QNAP Launches 16-bay SAS Dual-Active Controller ES1686dc R2 3U Rackmount NAS Featuring HA and Optimal Storage Efficiency
Enterprise-grade ZFS storage with dual active controllers, 10GbE connectivity, and enterprise-class data protection
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on April 17, 2025 at 2:01 pmQNAP Systems, Inc. launches the ES1686dc R2, a high-performance 16-bay SAS 12Gb/s enterprise NAS engineered for mission-critical applications.
Featuring dual active-active controllers, it ensures HA and delivers uncompromising performance for demanding workloads. Designed for enterprise file and virtualization storage, the ES1686dc R2 minimizes downtime with redundant controllers and power supplies, enabling component replacement. This ensures continuous operations, reliability, and stability for business-critical environments.
“The ES1686dc R2 delivers outstanding performance and a reliable high-availability storage solution,” said Waterball Liu, product manager, QNAP, adding: “The QES operating system features an intuitive user-friendly interface with enhanced functionality, enabling customers to effortlessly adopt professional-grade dual-controller enterprise storage when high availability is required. Whether deployed as a mission-critical file server, virtualization server, VDI, or for efficient file backup and recovery, the ES1686dc R2 meets service-level agreements for both performance and uptime.”
ES1686dc R2 front and rear
Key Features:
- QES Operating System v2.2 Support: The ES1686dc R2 supports the upgraded QES OS, adding support for Fibre Channel SAN and NFS 4.1 for increased reliability, scalability and performance.
- Advanced Data Protection and Storage Efficiency: Powered by the ZFS-based QES OS, the ES1686dc R2 offers inline data deduplication and compression for maximum storage efficiency. Self-healing mechanisms prevent silent data corruption, and users can benefit from near-unlimited snapshots for iSCSI LUNs and shared folders, plus SnapSync for accelerated remote backups.
- High Availability and Performance: Dual active-active controllers ensure near-zero downtime, while an NVRAM module enhances data protection during power failure.
- High-Speed Networking: Each controller features 4x10GbE SFP+ ports, plus 2xPCIe slots for adding 10GbE/25GbE network cards to boost virtualization, media file transfer, and other bandwidth-demanding applications.
- Optimized for Virtualization: Compatible with VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix virtualization platforms. SnapSync integrates with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for enterprise-class remote backup and DR. iSER protocol support enhances VMware performance.
- Storage Pool Expansion: Users can expand storage pool capacity by replacing the disks and clicking a few buttons in the Storage Pool Management interface. The UI displays the approximate capacity expansion, allowing businesses to prepare for growing data.
- Petabyte-scale, Dual-controller SAS Storage Expansion: Achieve petabyte-scale storage with QNAP’s SAS expansion enclosure, while dual-channel (dual-path) connections ensure uninterrupted service even during a node failure.
Key Specs:
- ES1686dc-R2-2142IT-128G: Intel Xeon D-2142IT 8-core 1.90GHz processor (burst up to 3.0GHz) per controller, 64GB RDIMM DDR4 ECC memory (4x16GB) per controller
- ES1686dc-R2-2142IT-96G: Xeon D-2142IT 8-core 1.90GHz processor (burst up to 3.0GHz) per controller, 48GB RDIMM DDR4 ECC memory (4×4 GB+4x8GB) per controller
- ES1686dc-R2-2123IT-64G: Xeon D-2123IT 4-core 2.20GHz processor (burst up to 3.0GHz) per controller, 32GB RDIMM DDR4 ECC memory (4x8GB) per controller
The ES1686dc R2 Enterprise ZFS NAS is available.
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