QNAP TS-251A 2-Bay SOHO NAS Review

GUI – Setup: Initialization, Storage, and Network Services

Initialization

The easiest way to get started with your new QNAP NAS is through the Qfinder software which is available for the major operating systems. It will automatically detect all QNAP systems connected to your network and if one of them isn’t initialized yet, then it will prompt you whether you want to do that now.

If you answer the initialization question with yes, then the guide will be launched in your default browser. Here you have the choice of two methods and which you pick doesn’t really matter in the end. Depending on your choice, home use or business use, the system will preload settings and apps that fit this usage scenario and thereby save you the time of installing them later yourself.

Since this NAS mainly is designed for SOHO usage, I picked the home use scenario. The first thing you’ll need to provide in this few-step setup is a name for the systems and a password for your administrator user.

Next, you get to set the method of time setup, what time zone you are in, and whether you want to update the time and date automatically via an NTP server.

The most used method of getting the IP address is via DHCP, but you can also set it manually which a lot of people prefer when it comes to server setups. But the choice is yours.

It is also up to you what file sharing protocols you want to enable and this really depends on the rest of your setup. For most users, it’s probably enough with the Samba/CIFS protocol as both Mac OS and Linux systems support this too. You can however also enable Apple File Protocol and NFS if you wish to do so.

We can also choose which default apps we want to install right away, such as the Photo Station, Music Station, and similar great features.

The last step is in regards to your disk setup. The TS-251A only has two drives which limit us to RAID 1 as max setting. There are multiple more settings that you can choose here such as encryption, bad block scan, and type of the volume to be created.

At last, we get a summary of our settings and the ability to edit each individual part of them before we apply them and let the NAS begin with the setup.

The settings will now be applied which will take around 10 minutes time.

After all this is done, you can hit the green button to enter the normal management interface. In rare instances this might fail depending on the network setting you made, but should that happen, then you can find it again via the Qfinder software.

When you enter the QTS interface the first time, you’ll most likely be prompted to update the system to the latest version and I highly recommend that you do that. Not only does it fix bugs, it also adds extra features and functionality to your brand new NAS.

After a system update and after the NAS has rebooted, you’ll be presented with a what’s new popup which tells you, yes you guessed it, what’s new in this version.

Closing that window and you’ll see the normal welcome screen that you’d otherwise seen right away if there wasn’t an available update or if you skipped it.

And that’s it. The TS-251A is ready for action.

Storage Manager

The storage manager is the centralized place in QTS for everything related to drives, but real and virtual. The overview page is the first you’ll see once you open it up and it will give you a quick summary of your current setup. You can double click individual parts to get a closer look on them.

The next page is the utilization page where you can check on the volume and storage pool usage. You can filter it by time and also get a clearer look on how fast your storage is filling up and this way quickly figure out if and when you need to replace or upgrade your storage.

The first page within storage group is an overview of the disks and virtual JBODs that you have setup. The VJBOD function is still beta, but it’s an awesome one that allows you to utilize unused storage from other QNAP devices on a single one. You can actually connect storage from up to eight other NAS this way into one pool on top of the external drives that you also can connect.

Naturally, you can also view the physical disks here, get a view on the drive’s health and check up on the general information as well as run S.M.A.R.T. checks.

The Storage Space page is the main place to go in order to manage, delete, and create volumes. It’s as simple as it could be and doesn’t require much knowledge in any form. During the creation process, you can also choose the encryption function for the entire volume which we naturally will test later too on the performance level.

Within the management of a volume, you can remove it, expand it and also get a quick view of which folders and apps are using it. You wouldn’t want to accidentally remove the wrong one.

The TS-251A is only a 2-bay NAS unit and as such there isn’t much space to add SSD drives as cache, but the function is here and it could become relevant together with the VJBOD function and the external expansion enclosures available.

Snapshot function of volumes and LUNs is another awesome feature that you’ll also find here in the storage manager.

iSCSI and Virtual Disk

One of the most efficient ways to use the storage in your NAS is through iSCSI and that’s supported on the TS-251A too. All modern operating systems also support this and even Windows 7 has it built directly into the base OS. So it’s available to pretty much everyone.

External Devices

The external drives connected can also be found here. You can reformat them and get information on the current setup.

Network Services

In QTS you’ll find all the basic network services as part of the core system and accessible right through the control panel. First we have the Windows, Apple, and Linux file sharing protocols with their respective settings: Samba, AFP, and NFS.

Moving on to the little more advanced ones and we find the built-in FTP feature the supports encrypted connections too. You can set transfer limits and watch online users on the service here too. Within the advanced tab, you’ll find settings for the passive port range, external IP responding, and set a fixed root directory for the service.

Both Telnet and SSH are supported, but you should be careful with Telnet as it isn’t the safest connection you can have. In return, it guarantees compatibility with pretty much any generation and type of system.

SNMP is a simple way to sending and trapping reports and send them to the managing systems. Those who need it will know what it is and how to use it and those who don’t also don’t need it. So don’t worry if you don’t get this, just skip it.

QTS also features support for both UPnP and Bonjour discovery.

The second last feature within this group is the network recycle bin and that’s a feature that everyone will appreciate that ever deleted the wrong file on a network share. Without this feature, that file will be lost without the chance to recover it – but with it, it’s like you’re used to from your Windows environment for example. Just drag it back out of the trash can/recycle bin and continue where you left off.

The last part will open a new window which holds all the synchronization features within a single and easy to use interface – which includes QR codes for quick connection on your mobile devices. This is an awesome feature for those who use their mobile devices a lot and want to keep files synced across all devices.