Introduction and storage
Once all about sharing data, Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances have slowly grown in capability and come to resemble general purpose servers, particularly those at the higher end of the scale. The 12-bay QNAP TVS-1271U-RP we are reviewing here is part of a wider family of appliances for desktop as well as machine room deployment but, in this case, very much destined for rack mounting and equipped to do a lot more than just share data.
Appearances can often be deceptive but the TVS-1271U-RP certainly looks more like a server than a simple storage appliance, housed in a 2U metal chassis with hot-swap redundant power supplies at the back (hence the "RP" in the model number). Each power supply has a fan built-in but the main cooling is handled by a bank of much noisier fans buried deep inside the chassis which you have to power down in order to swap.
Storage, storage, storage
The front panel is dominated by the storage, with 12 hot-swap drive bays to play with, able to accommodate both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch disks using the slide in and lockable carriers provided. A screwdriver is needed to fix the drives in place and capacity is down to the disks employed.
We tested using 4TB WD Red disks designed specifically for NAS use, giving a raw capacity of 48TB when fully populated, but you could use the latest 8TB drives and double that. Moreover, up to eight expansion units can be cabled to the appliance, each holding a further 16 disks, to deliver Petabyte levels of storage for those that need it.
It's also worth noting that SSDs can be used instead of magnetic disks with the option of fitting SSDs in the first four drive bays and using these as a cache to boost conventional disk throughput, albeit only when reading data. Alternatively, and to save on valuable drive bays, it's possible to fit a pair of mSATA storage modules inside the unit and configure these to provide the cache.
Naturally you also need plenty of network bandwidth to access all this storage with four Gigabit Ethernet ports as standard which can be aggregated by the QNAP firmware or assigned to logical VLANs. Additional bandwidth can then be added in the form of industry standard PCI adapters with two PCI slots available to take 10GbE adapters from either Intel or Emulex.
Hardware inside and testing
Of course what's on the inside also matters, with access to the internals of the TVS-1271U-RP provided via a slide-off hatch on the top of the unit. Underneath is a compact motherboard with a single processor socket which, depending on what you want to achieve and how much you can afford, can be an Intel Pentium, Core i3, Core i5 or, as with our review appliance, a Core i7 processor.
In fact the processor in the appliance we tested turned out to be a quad-core, eight thread i7-4709S clocked at 3.2GHz. With built in Intel HD graphics, this isn't quite what you'd expect in a server, but it delivers more than enough motive power for a NAS appliance and with an HDMI port at the back also enables the TVS-1271U-RP to be used as a desktop computer using a package of software options known as QvPC (QNAP virtual PC). This means that, to take an example, this device can act as the main surveillance monitor on a CCTV system or provide limited VDI capabilities.
Selling for £2,118 ex VAT (around $3,300, or AU$4,500) without any disks, the price includes a full 32GB of DDR3 memory filling all four available DIMM slots. The QNAP firmware, called QTS, is also included with no further licensing required for most of the built-in and optional applications including file sharing across multiple platforms with support for Windows, Apple Mac and Linux networks.
Putting it to work
Cloud-based setup is the order of the day using a special Cloud Key printed on a label on the top of the chassis, followed by day-to-day management from a browser which employs a Synology and Windows-like desktop interface.
Using this we were able to create users and configure our storage with all the expected JBOD, RAID and hot sparing options plus the ability to create storage pools for easy management with thin provisioning and the ability to create multiple NAS and iSCSI shares for simultaneous use.
This we found very easy to get to grips with, and for testing we opted for a basic RAID 5 array across four of our WD Red drives. We then used the ATTO benchmark to measure throughput, the QNAP software easily saturating the available Gigabit port bandwidth with data when pushed hard by multiple clients.
File sharing, however, is far from the only trick up the sleeve of the Linux-based QTS software with a host of backup tools included to, for example, put the appliance to use as a large capacity backup store on a small business network. Moreover, a number of optional apps are also available to run on the appliance, some from QNAP while others are either open source or from third-party developers.
These are all easily downloaded and installed with the one we liked the most being a unique application called Virtualization Station that lets you run VMs on the QNAP appliance. This can be further teamed up with the QvPC technology to enable users to run Windows, Linux and even Android applications remotely on the QNAP platform.
Beyond this there are database, content management and even ERP tools – plus lots of media and entertainment apps, which could be confusing as we really don't see the TVS-1271U-RP as a consumer buy.
Verdict
We liked
QNAP hardware is very well-made and inspires confidence. The QTS software is, similarly, very functional and easy to get to grips with, thanks mostly to a Synology-like desktop GUI run in a browser.
Storage is the main reason for buying the product with lots of very usable options here including support for all the leading hypervisors and the ability to synchronise data with cloud storage services. Backup facilities are another plus point, as is the ability to host virtual machines running other operating systems on the QNAP hardware.
We disliked
The fans were very audible, but then this is a rack-mount appliance, more at home in a soundproof machine room than an open plan office. The Core i7 processor is also a little over the top for basic file sharing requirements and buyers can shave a good amount off the price by opting for a Core i5 or i3, and can do so without having much of an effect on perceived performance. We found the Core i3 model ready-filled with disks selling for much the same price as the bare Core i7 model we tested.
We also found the mix of business and consumer applications a little confusing, making it hard to work out just what the appliance was capable of doing and who it was really aimed at.
Final verdict
Well-made and very scalable, the TVS-1271U-RP is a welcome addition to the QNAP NAS family, offering additional server-like features to complement solid file sharing, backup and cloud syncing capabilities. Those server-like options, however, should be viewed as a bonus on top of the core NAS capabilities, with more capable platforms to be had for those specifically looking for that functionality.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1KiZGQX
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