🔍 Read the full analysis: Why Our AI Fleet Needed A 6-Bay UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Thorsten Meyer says repeated iCloud sync conflicts created 29 duplicate database dumps and left a server with 2% free disk space, prompting the purchase of a six-bay UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro. The NAS has been delivered but is not installed; its planned backup setup has not passed its acceptance tests, so the article describes a purchase and plan rather than proven results.
Thorsten Meyer says he bought a six-bay UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro after 29 duplicate database-dump files generated through iCloud left one of his servers with just 2% free disk space. The NAS has been delivered and equipped with four hard drives and an NVMe SSD, but it is not connected to his network, so the planned backup system has not yet been tested.
Meyer describes a small operation built around several Macs: one runs the main PostgreSQL database, another serves local AI models, and others handle publishing workflows and tests. He says the immediate storage problem was not a shortage of backup capacity so much as the way copies were managed. Two machines sent database dumps with the same name into an iCloud folder, producing conflict copies instead of a clean, controlled backup set.
The incident happened on September 17. Meyer says the 29 copies nearly filled the database server; on October 29, a separate backup job also timed out while attempting to remove old copies from the iCloud folder. He reports that the NAS was bought with his own money, without sponsorship or an affiliate link. As of November 1, the device has four 16 TB Seagate IronWolf Pro drives and one NVMe SSD, but has not been set up.
The proposed layout puts the hard drives in RAID 6 for backups, with an estimated 32 TB of usable capacity, and reserves the SSD as a separate pool for containers and test databases. Meyer says the plan also includes separate, quota-limited accounts for Mac backups, daily snapshots, and an encrypted offsite copy using restic and Backblaze B2 Object Lock. These are planned safeguards, not confirmed operating features of his installation.
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 reflects a practical risk for small AI and publishing teams: an automated sync can copy accidental changes or duplicate files just as reliably as it copies useful data. Meyer’s account links that problem to a concrete operational consequence, a server close to full capacity, and to a separate timeout during cleanup. A local NAS could provide another destination and make large restores quicker than retrieving them over an internet connection, although that benefit has not yet been measured in this setup.
The planned design also separates storage roles. Meyer says large backups would go to spinning disks, while the SSD would host test workloads that currently occupy space on his laptop. He intends to keep the NAS off direct internet access and not give AI agents administrator credentials. Those choices matter because a centralized storage device can make recovery easier, but it also concentrates data and needs careful access controls and independent copies.
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From Sync Conflicts to NAS Plans
Meyer says the machines held about 6 to 8 TB of data that he considered relevant to current backup needs. Measurements taken October 6 put the main desk computer at about 2.6 TB, the database server at 744 GB, including a 293 GB database, and the model server at 3.2 TB, most of it downloadable AI model files. He also reports recurring kernel panics on the database Mac since August; one incident on August 8 caused about two hours and 15 minutes of database downtime. He says a NAS would not prevent a hardware crash, but could make restoration faster.
Meyer chose the six-bay model over a less expensive four-bay option because he wanted room to add drives without replacing the existing ones. He cites UGREEN’s listed specifications: an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, two 10GbE ports, two M.2 slots, and 8 GB of DDR5 memory expandable to 64 GB. Those are manufacturer specifications; the article does not report independent testing. Meyer says filling all six bays with 16 TB drives in RAID 6 would yield about 64 TB of usable capacity, an estimate based on the planned configuration.
The article invokes the 3-2-1 backup rule: three copies of important data, on two types of media, with one copy offsite. Meyer’s proposed NAS would add an on-site storage destination, while Backblaze B2 would remain the offsite layer. He also cites UGREEN help-center guidance that two-way sync can replicate a deletion from one side to the other, illustrating why he does not treat synchronization as a standalone backup.
“That was the day I stopped treating a sync service as a backup.”
— Thorsten Meyer, ThorstenMeyerAI.com
Installation and Tests Still Pending
The NAS has not been connected to the network, and Meyer says neither acceptance test has run. It is not yet known whether Time Machine backups will work with the planned non-admin account, whether snapshots will remain inaccessible to that account, or how quickly restores will perform. Until testing is complete, the proposed RAID layout and safeguards should be understood as a plan rather than a working system.
Meyer says the existing backups remain on local Time Machine disks on two Macs and an iCloud copy of the nightly database dump. His article does not report a completed migration, a successful restore, measured network speeds, or any operating results from the DXP6800 Pro. It also does not establish whether the device will avoid the earlier file-management problems once configured.
Acceptance Tests Before Rollout
Meyer says the next step is to connect and configure the NAS, then test Time Machine access through a non-admin account and confirm that the account cannot view or delete snapshots. If either test fails, he says he will return the device. If it passes, the proposed rollout would add nightly local backups and an encrypted offsite copy, while keeping disk-heavy tasks scheduled between 20:00 and 06:00 so the drives can remain idle during the workday. He says he plans to report back with results once the system is running.
Key Questions
What prompted the NAS purchase?
Meyer says iCloud created 29 conflict copies of database dumps, leaving a server with 2% free disk space. A later cleanup attempt also timed out while iCloud was busy.
Is the UGREEN NAS already backing up the Macs?
No. As of November 1, the NAS has been delivered and fitted with drives, but Meyer says it is not connected to the network or configured. Current backups still use local Time Machine disks and an iCloud database-dump copy.
How much storage does the planned setup provide?
Meyer estimates about 32 TB usable from four 16 TB drives in RAID 6. He estimates that filling all six bays with 16 TB drives in the same arrangement would provide about 64 TB. These are planned-capacity estimates, not measured results.
What must happen before the NAS is kept?
Meyer says it must pass two tests: Time Machine backups using a non-admin account and snapshots that the account cannot access or delete. He says the NAS will be returned if either test fails.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
