Article: Review | Running a Large Roon Library on a QNAP TVS-872XT

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, udis said:

Do they share a volume or is each on a separate static volume. Sorry if I am missing something obvious. 

The way I used them, they don’t share a volume because there is no need. Just straight up one drive one volume. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, udis said:

Got it! And the backup designation is set in Roon and not a job you’ve created in a QNAP backup app?

Exactly. 
 

Some things don’t need to be complicated :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, strat95 said:

Chris,

 

The Qnap unit you reviewed gives one the option to also install a video card.  Would doing so make it more responsive when pushing the limits in the way you are using it?

 

There is also another more expensive qnap series, the TVS-1282 that comes with an Intel i7 processor.

The video card would only add more heat to this unit and no benefit because no audio apps running on the QNAP can use GPU offload. 
 

The NAS with i7 May be better but I didn’t really max out the i5. Make sure the generation of the processor and the specs are better, not just the number 5 vs. 7. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

26 minutes ago, strat95 said:

 

So adding a video card in the Qnap is far different than adding a better video card in a PC like the CAPS 20?  The Qnap can't use the video card for any of the DSP functions?

 

 

100% correct. 
 

App developers could change their apps to work with video cards in a QNAP, but as of now it won’t help. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, strat95 said:

Would running a Windows virtual machine on the qnap change that dynamic?

Possibly. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, LarryMagoo said:

With only 8760 total hours in a year, I simply cannot understand having 22,000 Albums.....but hell why does everything have to make sense...???

I love music. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, emmany said:

I just stumbled upon this forum , quite an interesting one .  I’m a bit of a music aficionado myself . I have quite a large Roon library which has been growing perpetually for many years .

 

Tracks : 513,709
Artists :  7768
Albums :  41,199  
Composers : 682

 

 

 

19 TB  in total , a mix of FLAC , ALAC & DSD . The Roon core is hosted on a Dual xeon workstation  ( 70 TB HDD  with the Roon core library running on a seperate SSD , 128 GB RAM , Nvidia GTX 1660 for Plex Transcoding  ) .

All the Networking is through Unifi setup and Roon runs on a seperate vLAN . I also stream Roon remotely via 4G etc , through LT2P VPN .

 

The workstation also runs a Plex server , 2 VM’s , couple of Docker containers and few other miscellaneous apps . The Workstation is configured to RAID 0 and is backed up to another older workstation onsite using ’Syncthing’ . There is a third backup  ‘offsite ‘ , backed up via Syncthing  too ( No.. I’m not paranoid …lol ) .

 

I can see there are so many music connoisseurs here , who are quite fastidious about setup and its  just wonderful to read about their experiences and suggestions . keep on keeping on ! . Cheers . Emmany

 

Love it Emmany!

 

How long does it take Roon to start up when you need to restart it?

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, EvilTed said:

QNAP now supports ZFS on newer devices.

 

The backplane of my TVS-873 started giving problems after 4 years of continuous use and it would cost $600 to repair, so I opted to replace with the new TS-873a. This supports ZFS. Got a couple of the original (fast) Samsung EVO 970 512 GB M2 NVMe SSDs for $150 on sale on Amazon and put 64GB of ECC server memory in it.

The TS-873a also has extended warranty to 5 years for $200, which one can add up to 9 months after purchase. 

 

I have everything restored on ZFS with triple disk redundancy.

ZFS gives faster and more efficient snapshots and array rebuild times in minutes instead of hours.

The TS-873A also has USB 3.2 gen 2 ports, so hooking up a drive to an external docking station that supports this faster protocol gives an easy way to back up and remove the disc and hide somewhere.
 

 

I just converted my TVS-872XT to QuTS Hero with ZFS. So far so good. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

22 minutes ago, JohnDonaldson said:

@The Computer AudiophileAre you still running your Roon Core on the TVS-872XT or have you found a better solution?

Hi John, no. 

 

Given the size of my library, it just stopped making sense to run Roon directly on the QNAP. The convenience was nice, but it was time to use the right tool for the job. I'm back to using a Roon Rock, but am also reevaluating that becuase my Rock is from 2017 when I wrote this article https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/ca-academy/the-definitive-guide-to-roon-optimized-core-kit-rock-r652/

 

I helped a friend transition from Roon on the QNAP to a new Rock with 8TB internal SSD. It's a very solid solution if one's library will fit on the internal drive. 

 

My use of Roon has really curtailed lately, so a better solution isn't an immediate need. I used it once in the last month. That said, I'm always trying different things because I want to know and understand them, and will likely use Roon more in the future as it adds features. 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Can I assume that there is no seamless migration of the data from one OS to the other but that one has to actually reload it from a back-up?

I believe that's what I did. But, I really don't remember.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, Kal Rubinson said:

I am glad that you do not remember because the process seems daunting:

 

Thanks Kal, you've jogged my memory :~(

 

I vaguely remember copying all my data to another device, and reinitializing the QNAP, the copying it back. Not hard to do, just took a long time :~)