Orientation when starting with the DXP4800 Plus (RAID, encryption, Docker & backups)

TrueNAS General
, , , ,
1

Hello everyone,

I would very much like to use your great system. I have already familiarized myself with a lot of things, but I would like to set everything up correctly and as advantageously as possible right from the start. Can you help me with a few points?

Hardware
- UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus
- 4 × 20 TB Toshiba MG10 Series (MG10ACA20TE)
- 2 × Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD, 2 TB
- 2 × 32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM (for DXP4800 Plus)

Goals & questions

  1. Storage & encryption
    I am planning a RAID 5 and then I would like to encrypt it. I have read that you should not encrypt the entire hard disk, but the data/user level. Is that correct? Is this the recommended way - and is it just as secure?

  2. docker apps
    I would like to run Immich, Paperless (ngx), Pi-hole, Home Assistant, Plex, etc., among others. Do you have any best practices or official guides/examples (e.g. folder structure, volumes, updates, backup of container data) specifically for the DXP4800 Plus?

  3. file sync for the family (macOS)
    I am looking for a solution that reliably keeps desktop, documents and downloads synchronized on all Apple Macs - similar to Synology Drive. I have already read about Seafile. Do you recommend Seafile on macOS in combination with your NAS, or are there alternative solutions that you prefer?

  4. nightly mirroring to a second NAS
    I would like to set up an automatic backup/sync to another NAS at night. I don’t need versioning - it should be a 1:1 mirroring.

  5. operating system on NVMe SSD
    I have heard that you can swap the OS to the existing NVMe SSD so that no USB stick is required. Is there an official step-by-step guide for this?

If possible, an answer in German would help me a lot. Thank you very much for your support. =)

2

Nothing about anything you’re wanting to do is unique to the UGREEN, except for the system device. I presume you can, like you can on my 6800, replace the 128 GB boot NVMe with another one, which I did in the unlikely event I ever want to boot UGREEN’s OS. Put in a new one–that much is documented in their manual, boot from the TrueNAS installer, and install TrueNAS to it. But no, there’s no official (or even unofficial, AFAIK) guide to installing TrueNAS on any UGREEN NAS.

Encryption is a good way to lose data, even if less so than it once was.

1 Like
3

ZFS native encryption doesn’t deal with physical drives, partitions, block devices, or pools. The only things that are encrypted are datasets. The “root dataset” (same name as the pool) is also a dataset. It’s recommended to leave this unencrypted. You can encrypt child datasets underneath.

This flowchart helps to understand how this works. The pool (cylinder) is not involved. The root dataset “tank” is unencrypted. The datasets underneath can be “encryptionroots”. Maybe “zroot1” is encrypted, while “zroot2” and “zroot3” are unencrypted? It’s your choice what you want to do.

Sometimes you need to deny yourself access to your own data. Jekyll must not know what Hyde is up to.

1 Like