Qnap guardian qgd

We saw it during Computex 2019 in Taiwan and finally the QNAP Guardian QGD-1600P is released for commercialization. It is the first manageable NAS / switch in the world, with PoE and capable of running QTS simultaneously for virtualization and other NAS functions. As a presentation it is not bad, with a main hardware moved by 8 GB of RAM and an Intel Celeron J4115 we have a perfect NAS combinable with the typical switch functions.

With no less than 16 PoE compatible ports that in total can deliver up to 370W for network peripherals. For this reason, it is very interesting as a virtualization station, with router, firewall, video surveillance, snapshot warehouse or data server functions, since its hardware has considerable power. During this analysis we will see what this hybrid is capable of offering us, which is coming to revolutionize the network market.

But before continuing, we thank QNAP for their trust in us as a partner, by giving us this QNAP QGD-1600P to make our analysis.

QNAP QGD-1600P technical characteristics

Unboxing

We start as always with a brief Unboxing of this QNAP QGD-1600P, a team that has come to us in a presentation of the most common for this manufacturer because it is a neutral cardboard packaging and a flat but large box. On it we have the identifying sticker of the product in color and with some of its specifications.

Inside, because we find the switch-NAS put in a thick plastic bag and like beige, completely accommodated in two thick molds of thick polyethylene foam (not by foam). In the central part there is no lack of a cardboard box to store the rest of the accessories included.

The bundle then consists of the following:

• QNAP QGD-1600P switch 230V power cable RJ-45 cat.5e ethernet cable Screws to install 2.5 ”units Rack mount Rubber feet

Entirely corporate presentation with strictly what is necessary to ensure its functionality.

Exterior design

Let's start the analysis with the design of this QNAP QGD-1600P, which is clearly intended to be mounted in a rack or rack cabinet. We have very typical dimensions of a server for such compatibility, with 45 mm thickness, 430 mm width and 320 mm depth.

The entire structure that packages the hardware is made of sheet metal, the body of which consists of three elements, the removable top cover, the side and bottom sheet in monoblock, and the front panel also in a non-modular configuration. Despite being quite wide, the top plate has a good thickness that allows it to support a considerable weight.

The two side parts are completely closed to the outside, and it has two protrusions for installation in these universal tray-type racks. We also have a front hole for fixing it, and two rear holes to place the brackets included in the bundle.

Moving to the back we have at one end the 3-pin 230V AC power input with the corresponding switch for the ignition and air outlet of the fan. Right next to it another large opening to expel the hot air given off by the CPU heatsink. Finishing with the right side we see the two expansion slots for the PCIe slots that are inside.

If we do not have a closet, we will go to the lower area to glue the 4 rubber feet that are included, so there is no problem.

PoE ++ ports and usage

We now continue with the front area of ​​the QNAP QGD-1600P, which is clearly the most important in the set. We will try to see in detail all its functions.

As we have commented, this front is the least interesting due to the fact that it is a device that integrates PoE switch functionality and also NAS. His scope of work is clearly situated in productivity environments for IT functions in SMEs with varied needs but requiring simple management.

So we will see in the central area a panel with a total of 18 network ports, better said 19, but now we are explaining how they will work. We start with the 16 RJ45s, which are perfectly numbered in their two rows, each offering a 1000 Mbps Ethernet link. The last two make combo with two SFPs also of 1 Gbps, so the 4 cannot be used simultaneously.

The QNAP QGD-1600P implements the function of supplying power to wired network devices, which has been PoE + and PoE ++. Specifically, the first 4 ports (silver bottom 1, 2, 3 and 4) offer a maximum power supply of 60W PoE ++ with the 802.3bt standard. The following 12 operate under 802.3at PoE +, supplying up to 30W in each mouth. Altogether the maximum power delivery will be 370W, which would be about 23W on each link.

We now move to the right area, where we find a panel of activity LED indicators for both the switch function and the NAS. In fact we have here the button necessary to turn on the NAS, we explain ourselves, the power connection automatically turns on the switch part, while the NAS part will operate after pressing the POWER button on the Host. Similarly, we can reset switch or NAS independently without affecting the other. Imagine the great versatility of management.

Now we move to the left side of the QNAP QGD-1600P. In it we will see another RJ45 port whose real use is to connect the IT administrator for the management of the switch without affecting the normal operation of the NAS or Switch. Right next to it we have 2 USB 2.0 ports and another 3.1 Gen1 to connect, for example, external disk drives, printers or other peripherals.

The end is reserved for an LCD panel which shows in real time the information of the NAS firmware, the IP of the equipment or some indications of the state of the network. With the two buttons we have, we can navigate between the different menus to make basic configurations or even restart the system.

And we do not forget the extremely useful HDMI port that has been installed. With it we can, for example, connect a monitor to see the image of the installed surveillance cameras, or to be able to manage QTS through its graphical interface instead of through the browser.

Interior and hardware

Looking at the interesting front panel, let's go inside to see in more detail all the hardware we have in the QNAP QGD-1600P.

Let's start with the power supply, which is a custom variant of the typical 1U server. It has a width of 85 mm for a height of 40 mm and a depth of 190 mm and has the capacity to deliver a maximum of 418W. Power is supplied via a 4-pin CPU-type cable and a 6-pin PCI-type cable. The fan of this fountain, no matter how small, makes a lot of noise.

We have a couple of electronic boards, one that is responsible for managing the switch with its different Broadcom network controllers and the main board that is responsible for managing the NAS and firmware of the device. As important elements we have a PoE Microsemi PD69200 controller and a processor for managing Microsemi SMBStaX Switch VSC7425 ports.

The most interesting PCB for us is logically the main one, which has in its central area a large finned aluminum heatsink with a fan at the top of 55 mm and curiously axial flow. The main CPU that mounts this QNAP QGD-1600P is a quad-core Intel Celeron J4115 working at a base frequency of 1.8 GHz and 2.5 GHz turbo. This has integrated Intel HD Graphics 600 graphics, so it also It is a CPU with video transcoding capabilities.

Next to it we have 8 GB of DDR4 RAM installed in two SO-DIMM modules and that in principle is not expandable with greater capacity. There is another cheaper version with 4 GB. We also have a 4 GB internal memory whose function is to install the QTS system and to provide protection for the operating system with a double boot.

We are now dealing with expandability, let's not forget that we are facing a full-blown NAS, so the manufacturer has taken advantage of the space to install two Gen2 x2 PCIe slots each to mount 10G network card, dedicated GPUs or cards. M.2 expansion with SATA SSD. Likewise, we have at the front another expansion slot occupied by a hub of 2 SATA III 6 Gbps interfaces to install two 2.5 ”HDD or SSD storage units. A small criticism that we can make to the HDD bay tray is that we will have to remove it to install the second disk and it becomes somewhat tedious. The system of course supports EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS + and exFAT.

In general, it is quite interesting hardware and it allows us a lot of games in terms of functions, although it is not powerful enough to virtualize a Windows or Linux in use.

QTS 4.4.1 software and the best versatility on the market

We will now talk and show all the possible applications for which the QNAP QGD-1600P is built. This is where its power really resides.

This NAS / Switch has two different operating systems, the first one is in charge of managing the entire part of the switch and it works through QSS, a very intuitive and clean QNAP system, as we will now see. For its part, we have QTS in version 4.4.1 as the preferred option for the entire NAS part.

We already know that QTS can be managed over the network through any web browser with a graphical interface system. In the case of QSS, we will have to install the QuNetSwitch application over QTS to access the functions of the switch firmware. But in addition to the possible access to the device from any mouth of the equipment, we have already seen that we have a dedicated RJ45 for IT administrators who need to interact in isolation with the system, as well as a video interface in the form of HDMI for its management while being physically in the location where the QNAP QGD-1600P is installed.

Initial NAS Configuration

The first time we start the QNAP QGD-1600P, we will be in the typical initial setup scenario of a QNAP NAS. What we will have to do is either connect a monitor and keyboard to the HDMI, or install QFinder Pro in one of the clients connected in the network so that it can locate the NAS / switch and access the guided configuration of the device. We have opted for the latter using the mouth dedicated to administrators.

The guide provides us with all the detailed information about the configurations that you will carry out to install the system, as well as the services that we want to start after its installation. Storage is optional, but it is necessary to install other applications from the QNAP store. We then recommend installing a drive first, then creating a storage volume on which to install applications.

The QTS system comes with a few pre-installed App, geared towards small businesses and IT administration, such as File Station, Snapshot Storage, SSD Profiling Tool or iSCSI, along with a virtualization guide that will basically tell us how to install and prepare Virtualization Station. We have been struck by the fact that QuNetSwitch does not come installed natively, as it is necessary to manage the switch. Hence it is necessary to create a volume.

Virtualization, surveillance, snapshots and much more

One of the most outstanding functions that this NAS / switch can offer to the user is the PoE function to connect network peripherals compatible with the power supply. This function, for example, is key to mounting a surveillance system in a store, office and in general in protection warehouses or SMEs with limited purchasing power. Thanks to QTS we can install QVR Pro and a monitor to capture, store and display in real time all the signals from our IP cameras with a fairly consistent investment of money.

The PoE function also allows connecting smart LED lighting systems, Wi-Fi access points or even panels of these advertising that we find in stations etc. Behind them, there is a system like these, although much more basic than what QNAP offers.

Another very remarkable function of a computer like this QNAP QGD-1600P is that of virtualization. We are not talking about virtual machines like Windows or Ubuntu, but useful systems for a company. The fact of integrating security functions such as ACL, Static Mac address, Wake-On-Lan, VPN capacity, LDAP (being Linux), SNMP and also hardware encryption of the storage with 256-bit AES storage in your hardware and system, we gives great possibilities. The two most noteworthy may be to set up a firewall in the company, or to implement in it the function of virtual router. This is done with free or licensed or code-based Linux operating systems, for example, MikroTik RouterOS, OpenWrt or pfSense.

And where to leave the basic function of a NAS? that of creating provisioning levels and snapshots store for clients connected in our internal network. We talk about mounting a backup system thanks to the two disks that we can mount on it. If we think that it is not enough, we have the possibility of expanding it with DAS such as the QNAP TR-004 with 4 bays to expand the functions with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, etc. Likewise, install an expansion card for M.2 units with which to be able to autotiering (storage by levels) or acceleration by SSD data cache.

Last but not least, any NAS with a processor that has an integrated GPU such as the Celeron, has the ability to transcode HD or UHD video, as is the case. So we can play video with DLNA or much better, mount a PLEX server to have our television on demand, which would be very useful for example for a bar, a store, etc.

Switch management system

Let us now focus on managing the firmware of the Switch, which we have done with the QuNetSwitch application already discussed. It will be as simple as looking for it in the store and installing it. Obviously it is free like the vast majority.

The interface is similar to another we see in other switches, although in this QNAP QGD-1600P everything is much more clear and intuitive knowing the manufacturer behind us. As the main panel we have what can be a Dashboard where we see the activity of the CPU, the PoE controller and the RJ45 / SFP ports. From here we can also reset the switch without interfering with the NAS.

In addition to the list of devices and their MAC that we can find connected, in the configuration section is where we will have the bulk of the management. We can activate or deactivate ports, manage power, monitor network traffic, and practically everything related to packet routing at layer 2 for the virtual machines that we are going to mount.

It is a thin firmware and with easy management. We just miss that it is not in Spanish (at least we have not found the option).

Test bench and performance test (Switch)

Now we are going to perform a couple of tests to see the benefits of the QNAP QGD-1600P switch part with two devices connected to it.

The test equipment used will be the following:

Team 1

• Asus AREION 10GAsus ROG Maximus XI FormulaIntel Core i9-9900KSSD SATA ADATA SU750

Team 2

• Intel 219-V 1GASRock X570 Extreme 4AMD Ryzen 2600SSD NVMe Corsair MP510

The speed tests have been carried out with JPerf 2.0.2 and the data transfer tests with Windows Explorer. The cables used for the link are both Cat.5e UTPs.

Stream transfer

We have performed various stream transfer tests with 10, 50 and 100 packets to assess the capacity of the QNAP QGD-1600P. for this, we have carried out 5 tests for each case and we have calculated the transfer average.

In this case, the switch had no problem touching the maximum of the line. Only with transfers of large numbers of streams does that capacity decrease somewhat. Its capacity for jumbo frames is 9K, which is quite generic in routers and switches.

Data transfer

With the same link, we have made a file transfer between both systems and we have exactly the same result, those 112-113 MB / s, which provides us with a maximum link of 1000 Mbps.

Final words and conclusion about QNAP QGD-1600P

We come to the end of this analysis where we have studied the possibilities offered by what is the first NAS and Switch device at the same time. The team is oriented to its installation in rack and server cabinets, presenting a simple and slim design in a strong metal box. Better not be close to users, as the fans are quite noisy.

Best of all are the possibilities it gives us. The QTS operating system is perfect to extend the functions to practically what we want, virtualization to mount a router, a firewall or even an authentication server. On the other hand, the addressing capacity of the switch with 16 ports is ideal for small SME networks or productivity. We value having an RJ45 dedicated to your administration, adding greater security.

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It is also a manageable switch, which in all its ports is compatible with PoE + at 30W, of which 4 of them will deliver up to 60W, up to a combined total of 370W. To this we add enough varied connectivity, such as two SFP 1G ports, 3 USB and even HDMI for video output, for example from the signals of a surveillance system with IP cameras. Switch management is very simple thanks to QTS, QNAP's own system.

Its hardware is very interesting, being able to consider a mid-range NAS with Celeron J4115 Quad Core and integrated graphics, and up to 8 GB of memory. All accompanied by two PCIe Gen2 expansion slots and two 2.5 ”disk bays. Of course it is DAS compatible to expand capacity, thanks to QTS 4.4.1.

And we end with its price, which stands at 699 euros. Considering everything it offers us in functionality, its capacity and hardware, we think it is a fairly adequate price for this hybrid. We save on various infrastructure and devices by having everything integrated. Highly recommended for productivity environments and SMEs.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ SWITCH + NAS	- IT'S SOMETHING LOUD
+ 12 POE + PORTS AND 4 POE ++	- BAYS MUST BE UNINSTALLED FOR METER HDD
+ GREAT POSSIBILITIES BY HAVING QTS	- ONLY AVAILABLE WITH CELERON
+ POWERFUL HARDWARE TO VIRTUALIZE LIGHTWEIGHT SYSTEMS
+ COHERENT PRICE FOR WHAT IT OFFERS
+ DOUBLE THERE WERE 2.5 ”AND EXPANSION SLOTS

The Professional Review team awards you the platinum medal:

QNAP QGD-1600P

DESIGN - 90%

HARDWARE - 87%

OPERATING SYSTEM - 100%

MULTIMEDIA CONTENT - 86%

PRICE - 88%

90%