QNAP ES1686Adc
SAS Today, NVMe Whenever You're Ready — Active-Active High Availability Storage.

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Enterprise Storage Products

QNAP 16-Bay Active-Active Dual Controller ZFS NAS and iSCSI/ IP-SAN. 3U, 3.5"/2.5" SAS & dual-port U.2/U.3, 3 x Gigabit LAN, 4x10GbE(SFP+)
Intel® Xeon® D-2142IT 1.9GHz 8-core, 64GB (4 x 16GB, Max: 512 GB) for each controller, 64GB write cache per controller, 2 x M.2 Gen.3 x4 2280. Storage pool with RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60/RAID TP/triple Mirror, redundant PSU, with Rail Kit

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Overview

Features

Specifications

Overview:

Downtime and forklift upgrades are the two costs that enterprise storage budgets rarely account for. The ES1686Adc is a 3U 16-bay high availability (HA) storage array built to remove both. Two Active-Active controllers process I/O simultaneously and take over for one another transparently, keeping SMB/NFS file services and iSCSI / Fibre Channel block services online through component failure and planned maintenance. At the same time, a hybrid backplane lets every one of the 16 bays accept either SAS 12Gb/s or U.3 PCIe NVMe drives — so you can deploy SAS capacity at a low cost per TB today, and adopt NVMe SSDs whenever your workloads demand PCIe Gen4 performance, without replacing the storage platform, the operating system, or the way your team manages it.

Dual controllers, each with an Intel® Xeon® D 8-core processor
Supports 16 x 3.5-inch SAS SSD/HDD or 2.5-inch U.3 NVMe dual-port SSD
Four built-in 10GbE SFP+ ports with 25GbE expansion support
Powered by the QES operating system (ZFS file system) for high IOPS and petabyte-scale storage capacity

Active-Active high availability, not active-standby

Two independent controllers serve I/O at the same time. If one fails, the other takes over the drives and network addresses transparently, so SMB/NFS file access and iSCSI / Fibre Channel block services stay online.

One System, Infinite Agility

All 16 bays support dual-port SAS 12Gb/s or U.3 PCIe NVMe SSDs. Seamlessly transition from high-capacity to high-performance storage on your timeline — upgrade your drives without replacing your core infrastructure.

A lower cost per TB than going all-flash

Keep cold and archival data on SAS drives, put hot data on U.3 NVMe SSDs, and let ZFS inline deduplication and compression store more in the same 3U footprint.

Write cache protected by battery

In the event of an unexpected power outage, Copy-to-Flash technology writes cached data held in DRAM intact to a protected area on the M.2 SSD, preventing data loss.

Scales to petabyte capacity

Connect up to seven QNAP dual-controller SAS expansion units. Dual-path connectivity keeps services running even if a single node fails.

QES: an enterprise storage operating system

ZFS end-to-end data integrity, up to 65,535 snapshots, inline deduplication and compression, Fibre Channel SAN, and Storage QoS for predictable application performance.

Why the ES1686Adc?

Four things worth checking when you compare dual-controller storage arrays.

High availability: Active-Active

Both controllers serve I/O simultaneously — this is not an architecture where one controller sits idle waiting for the other to fail. Redundant hardware earns its keep every day, not only on the day of a failure, and when a controller does fail the takeover is transparent to front-end applications: no interruption, no reconnection.

Drive support: SAS and NVMe

All 16 bays accept 3.5-inch SAS 12Gb/s SSD/HDD or 2.5-inch U.3 PCIe NVMe dual-port SSD, in the same chassis. Cold and archival data stays on low cost-per-TB SAS capacity while latency-sensitive workloads run on NVMe — without splitting them across two separate storage systems to manage.

Upgrade path: SAS to NVMe

Adopt NVMe when your workloads justify it, not when a procurement cycle forces it. Changing tier means changing drives — the system, the QES operating system and the way your team manages storage stay exactly as they are, so there is no forklift upgrade to a new platform and no new operational model to learn.

Network: 10GbE to 25GbE

Four 10GbE SFP+ ports are built in, with 25GbE expansion support for virtualization, backup windows and AI workloads that outgrow 10GbE. The network scales on the same schedule as the drives, so bandwidth never becomes the reason your NVMe investment underperforms.

Features:

Near-Zero Service Interruption: Active-Active Dual Controllers

The ES1686Adc features two fully independent controllers that process I/O requests simultaneously (Active-Active) rather than following the traditional Active-Standby approach. Each controller is equipped with an Intel® Xeon® D-2100 series processor and supports up to 512 GB DDR4 ECC memory, providing powerful multitasking performance.

Transparent failover

If one controller fails, the other instantly takes over all drives and network IP addresses through the high-speed PCIe non-transparent bridge (NTB) interconnect, with no interruption or reconnection required for front-end applications.

Double the performance, not just redundancy

With both controllers operating at the same time, the system gains not only redundancy but also double the available bandwidth and computing power — redundant hardware that earns its keep every day, not only on the day of a failure.

Intelligent BBU battery backup

Built-in Copy-to-Flash technology. In the event of an unexpected power outage, the BBU battery pack ensures that cached data held in memory (DRAM cache) is written intact to a protected area on the M.2 SSD, preventing data loss.

Today's Capacity, Tomorrow's Performance — Without a Forklift Upgrade

Most storage purchases force a choice between cost per TB and performance. The hybrid backplane of the ES1686Adc lets you postpone that choice, and change your mind later without changing platform.

Flexible interface compatibility

All 16 drive bays support either U.3 PCIe NVMe or SAS interfaces. Not all data requires costly all-flash capacity, so you can begin with lower-cost or existing SAS drives and progressively replace them with high-performance NVMe SSDs as your business grows, striking the ideal balance between performance and budget.

Cost-effective disaster recovery target

The ES1686Adc is well suited as an off-site disaster recovery target for the ES2486AFdc, delivering the same level of dual-controller protection at a lower cost per TB.

Intel® Xeon® D Processors: Dual-Controller Compute Performance

The ES1686Adc features dual controllers, each powered by an Intel® Xeon® D 8-core/16-thread processor (up to 3.0 GHz) to boost processing performance and data throughput with robust compute capability. It supports up to 1 TB DDR4 ECC memory (up to 512 GB per controller) to effortlessly meet the demands of mission-critical and high-density workloads. Combining dual active-active controller redundancy with a redundant power supply design, it delivers server-grade system stability and business continuity — providing a high-performance, ultra-reliable, and future-proof storage solution for demanding enterprise IT environments.

CPU

Intel® Xeon® D-2142IT 8 cores/16 threads 1.9 GHz processor (burst up to 3.0 GHz)

Memory

Combined with 128 GB DDR4 ECC memory and a redundant power supply

Transmission performance

SMB Sequential Throughput (10GbE x 8)	Read 8352 MB/s	Write 3557 MB/s
iSCSI Random 4K IOPS (10GbE x 8)	Read 579502 IOPS	Write 257701 IOPS

Tests were conducted in the QNAP lab; data may vary depending on the actual environment.

Test environment:
NAS: ES1686Adc; OS: ES-DUAL; Disk group: RAID 5; 8 x Seagate XS1920SE70084 + 8 x SAMSUNG MZILT960HBHQ/007;

Client PCs:
Windows Server 2019, Intel Xeon W1250 3.3GHz, 32GB RAM + Intel Xeon E2124 3.3GHz, 64GB RAM.

QES: An Enterprise Storage Operating System, Not a NAS OS

Purpose-built for enterprise mission-critical workloads, QES is based on the FreeBSD kernel and the ZFS file system. It serves SMB/NFS file services alongside iSCSI and Fibre Channel block storage, and offloads virtualization workloads through VMware VAAI and Hyper-V ODX — with Storage QoS keeping critical applications predictable when they share a storage pool.

End-to-End Data Integrity

ZFS end-to-end checksums automatically detect and repair silent data corruption, ensuring that every bit of data remains correct — corruption is caught in the storage layer, before it can reach your applications or your backups.

Virtually unlimited snapshots

Supports up to 65,535 snapshots. Copy-on-Write technology completes each snapshot instantly without affecting performance, so recovery points can be taken as often as your recovery point objective requires.

Inline Deduplication

Duplicate blocks are removed before data is written to the drives. In VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) environments, multiple identical OS images can achieve space savings of over 90%.

Inline Compression

Further reduces file sizes and the volume of data written to the SSDs, effectively improving transfer efficiency and extending SSD service life.

From 16 Bays to Petabyte Scale

Start with 16 bays, then connect up to seven QNAP expansion units to reach petabyte-scale storage capacity — capacity growth that never requires a new storage platform. Dual-path connectivity keeps services running even if a single node fails.

Adaptable to Diverse Application Scenarios

Application Scenario	ES1686Adc Advantages
Hybrid Cloud & Tiered Storage	Mix cold SAS capacity with hot NVMe SSDs in a single chassis, tiering data without managing separate systems.
Virtualization Servers (VMware / Hyper-V)	Supports VAAI and ODX offload transfers; iSER (iSCSI over RDMA) lowers CPU loads. The dual-controller architecture maintains VM availability.
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)	Inline deduplication conserves SSD space; high NVMe IOPS absorbs simultaneous login "boot storms."
Media & Entertainment (4K/8K)	Collaborative video editing workflows benefit from 25GbE bandwidth across multiple workstations.

The perfect match for QNAP enterprise switches

If you plan to enable iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA) to reduce CPU load and latency, QNAP QSW series switches support PFC (IEEE 802.1Qbb), which pauses only traffic of a specific priority (such as storage traffic) without affecting other services. The result is a truly lossless Ethernet network that prevents packet loss from degrading RDMA transfer performance, allowing the system to deliver its full high availability and performance potential.

Recommendations and options

25GbE Solutions: The ES1686Adc can be expanded with 25GbE for greater bandwidth. QNAP 25GbE expansion cards and switches are recommended.
Drive Selection: QNAP-certified enterprise-class HDDs or SSDs are recommended.

Hardware Specifications:

	ES1686Adc-2142IT-128G
Number of Controller Module	2
CPU	Intel® Xeon® D-2142IT 8-core 1.90 GHz processor, up to 3.0 GHz (per controller)
CPU Architecture	64-bit x86
Encryption Engine	✓ (AES-NI)
System Memory	64 GB RDIMM DDR4 ECC per controller
Maximum Memory	1024GB (16 x 64GB) 512 GB (8 x 64GB) per controller
Memory Slot	16 x R-DIMM/LR-DIMM DDR4 8 x R-DIMM/LR-DIMM DDR4 per controller IMPORTANT: You can only use one type of dual in-line memory module (DIMM) at a time. Do not use registered DIMM (RDIMM) with load-reduction DIMM (LRDIMM) memory.
Flash Memory	4GB (Dual boot OS protection)
Drive Bay	16 x 3.5-inch SAS 12Gb/s, backward-compatible to SAS 6Gb/s
Drive Compatibility	3.5-inch SAS HDDs 2.5-inch SAS HDDs 2.5-inch SAS SSDs 2.5-inch U.2/SATA SSD 2.5-inch dual-port U.3 NVMe SSD
Hot-swappable	✓
SSD Cache Acceleration Support	✓ L1 ARC Read Cache: RAM L2 ARC Read Cache: SSD ZIL Write Cache: NVRAM (C2F)
Cache for Copy To Flash (C2F)	1 per each controller (64GB M.2 SSD)
2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Port	3 for each controller (assign one for remote management)
10 Gigabit Ethernet Port	4 x 10GbE SFP+ for each controller
Wake on LAN (WOL)	✓
Jumbo Frame	✓
PCIe Slot	2 per controller Slot 1: PCIe Gen 3 x8 (CPU) Slot 2: PCIe Gen 3 x8 (CPU)
USB 3.2 Gen 1 port	2 per each controller Note: The USB ports are for engineering purpose only. No external devices such as storage drives or UPS are supported.
Form Factor	3U Rackmount
LED Indicators	System Power LED (Green): on/off System Status (Green/ Red): in operation, system errors, low power, degraded RAID mode, memory failure, fan/power supply failure, system/disk temperature too high, storage pool reaching threshold value, system performing take-over, power supply unit unplugged LCD Status Display (Two-digit number): Status of JBOD connection
Buttons	Power, Reset
Dimensions (HxWxD)	5.2 × 17.57 × 23.14 inch
Weight (Net)	52.51 lbs
Weight (Gross)	76.35 lbs
Operating Temperature	0 - 40 °C (32°F - 104°F)
Storage Temperature	-20 - 70°C (-4°F - 158°F)
Relative Humidity	5-95% RH non-condensing, wet bulb: 27°C (80.6°F)
Power Supply Unit	Redundant/ Hot Swap Power Vin:90~264VAC;700W
Power Consumption: Operating Mode, Typical	588.33 W
Fan	Hot-swappable fan module (606038mm; 16000RPM/12v/2.8A x 3)
System Warning	Buzzer
Standard Warranty	5
Max. Number of Concurrent Connections (CIFS) - with Max. Memory	10000
Safety Standard	FCC Class A (USA only) CE Mark ( EN55022 Class A, EN55024) EN60950 BSMI VCCI CB LVD

Note: Use only QNAP memory modules to maintain system performance and stability. For NAS devices with more than one memory slot, use QNAP modules with identical specifications and refer to the hardware user manual to install compatible QNAP memory modules.
Warning: Using unsupported modules may degrade performance, cause errors, or prevent the operating system from starting.
QNAP reserves the right to replace partial parts or accessories if the original is no longer available from its manufacturer/supplier. Any replacement would be fully tested and verified to meet strict compatibility and stability guidelines and will deliver identical performance to the original.
The terms HDMI, HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface, HDMI trade dress and the HDMI Logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc.
Product images are for illustrative purposes only and may differ from the actual product. Due to differences in monitors, colors of products may also appear different to those shown on the site.
Designs and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Pricing Notes:

Pricing and product availability subject to change without notice.

QNAP Products

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Network Expansion Card

Dual-port SFP+ 10GbE network expansion card; low-profile form factor; PCIe Gen3 x8
TS-470, TS-470 Pro, TS,473, TVS-472XT, TVS-473, TVS-473e, TS-670, TS-670 Pro, TS-673, TS-677, TVS-670, TVS-672XT, TVS-673, TVS-673e, TVS-682, TVS-682T, TS-870, TS-870 Pro, TS-870U-RP, TS-873, TS-877, TS-877XU, TS-877XU-RP, TS-883XU, TS-883XU-RP, TVS-870, TVS-872XT, TVS-872XU, TVS-872XU-RP, TVS-873, TVS-873e, TVS-882, TVS-882BR, TVS-882BRT3, TVS-882ST2, TVS-882ST3, TVS-882T, TS-1270U-RP, TS-1277, TS-1277XU-RP, TS-1283XU-RP, TVS-1272XU-RP, TVS-1282, TVS-1282T, TVS-1282T3, TS-1677XU-RP, TS-1683XU-R

#QXG-10G2SF-X710
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Dual-port (10GBASE-T) 10GbE network expansion card, Intel X710, PCIe Gen3 x4
PCIe supported NAS and Windows 8/10/Windows Server/Linux/uBuntu/ RHEL PCs. Visit https://www.qnap.com/go/compatibility for the compatibible NAS.

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Dual-port SFP28 25GbE network expansion card; low-profile form factor; PCIe Gen4 x8
PCIe supported NAS

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Interface Expansion

4-port miniSAS HD host bus adapter, Broadcom Aero SAS3816, PCIe 4.0 x 8 for TL SAS JBOD series

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16G Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter, 2 x transceivers are included

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32G Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter, 2 x transceivers are included

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Cable / Transceiver

QNAP, Optical Transceiver 10GbE SFP+ 850nm SR up to 300m industrial-temperature (-40 ~85)
For use with SFP+ 10GbE wide-range temperature

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SFP+ 10GbE twinaxial direct attach cable, 1.5M, S/N and FW update
For use with SFP+ 10GbE

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SFP+ 10GbE twinaxial direct attach cable, 3.0M, S/N and FW update
For use with SFP+ 10GbE

#CAB-DAC30M-SFPP
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SFP+ 10GbE twinaxial direct attach cable, 5.0M, S/N and FW update
For use with SFP+ 10GbE

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Other Accessories

QNAP Rail Kit for ES NAS series
ES1640dc, EJ1600 series

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QNAP ES1686Adc SAS Today, NVMe Whenever You're Ready — Active-Active High Availability Storage.