🔍 Read the full analysis: Setting Up Our AI Fleet’s 6-Bay UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Thorsten Meyer says he bought a UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro after duplicate iCloud backup files nearly filled a database server. The NAS has been fitted with four 16 TB drives and an NVMe SSD, but it is not yet connected or configured; the proposed backup layout and safeguards remain untested.
Thorsten Meyer says he has bought and equipped a six-bay UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro after duplicate files in an iCloud backup folder left a database server with just 2% free disk space. The NAS is not yet connected to his network, and its planned backup and snapshot safeguards have not been tested, so the purchase is a deployment plan rather than a proven replacement for the current system.
Meyer reported that two machines uploaded database dumps with the same name to one iCloud folder on September 17. The resulting sync conflicts produced 29 duplicate copies, nearly filling the server. He also described a separate backup-management failure on October 29, when a nightly job timed out while trying to delete old copies as iCloud was busy. The backup file itself was intact, he wrote, but managing the copies had stalled.
The equipment he has bought includes the DXP6800 Pro, four Seagate IronWolf Pro 16 TB hard drives and one NVMe SSD. Meyer proposes putting the four hard drives in RAID 6, which he estimates would provide about 32 TB of usable space and tolerate the failure of two drives. The SSD would be a separate storage pool for containers and test databases. These are planned settings, not results from an operating NAS.
The article says the unit had been delivered and equipped as of November 1, but remained off the network. The existing arrangement was still in place: local Time Machine disks on two Macs and an iCloud copy of a nightly database dump. Meyer says he will proceed only if two acceptance tests pass: Time Machine must work with a non-admin account, and snapshots must remain inaccessible to that account.
Infographic 01 · The box
Six bays, two fast slots, two 10GbE ports
What UGREEN lists for the NASync DXP6800 Pro, and how we plan to fill it.
How we fill it
Delivered and equipped; the setup is our plan (1 Nov 2026)
Bays 1–4: Seagate IronWolf Pro 16 TB, RAID 6, Btrfs → ≈ 32 TB usable, any two drives may fail. Bays 5–6: free for growth. M.2 slot 1: the NVMe SSD (ordered: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB) as its own fast pool. Slot 2: free. Six 16 TB drives in RAID 6 would give ≈ 64 TB.
What else UGREEN lists
From the product page, not measured by us
- Separate 128 GB SSD for the operating system, UGOS
- RAID: JBOD, Basic, 0, 1, 5, 6, 10
- 1× PCIe x4 · 2× Thunderbolt 4 · 8K HDMI · SD card reader
- Power: 43.07 W drives in use · 24.91 W drives in hibernation
- Stated maximum: 208 TB with 32 TB drives · 3-year warranty
Why six bays: with RAID 6, two drives always hold parity. In four bays that leaves half the raw space usable; with all six bays filled it becomes two thirds.
Sources: UGREEN DXP6800 Pro product page, checked 1 Nov 2026; Seagate IronWolf Pro data sheet DS2129.4; our setup plan, 6 Oct 2026.
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A Local Copy for Faster Recovery
The purchase addresses a specific weakness in a small operation running several Macs for publishing, databases, local AI models and testing: syncing files is not the same as preserving recoverable backups. In Meyer’s account, iCloud copied conflicting files repeatedly, while cleanup later timed out. A local NAS could provide a separate destination on the office network, giving the team another recovery path without waiting for a large restore over its internet connection.
The consequences are practical, not yet measured. Meyer says a database server has suffered recurring kernel panics since August; one crash on August 8 caused about 2¼ hours of database downtime. A NAS cannot prevent hardware or operating-system failures, but a local copy could shorten restoration time if it is working and the backup is usable. The proposed snapshots and offsite copy are intended to address different risks, including accidental changes and loss of the office equipment.
The planned storage also moves test databases off Meyer’s laptop, where a Docker virtual disk had grown to about 30 GB. The author frames the purchase as both a backup change and a way to separate test workloads from a work machine. Whether it reduces noise, improves recovery times or operates reliably has not yet been established.
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How the Backup Plan Developed
Meyer describes the operation as a handful of Macs rather than a data center. Measurements taken October 6 put storage use at about 2.6 TB on the main desk machine, 744 GB on the database server—including a database of about 293 GB—and 3.2 TB on the model server, most of which Meyer says consists of models that can be downloaded again. He estimates the current backup requirement at 6 to 8 TB.
The NAS choice followed the September disk-space incident and the October backup timeout. Meyer says he selected the six-bay model over a cheaper four-bay option because it leaves room to add drives without replacing the existing ones. UGREEN’s published specifications, cited in his article, list six SATA bays, two M.2 slots, a 10-core Intel Core i5-1235U, two 10GbE ports and 8 GB of DDR5 memory expandable to 64 GB. Those are manufacturer specifications; the NAS’s performance in Meyer’s setup has not been tested.
Meyer also cites the 3-2-1 backup approach: retain three copies of important data, use two types of storage media and keep one copy offsite. His proposed arrangement would use the NAS as a local destination alongside existing Mac backups, with an encrypted offsite copy sent through restic to Backblaze B2. The article says the offsite copy would use Object Lock to prevent deletion, but that arrangement is also still a plan.
“That was the day I stopped treating a sync service as a backup.”
— Thorsten Meyer, in the November 1 article
Deployment Tests Still Pending
The main uncertainty is whether the proposed setup will work as intended. Meyer says the NAS has not been connected to the network, and neither acceptance test has run. There are no reported results yet for Time Machine backups, snapshot isolation, restore speed, RAID operation, noise levels or day-to-day reliability.
The article also does not report a completed offsite backup or a restore test from Backblaze B2. The stated 32 TB usable capacity is an estimate for the planned four-drive RAID 6 layout, not measured capacity after setup. Nor does the purchase establish that the NAS will prevent future database downtime: Meyer explicitly says it cannot stop a machine crash. The timing of installation and the outcome of the two tests remain unclear.
Pass the Two Acceptance Tests
Meyer says the next step is to connect and configure the NAS, then test Time Machine using a non-admin account and confirm that account cannot access or delete snapshots. He has said the hardware will be returned if either test fails. Until those checks are complete, the current backups on two Macs and the iCloud database-dump copy remain in use.
After testing, the planned workflow would place backups on the NAS, schedule disk-heavy activity between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and create an encrypted offsite copy with restic to Backblaze B2. Meyer says he intends to report real results after the system runs. No rollout date or test results were available in the article published November 1.
Key Questions
Is the UGREEN NAS already backing up the Macs?
No. Meyer says that as of November 1, 2026, the NAS had been delivered and fitted with drives but was not yet on the network. The existing backups were still running through local Time Machine disks and an iCloud database-dump copy.
What storage setup does Meyer plan to use?
He plans to use four 16 TB hard drives in RAID 6, with an estimated 32 TB usable, and a separate NVMe SSD pool for containers and test databases. That configuration has not yet been tested in operation.
Why did duplicate files cause a problem?
Meyer says two machines uploaded database dumps with the same filename to one iCloud folder. iCloud created 29 conflict copies, leaving the database server with 2% free space. A later cleanup attempt timed out while iCloud was busy.
What must happen before the NAS is kept?
Meyer says it must pass two checks: Time Machine must work with a non-admin account, and snapshots must remain out of reach of that account. He says the NAS will be returned if either test fails.
Will the NAS replace offsite backups?
No such replacement is described. Meyer’s plan is to use the NAS for local storage and add an encrypted offsite copy through restic to Backblaze B2. That offsite workflow has not yet been deployed or tested.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
