FreeNAS Mini XL Launched

Today iXsystems announced the FreeNAS Mini XL. iXsystems is the company behind TrueNAS enterprise storage appliances and the popular FreeNAS NAS OS. Now with 8x 3.5″ hard drive bays this little NAS system brings with it capacity capabilities rivaling many off the shelf NAS units from Synology, QNAP, Drobo and others. Where the FreeNAS Mini XL differentiates itself is that unlike many of other vendor’s desktop NAS systems, the FreeNAS Mini XL has features one would expect to see on real servers. An example of this is an IPMI 2.0 compliant interface which allows out of band management of a server. The FreeNAS Mini XL is based on FreeBSD and uses ZFS as its storage engine. It can have a dedicated ZIL or L2ARC SSD added to increase performance. Suffice to say this is one awesome little (or XL) box.

Based on the pictures and specs, we would speculate that the FreeNAS Mini XL is based on an Intel C2750 processor and is using a new, customized chassis with the Mini XL. The motherboard (via available pictures) appears to be an ASRock Rack C2750D4I we reviewed previously on STH. I still use that board in my personal FreeBSD NAS and it has performed very well over the years. You can find the units and upgrades for L2ARC, ZIL and 10Gb LAN on the iXsystems’ Amazon storefront.

Here are the quick specs:

• Case – 4-bay (Mini), 8-bay (Mini XL) enclosure w/locking front bezel
• Maximum Storage Capacity – Up to 24TB depending on RAID layout (Mini) Up to 48TB depending on RAID layout (Mini XL)
• Memory – 16GB DDR3 ECC (upgradable to 32GB) 32GB DDR3 ECC
• RAID Level – RAID-Z1 (RAID-5), RAID-Z2 (RAID-6), ZFS Mirror (RAID-10), ZFS Stripe
• RAID Engine – ZFS
• Network – 2 x 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port (10 Gigabit Ethernet optional) Dedicated RJ-45 IPMI Port (Remote Hardware Management)
• Hard Drive Trays – 4 x SATA 3.5” Hot-Swappable Drive Bays (Mini) 8 x SATA 3.5” Hot-Swappable Drive Bays (Mini XL) 2 x SATA 2.5″ Internal Drive Bays (high performance cache drives available)
• Power Supply – 100V to 240V AC
• Power Frequency – 50/60 Hz, Single Phase
• Power Consumption – Without Drives: 24W idle 4 x WD Red NAS Drives: 37W idle; 47W @ max load (Mini) 8 x WD Red NAS Drives: 60W idle; 80W @ max load (Mini XL)
• User Control Interface – Web Browser and Remote Hardware Management
• Dimension (in.) – 8.40″ W x 11.0 ” D x 9.45″ H (213 x 280 x 240mm) – Mini 8.40″ W x 11.0 ” D x 15.10″ H (213 x 280 x 383mm) – Mini XL
• Weight (lb) – 10.8lb (without drives) – Mini 23.15lb (without drives) – Mini XL
• Certifications – CE, FCC, UL, RoHS
• Burn-In – Standard iXsystems Server Burn-In
• Limited Warranty – 1 Year Hardware
• Package Contents – FreeNAS Mini (1) Power Cord (1) Quick Start Guide (1) Case Door Key (2) Removable Disk Tray (4) – Mini Removable Disk Tray (8) – Mini XL