Ubiquiti has launched the UNAS Pro 8, a 2U rackmount NAS engineered for high-capacity, low-latency environments. Unlike its smaller UniFi siblings, this system prioritizes redundancy, 10GbE networking, and scalability—making it a candidate for labs, enterprise edge storage, and shared workloads.
The Pro 8 features eight 3.5-inch drive bays (supporting 2.5-inch drives via trays) and two M.2 NVMe slots for caching. A quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 CPU at 2.0GHz and 16GB of RAM handle concurrent access, while dual hot-swappable 550W PSUs ensure uptime. Networking includes two 10G SFP+ ports and a 10G RJ45 with auto-negotiation down to 100Mbps.
- Dimensions: 17.4 × 18.9 × 3.4 inches (2U)
- Max power draw: 250W (PSUs rated at 550W)
- Networking: 2 × 10G SFP+, 1 × 10G RJ45
- Storage: 8 × 3.5-inch bays, 2 × M.2 NVMe
- Cooling: Dual rear fans with adjustable profiles
- Weight: 25.35 lbs
- Price: $799
Design and redundancy stand out. The SGCC steel chassis lacks frills—no front display or RGB—but emphasizes airflow and serviceability. Tool-less drive trays and side-mounted rack ears simplify installation. The NVMe slots (sold separately) allow SSD caching without consuming primary bays, while the redundant PSUs can be swapped without downtime.
UniFi Drive’s interface reflects the Pro 8’s enterprise focus. A dashboard shows system health, CPU temps, and 24-hour throughput graphs. Storage pools (e.g., RAID 6) are configured via a straightforward UI, with per-share snapshots, compression, and granular permissions. Backups can target other UNAS units, SMB servers, or cloud services, with scheduling for incremental or full replacements.
Performance testing with FIO (using 30TB Seagate IronWolf drives in RAID 6 and 1TB NVMe cache) revealed
- Sequential reads: 2.2GB/s peak (near 20GbE saturation)
- Sequential writes: Async cache hit 515MB/s; sync no-cache stalled at 40MB/s
- 4K random reads: Sync cache peaked at 23.5K IOPS; async no-cache stayed under 1K
- 4K random writes: Async cache maxed at 3.8K IOPS; sync no-cache barely cleared 0.06K
Latency spikes under load were expected for HDD-based random writes, but caching mitigated worst-case scenarios. The Pro 8 excels in async workloads, where caching and 10GbE connectivity shine.
Who should buy it? The Pro 8 targets users needing
- High-density storage (8 drives in 2U)
- Redundant power and hot-swap drives
- NVMe caching for mixed workloads
- 10GbE connectivity without enterprise NAS costs
Smaller UniFi NAS users upgrading to more drives or redundancy will find it a logical step. Those requiring 8K media transcoding or heavy compute workloads may still need a separate server.
What’s next depends on Ubiquiti’s roadmap. Future updates could expand UniFi Drive’s features—such as deeper AI-based deduplication or support for newer NVMe standards. For now, the Pro 8 fills a gap between consumer NAS and high-end storage arrays.
