This is not the first time that we have seen QNAP introduce this 9 storage bay chassis and in fact, this is technically the third generation of this style of device from them. Arriving in a frankly incredible compact form (measuring just 18.2 × 22.4 × 22.4cm) this system manages to house a huge amount of storage but is only fractionally larger than their traditional 4-bay NAS series. With increased measures towards cooling featured around the chassis, as well as as a remarkably clean and clear internal bay structure, you can definitely see that a lot of work has gone into the design of this casing.

QTier – The QNP intelligent, multi-layer tiering system that works to optimize your SSD and caching configuration Container Station – much like the VM app, Container station lets you mount and access smaller virtual tools and GUIs, then access them over the network or internet. QTS is the operating system for entry- and mid-level QNAP NAS. WIth Linux and ext4, QTS enables reliable storage for everyone with versatile value-added features and apps, such as snapshots, Plex media servers, and easy access of your personal cloud. System Note: At least 4 GB RAM is required. The maximum number of channels supported varies by NAS model, network configuration, and camera settings. For more information, visit https://www.qnap.com/go/qvr-nas-selector. The label on the front of the device clearly indicates the contents, as well as a number of the hardware and software attributes that this particularly interesting solution from QNAP promises. This is by far the most affordable ZFS solution that the company has produced so far and although it clearly has a business focus, there are a number of presentation elements here that are more familiar to prosumer desktop buyers, more accustomed to the x53D and x73 series previously released.

From the Manufacturer

While the QuTS hero software is laden with advanced features, the learning curve is gentle as it looks and feels very similar to the standard QTS firmware. That said, we spotted one difference right away: our three 14TB Seagate IronWolf NAS HDDs were assembled into a 24TB RAID5 storage pool in five minutes, while the job could have taken a day under QTS. Cloud storage gateways realize hybrid cloud applications by working with the cache space reserved on NAS to ensure low-latency data access to the cloud. Inside the plentiful external box, we find both the NAS and a small box of accessories. These accessories include a first-time setup guide, external PSU, mains power cable, screws and keys for the individual media bays and an ethernet cable for connecting the device to your existing router or switch. All quite standard stuff it has to be said but short of the storage media, it’s everything you’re going to need to set this system up.

The actual number of virtual machine instances may vary by the memory installed on NAS (e.g. 1 VM= 1 thread for 1 vCPU and 1GB memory). Please expend memory if needed. Ventilation throughout the device is taken care of in a few small ways. The storage bays have sufficient spacing around them to allow air to pass over the storage media, internal PCB and heat sinks. There is the large rear fan we will talk about in a bit and there are ventilation holes on one side of the chassis and across a large area of the base. That large cooling fan (measuring 140mm), although almost disproportionate on a system of this scale, is exactly what this triple storage tier system needs and although the RPM can be adjusted by the user, it is recommended that it is left to adjust automatically. It is certainly the biggest single rear cooling fan I have ever seen in a desktop NAS, but understandable nevertheless. Note: The application is available in the App Center and in virtual appliance marketplaces (VMware vSphere ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V).The maximum number of channels supported varies by NAS model, network configuration, and camera settings. For more information, visit https://www.qnap.com/solution/qvr-face/en-us/