qnap logoQNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the release of QTS 4.2.1 Beta – the smart NAS operating system with more new features and improved apps that empower users to achieve more with both data management and office applications.

New apps and features in QTS 4.2.1 Beta:

Network & virtual switch
Network & virtual switch integrates powerful network management functions to provide a comprehensive network topology overview and enhances port trunking connectivity. Virtual switch enables users to build isolated LAN environments with the built-in DHCP server for better data security. An example use case would include restricted access to IP camera surveillance footage.

Proxy server
The Proxy server application fully supports caching to record content accessed from the Internet. This saves bandwidth, and speeds up network transmission. The proxy server application provides an intuitive interface to simplify proxy server settings on your NAS, enabling users to operate a proxy server in just a few clicks. Users are able to further fine tune and customize the proxy server with cache settings, and enabling access without an SSH tool. Proxy server also provides Anti-Virus (SquidClamav) features for online protection from computer viruses, spyware, and other malicious internet threats.

Windows previous versions support
QTS 4.2.1 Beta with snapshots enables Windows users to restore files directly using the Windows previous version feature, to save time and effort without requiring IT administrators’ support.

Feature enhancements in QTS 4.2.1 Beta:

Qsirch 2.0
Qsirch 2.0 brings further improvements to the convenient QNAP exclusive whole-NAS search function. File indexing runs as a background task, enabling users to oversee the indexing progress and status. This feature can also be used to exclude files from indexing. When searching, users are able to filter search results by file type including photos, music, videos, and documents. This filtered presentation of results enables users to locate their desired results faster. Further, content preview presents thumbnail previews for photos, videos, and PDFs, making searching and browsing through huge amounts of results much faster and easier.

Virtualization Station 2.1 Beta
Virtualization Station 2.1 Beta supports QNAP Guest tools and GPU Pass-through. The powerful QNAP Guest tools include VirtIO drivers, QNAP Guest Agent, QXL driver, and UltraVNC. Direct GPU Pass-through enables GPU intensive workloads to be passed to virtual machines including demanding engineering applications. OpenCL (Open Computing Language) and Microsoft® DirectX 11 Compute Shader can be also be deployed to accelerate general applications such as transcoding and 3D animation & video rendering.

Container Station 1.2
Container Station 1.2 supports editable LXC containers and fully supports running standard Docker® containers. Users can download thousands of applications from Docker Hub and run those applications in an isolated environment in addition to being able to import/export apps with greater flexibility.

Availability & Compatibility

QTS 4.2.1 Beta is now available for the following QNAP NAS models:

  • 16-bay: TDS-16489U 
  • 12-bay: TVS-1271U-RP, TS-1270U-RP, TS-1253U-RP, TS-1253U, TS-1263U-RP,TS-1263U
  • 8-bay: TVS-871U-RP, TVS-871, TVS-870, TVS-863+, TVS-863, TS-870U-RP, TS-870 Pro, TS-870, TS-853U-RP, TS-853U, TS-853S Pro, TS-853 Pro, TS-851, TS-853A, TS-863U-RP,TS-863U
  • 6-bay: TVS-671, TVS-670, TVS-663, TS-670 Pro, TS-670, TS-653 Pro, TS-651, TS-653A 5-bay: TS-563
  • 4-bay: TVS-471U-RP, TVS-471U, TVS-471, TVS-470, TVS-463, TS-470U-SP, TS-470U-RP, TS-470 Pro, TS-470,  TS-453U-RP, TS-453U, TS-453S Pro, TS-453mini, TS-453 Pro, TS-451U, TS-451S, TS-451, TS-451+, TS-453A, TS-463U-RP,TS-463U
  • 2-bay: TS-253 Pro, TS-251C, TS-251, TS-251+, HS-251, HS-251+, TS-253A

Please note that some features may not be available for all models.

Download QTS 4.2.1 Beta from here.