Release of QNAP and ULINK DA Drive Analyzer, an AI-powered tool for predicting drive failures on NAS

QNAP has launched the DA Drive Analyzer in collaboration with ULINK Technology. By utilizing cloud-based artificial intelligence, this drive failure prediction tool enables users to take proactive measures to avoid server downtime and data loss by replacing drives prior to failure. 

The DA Drive Analyzer leverages statistics generated from ULINK's cloud AI portal. Driven by historical usage data of millions of drives provided by users just like yourself, the DA Drive Analyzer's drive health prediction applies machine learning to track historical behaviors and is able to find drive failure events that won't be flagged by traditional diagnostics tools that rely on S.M.A.R.T. thresholds. Its user interface is also much more friendly and intuitive, allowing you to make plans to replace drives based on clearly defined drive information.

"Artificial Intelligence is a new technology that has tackled many real-life problems. By applying this technology to disk failure prediction, ULINK can actively and continuously monitor drives, detect problems, predict failures, and notify end users with our unique cloud-based data processing system. We are fortunate to have worked with QNAP to create this service, and we believe that many will benefit from it," said Joseph Chen, CEO of ULINK Technology.

"As a leading storage vendor, QNAP is acutely aware that potential server down time is a critical concern for QNAP NAS users and sudden drive failure is one of its primary causes. We are honored to have the chance to partner with ULINK to develop the DA Drive Analyzer to help users, especially IT staff who must manage large numbers of NAS devices. We envision that the DA Drive Analyzer will be a great assist to users looking to build advanced Disaster Recovery plans," said Tim Lin, product manager of QNAP.Compatibility

• NAS: All QNAP NAS with QTS 5.0 / QuTS hero h5.0 (or later) are supported. All QNAP expansion units (except the TR series) are also supported. Please note that the DA Drive Analyzer requires Internet access.
• Drives: SAS and NVMe drives are not currently supported by the DA Drive Analyzer. Some SATA drives may not be supported due to firmware or manufacturer settings. Please check the supported model lists provided by ULINK or use the in-app function to check the supported drive models after installing the DA Drive Analyzer app.

The DA Drive Analyzer can be downloaded from the App Center. A free trial of DA Drive Analyzer can be enjoyed (until March 5, 2022) by those who sign up for an annual subscription