QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Oct 24th, 2009 | By

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QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS


Date
: 10/24/09 – 06:21:53 PM

Author
:

Category
: Storage


Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer
: QNAP Systems, Inc.

Storage devices have recently flooded our labs. QNAP has been one of the industry leaders in expanding storage capacities at every network possible. While I've worked with devices as big as 8 drives, at the start of this year I had the opportunity to review QNAP's TS-209 Pro II Network Attached Storage device. This was a simple two drive NAS for the home or small office.

QNAP logo

The TS-209 Pro II had a few limitations and as the months passed, QNAP released the QNAP TS-219 and the TS-219P. I've skipped over the TS-219 and we're jumping into our review of the TS-219P. The TS-219 is much more similar to the TS-209 but with the TS-219P we have the tower form factor QNAP is so well known for. This has given QNAP to expand and further increase the capability of their devices.

QNAP logo


Page 2 : Package and Contents

The QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS comes in a simple, professional looking package. There isn't any flashy artwork, it's serious business here. QNAP proudly displays a large picture of the unit and covers all sides of the package with features and specifications to educate and convince a potential customer they're making the right choice.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

QNAP leaves no space undecorated, they even print their logo on the top of the box. What I find missing from the package is a simple carrying case. I've seen these on some of the larger (4 drive plus) models and personally think it should be added to every package as it makes carrying the box home or around much easier. With the handle it is less likely you'll drop the package or bump it into something as you try and open a door. However, should that happen, QNAP has you covered as the drive is well protected with two inches of expanded foam surrounding the device.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The only unprotected area in the package would be the accessories box, however not much in their can be damaged. We have a 60W power brick, Cat5e network cable, 14 mounting screws, drive bay lock key, installation guides and an installation CD.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

To further protect the device itself, QNAP has packaged it inside a thick plastic bag. Unwrapping this, we finally have our NAS device. The front end provides access to the two hot-swappable drive cages as well as the power button, copy button, one extra USB port and a series of LEDs to indicate the device's status. On the back end we have a single 70mm cooling fan as well as 2 eSATA ports, 2 additional USB ports, a gigabit LAN port, a reset button, the K-Lock Security Slot and the 12DV power port. The usual warranty and approval labels are also glued onto the back.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The remaining sides of the device are fairly plain. One side has a one inch perforated area for air flow to cool the internal motherboard.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The bottom of the device has four rubberized feet to prevent the device from easily sliding across your table. I found they didn't do a very good job but did minimize the vibration against the table. The top has nothing but a sticker indicating the drive bay order.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Pulling the two drive cages out I was able to take a peek at what was inside. The device is configured with a motherboard and a sister card for connecting the hard drives to. It's difficult to make out any details of what's inside but I can see the Marvell chip tucked away on the motherboard.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS


Page 3 : Features & Specifications

The QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS device isn't geared towards the corporate world but instead for the home and home offices. That means it is built with the hardware and integrated with software features to meet the appropriate price point.

The TS-219P Turbo NAS is the 2-bay network-attached storage server with iSCSI dedicated to the SOHO and home users who need a mass storage center to store and share huge amount of digital data. The NAS supports 2.5′ and 3.5′ SATA hard drives, and is featured with excellent hardware design for storage expansion, outstanding data access performance, high system reliability, and numerous powerful software applications. The TS-219P is the top-class model in the current home and SOHO NAS market.

Let's start with the hardware specifications, followed by the software specifications and features.

Hardware Specifications

hardware specs

hardware specs

Software Specifications

software specs

I'm very pleased to see that QNAP has recognized how Internet Explorer is not the only browser people use. Support of Safari, Firefox and Chrome are small changes that don't affect a product's performance or value but will be appreciated by many.

Features

Superior performance with abundant business features
Adopting Marvell 1.2 GHz CPU and large-sized 512MB DDRII RAM, the TS-219P Turbo NAS maintains superior performance even when there is intensive access to the network services of the server simultaneously. The NAS also supports cross-platform service across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX. Enhanced industry-leading features are also provided, e.g. built-in iSCSI target service, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, policy-based IP blocking, instant SMS alert notification, schedule power on/ off, and 2 IP cameras (optional purchase) for network surveillance.

Maximize the enjoyment of your home multimedia center
The built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) of the Turbo NAS supports a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles and works well with NFS-supported High-Definition (HD) digital media players for HD video streaming. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can access the Turbo NAS on the local network and play the multimedia contents, e.g. videos, music, and photos on the server. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables you to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-219P is the ideal multimedia and storage solutions to enhance your home entertainment experience.

Advanced RAID Management with Hot-swap Design
The Turbo NAS supports RAID 1 Mirroring for non-stop service and easy maintenance. When data crash occurs, the administrator can be alerted by e-mail alarm and LED indication. The hard disk drive can be replaced by hot swapping without turning off the server. The intelligent data rebuilding capability allows users to replace a failed drive by hot-swap. This enables automatic data rebuilding to the new drive without suffering from any system downtime.

Online RAID Capacity Expansion
The storage capacity of a RAID configuration can be expanded by replacing the hard drives with larger ones. All the data will be kept and seamlessly moved to the newly installed hard drives. There is no need to turn off the server during the process.

Online RAID Level Migration
You can upgrade the disk configuration to higher RAID level with the data retained. There is no need to turn off the server during the process.

Virtual Disk Drive (VDD) adds flexibility to storage expansion along with ease of management
The unique ‘Virtual Disk Drive’ adds flexibility to expand the capacity of NAS. By using the built-in iSCSI initiator, the NAS can connect to other iSCSI targets on the network and turn them into virtual disks, which become multiple single volumes on the NAS. Up to 8 virtual disks can be stacked. The NAS serves as the storage stack chaining master. The user only needs to connect to this single entry (QNAP NAS) and is able to reach and use all the iSCSI target storages on the network.

software specs

Flexible Built-in iSCSI Target Service
With the built-in iSCSI target feature, the NAS can be an ideal solution for backup or storage expansion. Small business and SOHO users can easily create dedicated virtual drives (up to 8 iSCSI devices) on the NAS for their PCs or existing servers. The iSCSI drives on the NAS can be formatted as file system and used as local drives.

S.M.A.R.T & Advanced HDD Health Scanning (HHS)
The NAS supports Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) for monitoring the hard drive status. Moreover, the NAS is embedded with HHS Technology which supports disk checking and bad blocks scanning.

software specs

Complete Backup Solution

QNAP Backup Software – NetBak Replicator
The backup software, NetBak Replicator, is provided for the NAS users to perform real-time synchronization or schedule backup from multiple PCs to the NAS.

3rd Party Backup Software Ready
The NAS works well with other backup software, e.g. Acronis True Image, CA BrightStor ARCserve Backup, EMC Retrospect, Symantec Backup Exec, and LaCie Silverkeeper.

Encrypted Remote Replication
The data on the NAS can be backed up to or from another Turbo NAS over the network securely.

One Touch USB Auto Copy
The one touch button can be configured to trigger instant data backup from the external USB device to the NAS or the other way round (applies to the USB device connected to the front USB port of the NAS only).

Cross-platform Data Sharing and Storage Center

Sharing Files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX
The NAS is designed for users to share the files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX environment.

Support Windows AD
The Windows AD feature enables server manager to import user accounts from AD domain to NAS to reduce the time and effort for account setup, and users can use the same set of login name and password.

Web File Manager
The NAS provides Web File Manager for you to easily download, upload, and manage the files on the server by web browser.

Ease of User and Share Folder Management
The NAS supports batch creation of users and share folders to save the time and effort of the server manager in account and folder creation. For the security of Windows network environment, server managers can hide or show network share folders.

Power Management

Hard Disk Standby
You can configure the hard disks to enter standby mode if there is no disk access within the specified period.

Schedule Power on/ off
The flexible schedule power on/off feature is now provided on the NAS for IT administrators to manage the NAS server's up time according to the working hours. You can set the time for automatic system power on, power off, or restart on any days of the week.

Secure data storage, access, and sharing

  • Comprehensive event logs: Detailed logs of file-level data access to the NAS via samba, FTP, AFP, HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, and SSH, and networking services accessed by online users are all recorded.

  • SSL security (HTTPS): The NAS can be accessed and configured by web browser securely.
  • Remote login to the NAS by SSH (secure shell) or Telnet connection is supported.
  • Secure FTP: The data can be transmitted with SSL/TLS (explicit) encryption. Passive FTP port range setup is also supported.
  • Write-only access right on FTP server: The third party partners are allowed to upload data to the NAS but not able to read or edit the data on FTP server.

Policy-based Automatic IP Blocking
To prevent the NAS from malicious attacks, the server manager can create an IP filter policy to allow, deny, or auto-block the IP address or network domain which attempts to connect to the NAS via SSH/ Telnet/ HTTP(S)/ FTP/ samba/ AFP.

Powerful All-in-one Server Features

File Server
You can create the user ID and password, and define the access right and storage quota of each user on the NAS.
FTP Server
You can establish your own FTP server using the NAS and share the files conveniently with others.
Backup Server
The automatic backup software, NetBak Replicator, is provided for you to perform real-time synchronization or schedule backup from multiple PCs to the NAS.
Remote Replication
The data on the NAS can be backed up to or from another Turbo NAS or Rsync server over the network.
Web Server
The NAS supports Joomla!, MySQL, SQLite and editable php.ini.
MySQL Server
The NAS can be flexibly applied in various deployments such as a database server of another web server in remote site or as an additional backup database server.
Printer Server
The NAS supports network printer sharing function (max 3 USB printers).
UPnP Media Server (with built-in TwonkyMedia Server)
The NAS is a perfect media storage center and it works well with DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant media players. You can play the photos and videos on TV, or listen to your favorite music and Internet radio on your Hi-Fi System.
Multimedia Station
You can share you photos, video, or music over the network by the Multimedia Station of the NAS.
Download Station
The NAS supports PC-less BitTorrent, FTP, and HTTP download. TCP/ UDP, encrypted BT download function, and DHT (Distributed Hash Tables) are also supported.
iTunes Server
You can stream the mp3 music on the NAS to the computers on the home network and listen to the music by iTunes over wired or wireless network connection.
Surveillance Station
The Surveillance Station enables you to configure multiple IP-based security cameras simultaneously for real-time monitoring, recording, and playback.
The most comprehensive support for numerous brands of IP cameras
The Surveillance Station of QNAP NAS supports all the leading network camera brands such as AXIS, D-Link, IPUX, LevelOne, Linksys, Panasonic and Vivotek etc. By using particular models, users can use two-way video and audio monitoring and recording, and smart PTZ control to control the monitoring direction via the web interface. Each of the supported cameras has been put through stringent tests with the NAS series in QNAP's laboratory to guarantee 100% compatibility and reliability with all these camera brands.

Powerful System Management Tools

Live audio and video monitoring, recording and playback over the Internet

  • High quality video recording in MPEG-4 and Motion JPEG format

  • Real-time monitoring and recording for up to 30 fps per channel
  • Live 2-way audio supported for monitoring and voice broadcasting
  • Easy installation and management from remote location

Smart Fan
The fan rotation speed is automatically adjusted according to the server's temperature. You can also define the system temperatures to trigger high speed or low speed rotation of the fan. By manually setting the fan rotation speed, the fan will rotate at the defined speed continuously.

Instant SMS/ Email Alert
You can configure the SMTP server and SMSC server settings on the NAS in order to receive instant system warning or error messages by email or SMS.

SSL Secure Certificate
The administrator can upload a secure certificate and an RSA private key in X.509PEM format issued by a trusted provider in order to allow the users to access the NAS by secure SSL login.

Syslog Settings
All the system event logs and connection logs can be saved to a remote syslog server.

Network Recycle Bin
The files deleted from the network shares of the NAS will be moved to a particular recycle bin folder. You can restore your data anytime in case of unintended file deletion.

Comprehensive Event Log System
The logs of connections to the NAS via samba, FTP, AFP, HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, and SSH, and networking services accessed by online users are all recorded.

Detailed System Information
You can view the system status, e.g., CPU usage, total memory, free memory, packets received, packets sent, error packets, system up time, CPU temperature, system temperature, HDD temperature, and system fan speed.

DDNS Support
You can register a unique domain name from a DDNS service provider and assign it to your NAS. Your users can access the NAS by the domain name instead of the IP address.

Software Expansion and Website Management

QPKG Software Package Platform
The QPKG software package platform enables the users to maximize the usage of the NAS by installing additional software packages developed from the users and community worldwide. This can be done by simple ‘download & install’ clicking without going through any complicated process.


Page 4 : Installation

Physically setting up the TS-219P Turbo NAS device is not very difficult. The two drive cages easily pull out and are labeled for quick identification.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

These drive cages have been modified for both 3.5′ and 2.5′ hard drives. QNAP realizes that 2.5′ SSDs offer uncompromised performance and wanted to ensure that their buyers with loads of cash can mount some badass 256GB SSDs.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

For those without an unlimited budget, standard mechanical drives will have to do. For me, I'll be using my 3.5′ 500GB Seagate 7200.11 Barracudas.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Both types of hard drives come with mounting screws; the SSDs will require three per drive and the 3.5′ drive requires four. Both drives are bottom mounted and only take a few seconds to secure. Once the hard drives are secured to the cage, the cages can be slid back into the device mating the data and power ports of the TS-219P to the individual hard drives. A key lock can be used to prevent the drives from being pulled out by an unauthorized person.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

All that remains for setup is plugging in the power and network cable. I really wish QNAP got rid of the power brick and found a way to integrate a power supply, even if it means making that device an inch or two thicker!

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Once you boot the device up, it will initialize itself but you won't be able to use it until you install the software and configure the drives.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS


Page 5 : Drive Initialization and Setting

The software provided by QNAP lets you quickly set up the NAS device for sharing files on the network. As you develop the need for more sophisticated applications like a database server or a video surveillance network, QNAP will more than likely have something already available to you. However, let's start at the beginning and install QNAP Finder from the CD.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

QNAP Finder searches your network for any QNAP devices. It quickly located mine and asked if I wanted to configure the un-configured device. The obvious answer is yes and after a couple of simple questions (name, time, network settings and drive configuration), the QNAP Finder will initialize the drive for use and ask to map it as a networked drive.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Now that the drive has been initialized, we're still fairly limited as to what we can see and do with the TS-219P. To unlock its full potential you must visit the Intranet page. The Web Manager uses a new AJAX interface which is far more user friendly than the old HTML setup. It doesn't load as quick due to the pictures required but it is still very smooth. I wouldn't hesitate upgrading to the new interface if you already haven't on your old QNAP devices.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The administrative home page gives you an idea of what's the latest thing going on with QNAP and provides easy access to the most common administrative controls: user and folder access.

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Here are all the individual configuration pages:

System Administration

Disk Management

Access Right Management

Network Services

Applications

Backup

External Device

System Status

Some of the integrated features on the TS-219P include the Web Manager, Multimedia Station and Download Station.

Web Manager

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

Multimedia Station

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The Multimedia Station allows you to play image slide shows or stream audio and video across your network to any of your other PCs. This is a great addition to an overfull HTPC.

Download Station

QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS

The download station lets you download BitTorrent, FTP or HTTP downloads without having to keep your entire computer running. This is a huge power saver; instead of keeping a full 200W PC running and seeding torrents, a simple 20W NAS will do the trick.


Page 6 : IOZone Testing

For testing, we will be using IOzone which runs a set of read and write benchmarks within a set parameter, then outputs a file with the results. The QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS will be outfitted with two 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS drives and attached to a D-Link DGS 1008D Gigabit Ethernet Switch connected to my D-Link WRT DIR-655 Gigabit Ethernet router, jumbo frames disabled.

Here's a blurb about IOzone:
IOzone is a file system benchmark tool. The benchmark generates and measures a variety of file operations. IOzone has been ported to many machines and runs under many operating systems. IOzone is useful for performing a broad file system analysis of a vendor's computer platform. While computers are typically purchased with an application in mind it is also likely that over time the application mix will change. Many vendors have enhanced their operating systems to perform well for some frequently used applications. Although this accelerates the I/O for those few applications it is also likely that the system may not perform well for other applications that were not targeted by the operating system. An example of this type of enhancement is: Database. Many operating systems vendors have tested and tuned the file system so it works well with databases. While the database users are happy, the other users may not be as happy as the entire system may be giving all of the system resources to the database users at the expense of all other users. As time rolls on the system administrator may decide that a few more office automation tasks could be shifted to this machine. The load may now shift from a random reader application (database) to a sequential reader. The users may discover that the machine is very slow when running this new application and become dissatisfied with the decision to purchase this platform. By using IOzone to get a broad file system performance coverage the buyer is much more likely to see any hot or cold spots and pick a platform and operating system that is more well balanced.

IOzone is a command line operated testing utility; we will be using the following command.

iozone -Rab [filename].xls -i 0 -i 1 -q 64k -n 32M -g 5G -f [test location]

'-i 0 -i 1'
Write/ Re-Write, Read/ Re-Read tests
Read: Performance measured by reading an existing file
Re-Read: Reading a file which has already been read, tests the utilization of cache

Write: Performance of writing a file to the disk
Re-Write: Re-Writes a file that already exists on the disk

'-q 64k'
Maximum record size of 64Kb, 4Kb, 8Kb, 16Kb, 32Kb, 64Kb

'-n 32M -g 5G'
Minimum file size of 32MB and maximum file size of 1GB

'[file name].xls'
Location where to write test results

'[test location]'
Target of tests


Page 7 : IOZone JBOD Testing

JBOD, at the logical level combines physical disk drives into one larger drive. This comes in handy when dealing with an assortment of drives. Where RAID configuration combines drives at the limit of the smallest disk, JBOD does not. Our Reader results indicate peak performance of 45MB/s but the average actually lies more in the 20MB/s.

TS-219P performance

Next, the Re-Reader test measures the system's caching ability. While it is typical that Re-Reader results are significantly higher than those reported in the Reader test as the test measures reading performance of a file that was previously read, the effects are less significant with larger file sizes. If we attempted this with files in the few hundred KB mark, we would see a larger jump.

TS-219P performance

The peak write rate is 33MB/s and the average is a respectable 15MB/s. There's a significant increase in the Re-Writer results for small files but difference becomes minimal for the large files.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance


Page 8 : IOZone RAID 0 Testing

Anyone itching for a sense of speed has probably created a RAID 0 system. RAID 0 splits data across multiple disks (2 is the minimum). In theory, with each disk attached in RAID 0 the likelihood of data failure increases but so does speed. However, our average Reader and Re-Reader results only moved a bit – the difference is hardly noticable. We're speaking of a 2MB/s difference on average.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

The difference is even smaller with the Writer and Re-Writer results. While in theory RAID 0 should perform better, the limitations of transferring data to two drives through a Gigabit network in RAID 0 are not apparent with IOZone. We'll see what some of the other benchmarks have to say.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance


Page 9 : IOZone RAID 1 Testing

RAID 1 mirrors your hard drives so each stores the same information. If one drive fails, the second drive will still have your data. This test was only conducted with two drives in use. As you can expect, the performance will decrease to allow for mirroring. With the effects of mirroring, I'm not surprised to see the read rates to be slightly slower. The average Reader and Re-Reader results are on average 3MB/s slower, a very small price to pay for added reliability.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

Similarly, the average Writer and Re-Writer dipped a tiny bit – also by 3MB/s.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance


Page 10 : IOZone 64Kb Record Size Comparison

Typically, with modern day software, a record size of 64kb is used with larger files. With the sheer amount of data conveyed throughout the last few tests, it was hard to accurately gauge the QNAP TS-219P Turbo NAS performance, and even harder to do so across different RAID configurations. In the next section, we will be comparing the data compiled through the tests we ran earlier to gauge performance over the various RAID configurations. The results show that RAID 0 is indeed faster than JBOD and RAID 1 even if the averages are very similar together. The biggest spread is about 10MB/s which is substantial if you're transferring massive databases across the network but also not so huge of a loss making RAID 1 unconsiderable.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance


Page 11 : Intel NAS Performance Test

Intel's Intel's Network Attached Storage Performance Toolkit, or NASPT if you would prefer, will conclude our look at performance.

The Intel NAS Performance Toolkit (NASPT) is a file system exerciser and analysis tool designed to enable direct comparison of network attached storage (NAS) performance. NASPT seeks to discern differences in user level performance when a given client PC uses different remote storage solutions. To that end, NASPT uses a set of real world workload traces gathered from typical digital home applications: HD video playback and record, office productivity applications, video rendering/content creation and more. NASPT reproduces the file system traffic observed in these traces onto whatever storage solution the user provides, records the system response, and reports a rich variety of performance information. While NASPT runs on a Windows XP* client, the target NAS device may run any operating system.

Intel's NASPT offers a number of strengths. First and foremost: consistency. With INASPT's built in traces, performance numbers resulting in various tests are easily emulated across various systems and gives insight into how a NAS system would perform under real world conditions. Unlike with localized storage, we are not interested in separating software environmental factors as by definition and function, NAS storage units are heavily dependent on system software, operating systems, network settings and so on. Of course, if we were to simply test the bare hard drive performance at the system level our resulting numbers would be significantly higher.

With the trace files, we can simulate specified hard drive activity down to the distribution of random and sequential reads/ writes, the spread of data over individual platters, or locality, and a number of access characteristics.

For our tests, we will be looking at five tests: HD Video Playback, Content Creation, Office Productivity, Copy To NAS and Copy From NAS.

TS-219P performance

Let's examine the results, starting with the HD Video trace. This test consists of reading a single file approximately 4800 MB in size and for the most part consists of sequential reading, meaning that all the pieces of the file are located physically near one another on the platters of the hard drive resulting in little arm movement to retrieve data.

Content creation is exactly what the name suggestions. This test simulates the creation of a video. A total of 99 files are used and the test is primarily write driven (95% write operations) with up to 64kb block sizes and 39.1% sequential operations.

With Office Productivity, we have a wide array of file sizes and generally random access. While in comparison with sequential throughout, random access as shown by the Office Productivity test doesn't look too bad, keeping up Video Playback and File Copy.


Page 12 : IOMeter Testing

IOMeter is a new addition to the NAS results. It is an I/O subsystem measurement and characteristic tool for single and clustered systems initially designed by Intel.

IOMeter is both a workload generator (that is, it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (that is, it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems.

I configured IOMeter to create a 1GB file on the target device, TS-219P, and it will pull the performance of 5 minutes and report back the average transfer rate for various block size recordings. The results are 100% sequential.

TS-219P performance

Much like the results from IOzone, we have a very similar trend. At low record sizes, the results are similar but as we increase the block size, the rates diverge ever so slightly. The trend is identical to that of IOZone, RAID 0 is always on top with JBOD taking second and RAID 1 in the rear.


Page 13 : Crystal Disk Mark, ATTO Disk Benchmark & Power Consumption

Crystal Disk Mark and ATTO Disk Benchmark are more conventional benchmarking applications. They do the exact same as IOZone and IOMeter but in a far more simplified manner. The only take a minute or two to complete versus the several hours it takes to finish one run with IOZone.

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

TS-219P performance

There's nothing particualrly out of the ordinary, we again get to re-iterate the results seen in all of the other benchmarks.


Page 14 : Conclusion

So where do I stand when it comes to evaluating the QNAP TS-219P as an overall unit? The benchmark results are certainly respectable. You can count on performance in the range of 20 to 40MB/s depending on file size and transfer rate. The difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1 is large enough that you'll notice a small increase in speed but at the same time small enough that you won't be waiting forever while data is duplicated to both drives.

QNAP TS-219P

The QNAP TS-219P is priced at just under $400 which is on par with other quality NAS units. What QNAP brings to the table is a long history of quality components and expansive features not everyone has to offer. The pre-loaded software ensures you have everything you need to get yourself up and running. It covers the basics of file sharing, creating a web server and download management. If you need additional features, it's just a matter of downloading the appropriate package and enabling the option in the GUI.

If you have the money to spend, I wouldn't hestiate getting a TS-219P over the inexpensive competition – you get what you pay for. The premium here guarantees you get nothing but the best.

Advantages

  • Extensive expansion options: 3 USB, 2 eSATA

  • Linux based operating system is rock solid with new AJAX GUI
  • Consistent performance

Disadvantages

  • External power adapter required
    Thank you QNAP for making this review possible.

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