Networking Gear by stefan @ 2015-05-12
Synology has amazed us again with one of their latest NAS server releases, the DS415+, which is built around the Intel Rangeley platform which incorporates the Atom C2538 SoC (4C/4T Silvermont Cores @ 2.4GHz) which is paired with 2GB of DDR3 RAM.
At first we would like to thank Synology for offering a sample of their DS415+ 4-bay NAS Server for testing and reviewing.
"Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families."
High-speed data transfer and hardware encryption engine
Equipped with a quad-core processor and AES-NI hardware encryption engine, DS415+ delivers blazingly fast file transfer speeds – even when handling encrypted data. With Link Aggregation enabled, DS415+ delivers average reading and writing speeds of 225.81 MB/s and 223.86 MB/s respectively1, while encrypted file transfers retain an astoundingly similar level of performance, exceeding 225.84 MB/s reading and 171.82 MB/s writing. That means you can safeguard data without sacrificing performance.
Dual LAN ports for failover and Link Aggregation support
Equipped with two Ethernet ports featuring failover and Link Aggregation support, DS415+ ensures continual network uptime even if LAN connection malfunction occurs on one port, reducing the chance of service disruption and costly downtime. Link Aggregation improves connection speeds beyond the limits of a single network cable or port.
Easy installation, hassle-free maintenance
Easy installation and hot-swappable hard drive support ensures easy maintenance and continuous service uptime should a hard drive need replacement. In addition, DS415+ incorporates a passive cooling design to reduce dependency on the dedicated processor cooling fan, thus mitigating any critical point of failure. When the system detects a fan failure, the built-in redundancy mechanism ensures continuous operation until the replacement fan arrives.
USB 3.0 and eSATA ensure speedy transfers to external storage
DS415+ boasts USB 3.0, USB 2.0, and eSATA ports to connect to various kinds of external storage devices, while ensuring fast and efficient file transfer speeds. Support for USB 3.0 offers transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps (about 10 times faster than USB 2.0), meaning it takes less time to transfer data to external hard drives, while also consuming less power.
Award winning OS - DiskStation Manager
Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) is a sleek, browser-based operating system running on every DiskStation and RackStation, which makes managing your Synology NAS a breeze. Featuring an intuitive user interface, DSM makes accessing and sharing your data smarter and simpler. Synology's Package Center lets you download and install useful add-on packages designed specifically for individual or business needs, meaning you can enjoy more entertainment in your life or better productivity at work.
Seamless storage solution for virtualization environments
DS415+ provides seamless storage solutions for virtualization environments, including VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft Hyper-V. With VMware vSphere® 5 & VAAI integration, DS415+ helps offload specific storage operations and optimizes computation power in VMware environments. Windows ODX support speeds up data manipulation as the data transfer is offloaded. iSCSI also lets SMB users consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts with the illusion of locally-attached disks.
Fit into business environments easily
With the support of Windows AD, LDAP, and Domain Trust, DS415+ enables seamless account integration. The User Home feature can automatically create a "home" folder for every user account to minimize the administrator's effort in repeatedly creating "home" folders for all accounts. Windows ACL support on DS415+ allows IT administrators to fine tune access controls and set up privileges to files and folders on DS415+ through the familiar Windows user interface. With compatibility for major protocols, DS415+ can eliminate server configuration overhead and enhance IT administrators’ efficiency.
Optimize storage management
With Synology's Storage Manager, DS415+ allows for flexible storage deployment and utilization. You can optimize RAID configuration with Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) while providing redundant data protection. Other features such as multiple volumes on single RAID and Global Hot Spare also greatly enhance management efficiency and fit deployment of any kind.
The most compatible sharing
Enjoy seamless files sharing across Windows®, Mac®, and Linux® platforms as DS415+ offers comprehensive network protocol support including FTP, SMB2, AFP, NFS and WebDAV. With Windows AD and LDAP integration, DS415+ can fit effortlessly into any existing network environment - there is no need for IT administrators to maintain two sets of credentials. You also won't worry about missing files with the Recycle Bin feature which is supported on AFP, CIFS, File Station, and WebDAV. All files deleted in a shared folder will be automatically moved into the Recycle Bin.
Effective backup solution
Synology DS415+ can serve as a centralized backup target. Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, you can back up everything on your computer directly to Synology NAS using Cloud Station. Whenever you modify a file, the changes are backed up to DS415+ automatically. Mac users also enjoy native Apple® Time Machine support. You can also back up data from your DS415+ to another DiskStation, rsync servers, external drives, or even Amazon® S3, Glacier cloud service, Microsoft Azure, SFR, and hicloud. "Backup & Replication" allows you to schedule backup tasks and restore the server to any particular point in time, while minimizing storage consumption and processing time by saving only the specific data block that has been changed between versions.
All-in-One server
Offering rich office applications, DS415+ can serve as your multi-function server. With add-on packages Mail Server and Mail Station, DS415+ can become a dedicated mail server, and let you enjoy complete webmail service. DS415+ can become a VPN server or VPN client. The comprehensive VPN service let you access resources remotely while maintaining security protocols. As a printer server, DS415+ minimizes businesses' operating costs by sharing printing resources throughout the office. Administration and network tools, such as DNS Server, Directory Server, RADIUS Server, DHCP Server, and Log Center help you manage IT deployment and policies more efficiently. Maximize resource utilization with DS415+!
Ensuring business continuity
Uninterrupted availability is a critical goal for all businesses. DS415+ supports Synology High Availability (SHA) technology which combines an active and passive server into one cluster, the former always mirrored to the latter. The Heartbeat mechanism detects regular "heartbeats" between the two servers. If the main server encounters unexpected downtime, the passive server immediately takes over. With multiple LAN ports, DS415+ also ensures redundancy in the event of unexpected network failure.
Increase business productivity with cloud solutions
With comprehensive cloud solutions, DS415+ lets you create your own private cloud easily. Cloud Station is the perfect package to sync files across multiple devices. Files can be edited in offline mode and later synced to Cloud Station, which keeps up to 32 historical versions, allowing you to restore a file back to previous version or recover deleted files. With the mobile app DS cloud, any change made to a file is automatically synced to your smartphones and tablets. For distributed enterprises, Synology's 2-way sync between different DiskStations ensures employees at different locations share the same information in real-time. IT administrators can handpick individual folders that they want to sync to different devices, manually or automatically based on file format and size. Folders synced by Cloud Station can be encrypted on DSM — no one will be able to access its content without your private key.
Secure your data
DS415+ offers advanced security measures to protect you from potential security holes. Security Advisor analyzes system settings, password strength, network preferences and removes any possible malware. AppArmor blocks malicious programs from accessing unauthorized system resources. You can also customize the trust level in Package Center to avoid installing packages from untrusted sources, safeguarding your NAS from unknown or tampered files. In addition, DS415+ provides other security add-ons, such as AES encryption, 2-Step verification, IP block & allow list, Antivirus packages, firewall, and DoS attack prevention.
Eco-friendly NAS server
All Synology NAS is designed with energy efficiency in mind. DS415+ only consumes 14.78W in HDD Hibernation and 32.64W in access. The support of Wake on LAN/WAN and scheduled power on and off can further reduce power consumption and operation cost. Synology acknowledges the responsibility as a global citizen, so all Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials.
In this article we will be reviewing one of the latest NAS servers from Synology, the 4-bay DS415+, which incorporates the Intel Rangeley platform and in more detail we are dealing with the Atom C2538 SoC (4C/4T Silvermont Cores @ 2.4GHz) which is paired with 2GB of DDR3 RAM; the product comes in a medium-sized cardboard box, with the iconic color scheme and is also provided with a plastic handle for easy transportation:
On the sides of the packaging, Synology is showing us some of the functionalities DS415+ can have:
A smaller sticker is also included here, which describes some of the internal hardware, along with the package contents:
After lifting the top cover, we will end up reading a small text box, which informs us to check some online resources:
As before, the NAS bundle is carefully placed in separate areas:
Besides the power lead, we will get an extra plain cardboard box, which we will check in just a minute:
Here we will find the power brick, two LAN cables, screws for mounting 2.5’’ drives, but also a Quick Installation Guide:
The power brick was manufactured by PGB and is rated on the output as 12V, 8.33A:
The Quick Installation Guide will give us the basics on how to get everything started fast:
The bottom layer of the packaging comes with the NAS itself, which has an extra protection layer, to avoid scratches during transit:
A quick look at the DS415+ tells us that Synology has remained trustful to their 4-bay iconic plastic enclosure, which has been used for years and years now:
In the front we will get to see the drive bay cover which is made from shiny black plastic, and also some interfaces on the right:
With the bay cover removed, we will be able to expose the trays and Synology has saw fit to also show the booting order via small white dots on top of each tray:
On the right side we will get to see the system Status LED, but also the LEDs for each installed HDD/SSD:
Further down, we will get to see an USB 2.0 port along with the Power button with LED:
After the removal of all plastic trays, we will be able to look inside and see the small daughterboard which houses the SATA Data/Power connectors:
The trays have an identical design to the models we have tested before from Synology, but have a very clever design; installation of 3.5’’ drives is tool-less, only 2.5’’ drives need additional screws:
On the sides we also have rubber grommets and screw holes if we do not want to benefit from the tool-less design and opt-in for using screws anyway:
Here are the removable plastic components on each side of the tray:
On the bottom area we will be able to spot four pre-drilled holes for the 2.5’’ drives:
Moving back to the chassis, we will be able to spot the Synology logos on the sides, which also works as ventilation grills:
In the back side of the DS415+ we have two 92mm silent fans, but also some additional interfaces; let’s dig in!
On the left we have the Reset button hole, two Gigabit LAN ports, the Kensington lock port, DC-IN port, one eSATA port, but also two extra USB 3.0 ports:
The right area comes with a sticker with the product power rating, the MAC addresses for both interfaces but also the serial number:
In order to perform the desired tests, we will use our trusty 120GB SSDs:
One way to perform the installation is to get the latest version of the Synology Assistant from the manufacturers’ web page, which will quickly detect our server in order to go on with the rest of the configuration:
Next, we will be asked to specify the path from where we will be able to upload the latest DSM version (also available on the Synology website):
The wizard will then ask for an administrator password, but here we can also customize the server name:
The network configuration can be either set by DHCP or manually:
During the time our settings get applied, we will be presented with a progress screen:
After the wizard is completed, we will be able to connect to the web interface:
First, we will be asked for the user/pass we have set before (admin account):
On the first login, DSM will ask us regarding the update procedure:
In our case, the DSM Update window has popped up in order to address an additional update to the system, which we have applied immediately:
If we haven’t chosen to create a Synology Hybrid Volume during wizard, the system will not have any volumes defined, so we will go to Storage Manager in order to fix this:
Another wizard will be ready for us in order to perform this action with ease:
After the volume has been created, we will be brought back to the Volume tab in order to check the status:
A new shared folder needs to be defined, which will be accessible throughout the network and we will also use it to perform the tests:
After entering up the web interface address in our browser, we will end up seeing the intro screen which prompts for the user/password credentials:
Synology has accustomed us already with their easy to use GUI, which looks like a regular OS desktop, with widgets, a top bar and icons which we can organize on our liking:
The widgets can be removed or added by clicking the top buttons:
On the top bar we have some clickable buttons available:
The external connected devices will appear on the top right corner:
Also, if we have a conversion in progress, we will get the details here:
We also have the Notifications area available:
In the same vicinity, we will be able to access additional options or choose to Restart, Shutdown or Log-out from the interface:
We can easily access all installed applications by accessing the Start button from the top left corner:
The Control Panel section allows us to adjust most of the system-wide settings:
Right after we click on one of the icons, the Control Panel window will re-organize and show the menus on the left side for easy access; let’s begin with the Shared Folder section, which allows us to work with the pre-defined folders or define new ones, along with permissions for each user:
The File Services section allows working with SMB, FTP, TFTP/PXE and more:
The User and Group sections are pretty self-explanatory; here we will be able to define new users and assign them to different groups so they will have different access levels:
We also have the possibility to join a Directory Service from the next menu:
QuickConnect permits us to access the NAS from the outside network, given we provide the necessary credentials; for this we also need to register a MyDS account:
Some extra External Access options can be configured from the next section:
Next we have the Network settings menu, which allows messing with the internal LAN settings, but also connections via Proxy, the ability to enable LAG, establish a PPPoE connection, enable Traffic Control, set up Static Routes and so on:
The Wireless menu takes care of the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth interfaces, in case we have dongles connected on USB:
From the Security area, we can work with certain related-options including Firewall, Protection options, Auto Block and so on:
The Info Center will allow us to see additional details regarding the server, including the model name, CPU type, clock rate, installed memory, DSM version, current time/date, thermal status and more:
From the Network tab we will be able to browse the current configuration:
We also have a Storage tab for checking up the volumes:
The Service tab will allow us to customize permissions for each:
From the Login Style menu, each administrator can customize the intro screen type, add logos and so on:
Next we have the Regional Options menu:
The Terminal & SNMP menu can enable Telnet and SSH services for managing the system:
The Notification menu allows us to work with different systems like Email, SMS, Push Service:
The Task Scheduler section allows us to specify different tasks to be ran without our intervention forward in time; if we have selected the automatic update function at the first initialization, then the task will be also shown here:
The Hardware & Power menu takes care of the Memory Compression technique, Power Recovery, Beep Control feature, Fan speed modes, Power Schedule, HDD Hibernation and more:
External devices will be listed in the next menu:
We have the option to perform updates automatically or manually if we specify the path to the DSM update file from our drive:
Web services are needed for some modules and we can enable them from the next menu:
Privileges can be configured for each installed application:
We can further customize access to applications via the Application Portal menu:
The Media Library section takes care of content indexing and other stuff like conversion; we are warned that only the photos which were placed inside the “photo” shared folder will be added to Photo Station for viewing; this limitation exists for quite some time now:
File Station is one of the well-known applications for browsing the internal server contents and performing certain tasks:
Backup & Replication tasks can be done from the respective application; a wizard will guide us through the process:
EZ-Internet is a DSM feature which allows network configuration modifications in order for our server to be available over the Internet:
The Help section is quite detailed if we need to learn how to use a specific module:
From the Package Center area, we will be able to install a wide range of modules, in order to enhance our server functionality:
Each module is carefully presented with a logo, application details, some screenshots and a small description:
The Resource Monitor application helps keep us tabs on the utilization of the CPU, memory, disk drives, volumes and network resources:
Here we will be able to looks at the currently running processes, connected users and more:
Storage Manager is the first place we will go in order to set up our NAS in terms of volumes; here we have many other options available like Disk Group, iSCSI LUN, iSCSI Target, Hot Spare or SSD Cache:
Currently installed drives are listed in the HDD/SSD tab:
DSM is also equipped with a Text Editor feature for noting different information:
We also have the ability to create a high-availability cluster by combining two Synology servers:
In order to find out more details regarding the system, we can go to Log Center:
Security Advisor scans the current system in order to find vulnerabilities:
We can submit support tickets right from the DSM interface:
Download Station is drag-and-drop enabled for ease of use:
The Audio Station app will sort the audio files which have been previously indexed and display them for easy playback:
The application is also able to browse online radio stations thanks to SHOUTcast:
Photo Station 6 will display the contents found inside the “photo” folder, after the thumbnails have been generated, which can take quite some time; here we can define new albums, adjust themes, do slideshows and so on:
Cloud Station works along with our QuickConnect ID and permits data sync between different devices:
Video Station is going to pick up the indexed content and show it to us after Internet services have been queried:
The video files will playback in a separate browser window:
A more advanced word processor, Note Station can be also installed:
We also have Media Server available for streaming multimedia content to other devices:
iTunes server has a simplified interface:
CPU : Intel I7 3750K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 OC
RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11
(2GB Exceleram DDR1333 for NASPT compatibility)
Video : Sparkle GeForce GTX 560 Calibre
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD
Case: Cooler Master ATCS840
To test the NAS performances, the DS415+ was populated with one OCZ Vertex 4 SSD along with one KingFast SLC E-Drive in RAID 0, formatted with a single volume and the NAS was connected directly to the computer, to avoid any limitations by implying additional hardware like a router. The first simple test was performed by loading the test file onto a RAM drive and then it was copied to the NAS, on its shared folder. The speed was recorded with Total Commander:
The second test was to copy the same file back to the computer; for eliminating any HDD speed limitations, the file was copied back to the RAM drive:
For performing a more advanced test, the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit was used, for performing 5 different test runs. Here are the results:
As extras, we have also included ATTO Disk Benchmark and Anvil:
We have performed the same benchmarks but this time with an encrypted folder:
Synology has amazed us again with one of their latest NAS server release, the DS415+, which is built around the Intel Rangeley platform which incorporates the Atom C2538 SoC (4C/4T Silvermont Cores @ 2.4GHz) which is paired with 2GB of DDR3 RAM. Thanks to the dedicated hardware (AES-NI), the encryption folder speed tests do not take a big hit and in normal operation most of the time the Gigabit interface is maxed out; in enterprise environment, with LAG enabled, Synology test lab has obtained up to 225.81MB/s reads and 223.86MB/s writes in sequential throughput tests, which is quite good for a 4-bay unit.
The DSM 5.1 interface is quite easy to use and even set up for usage outside of our network if we create the MyDS account. We have widgets, a desktop which looks like a regular OS and lots of modules which can be installed in order to enhance the functionality of the product.
We are still waiting for Synology to release a more standalone-multimedia product by incorporating a HDMI interface so we would be able to use the server without our PC, just by plugging a regular mouse/keyboard as we have seen with offerings from ASUSTOR or QNAP. Also, we would have preferred to have more USB ports available on this model, ideally all USB 3.0.
The Synology DiskStation DS415+ can now be picked up online for about 515 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Synology for making this review possible!