Nass Big and Small
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superguide » network-attached storage NAS BOX OS All NASs REVIEWS big and small Nathan Taylor tests a bevy of the latest two-, six-, seven- and eight- bay network-attached storage boxes. ith all the stuff we’re USED IN: NETGEAR NAS BOXES USED IN: QNAP DEVICES downloading these days, most of us need a little extra storage capacity. WSure, you can crack your PC and Netgear install extra hard drives, or start attaching USB drives, but eventually ReadyNAS QNAP you run out of room. A NAS is frequently a better investment, making downloaded media, personal OS 6.2 QTS 4.1 photos and videos, and other shared media accessible to all. Given their etgear’s ReadyNAS OS sits TS remains hands down our inbuilt support for RAID, they also somewhere between the favourite NAS OS, rivalled only make excellent platforms for securing extreme flexibility of QNAP by Synology. It’s powerful and your data against drive failures. and the simple interface of feature-rich, but manageable Most NASs these days also offer a lot NSeagate. It uses a straightforward Qfor those with no networking experience. more than file sharing. They’re fully- tabbed interface, although it’s not as Running on Linux, QTS presents to the fledged server platforms, capable of accessible as these platforms. There’s user as an operating system within your transcoding video on the fly, serving an expectation that you know a little browser, with movable and resizable web sites, automatically managing and about networking and user and windows and all. Components are recording feeds from IP cameras and volume management, and it’s not the logically arranged into windows: one for even in some cases, being platforms for friendliest platform for new users. volume management, for example, and virtualisation. On the other hand, it does have another for apps. That last is the real This month we’ve taken a look at something of the extensibility of QNAP strength of QTS. There’s a huge array of two-bay NASs as well as six-, seven- and and Synology’s OSes, with a wide application modules that you can install eight-bay monsters – for people who variety of installable apps, including into the operating system. Every type of need either a little extra storage or a TV servers, download managers, server app you can pretty much imagine whole lot. But before we do that, we’re streaming apps and an IP camera (and many you can’t) is there. Adding going to take a quick look at the surveillance manager, which is weaker them is simply a matter of browsing the operating systems they use. than QNAP and Synology’s alternative. app menu and installing the ones you There is some good stuff here — not want. Installed apps can be enabled or HOW WE TESTED as much as QNAP, but worth adding in. disabled at will. For each device, we performed a simple Its true strength is in its cloud and The first party apps are very strong copy test and measured both the write backup support. Netgear’s cloud access as well. Video Station (which offers live and the read speed, in megabytes per apps for mobiles are excellent, and it transcoding) and Surveillance Station second (MB/s). All tests were performed has a VPN access service baked into (for viewing and managing live IP using Seagate NAS HDD 4TB drives. the OS for secure access to your NAS cameras) are particular highlights. In the two-bay devices, we tested the from anywhere. The automated backup For high-end boxes, there’s even a devices in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode. For apps are also best in class. virtualisation platform, into which you the six- to eight-bay devices we created Overall, it’s an OS that could be can install client OSes and run them a RAID 5 setup comprising three drives. better designed, but it’s certainly through a browser or directly if the NAS Because we used different RAID types, not lacking in features. had an HDMI port. the results aren’t directly comparable between the two and six+ results — although it most cases the differences are academic. An awful lot of the NASs Verdict Verdict have reached the point where they effectively max out a Gigabit Ethernet link at just over 100MB/s. 54 www.apcmag.com USED IN: SEAGATE NAS DEVICES USED IN: SYNOLOGY AND IOSAFE NASS USED IN: WD NAS DEVICES Synology Seagate DiskStation WD My NAS OS 4 Manager 5.2 Cloud OS nother OS built on embedded uilt on the same foundation ike Seagate, WD focuses on Linux, the Seagate NAS OS as QNAP’s OS, DiskStation simplicity over extensibility. focuses more on ease of use Manager (DSM) wears its The core interface is a simple than flexibility, with an Linuxness on its sleeve. and attractive tabbed affair Aextremely simple interface compared BAs with QNAP, when you log on you Las opposed to the virtual desktops of to the windowed options your find in literally get a full desktop interface, QNAP and Synology, and the entire QNAP or Synology devices. It’s not with windows and all. management process is guided by built for someone who wants to run a Its strength is a combination of wizards and help systems. Indeed, million apps; it’s made for people who flexibility and ease of use. Synology it hasn’t really changed all that just want a file server. walks you through the basics and much since the days of the original The list of installable apps is makes adding and managing add-ons ShareSpace, and that’s not really a extremely short for the platform. At easy. And there are lots of add-ons to bad thing. It’s just easy. the time of testing, there were just 10, explore, from surveillance systems, A number of core extras are built into including Plex, a surveillance manager, to IP PBX managers, web servers, the OS. There are P2P downloading along with several sync and online video transcoders, streaming servers, tools, cloud access for remote and backup apps. peer-to-peer (P2P) downloaders, mobile users, backup services to The OS supports RAID levels up to 6, antivirus scanners and more. It doesn’t cloud and USB, and user and volume as well as Seagate SimplyRAID model, seem to have quite QNAPs range of management. There are also a small which is essentially a variation on RAID first-party or third-party add-ons, but handful (13 at the time of writing) of 5 with extendable flexibility. Volumes it has most of it. third-party apps you can install on the can be encrypted, although you do take The interface itself is easy to platform — Plex, a few P2P apps and a a performance hit, of course. navigate, with common tool tips and couple of streaming apps. There are a To go along with the OS, Seagate also live help as well as a highly few useful things in there, but nothing provides Sdrive for desktop and mobile customisable appearance. that will blow your socks off. platforms. This uses Seagate’s cloud Notifications can be configured and If you prefer to manage your NAS service to access the contents of your current load and volume usage is through simple switches and on/off NAS from anywhere. It’s a somewhat readily visible. options, WD My Cloud OS gets it done. raw app, but it works well. If you want a million apps, you won’t find them here. Verdict Verdict Verdict www.apcmag.com 55 NOTE: TWO-BAY DEVICES WERE TESTED IN RAID 1 (MIRRORED MODE). SIX- AND EIGHT-BAY DEVICES superguide » network-attached storage WERE TESTED USING A THREE-DRIVE RAID 5 SETUP LABS TEST RESULTS WRITE (MB/S) READ (MB/S) WRITE (MB/S) READ (MB/S) PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE RESULTS 55.4 84.9 RESULTS 94.2 107.3 $170 (DISKLESS) | WWW.DLINK.COM.AU $1050 | IOSAFE.COM Bays: 2; Processor and memory: unspecified (ARM-based); Connectivity: one Bays: 2; Processor and memory: 1.06GHz Dual-Core ARM, 512MB RAM; Gigabit Ethernet port, one USB 3.0 port; OS: D-Link ShareCenter OS Connectivity: one Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0; OS: Synology DSM TWO-BAY NASs D-Link Share Center DNS-327L ioSafe 214 A basic, affordable NAS. Physical security for peace of mind. he DNS-327L is Essentially, what you get here most NASs On the upside, it does use made of very light in the box is what you get. have some Synology’s excellent DSM plastic, which Still, the user and volume features built operating system, and makes it more management is capable and in for data configured in Synology’s Tportable but substantially comprehensive, and there is Wsecurity, ioSafe appliances Hybrid RAID (SHR) mode, less durable than most. It’s some useful surveillance, are also built for physical the drive essentially maxed also quiet and relatively backup and automated security. Like an airplane out the Gigabit Ethernet easy to install drives into download software built black box, the ioSafe 214 is network on both read and — you just pop the top and into the core OS. built so that it can come write operations, which is slide them down. Getting This is a device that’s through fire and water an excellent. But we’re not drives out isn’t so easy, made to be affordable. There exposure without harming sure it has the horsepower however, and you risk the are no bells and whistles the drives inside. If the to run some of Synology’s very existence of your here, just a device for NAS is destroyed, ioSafe’s more resource-heavy apps.