Synology Rackstation RS2211+ Review

1. Introduction2. Synology Rackstation RS2211+3. Synology Rackstation RS2211+ (Super High Res Gallery)4. The DiskManager Operating System (3.2)5. Testing Methodology & Performance6. Acoustics, Temperatures and Power Drain7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Today we are looking at another RackStation from Synology – the RS2211+, targeting a demanding business oriented demographic. We reviewed the RS3411xs last month and were extremely impressed. Can the less expensive family sibling maintain the high standards we expect from Synology?

When compared directly against the flagship RS3411xs, the RS2211+ is a more modest performance NAS system aimed at small to medium sized businesses with dual LAN connections, and support for up to 22 drives when used in conjunction with the RX1211 drive bay.

Product overview:

• Windows ADS and ACL Support
• iSCSI Support as Virtualization Solution
• Scale up to 22 Drives with Synology RX1211/RX1211RP2
• Expandable RAM Size (up to 3GB)
• 2 LAN with Failover and Link Aggregation Support
• Hot-swappable Hard Drive Design
• Running on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)

The RackStation RS2211+ arrives in a huge, heavy, plain brown box with the name of the product visible on a sticker at the front.

The RS2211+ is extremely well protected between thick cardboard and foam surrounds. There is a supplementary box also supplied with the product.

This box contains literature on the product, a region specific power cable, hard drive mounting screws and the software required for installation. We do advise customers to download the latest version of the DSM software from the Synology support section of their website.

The front of the RS2211+ has 10 drive bays, 3 rows of three in a vertical configuration, and a single unit under the main control panel at the right.

The front of the unit contains a power button, beep off button and LED indicators for networking activity and troubleshooting.

At the rear, there is a power connector and switch, a cooling fan for the power supply, 4 USB ports and two GB Lan ports. There is also a RESET button, and an expansion port connector for the optional RX1211 drive bay (a total of 22 drives).

We are pleased that Synology have adopted the high quality metal drive bays. They are designed to withstand serious long term abuse. The inside of the drive bays has a black felt protective cover to ensure that the electronics of the hard drives never come into direct contact with the metal support beams underneath.

The RS2211+ is built like a tank – a total metal construction. As such it is a hefty piece of equipment to lug around, weighing 12.2kg without the drives installed. The engineering standards of the drive bay are exact (to the millimeter), and each drive slots into place perfectly.

We used 10 Samsung 500GB drives for the install, and it only took 10 minutes to complete the mounting of all drives. They lock into place with the levers.

Opening the RS2211+ is easy, simply remove a couple of screws at the rear, and pull back on the top panel. Inside we are greeted with a 1.8ghz Dual core Intel processor, and 1GB of DDR2 memory. If 1GB isn't enough, then it is expandable up to 3GB.

Synology certainly aren't cutting any corners, the whole unit is powered by a substantial Seasonic 500W power supply, which is 80 Plus Bronze Certified.

In the middle of the chassis is a row of four YSTECH fans which help push a substantial amount of air across the motherboard and ten hard drives at the front.

The power supply directly feeds the front daughtercard via a plethora of molex connectors.

The motherboard has three specially designed SATA cables which connect to each row of drives on the daughtercard at the front of the RS2211+.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

A very important aspect of a NAS system purchase is the operating system. We have covered the Synology DiskManager Operating system many times before and it is a pleasure to use. It is a multi threaded, multi tasking configuration which is continually improving.

Today we are looking at Version 3.2, released only a few days ago, which offers the following improvements:

• Business convergence and management efficiency – Synology’s comprehensive LDAP service incorporates the abilities to create an LDAP directory server and to integrate a DiskStation into users’ existing Mac® or Linux environments for easy account & privilege control. Syslog Server gathers all logs aggregated from multiple devices and facilitates troubleshooting with different types of search criteria. CIFS files in different servers can be shared via the same access portal using Remote Folder. Virtual Drive makes it convenient to mount distributed ISO images onto a DiskStation.
• Business’ mobility – DSM mobile realises server management mobility. IT administrators can slide fingers left or right to enable or disable services as well as manage accounts and privileges of DiskStations on their iOS or Android™ devices. DSM 3.2 supports Google Cloud Print™, with which users can print documents from their mobile devices to distantly located printers over the Internet, without installing any drivers.
• Rich multimedia experience – The brand new Photo Station 5 features a theme designer for album customisation and accelerates thumbnail generation. Users can strike a balance between their privacy and social life by protecting selected albums with passwords and importing photos to Facebook with support expanded to major file hosting sites, Download Station accelerates file hunting.
• Mac-friendly solutions – Synology is among the first in the NAS industry to support Mac® OS X Lion and provides a reliable backup destination for Time Machine®. Surveillance Station has taken the lead by operating on the latest Safari® browser, delivering an easy to deploy and cost effective NVR solution on Mac. Moreover, camera grouping and batch editing as well as common privilege profile grants rapid large scale deployment.
• Enhanced user experience – The revamped Package Centre allows users to discover and install latest applications in a snap. Package Centre also makes it easy to update users’ selected applications after they receive desktop or e-mail notifications. DSM 3.2 incorporates advanced HTML5 capabilities and CSS3 style, engaging users through drag-n-drop support in File Browser and Download Station, and allowing them to upload files from their PC desktop. Synology Hybrid RAID makes volume ready for use 95% faster than before.

When the NAS system is first started, it is in an unconfigured state as shown above via the Synology Assistant. Simply download the latest PAT file – which at time of publication is ‘DSM_RS2211+_1922.pat'.

The PAT file can be browsed to directly from the Assistant software.

The install procedure takes around 5-10 minutes and then the system can be assessed directly via a browser with the default login of ‘admin' (no password). The software supports all major browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome. All screenshots are taken from Firefox on Windows 7 64 bit.

The control panel is the main interface panel, however we need to first configure the installed hard drives and then set up shared folders.

Setting up drive configurations is straightforward. Depending on how many drives are installed, the software allows for Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6 and RAID 10 configurations. Raid 5, Raid 5+ Spare and Raid 6 can be expanded on the fly, by adding new drives to the system. We have 10 drives installed in the images above.

Thanks to the multi tasking operating system and powerful dual core processor, multiple RAID configurations can be set up simultaneously.

There are many options to tune and configure, including audible alerts and blocking DOS attacks. There is also a handy resource monitor which can be set to run all the time. The software is multitasking capable so multiple windows and tasks can be run simultaneously. The more expensive RS3411xs was shipped with a 3.1 ghz dual core processor, the RS2211+ has a 1.8ghz dual core, and it feels almost as responsive.

Folders and users can be set up within specific panels. 4096 users can be configured and 512 groups can also be set up with 512 shared folders. This unit can handle 1024 concurrent connections, which is double the count of the excellent DS1511+. Ideal for a demanding business environment.

Shared folders can be accessed across the network after the configuration is set up. A point worth noting is that every Synology device on a network defaults to the identify of ‘RackStation’ or ‘DiskStation’ meaning that the network will only recognise one of the NAS units if the names are left to the default setting. A simple renaming is needed if you are using more than one Diskstation across the same network. Synology should really use the identity of the PAT file to give each NAS system a unique identifier, automatically.

There is a theme manager to allow the interface to be adjusted to suit personal tastes. The default blue is our favourite however.

The RS2211+ has two gigabit lan connections, unlike the more expensive RS3411xs, which has four. This unit also supports link aggregation however.

The DiskManager software offers many applications for media and networking support. Photo station supports BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf,
3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f image formats and 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 video formats.

The DNLA/UPnP Media Server can support both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless audio formats. 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR and WMA3 video formats. It also can handle BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f ) image formats.

iTunes Server is also supported with MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF audio formats, M4V, MOV and MP4 video formats and M3U, WPL Playlist Format. Two printers can be hooked into the system supporting LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk and Multi Functional Print Server.

If all this isn’t enough it also offers the following iPhone and Android applications.: DS Photo+, DS Audio, DS Cam, DS File (iPhone only) and DS finder (iPhone only).

Survelliance station is a useful feature, especially for a business. Users can hook an IP camera into the unit with support for up to 40 cameras (licenses required).

The software really is indepth and we have touched on many of the major features, but a new user would be advised to carefully read through the literature, as there are many features to cater to a wide audience.

The package center allows for third party software to be installed, directly into the unit, from the browser.

We are basing our network around two linked Belkin 1Gbit switches with 2x Gbit LAN connections to the RS2211+.

We are using three separate RAID 0 configurations across 10x500gb (1 x 2TB Raid 0 (4 drives) & 2 x 1.5TB Raid 0 (two sets of 3 drives)) hard drives set into a 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation configuration. This enables multiple connections to be linked in parallel to increase the link speed beyond the limits of any one single cable or port and to increase the redundancy for higher availability.

Most implementations now conform to what used to be clause 43 of IEEE 802.3-2005 Ethernet standard, usually still referred to by its working group name of “IEEE 802.3ad”. The definition of link aggregation has since moved to a standalone IEEE 802.1AX standard.

We are opening 9 connections and copying 3 big files to each of the Raid 0 drive configurations. To try and mirror a business environment we set up three local machines with 120GB ADATA S511 SSD drives to ensure that no local drive limiting will be a problem. Each of these drives are transferring multiple files, back and forward.

We managed to get a maximum performance throughput of 197 MB/s when reading files from the RS2211+.

A final throughput of around 165MB/s when writing files to the RackStation RS2211+. Very good all round performance results via two connections.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise was measured from half a meter away with 10x 500GB drives installed.

The RS2211+ is significantly quieter than the higher performance RS3411xs, thanks to the reduced internal ambient temperatures.

With the ten 500 gb hard drives installed, the NAS system demands just under 130 watts when all drives are busy dealing with data transfers.

For temperature testing, our room environment was maintained at 23c with air conditioning.

The fans aren't quite as active as a similar configuration in the RS3411xs product. The temperatures remain much the same however thanks to a lower performance demand on the individual hard drive platters.

As expected, the Synology RackStation RS2211+ is a very high performing NAS system for a small to medium sized business. We couldn't expect the same levels of staggering performance as experienced with the RS3411xs, which actually managed to outperform our network! The RS2211+ is more modestly priced and delivers noticeably lower performance.

The build quality is without question, being constructed completely from metal, including the drive trays. We appreciate the attention to detail, including felt pads on the trays to ensure long term electronic safety.

For a small or growing business this product would make an ideal purchase decision as it has the capability to grow as the business expands. By adding the optional RX1211 drive bay, the total drive support increases from 10 to 22 drives.

While the RS3411xs retails for over £2,000 in the UK, the RS2211+ is priced between £1,300 and £1,400 from leading stores such as Scan, Dabs, UK Insight and Misco.

Synology have pieced the RS2211+ together to withstand some seriously hardcore working environments and the interior has clearly been developed to offer plenty of airflow with secure routing. The new operating system is faster than the previous version, helped along by the capable dual core 1.8ghz processor in the RS2211+. Long term stability is guaranteed thanks to the inclusion of a high quality 500W Seasonic power supply with 80 Plus Bronze Certification.

Pros:

• Built like a tank.
• fast dual core processor.
• huge storage potential, and with optional drive bay, it is expandable.
• Diskmanager operating system keeps improving.
• quieter than the higher performance RS3411xs.
• Seasonic 500W power supply included.

Cons:

• no security locking system.
• significantly slower than the (more expensive) RS3411xs.

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