QNAP’s New NAS - Storage Expansion, Container Support, and 10 GbE

[Julio Urquidi]

The 5-bay TS-531X NAS is available in two business serving models differing on the amount of upgradeable DDR3 memory (up to 16 GBs) each has; the TS-531X-2G with 2 GB, and the TS-531X-8G with 8 GB. Both models are powered by Annapurna Labs’ Alpine AL-314 quad-core 1.4 GHz processor and includes two 10 GbE SFP+ ports, two GbE RJ45 ports, one PCIe Gen2 slot, and three USB 3.0 ports.

TS-531X NAS products’ features set includes business applications that SMBs may need, starting with container support via Container Station. Businesses can now use their QNAP NAS to quickly deploy and manage containerized applications. Next, the TS-531X NAS models support VJBOD, allowing businesses to expand their storage architecture by using other QNAP NAS or expansion enclosures to create large pools of disks space. Lastly, TS-531X NAS include hardware-accelerated encryption, protecting user data stored on the NAS' drives.

Other baked-in features include a full-text search engine, centralized email and contact management, and support for LDAP/Active directory.

The QNAP TS-531X NAS models are available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

 

[Threska49]

I wonder has containers gotten to the "app store" level of ease-of-use and convenience? Usually some command-line level of guru is needed.

 

[sfx2000]

I wonder has containers gotten to the "app store" level of ease-of-use and convenience? Usually some command-line level of guru is needed.

It's not bad - one can get into the wires, but they've got a good front end with some pre-made images - and one has the flexibility to create their own.

Container Station has it's own "store" compared to the traditional package oriented "App Center".

(Linux Station, FWIW, is an Ubuntu 16.04 full userland running as a container...)

 

[sfx2000]

QTS has been evolving very fast - might be a time to do a write up on the changes...