WiFi smart plugs are very useful for turn on and off different appliances in our homethanks to this very interesting functionality, we can program a specific turn on and off time, and we can even monitor power consumption if the socket supports it. However, WiFi smart plugs are one of the worst enemies of NAS serversthen we explain why you should never connect your server to the smart plug.
You should never use a WiFi socket with a NAS
As we have mentioned before, WiFi smart plugs allow us to turn appliances on and off locally or remotely. Yes you connect a NAS server to a smart plug to turn it off and onyou will be making a serious mistake that could cause a loss of data on your server.
There are many users who configure their NAS servers to “power on” as soon as they detect power has been restored through the socket after power failure, in this way, if we turn on the WiFi socket remotely, the NAS will turn on automatically. Doing this absolutely nothing happens, because it is for turn on the NAS (although previously there had to be a power outage for it to turn on by itself).
It serious of connecting the NAS to a socket is the abrupt shutdown of the server, as if you were directly removing power from the equipment. If it has occurred to you to shut down the NAS locally or remotely via a smart plug, you should know that you are at serious risk of irrecoverable data loss, and even physical damage to the components due to such a shutdown.
Below you have all reasons why turning off the NAS with a smart plug is not a good idea:
- If the server is in the middle of rebuilding or checking the RAID disks you have, not only will the process be incomplete, but you could experience data loss, and even the RAID volumes become corrupted and you cannot access them. all the information.
- If the server is doing a SMART process to check the health of the disks, it will be incomplete, and you could have a disk failure and not know it.
- If other users are using the NAS server to copy or move files, there may be data corruption because the operation was not completed properly.
- You could corrupt the boot of the operating system itself if it is doing administration tasks or automatic updates.
- The server could suffer physical damage due to continuous power outages, having a sporadic outage because the power goes out can bear it, but it is not prepared to do so day after day.
For a NAS server to have an abrupt shutdown, such as when we have a power outage, is something serious, but it is something that is not within our reach. For this reason, it is highly recommended to install a UPS system (Uninterruptible Power Supply), so that we never run out of power supply, and if it fails, program the NAS to shut down automatically safely: closing all processes and shutting down the operating system.
How to turn it on and off safely
All the operating systems of the NAS servers of brands such as QNAP, Synology or ASUSTOR, among many others, have a system to turn the NAS server on and off automatically based on a schedule. For example, if you are not going to use your NAS at night from 00:00 to 08:00, you could schedule it to turn on and off at these times, and you would not have to use a smart plug that cuts off the electricity supply to the equipment and could cause loss of data, and even damage the device itself.
If you have fixed schedules, you could always use the scheduler of the operating systems that are quite configurable. Besides, you could also turn on your NAS server at any time thanks to the function of Wake On LAN that we have available, even from the Internet using a VPN server on your router.
In short, turning your NAS on and off using a smart plug is anything but “smart”, you should never do this to avoid data loss, and even damage to the NAS.
