can be easily replaced by any other NAS OS such as TrueNAS, unRAID or OMV so I think it is actually a MUCH better deal than getting, say, a Synology DS220j for the same price.
@@RogerioPereiradaSilva77 The main reason to prefer buying these is that their really energy efficient devices. You can get more for cheaper using consumer gear but you lose the efficiency tradeoff.
the only instructions included in the box is a literal picture showing taking the sides off. this guy: too hard to read. proceeds to use wrong harddrives. blames system. "this nas needs some work" nah bro, you need some work.
It's confusing that installing SAS drives would hang the thing, it should still boot and give you some message stating "you were a dumb dumb". I still consider this a bug IMHO.
Some of us would kill for a SAS NAS. (say that fast). Having to use HBAs and full PCS is a pain. Would it cost more, yes. As the NAS would need a SAS controller. Even inthe enterprise space, these things are effectively none existent.
Hahahaha, I returned one almost 1 year ago after facing almost the same issue, No VM options, Docker failed as there i no log access and no way to use ssh. It is a very basic samba file sharing for a very high cost. Happy that you have sad what you really felt.
I’ve had one for a year or two. When I use it for basic samba shares it’s fine. Had issues with it when using it to mount nfs to docker containers. I’ve also had this thing completely crash once and it is currently exploding saying it’s out of space even though there’s a couple of TB of space. I think I’ll be trying another os on it.
Doesn't excuse the software being crap but is there a way to get ssh access to the device? I wonder how much of the rsync and docker stuff would work better through the console.
This is an excellent device for the price with 32GB ram, 2x 2TB NVMe (mirrored Proxmox) and 2x 2TB SSD (for Ceph) in an all-flash cluster. Can't wait for the next-gen upgraded model (with an N300 CPU?).
That the software is garbage leads next to the question as to whether this company has sufficient resources to improve it. Or even stay in business. According to Wikipedia, this Chinese company has been in business since 2010 but only has 200 employees. Apparently this device should be considered as a hardware-only solution. I also wonder what if the device and company go belly up. What file systems does it use (i.e. EXT4?) and would the drives be recoverable in another device?
Terramaster has left a bad taste in my mouth since mine crashed. Seems they "tried" to update things but still falls way short of expectations againsts more expensive NAS units.
Honestly I have a hard time trusting my credentials on a device like this. If basic core functionality isn't there, then you know they're not paying proper attention to vulnerabilities and security best practices. I'd put it in the same camp as GL.iNet: great hardware, but you need to nuke it and put a trusted firmware/OS on it straight away. Something like this isn't aimed at the masses anyway, it's aimed at nerds like us. They should just save the development resources, reduce costs a bit, and just provide blank hardware.
build an ai monster machine - you will need a 16gb cuda card but try to be innovative and employ some real time ai and scraping and event collation - this would garber some views - lots of sw articles and videos out now but not much for the hw side - you could do it on a cluster too but would need the gpus - doing it on a ws would be more than adequate - bonux is you get in house ai that is real time and 90% of gpt with no censorship or limits - that is where things are going - open source ai #no moats
The software (apps), are terrible. They are slow as Fc updating them. I use mine as a traditional nas with no other apps runnng (apart from the photo ai app). I have been waiting ages for the terrasync app, its in beta at the moment but updates take forever
Terramaster software is garbage i cant get kidi or dlna tv software to find it can map on pc and thats l i can do might return to amazon or sell at a loss and no guides. Might undtall ubunti instead. Noticed ur netwirk cable wadnt conbect i selected the next connected option and tv still wont fibd nasvir kodi. If i msp network drives i can use kodi but should work under ntfsije synology and qnap does
"SAS AF" that had me cracking up lmfao
Picked this up last September. This is my remote backup server that lives at a "remote site". Never even booted the stock OS, added 2x 16gb sticks of Ram, 2x 512 GB SSDs, 2x 10TB Hard Drives and installed TrueNAS Scale and tailscale. I also added Jellyfin, and the usual Arr media apps. Set this up for the people that are kind enough to host my remote server to give them their own media server.
Has been running absolutely flawlessly for 9 months without so much as a hiccup.
Sorry for the late question. But do you reckon if all I'm planning on using is plex as a media server, TOS will be adequate. I'm not that tech savvy for installing TrueNas etc.
What ram did you use? I have 8gb in mine.
I ditched TOS and installed trunas on an nvme in my TerraMaster F4-423 and it works fine. I bought mine for the hardware and always intended to install trunas from the start on one of the nvme drive and install 32gb ram. I admit i am pretty much a noob and youtube videos has been alot of help, trunas has been excellent on my system, the only issues have those i created myself. The Terramaster F2-423 also has 2 x nvme drives inside next to the empty so-dimm slot just like the F4-423. I assume you updated to TOS 5.1 if not this may resolve the issues you are having then again maybe not, thnk you for the video it was good of you to leave in the mistake with the sas drives both for the amusement and education value. Take care, God bless one and all.
The "tool-less" part got me, your channel is highly underrated BTW! Love your stuff man!
Hey, it is what it is man. Gotta be criticisized to improve, and I think you laid out a great roadmap for improvement for this device. Hopefully they'll listen to you.
I think some others have covered this... but it is really common for people to flash these with truenas or open media vault.
The software is perfectly adequate for checking out if the nas sees you disks and connects to the network before you reformat it with debian, omw or proxmox.
So glad to see i´m not the only one with those problems. Got the f4 423 for review and its not better either. And they require you to buy Terramaster branded Ram, if you use TOS only. Their´s is not cheap.
No, u can install free market good brands ddr4 sodimm ram. I did, installed Kingston 2x16g cl20 3200 Mhz.
I'd be interested to see what you think with other software on there. But by then for a 2 drive unit (and at that price) you kind of have to ask why I guess. What I do like about Terramaster is you can easily upgrade hardware and swap OS on them. As others have mentioned TruenNas ftw.
I vote for trying truenas or unraid, for science
Throw 32GB of RAM in it and slap TrueNAS, Proxmox, or UNRAID on it (preferably test all 3 because I want you to suffer) and see how the hardware performs.
One of the few redeeming features of these TerraMaster units is that they are not nearly as locked down as their competitors systems. I even recall seeing someone running Windows Server on one.
Already waiting for the truenas installation video
I agree. I was seduced by the price and admittedly I don't have any knowledge of NAS in's and out's. I bought it primarily to host a Plex server. The trouble for me started when I decided to backup to a USB drive so I can physically protect the backup at another location. It took me 6 whole weeks to accomplish a simple folder backup. Their software is horrendous. I used USB Copy app and waited days at the recommendation of their help desk all to no avail. I don't understand how they can release a backup software that has NO INDICATION of its progress. All I got was "Backup is active" - that's it. 6 weeks and two new external Hard drives later I solved the problem by simply purchasing a Mac backup software and mounting the drives on my MacBook. That took a few days but at least now I have my backup done. Frustrating that simple and basic software design principles aren't being used. Sorely lacking in both documentation and usability.
Dont ever comment. Just want your channel to grow. ❤
On the intel versions you can actually distro hop on them. I have a couple of the 5 bay versions and I run redhat on them. Just open the unit up, the root drive is just a standard usb flash drive.
The worst part about them is the software, TOS their OS has way too many critical CVEs that were solved by every other Linux distro.
Maybe I should throw readhat on a VM and get to know it... I'm facing bugs on both Debian-based distro as well as Arch
The 'excuse' I always see people mention when I complain how overpriced these things are is: 'but you're paying for the software'. If you're putting your own OS on it then it's just a rip off IMHO.
@@repatch43 Not really. You are getting a somewhat decent hardware bundle for the price - PARTICULARLY when you compare to the weakest bottom of the barrel ARM CPUs that other vendors put in devices in that same price range - that comes with 4GB of RAM by default (plus it is expandable!) in a nice NAS case that has link aggregation with 2 x 2.5Gb Ethernet, actually CAN transcode 4K video comfortably and consumes little energy. And even though Synology software is pretty nice, I'd rather use OSS alternatives and not trade a software lock-in for another so I'd always replace the vendor software with the likes of Jellyfin, PhotoPrism, SyncThing, Navidrome, Tailscale, etc. anyway. Terramaster TOS is very immature indeed but it can be easily replaced by any other NAS OS such as TrueNAS, unRAID or OMV so I think it is actually a MUCH better deal than getting, say, a Synology DS220j for the same price.
@@RogerioPereiradaSilva77 The main reason to prefer buying these is that their really energy efficient devices. You can get more for cheaper using consumer gear but you lose the efficiency tradeoff.
the only instructions included in the box is a literal picture showing taking the sides off.
this guy: too hard to read.
proceeds to use wrong harddrives. blames system.
"this nas needs some work"
nah bro, you need some work.
I said the hardware is good you dipshit. The software is what needs work. Fkn anime avatars bro…
@@RaidOwlreading this comment, initiated auto never watch related yt videos anymore.
@@williamlau7179 oh no!!! anyway...
@@RaidOwl like yr video. Keeping it up... 💯
It's confusing that installing SAS drives would hang the thing, it should still boot and give you some message stating "you were a dumb dumb". I still consider this a bug IMHO.
Some of us would kill for a SAS NAS. (say that fast). Having to use HBAs and full PCS is a pain. Would it cost more, yes. As the NAS would need a SAS controller. Even inthe enterprise space, these things are effectively none existent.
I'd likely have tried installing TrueNAS on it seeing as it's just an Intel box and has HDMI.
Tune in next time on Dragon Ball Z!
Hahahaha, I returned one almost 1 year ago after facing almost the same issue, No VM options, Docker failed as there i no log access and no way to use ssh. It is a very basic samba file sharing for a very high cost. Happy that you have sad what you really felt.
I’ve had one for a year or two. When I use it for basic samba shares it’s fine. Had issues with it when using it to mount nfs to docker containers. I’ve also had this thing completely crash once and it is currently exploding saying it’s out of space even though there’s a couple of TB of space. I think I’ll be trying another os on it.
We’ll check out my newest vid 😉
@@RaidOwl please be an episode where you announce a risqué charity calendar of tech tubers. It’s what your audience deserves.
Doesn't excuse the software being crap but is there a way to get ssh access to the device? I wonder how much of the rsync and docker stuff would work better through the console.
This is an excellent device for the price with 32GB ram, 2x 2TB NVMe (mirrored Proxmox) and 2x 2TB SSD (for Ceph) in an all-flash cluster. Can't wait for the next-gen upgraded model (with an N300 CPU?).
the n300 is a beast!
@@mdd1963 Still only single channel ram though. Not the end of the world.
upgrade to TrueNAS....do it...do eeeeeeet!!!!!
When you're SAS AF 😂
But we've all been there!
Totally agree with, Im so unhappy with this device. The DDNS experience with me is horrible. For me i can’t recommend to others
So what the HDMI port is all about ?
Shoots lasers
SAS AF, that was perfect :DD
Upgrade memory, swap in truenas. Problem solved :)
That the software is garbage leads next to the question as to whether this company has sufficient resources to improve it. Or even stay in business. According to Wikipedia, this Chinese company has been in business since 2010 but only has 200 employees. Apparently this device should be considered as a hardware-only solution. I also wonder what if the device and company go belly up. What file systems does it use (i.e. EXT4?) and would the drives be recoverable in another device?
given the reference to snapshots, clearly brtfs is in there somewhere as well...
Has the software improved since this video. Im thinking of getting their 424 pro that just came out. But this video gives me pause.
I don’t believe so
TRUENAS and UNRAID Installation videos please O:)
terrmaster PR going bonkers lmao
🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
SAS or Not to SAS that is the question
🤔🤔🤔
Terramaster has left a bad taste in my mouth since mine crashed. Seems they "tried" to update things but still falls way short of expectations againsts more expensive NAS units.
SAS as BEEP :)
Bro is that a Weezer Tshirt??
Honestly I have a hard time trusting my credentials on a device like this. If basic core functionality isn't there, then you know they're not paying proper attention to vulnerabilities and security best practices. I'd put it in the same camp as GL.iNet: great hardware, but you need to nuke it and put a trusted firmware/OS on it straight away.
Something like this isn't aimed at the masses anyway, it's aimed at nerds like us. They should just save the development resources, reduce costs a bit, and just provide blank hardware.
What a shame
It be like that sometimes
SAS AF *BEEP* :D
User error.
Impossible
build an ai monster machine - you will need a 16gb cuda card but try to be innovative and employ some real time ai and scraping and event collation - this would garber some views - lots of sw articles and videos out now but not much for the hw side - you could do it on a cluster too but would need the gpus - doing it on a ws would be more than adequate - bonux is you get in house ai that is real time and 90% of gpt with no censorship or limits - that is where things are going - open source ai #no moats
The software (apps), are terrible.
They are slow as Fc updating them.
I use mine as a traditional nas with no other apps runnng (apart from the photo ai app).
I have been waiting ages for the terrasync app, its in beta at the moment but updates take forever
First 10 Mins!
Terramaster software is garbage i cant get kidi or dlna tv software to find it can map on pc and thats l i can do might return to amazon or sell at a loss and no guides. Might undtall ubunti instead. Noticed ur netwirk cable wadnt conbect i selected the next connected option and tv still wont fibd nasvir kodi. If i msp network drives i can use kodi but should work under ntfsije synology and qnap does
Just out my latest video where I put TrueNAS on it ;)
That little gadget looks like it sucks.....