Thecus Adds BTRFS Snapshot and ESXi VAAI Support to Business NAS

Thecus Technology Corporation announced firmware updates to its business class NAS models, adding support for the BTRFS file system as well as ESXi VAAI.

The features enhance Thecus OS5, adding snapshot backup functionality as well as allowing ESXi virtualization storage tasks to be offloaded to the NAS. In addition, USB backup functionality has been improved with bi-directional copying available.

BTRFS Snapshots
As BTRFS becomes popular, owners can enjoy support for this file system. With BTRFS, storage features such as snapshot backups are native to the file system rather than requiring external drivers or software. This means enhanced storage functionality while simplifying storage management.

With BTRFS support, users can enjoy the simplicity of snapshot backups. Through BTRFS subvolumes, snapshots of data at various time points can be manually or automatically made and later restored to rollback files or folders to previous states.

ESXi VAAI
Users of the virtualization hypervisor, ESXi, can appreciate support for VAAI. vSphere storage APIs for array integration allows storage operations in the virtualization platform to be offloaded to networked storage, improving overall performance of the VDI.

USB Backup
With the ubiquity of USB storage, the ability to backup USB and external HDDs to NAS has been a feature. Users will also be able to backup the other way around. The updates allow data from the NAS to be backed up onto USB attached storage, helping users keep their multiple backups up-to-date.

For users of NAS, latest software can be downloaded following the instructions for the appropriate model.