To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, nothing is certain except death, taxes and lost data. There's only so much that technology can do about death and taxes, but a solid RAID configuration can definitely help with the latter. RAID technology helps protect hard drives - whether they're in a server, desktop NAS drive or data centre storage array - from data loss through mechanical failure or corruption.

RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Independent Disks" or "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks". It was principally designed with fault tolerance or failover protection in mind, and involves mirroring the data in a storage array across multiple disks, ensuring that if one drive fails, the contents of the array are not lost. Redundancy is important as hard drive failure can and does happen, so RAID acts as a failsafe against hardware breakdown.

In addition, multiple drives can also be combined into a single pool to create a cheap, high-capacity storage resource. This also allows the system to write to multiple disks at once, thereby improving performance.

There are many different levels of RAID, the most common being RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. Other more niche levels include RAID 6, 10 and 5+1. In addition to this, there is JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), virtual disk RAID, and other vendor-specific RAID implementations.

Benefits of using RAID

There are a number of advantages to using RAID over conventional hard drive configurations.

Large storage: RAID volumes can support much larger capacities than a single drive. If you need more storage, you can simply add more drives.

Fault tolerance: For most RAID levels, some degree of redundancy and fault tolerance is built into the array, helping to prevent data loss.

Continuous running: When hard drives fail on a computer, the operating system stops. In a RAID array, when hard drives fail, the systems continues to operate normally while the failed disk is replaced - assuming the system supports hot-swapping drives.

Parity: Many RAID levels will include 'parity' protections which, in the event of a drive failure, use data from the other drives in an array to rebuild the replacement drive.

Speed: RAID can run much faster than a single drive, as the array can write to and read from multiple disks at the same time, increasing transmission rates.

RAID levels explained

RAID 0 (Disk striping)

This type of RAID divides data across any number of disks enabling higher data throughput. Files are read from multiple disks, increasing speed and capacity. This is known as striping and has the benefit of increased performance.

However, it doesn't have redundancy and fault tolerance as data is not duplicated. Disks appear as a single partition. If one of them fails, the array is broken, and data is lost. RAID 0 is used where speed is more important than data loss (such as live streaming, video on demand and IPTV).

RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring)

This RAID level reads and writes the same data to two drives. This is known as data mirroring and provides redundancy. If a disk fails, the system can still access data from the other disk or disks. Once a faulty disk is replaced, data is copied from one of the remaining disks to the new disk, rebuilding the array. This is an easy way to create failover storage.

The downside is that it lowers the usable capacity by half, increasing the cost per GB. It is used where data redundancy and availability are critical.

RAID 5 (Striping with parity)

This type of RAID stripes data blocks across multiple disks as RAID 0 does, but it also stores parity information (this is a checksum to determine if the data on the disk has any errors and can help in recovering data in the event of disk failure). RAID 5 has both speed (as data is accessible from multiple disks) and redundancy as parity information is stored across disks. If a disk fails, data can be recreated from data on other disk and the parity blocks. Around a third of the disk capacity is used in storing parity data.

The drawback of this is it has lower performance, as servers need to carry out many more write operations for parity. It is ideal for file storage and application servers.

RAID 6 (Striping with double parity)

This is not unlike RAID 5, however, it stores two parity blocks instead of one. That means that two drives can fail without destroying the array. This enables it to have higher redundancy and better read performance.

However, if a server is carrying out lots of write operations, performance decreases because of the extra parity overhead. This too is ideal for large file and application servers.

RAID 10 (Striping + Mirroring)

This is a combination of RAID 0's striping and RAID 1's mirroring. This means you have redundancy (RAID 1) and better performance (RAID 0).

The drawbacks of this is that usable capacity is lower and cost is higher. There is also limited scalability compared to other RAID levels. This arrangement is heavily used in database servers carrying out a lot of write operations.

Implementing RAID

There are two ways of implementing RAID; Software RAID and hardware RAID.

Hardware RAID uses a dedicated hardware controller to which the disks are linked. An on-board processor manages RAID that offloads the work from the host processor, making it faster to read and write data. Hardware controllers offer an extra element of failsafe as its BBU (Battery Backup Unit) protects your data in case of an unanticipated loss of power in the server. Replacing failed disk is easy; you just pull it out and insert a new one.

The disadvantage of hardware RAID is the need to buy hardware, which makes it more expensive than software RAID. If the controller fails, you need a compatible one to replace it to get the system back up and working.

Software RAID is done within an operating system and is fairly easy to implement. There is no need for extra hardware and firmware; this makes it more cost effective. Arrays can also be reconfigured as they are not restricted by the hardware RAID controller.

The disadvantage of software RAID is that it is slower than hardware RAID. It uses processing power, and in turn, impacts read and write speeds of a RAID configuration, along with other operations on the server. Replacing disks is a more complicated task too, as the system has to stop using the disk before it is replaced.

The DS916+ is the latest member of Synology's burgeoning family of Plus' NAS appliances. It's aimed at IT professionals and small businesses who want affordable four-bay network storage with a heap of data protection features. Performance is another key feature as it's endowed with a speedy 1.6GHz quad-core Pentium N3710 processor.

Memory can't be upgraded but Synology has made the DS916+ available with either 2GB or 8GB of DDR3 RAM. We have the latter on review which costs 410. We think it is the better bet as the 2GB version only saves you around 32.

Along with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, the DS916+ has three USB 3 ports. The single eSATA port provides room to grow as the appliance supports Synology's five-bay DX513 expansion unit.

Silence is golden

Externally, there are no differences between the DS916+ and the older Atom C2538-based DS415+ with both lacking any physical disk security. They employ a push-fit cover for the four hot-swap drive bays along with tool-free, non-lockable disk carriers.

For testing, we had no problems fitting a quartet of Seagate's latest 8TB NAS HDD drives. Cooling is handled by a pair of 9cm fans at the rear which are whisper-quiet.

We tested noise levels by placing the DS916+ in a quiet room and used the SPLnFTT iOS app to record a background noise level of 34dB. With the appliance powered up and our iPad placed one metre away, we recorded a small increase to 38dB.

Noise levels from the dual cooling fans are very low

Deployment and DSM

Installation is neatly handled by Synology's web-based discovery web interface as it spotted the appliance on our lab network and offered to create a four-drive SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) array. You can sidestep this and pick a classic RAID array, but we find SHR to be more flexible.

It allows you to mix and match drives of different sizes in the same array without taking a hit on capacity. Plus, during the creation phase, you can opt for single or dual-drive redundancy.

Versatile SHR arrays support single- and dual-drive redundancy

The set up wizard installed the latest DSM 6 software which has a superb range of features and a keen focus on data protection. All Synology's Plus models use 64-bit CPUs so they support BTRFS which brings share snapshots into play.

Great data protection

The Snapshot Replication app provides all the tools required for scheduling snapshots. We used it to select shared folders and iSCSI LUNs, set regular schedules and request snapshot frequencies as often as every five minutes.

We also decided how long to retain snapshots with the oldest ones being automatically removed. Usefully, the app provides a customisable policy so you can retain daily, weekly, monthly and yearly snapshots if you wish.

The Snapshot Replication app handles NAS share and iSCSI snapshot schedules and recovery

The new Hyper Backup app neatly centralises all your local, remote, Rysnc and cloud backups in a single console and provides wizards for scheduling 14 different types of backups. Data restoration is a cinch as we used the Backup Explorer app to browse our backups and choose files to copy back.

Good performance

The DS916+ performed very well with copies of a 25GB file using a mapped share returning read and write speeds of 113MB/sec and 112MB/sec. Backup performance is also good as our 22.4GB folder with 10,500 small files was secured at a speedy average of 88MB/sec.

The processor's integral AES-NI engine also delivered the goods as copying our 25GB file to an encrypted folder averaged an impressive 104MB/sec. We also noticed that the CPU handled encryption overheads well with utilisation hovering around the 40 percent mark.

To test maximum performance we used a pair of Xeon E5-2600 v4 servers, mapped a share to each one over dedicated Gigabit Ethernet links and watched Iometer report cumulative read and write rates of 226MB/sec and 208MB/sec. It was no slouch for IP SANs either with Iometer reporting read and write rates of 226MB/sec and 222MB/sec for a dual-Gigabit MPIO link to a 500GB target.

The appliance's Pentium CPU didn't wilt when under extreme pressure from our tests

The best of the rest

Synology's cloud support is second to none with the Cloud Sync app now working with eighteen public providers. We easily linked it to Dropbox and also used the File Explorer app to remotely browse files in our Dropbox cloud repository and download them directly.

Workstation backup is covered by the updated Cloud Station Server app which teams up with Synology's Windows, Mac and Linux clients to sync local folders with the appliance in real time. With the Cloud Station client loaded on a Windows 10 desktop, we selected the folders we wanted protected and watched it secure new and modified files in seconds.

You can create a private cloud and use it for workstation backup

Mail hosting is possible with the new MailPlus Server app which includes anti-spam and anti-virus protection. Along with a web client, Synology provides client apps for iOS and Android but it will be charging for additional client licenses beyond the five that are included.

Conclusions

Apart from the lack of lockable drive carriers, there's nothing we can fault the DS916+ for. It delivers top performance, the low noise levels make it well suited to home offices or small businesses and its data protection and cloud features are beyond reproach.

There's a huge range of free apps to choose from as well and if you're planning on loading lots of them, we recommend spending a little extra cash and getting the 8GB model.

Verdict

Top performance and a heap of storage features makes Synology’s DS916+ an ideal small business NAS. Simply put, it’s great value.

Chassis: Desktop

CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Pentium N3710

Memory: 8GB DDR3 (also available with 2GB)

Storage: 4 x hot-swap SATA drive bays

Array support: SHR, RAID0, 1, 10, 5, 6, hot-spare

Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Other ports: 3 x USB 3

Expansion: 1 x eSATA

Power: External PSU

Management: Web browser

Warranty: 3 years limited

Asustor is the storage spin-off of laptop giant Asus and has built up a solid range of well-priced NAS appliances. Its latest AS6204T continues this tradition as this four-bay desktop box has one of Intel's latest Braswell' 1.6GHz Celeron N3150 processors and yet prices start at just 352 ex VAT.

The port count is good as the AS6204T has a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, three USB 3 connectors, a couple of USB 2 sockets and two eSATA sockets at the rear along with a single HDMI port. You can plug in a USB disk at the front and press the One-Touch Backup button to start a backup job on the appliance that copies data to or from the external storage device.

The appliance comes with 4GB of DDR3L memory which can be upgraded to 8GB. It's easy to do, but you'll need to replace the two 2GB SO-DIMM modules with 4GB versions. Plus, it pays to be careful when removing the metal lid as it's wafer-thin and easily bent.

The appliance uses an external power brick which should be secured as it's easy to accidentally pull the plug out of its small socket. All cooling is handled by a single 12cm fan and we found the appliance was whisper-quiet.

Control Center and MyArchive

We tested the AS6204T by loading three 4TB WD Red NAS Pro hard disks into the solid metal drive carriers and used the Asustor Control Center app to discover the appliance. We found the appliance's front-mounted LCD panel very useful and its menus easily accessed using the group of four buttons alongside.

We used the Control Center app to create a RAID5 array with mirrors, stripes and RAID6 also supported. It took nearly 10 hours to synchronise our array but we could use the appliance during this phase, albeit with slightly reduced performance.

The MyArchive feature allows hard disks in the third or fourth bays to be designated as removable media. This'll prove handy for quickly transferring data between separate Asustor appliances and for storing backup data off-site.

We tested this feature using a 1TB WD drive and after formatting it as a MyArchive drive, copied 22GB of data to it from another share using the File Manager app. We then ejected the drive from the Storage Manager app, plugged it into the IT Pro lab's trusty old AS-606T and swiftly transferred the new data across.

The ADM web console is well-designed and easy to use

Good performance

For performance testing, we used a HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 rack server loaded with Windows Server 2012 R2. For a share mapped over Gigabit Ethernet, Iometer reported fast raw read and write rates of 113MB/sec and 108MB/sec while copies of a 25GB file returned equally good real world speeds of 110MB/sec and 108MB/sec.

Backup performance won't disappoint as we secured our 22.4GB folder and its 10,500 small files at a speedy 84MB/sec. To test maximum NAS performance, we mapped a share to another Xeon E5-2600 v3 Windows server and with Iometer running on both systems, recorded cumulative read and write rates of 226MB/sec and 221MB/sec thus confirming Asustor's claimed speeds.

IP SAN performance is just as good with a 600GB target returning Iometer read and write speeds of 113MB/sec and 112MB/sec. The AS6204T didn't wilt under pressure as speeds for a dual Gigabit Ethernet MPIO link stepped up to 226MB/sec and 220MB/sec.

The N3150 CPU and its integral AES-NI engine handled encrypted folders well with copies of our 25GB test file delivering sustained write speeds of 78MB/sec. To put this in perspective, we ran the same test on an older Synology DS1813+ with an older D2700 Atom processor which only mustered an average 22MB/sec write speed.

You can even use the VirtualBox app to host a Windows Server 2012 R2 VM on the appliance

Backup and file syncing

Asustor's Data Master (ADM) web console and its chunky icons provide easy access to all features. We used the Backup & Restore app to secure data to other local folders, Rsync compatible NAS appliances and FTP servers plus external USB and eSATA devices.

The Amazon S3 app worked well. If you want to use providers such as Amazon Glacier or Microsoft Azure then you'll need to check out alternative appliances from Qnap and Synology.

Cloud backup support is limited to Amazon S3 which we had no problems with

File syncing apps are provided for multiple Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive accounts while Asustor has its own cloud storage service which works via its WebStorage app. The new QuikFynd app is useful for finding files on the appliance but, unlike Qnap's Q'sirch app, this is a third-party cloud service and the free Lite version of the app is heavily feature-limited.

Asustor offers a choice of file syncing apps including Google Drive

Snapshots are supported, but these are only available for iSCSI LUNs and can only be taken manually. They worked well enough though, as we deleted data from a 600GB target and restored it all from the Storage Manager app in 30 seconds.

Conclusions

The AS6204T's low price and good performance make it a tempting NAS for small businesses. It's well built and has some useful backup apps as well.

However, we recommend checking out Qnap's new TS-453A as this N3150-powered 4-bay appliance puts up some stiff competition. Along with quad Gigabit Ethernet and dual HDMI ports, it has a vastly superior range of apps and it costs around 25 less too.

Verdict

The AS6204T delivers good storage performance and is well-suited to small businesses that don’t want many bells and whistles

Chassis: Desktop

CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3150

Memory: 4GB DDR3L (max. 8GB)

Storage: 4 x 3.5in/2.5in hot-swap SATA drive bays

Array support: RAID0, 1, 5, 6, 10, JBOD

Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Other ports: 3 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x eSATA, 1x HDMI

Management: Web browser

Warranty: 3 years RTB

Thecus has a reputation for delivering affordable NAS appliances and it does so again with its latest NAS, the N5810. This 5-bay desktop box is endowed with a 2GHz J1900 Intel Celeron CPU and yet prices start at only 369 ex VAT nearly 50 less than Synology's DS1515.

The N5810 employs the same sturdy chassis as the N5810Pro, but minus the clever built-in little mini-UPS battery. Thecus has cut costs further by reducing the Gigabit Ethernet port count from five to two.

It includes 4GB of DDR3 memory, but we advise caution if you're planning on upgrading it. As we highlighted in our N5810Pro review, the appliance's cover is very tricky to remove and replace.

A new feature that will appeal to businesses looking for maximum uptime is Thecus System Failover which mirrors data to a secondary N5810 appliance. Thecus has also released an early beta of its ThecusOS 7 firmware. It's been a long time in the making and we tell you whether it's a worthy upgrade.

Easy deployment

The N5810 was simple to install. The Setup Wizard quickly discovered it and installed the ThecusOS 5 production firmware. It also helped create a RAID5 array with our quartet of 4TB WD Red NAS Pro drives.

Installation is aided by a wizard that helped set up our RAID array

The ThecusOS 5 web interface is looking dated, but does provide quick access to all key storage features. We easily created NAS shares and dished out read and write privileges for local users.

IP SANs are equally pain-free as we selected a target size, applied CHAP authentication as required and chose from thin provisioning or instant allocation. The whole process is swift as LUN creation and target assignment are carried out automatically by the IP SAN wizard.

Snapshots and backup features

When creating RAID arrays, choose BTRFS as this brings Thecus' snapshots into play. The N5810 supports up to 16 snapshots for each share or iSCSI LUN and we could run them manually or schedule them at regular intervals.

Restoring entire shares is swift as we selected one from the list and had deleted data recovered in under a minute. Snapshots can also be presented as network shares to authorised users so they can restore individual files using drag and drop.

Thecus' Data Guard app allowed us to schedule backups to other local shares, USB devices and remote Rsync-compatible NAS appliances. Cloud storage backup is limited to Amazon S3. For cloud-based file syncing, Thecus only provides ElephantDrive and Dropbox apps.

Good performance

For testing, we mapped a share to an HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 rack server running Windows Server 2012 R2. Iometer returned fast raw read and write speeds of 113MB/sec and 107MB/sec while real world copies of a 25GB test file delivered sustained averages of 111MB/sec and 106MB/sec.

The N5810 is a good choice for data backup as copies of a 22.4GB folder containing 10,500 small files mustered a healthy 85MB/sec. We also tested maximum performance by mapping a share to another server connected to the second Gigabit Ethernet port and saw Iometer report cumulative read and write speeds of 224MB/sec and 192MB/sec.

IP SAN speed are good as well, with a 600GB target returning Iometer read and write speeds of 113MB/sec and 98MB/sec. On a dual MPIO link, speeds increased to 226MB/sec and 173MB/sec.

ThecusOS 7 should you upgrade now?

With the appliance upgraded to ThecusOS 7, we were initially impressed with the new Linux/OS X desktop-style web interface. It's similar to both Synology's and QNap's current operating systems and, compared to ThecusOS 5, is much easier to use with quick access icons on its desktop, a taskbar and a handy resource monitor.

The ThecusOS 7 beta user interface is much nicer than its predecessor

The Control Panel app provides links to all key features and there are desktop icons for disk and RAID settings as well as for file services and local user accounts. It also introduces SSD caching for improved performance but when we upgraded to the latest v3.00.03 firmware revision, we found Thecus had removed this feature as it could cause the system to become unstable'.

The new performance monitors are much more informative

The new App Center makes it easier to install apps for adding extra features to the N5810, but the selection is puny compared to those available for Qnap and Synology NAS devices. Many of the apps that are available feel half-baked or haven't been updated yet to work properly with ThecusOS 7 - the innovative' Google Drive app requires knowledge of FUSE coding to use and we found the preconfigured Dropbox app no longer worked.

Thecus' older Data Burn app for backing up files on the NAS to optical disc isn't supported by ThecusOS 7 beta. The Amazon S3 backup app didn't work either. We relayed this to Thecus, which confirmed that this app is also on its fix list.

The App Center provides easy access to apps but some don't work properly with ThecusOS 7

Conclusions

The ThecusOS 7 beta firmware is a step in the right direction as the new user interface is a big improvement. We don't recommend installing it on a live production appliance though, as it's far too flaky at the moment. The good news is that we were able to downgrade our appliance back to ThecusOS 5.

We had no problems with the current production firmware and although the N5810 lags behind Qnap and Synology for features, it delivers top NAS and IP SAN performance. The appliance is good value too, as you won't find a 5-bay business-class desktop NAS for less than this.

Verdict

A good value 5-bay NAS appliance, but what you gain in cash you lose in features and the ThecusOS 7 beta firmware should not be used on a live, production appliance

Chassis: Desktop

CPU: 2GHz Intel Celeron J1900

Memory: 4GB DDR3 (max 8GB)

Storage: 5 x 2.5/3.5in SATA hot-swap drive bays

Array support: RAID0, 1, 5, 6, 10, hot-spare, JBODs

Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Other ports: 3 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, HDMI

Management: Web browser

Warranty: Two year RTB

SMBs and remote offices looking for their first rack server should check out Dell's PowerEdge R330 as it has a lot to offer. Succeeding the venerable twelfth-generation R320, it supports the latest Skylake' Xeon E3-1200 v5 processors and DDR4 memory plus it has improved storage options and performance.

It's not exorbitantly priced either, with prices starting at only 830 ex VAT. This'll get most small businesses out of the starting blocks as it includes a decent quad-core 3GHz Xeon E3-1220 v5 CPU and 4GB of 1.2V DDR4 memory.

Memory capacity is significantly less than the R320 which has six DIMM slots and supports up to 192GB of DDR3. However, for the majority of SMBs, we think the maximum 64GB of faster DDR4 in the R330 will still be enough to handle even their most demanding apps.

Both the R320 and R330 can be ordered with four LFF or eight SFF hot-plug drive bays, but the R330 has a trick up its sleeve as you can sneak a couple of 1.8in SATA SSDs into its optical drive bay and use them as fast-booting mirrored OS drives. It's a little surprising that Dell didn't opt for M.2 or mSATA space-saving SSDs though, as 1.8in SATA SSDs are an increasingly rare breed.

Storage decisions

Cold-swap four-bay systems start with the drive backplane cabled to the motherboard's embedded four-port SATA connector and PERC S130 controller. The dual 1.8in SATA SSD boot option is only available on this chassis though, as you would be expected to use two of the normal SFF bays for this purpose in the eight-drive model.

The S130 supports software-managed mirrors, stripes and RAID5 arrays for SATA drives only. Our review system was supplied with Dell's optional PERC H330 controller card which fits in a dedicated slot and brings 12Gbits/sec SAS and hot-swap support.

The H330 has dual, 4-port mini-SAS connectors and can be used in both the 4- and 8-bay versions of the chassis. It adds support for RAID10 and 50 spanned arrays. Plus, it can be viewed and managed directly from Dell's iDRAC8 remote management console - another useful feature.

If you have a fancy for dual-redundant RAID6 arrays, then you'll need Dell's PERC H730 controller. It uses the same dedicated slot as the H330 and also has 1GB of onboard DDR3 cache memory.

Expansion, noise and power

The R330 slotted easily into our lab's 1000mm server rack cabinet but, at only 24in deep, it'll fit neatly into 800mm data cabinets as well. The server comes as standard with Dell's handy LCD panel which changes colour from blue to orange in the event of an error to provide at-a-glance server status.

Good internal design makes it easy to maintain and upgrade the server. There's room for two PCI-Express slots, but you'll need to add the butterfly riser card when ordering as this isn't included as standard.

Cooling is handled by a bank of three cold-swap fans in front of the CPU and memory sockets. On 4-bay models with the expansion riser card and 8-bay models, an extra fan module needs to be installed in the spare bracket to the left.

We found noise levels to be slightly higher than HP's ultra-compact ProLiant DL20 Gen9. With our iPad placed one metre in front of the servers, the SPLnFFT iOS app recorded 41dB for the DL20 and 53dB for the R330.

The server comes with a single 350W hot-plug power supply and there's room next door for a second redundant PSU. Power consumption isn't a worry as our review system was measured drawing 48W in idle and peaking at only 75W with the CPU under extreme load.

An iDRAC8 Express license provides remote server power control, monitoring and historical graphs

Remote management

Management tools are in abundance with Dell's iDRAC8 providing a tidy web interface with a wealth of status information about critical hardware along with power monitoring and access to the PERC H330 RAID controller. The latter shares access with the first Gigabit Ethernet port, but Dell offers a snap-in upgrade card with a dedicated management port. You will need to upgrade form the included iDRAC Express 8 licence to the iDRAC8 Enterprise license if you want full server and OS remote control.

Dell's iDRAC8 provides direct access to the server's PERC RAID controller

Dell's OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) provides local web-based management while the free OpenManage Essentials (OME) delivers centralised management for all SNMP and WMI enabled systems. It runs regular network discoveries and provides a dashboard showing the status of all systems along with extensive alerting and graphical reporting facilities.

Dell's OpenManage Essentials provides network-wide system monitoring and fault alerting features

Mobile users will like Dell's OpenManage Mobile (OMM) app as it can link up with the iDRAC8 controller. We tested the iOS version on our iPad and found its hardware health status displays and alert notification really useful.

Even better, the OMM app can talk to the server running OME so we could keep a close eye on all our monitored network systems. The app opens with an overview providing coloured icons for swift status views and we could drill down and check alerts, system logs and hardware details.

Dell's OMM iOS app links up with OME and provides mobile users with remote network and system monitoring

Conclusions

The PowerEdge R330 is ideally suited to space-constrained SMBs looking for a powerful first server or to upgrade existing systems to cope with their expanding business apps. The myriad storage options can be confusing but there's no doubting this compact rack server's flexibility and it can't be faulted for features and performance making it good value.

Verdict

A versatile and powerful Xeon E3 v5 rack server that’s good value with plenty of expansion options and a generous remote management toolbox

Chassis: 1U rack

CPU: 3GHz Xeon E3-1220 v5

Memory: 32GB 2,133MHz 1.2V DDR4 (max 64GB)

Storage: 2 x 2TB Dell 7.2K NL-SAS SFF hard disks (max 8)

RAID: Dell PERC H330

Array support: Array support: RAID0, 1, 10, 5, 50

Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Expansion: 2 x PCI-Express 3.0 slots (with optional riser)

Power: 350W hot-plug PSU (max 2)

Management: Dell iDRAC8 Express

Warranty: 1 year basic Next Business Day

Prices for 10-Gigabit (10GbE) networking kit are dropping rapidly making it much more affordable for SMBs. This hasn't gone unnoticed by most NAS appliance vendors with Qnap the first to include a 10GbE SFP+ fibre adapter with a NAS, specifically the TS-x63U series.

Another feature that makes this family stand out is its wholesale adoption of AMD's 2GHz GX-420MC SoC (system on chip). This low-cost embedded x86 processor has four cores running at 2GHz, supports DDR3-1600 memory and has a low TDP of 17.6W.

The flagship TS-1263U-RP on review is a 2U rack mount system with 12 hot-swap SATA drive bays and dual hot-plug PSUs. You can add only a single external disk shelf, either the eight-disk SATA UX-800U-RP or the 12-disk UX-1200U-RP. Qnap's 10GbE card nestles in the single PCI-Express slot but it doesn't come with a transceiver so you'll need to source one separately - the Avago 850nm models we use cost around 80 ex VAT.

Build quality and deployment

The appliance exhibits the classy build quality we've come to expect from Qnap with a solid steel chassis and sturdy metal drive carriers. The lid is easily removed for upgrades and the dual internal cooling fans are very quiet.

The appliance is supplied with 4GB of DDR3L memory on a single SO-DIMM module. You can fit up to 16GB, but as there are only two memory slots you'll need to dispense with the pre-installed 4GB to max it out.

Installation is deftly handled by Qnap's cloud portal as we entered the unique cloud key on the label on the lid and followed the quick start wizard which installed the latest QTS firmware. We also popped in a quartet of 4TB WD Red NAS Pro SATA drives and let it create a RAID5 array from them.

The discovery web portal helps set up storage but make sure you choose thick or thin volumes if you want snapshots

New storage features

Qnap's latest QTS 4.2 firmware has a wealth of data backup features including excellent support for a wide range of cloud storage providers. We successfully backed up folders on the appliance to our Amazon S3 account using the Backup Station app, but Qnap also provides free apps for Amazon Glacier, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Storage and many more.

Qnap offers an impressive range of backup apps and supports a multitude of cloud providers

Workstation backup gets a boost as the new Qsync Central Station app allows users to link up with authorised shares on the appliance and synchronise folders with them. The Qsync Windows app is easy to use and for swift file restoration, it provides a direct link to the browser-based File Manager.

The File Manager also gets a makeover and now supports direct links to cloud storage providers. We linked it with our Dropbox and Google Drive accounts but it also supports remote links to FTP servers and allows folders to be remotely mounted using WebDAV.

Snapshots

No self-respecting NAS vendor would now be seen without snapshots and QTS 4.2 supports them for both thick and thin multiple volume types (but not static volumes). You can run them on-demand or schedule them regularly for NAS volumes or iSCSI LUNs. You use the Snapshot Manager app to keep track of them.

Scheduled smart snapshots can save storage space as the appliance will only take the next snapshot if the data has changed since the last one. The Snapshot Manager makes light work of data recovery. We could view snapshots and use the Revert option for full recovery, or view NAS share contents and restore individual files.

The new Windows Snapshot Agent can be used to take application-consistent snapshots on iSCSI LUNs. Whenever the appliance wants to take a LUN snapshot, it'll inform the agent first which instructs the host system to flush all data from memory into the LUN.

Snapshots can be scheduled and Qnap's Windows agent makes sure they're application-consistent

Good management and performance

If you have multiple Qnap appliances then you can use the new Q'centre app to centrally manage and monitor them all from a single console. We used custom dashboards to create views of the appliance with graphs of storage pool and volume usage plus appliance hardware utilisation.

Qnap now offers Q'centre as VMware and Hyper-V virtual appliances. We tested the latter on our Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host. After importing the free VM, we found it delivered all the same features as the on-appliance version.

We used the new Q'centre Hyper-V VM to centrally manage the lab's Qnap appliances

For performance testing, we mapped a share over 10GbE to an HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 rack server running Windows Server 2012 R2. Iometer reported fast raw read and write rates of 9.2Gbits/sec and 5Gbits/sec.

Real world NAS speeds are good too, with drag and drop copies of a 25GB test file returning read and write speeds of 412MB/sec and 316MB/sec. Backup operations are reasonably fast with our 22.4GB test folder and its 10,500 small files copied to a share at an average of 183MB/sec.

Conclusions

Pricewise, the TS-1263U-RP is a winner as even though you'll need to source a 10GbE transceiver, it's still excellent value. Synology's 12-bay RS2416RP+ for example, costs nearly the same but has no PCI-Express slots and so can't be upgraded to 10GbE.

And then there's Qnap's own TS-1280U-RP which comes with a 3.4GHz E3-1200 v3 Xeon, dual PCI-Express slots and a massive expansion potential but costs around 800 more. If you're looking for a 10GbE-ready network storage appliance with a balanced combination of features, performance and price, then the TS-1263U-RP is well worth considering.

Verdict

Limited external expansion but this 12-bay appliance scores highly for storage features, its 10GbE readiness and its price

Chassis: 2U rack

CPU: 2GHz AMD GX-420MC SoC

Memory: 4GB DDR3 (max 16GB)

Storage: 12 x 2.5/3.5in SATA hot-swap drive bays

Array support: RAID0, 1, 5, 6, 10, hot-spare, JBODs

Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet; 1 x LAN-10G1SR-D 10GbE SFP+ card

Other ports: 2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2

Power: 2 x 250W hot-plug PSUs

Management: Web browser

Warranty: Two year limited

SMBs looking to maximise their precious rack space will like Dell's new PowerEdge R430. This 1U rack server may only be 24in. deep but it squeezes in a big hardware package that includes dual E5-2600 v3 CPUs, a high memory capacity and plenty of storage options.

Dell supplied us with the base model kitted out with four LFF drive bays serviced by the embedded PERC S130 RAID controller. Ordered at the point of sale, the R430 can be specified with up to 10 SFF drives and choice selection of PCI-Express RAID cards although, as we found, the process is far from simple.

The R430 exhibits very good internal design and whisper-quiet cooling

Dell's iDRAC8 controller provides quality server monitoring tools and handy power consumption graphs

Storage conundrums

The review system had four 1TB SATA LFF drives with each cold-swap carrier cabled directly to the motherboard's SATA port via a fan-out cable. Entry-level systems start with the embedded PERC S130 controller which supports RAID0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays in software.

Hot-swap drives are supported by the S130 but you'll need to specify this backplane during the ordering phase. A dedicated expansion slot is also provided and you can choose from the PERC H330, H730 and H730P snap-in cards which all support 12Gbps SAS drives with the latter two offering 1GB or 2GB of Flash backed cache.

It gets more complicated as the PERC cards have dual 4-port connectors so only support up to eight SAS SFF drives. The 8-bay backplane also has a cut-out to allow a low-profile optical drive to be fitted in the front panel.

Contrary to some of the images on Dell's web site, the 10-bay model only supports SATA SFF drives where the backplane takes up all available space at the front of the server. It's cabled to all four of the motherboard's embedded SATA ports and cannot be used with the optional PERC RAID cards.

Internal design

The short depth of the chassis makes good cooling design imperative and Dell has done a fine job. System cooling is handled by a bank of six cold-swap, dual rotor fans in front of the motherboard while the CPU sockets and attendant DIMM slots are covered by a removable plastic air shroud.

The smooth air flow path through the chassis means the fans don't have to work hard and we found the R430 extremely quiet. The portion of the lid over the PSU bays gets a bit warm to the touch but as long as you leave some space above the server, this won't be an issue.

Memory allotment is slightly unusual as the eight front slots are assigned to the first CPU socket while the second socket gets four slots. The main advantage here is you can cut costs by specifying a single CPU and still upgrade to 256GB of memory.

The free OpenManage Essentials app provides network system monitoring and alerting tools

Deployment and power

Dell's embedded LifeCycle Controller makes light work of OS deployment as we used it to install Windows Server 2012 R2 with all the right drivers inside 30 minutes. It provides firmware upgrades tools, hardware diagnostics and facilities for configuring remote access and storage.

Dell's iDRAC8 provides a wealth of remote management features. Along with power controls, we could monitor graphs of power consumption and temperatures but if you want full remote control, you'll must upgrade to the Enterprise version - we've included this in the price shown.

The server was supplied with dual 1.6GHz E5-2603 Xeons and redundant 550W Platinum PSUs which proved to be easy on the power supply. With the OS in idle we measured a draw of 85W which peaked at only 132W with the CPUs under extreme load from the SiSoft Sandra benchmarking app.

Dell's OMM iOS app allowed us to keep a close eye on the server from our iPad

Server management

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator provides local and remote web-based management for the server it's installed on. The free OpenManage Essentials goes further by extending centralised management and alerting to all your SNMP and WMI enabled systems.

We were pleased to see Dell has updated its OpenManage Mobile (OMM) app with improved iOS support. We had problems with it when we reviewed the R730 as it refused to talk to the server's iDRAC controller.

OMM version 1.0.2 resolves these issues but after updating our app, we still couldn't connect to the R430's iDRAC. We discussed this Dell and the workaround was to remove the app and do a fresh install from the App Store.

With this fixed, we could view the server's vital signs from the OMM app on our iPad which listed details of installed CPUs and memory plus the OS version. Hardware logs are provided for system events and the LifeCycle controller, we could check on the firmware versions for all hardware components and view a server health status page.

Conclusions

Dell's confusing web site ordering processes and user manual make choosing the right storage options more complicated than necessary but there's no doubting the R430's credentials. Its compact chassis teams up a powerful specification with good expansion potential and all at a price that will appeal to enterprises and SMBs alike.

Verdict

Once you’ve worked out which storage option you want, the PowerEdge R430 is an ideal choice where server rack space is at a premium. It packs a lot of processing power into its compact chassis and delivers it at a very competitive price

Chassis: 1U rack CPU: 2 x 1.6GHz Xeon E5-2603 v3 Memory: 48GB 1,600MHz DDR4 (max 384GB) Storage: 4 x 1TB Dell 7.2K SATA hard disks (max 10) RAID: Dell PERC S130 Array support: Array support: RAID0, 1, 10, 5 Network: 4 x Gigabit Expansion: 2 x PCI-Express 3.0 slots Power: 2 x 550W Platinum hot-swap PSUs Management: Dell iDRAC8 with Enterprise upgrade Warranty: 3yrs on-site NBD

Synology was one of the first NAS appliance vendors to take expansion seriously and its latest ten-bay RS3411xs comes equipped with not one, but two high performance Infiniband ports. Linking it up with two twelve-bay RX1211 disk shelves allows raw capacity to be increased to a massive 102TB when using 3TB hard disks.

The RS3411xs is also one of the first Synology business appliances to make the move from an Atom CPU to Core i3 and its PCI Express expansion slot accepts single and dual-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) cards. It also uses server grade ECC memory and the standard 2GB of RAM can be expanded to 8GB, although you will have to dispense with the pair of 1GB sticks to achieve this.

The RS3411xs comes equipped with not one, but two high performance Infiniband ports.

Our review model only came with a single power supply, but Synology also offers the RS3411RPxs which has dual redundant power supplies. However, we really can't see how Synology can justify charging over 600 more for this. Instead, you could get a top quality business UPS such as APC's SmartUPS 1500VA rack mount model and save some cash as well.

The RS3411xs is well built and its custom motherboard has twelve SATA 2 interfaces cabled directly to the hot-swap hard disk backplane. The Infiniband ports are also surface mounted and the single PCI Express expansion slot sits to the side.

Installation is a swift affair as an Assistant utility locates the appliance on the network, prepares the hard disks and loads the DSM (Disk Station Manager) software from the CD-ROM or from wherever you've downloaded the latest firmware. Then it's over to the new web interface which we found very well designed and easily customised using drag and drop.

We also had an RX1211 disk shelf to hand, so we connected this to one of the Infiniband ports and loaded it up with three 1TB SATA disks. A soon as we powered the RX1211 up, it appeared up in the Storage Manager interface ready for use. We decided to create a separate RAID-5 array, but you could expand existing arrays using the extra disks if you wished.

RAID array options are good and we had no problems attaching an RX1211 expansion array using its Infiniband port.

We fitted an Emulex dual-port 10Gbase-SR card in the RS3411xs and connected it to our 10GbE network. We used Dell PowerEdge R515 and Broadberry dual Opteron 4100 rack servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and equipped with Emulex 10GbE dual-port adapters configured for jumbo frames.

With a direct fibre connection to the appliance we saw Iometer return an impressive raw read speed of 660MB/s for a mapped share on one server. With the second server attached to the other 10GbE port on the appliance and running Iometer on the same mapped share, we saw a cumulative read throughput of 1129MB/s.

These raw speeds translate to fast real world performance as well. Copying a 2.52GB video clip over Gigabit Ethernet returned speeds of 103MB/s and running it over 10GbE saw this increase to 280MB/s. FTP performance was even faster with the FileZilla utility reporting upload speeds of 109MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet and 322MB/s over 10GbE. We also ran the same tests on a share mapped from the array on the RX1211 expansion unit. With both servers running Iometer we saw very similar results showing the Infiniband connection wasn't causing a bottleneck.

TS-559 Pro II.

There are plenty of other extra features though, such as the Data Replicator 3 software for scheduled workstation backups. The RS3411xs can also run scheduled backups of local data to external USB storage, other Synology appliances or other Rsync compatible servers.

The Time Backup features automates snapshots of selected folders to another volume on the appliance or external device. A file version history is viewed from the Timeline screen where you can select one and restore it to its original location or a new destination.

IP SAN features are excellent as the appliance supports iSCSI thin provisioning. This allows targets to be created that only use a small amount of space on the appliance, but appear much larger to the host. As more data is stored on the target, the appliance dynamically allocates more space to it.

Optional packages make the RS3411xs even more versatile and are easily downloaded from the main web interface.

Extra free packages can be installed the appliance including a mail server, LDAP support, WordPress and even a Syslog server. You have servers for photos, multimedia, audio as well a download manager. Synology's Surveillance Station has some of the best IP camera recording features we've seen in a NAS appliance.

The RackStation RS3411xs may not have USB3 ports or support for 6Gbit/s SATA3 hard disks but it more than makes up for these omissions with its impressive expansion potential. It also delivers fast performance over Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE and combines this with an extensive range of quality storage features.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The RS3411xs scores highly for its huge storage expansion potential using high-speed Infiniband ports and performance over Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE networks is very good. USB3 and SATA3 support are lacking and we don’t think the dual supply models are worth the extra cash, but the list of features is still impressive making this appliance well suited to SMBs with big expansion plans.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 3.1GHz Intel Core i3-2100 Memory: 2GB DDR3 ECC expandable to 8GB Storage: 10 x 3.5in.or 2.5in SATA2 hard disk hot-swap bays RAID: Software managed Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, Hybrid, hot-spare and JBODs Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 4 x USB2, 2 x Infiniband expansion Expansion: 1 x PCI Express x8 Gen 2 Management: Web browser Software: Synology Assistant, Download Redirector and Data Replicator 3 Options: RX1211, £773; RS3411RPxs, £2,272; RX1211RP, £1,249 (all ex VAT)

Intel's Atom appears to have had its day in the business NAS appliance market as many manufacturers are now moving over to Core i3 processors for their SMB products. QNap's new TS-879 Pro TurboNAS is its first desktop appliance to use this processor and combines it with a remarkable range of new features.

It supports the latest 6Gbit/s SATA3 hard disks, has a pair of fast USB3 ports and is 10-Gigabit Ethernet ready. QNap supplied our review system with an optional Emulex dual-port 10GBase-SR adapter so we could plug it into the Lab's 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) network and see just how fast it can go.

Along with a pair of quiet running fans, the TS-879 Pro has a wealth of ports and a PCI-E expansion slot for a 10-Gigabit adapter.

The appliance is well built. The eight hot-swap disk bays have small locking buttons to stop the disks being accidentally popped out. The chassis uses two large fans at the rear for cooling and we found the appliance ran very quietly during testing, making it well suited to small offices.

One USB3 port is located at the front and is linked to a Copy button above it. Pressing the button copies the entire contents of an inserted drive to a predefined folder on the appliance.

At the rear you have a plethora of ports with another USB3, four USB2, two Gigabit Ethernet and two eSATA ports. A PCI Express expansion slot is located at the top which can be filled with either dual-port Gigabit or 10-GbE cards from QNap. Fitting the supplied Emulex 10GbE card was easy enough, as we just needed to remove the casing to access the slot.

Installation is swift as QNap's Finder utility locates the appliance on the network and offers quick access to the newly designed QNap Storage Manager (QSM) 3.5 web interface. This provides a side menu listing all features and selecting one shows all its details in the main window making it very easy to use.

The 10GbE card was identified without any problems and both ports appeared in the Network section ready for configuration. As with the Gigabit Ethernet ports, they support Jumbo frames and can be teamed together for fault tolerant or load balanced links.

The appliance can be upgraded easily to 10-Gigabit and we had no problems using an Emulex dual-port 10GBase-SR card.

We dived straight into performance testing over Gigabit Ethernet using a Broadberry dual X5560 rack server running Windows Server 2008 R2. Iometer reported a fast read speed of 110MB/s for a mapped Windows share whilst drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip returned read and write speeds of 104MB/s. Using the FileZilla client to FTP the video clip also returned the same speeds.

For 10GbE testing we used a dual Opteron 4170 HE Dell PowerEdge R515 server fitted with an Emulex dual-port 10GBase-SR card and all configured for Jumbo frames. With a direct fibre connection to the appliance we saw Iometer return a storming raw read speed of 586MB/s for a mapped share.

This translated to a big boost for drag and drop copies with the same tests now returning average read and write speeds of over 300MB/s. Most businesses will connect the appliance to a switch over 10GbE and use it to link multiple servers over Gigabit Ethernet and the TS-879 Pro looks quite capable of handling these demands.

IP SAN performance is also excellent with a 100GB target delivering a raw read speed of 111MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet with the file copies returning similar rates. Moving over to a 10GbE connection saw Iometer report a read speed of 627MB/s for the same target with copy speeds of up to 575MB/s.

the TS-559 Pro II.

QNap's MyCloudNAS provide a useful range of services to remote users over the Internet.

There's also QNap's NetBak Replicator software for running scheduled backups of Windows workstations and servers. The appliance also supports Rsync services for remote replication. As expected, extra features are in abundance and, along with MySQL, the appliance can host your own web sites and use the Surveillance Station to monitor and record footage from up to four IP cameras.

New features are RADIUS and TFTP servers, onboard anti-virus scanning and iSCSI LUN backup to a remote storage location over CIFS or NFS. It even has a built in Syslog server where it can receive and store log messages from Syslog senders.

Prices for this appliance vary considerably so we advise shopping around for the best deal. After some searching we found a diskless model at LambdaTek for 1,396 ex VAT which includes a three-year warranty.

We were impressed with the TS-879 Pro on a number of counts and it throws down a very big gauntlet to the competition. Performance over Gigabit and 10-Gigabit networks is impeccable and it provides a remarkable range of storage features which includes some very useful IP SAN options and cloud services for remote workers.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The TS-879 Pro delivers a range of storage features that the competition will be hard pressed to match let alone beat. These include free cloud services and some quality IP SAN capabilities, plus it’s impressively fast over both Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks. The only thing missing is the ability to add expansion units, but its maximum capacity of 24TB using the latest SATA3 hard disks should be quite sufficient for most SMBs.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 3.3GHz Intel Core i3-2120 Memory: 2GB DDR3, 512MB DOM Storage: 8 x hot-swap 3.5in/2.5in SATA 2/3 disks bays Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 5 + hotspare Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 2 x USB3, 4 x USB2, 2 x eSATA Expansion: PCI Express slot Management: Web browser Software: QNap Finder, NetBak Replicator and Qget software

Enhance Technology has been in the network storage market for many years and its UltraStor appliances are aimed at SMBs looking for a low cost IP SAN solution. In this exclusive review we look at its RS16 IP-4 which combines a tempting price tag with a high capacity and impressive performance claims.

For this review we were supplied with a diskless appliance, but Enhance offers a system with a full house of 16 1TB Enterprise SATA 2 disks for 5,280. An 8TB version costs around 4,478 or you can choose one with 16 2TB SATA disks for 7,274. Enhance also supports 3TB Near-Line SAS disks.

The 3U chassis is well built with sixteen solid metal hot-swap carriers mounted vertically across the front and each incorporating disk status and activity LEDs. Power redundancy is handled by two 460W hot plug supplies at the rear and above these are hot-plug cooling fan modules as well.

The appliance's single RAID controller has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual power supplies and fans plus a mini-SAS expansion port.

The RAID controller is mounted in a metal sled which can be released and removed from the back once the appliance is shut down. It's equipped with a 1.2GHz Intel IOP 81342 dual core processor and 2GB of DDR2 cache memory, but it only supports 3Gbit/s SAS/SATA disks.

It's here that fault tolerant features end as the appliance doesn't support dual RAID controllers. There's no battery backup pack to protect the cache contents either, so we recommend a UPS which can be monitored using one of the serial ports at the back.

Expansion is good as the controller has an SFF8470 mini-SAS port which is used to daisy-chain up to four of Enhance's RS16 JS 3U disk shelves. This allows the array to be expanded to a total of 80 hard disks, although with only one port available you can't create redundant physical paths across the disk shelves.

Installation is simple enough as the appliance's tidy web interface provides a quick start option. This offers to set up all the disks and will suggest the optimal RAID array based on the disks installed. For testing, we loaded up four 1TB WD SATA hard disks, took manual control and created a RAID 5 array.

RAID arrays are called volume groups (VGs) and the appliance supports up to eight of them. Within the VGs you create user data volumes (UDVs) which are your iSCSI virtual drives and each VG can contain multiple UDVs of different capacities.

User data volumes (UDVs) are created within VGs and presented as iSCSI targets.

For access control you select a UDV and either make it available to all hosts using a wildcard or enter the full IQN of the host initiators allowed to access it. During this phase you choose a LUN number and can also decide on read-only or read/write privileges.

The controller advertises a single iSCSI node name with all accessible virtual volumes appearing under this as LUNs. This isn't a major issue, but as CHAP authentication is applied at the node level this will apply to all hosts and LUNs.

Snapshots can be taken of a UDV for point-in-time backups and these can be run manually or on scheduled hourly, daily, weekly and monthly intervals. Snapshots can then be used to rollback their associated UDV in the event of a problem.

Snapshots can be presented to selected hosts for data restoration and will appear as read-only optical drives.

You can migrate VGs to different RAID array types and expand their capacity into extra physical drives. UDVs can also be expanded into spare space within their parent VG simply by clicking on a button in their size column and entering a new capacity.

For performance testing, we created four UDVs and used a wildcard entry to allow access for all hosts. We used four test servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and equipped with either dual Xeon 5500 or Opteron 4100 processors.

Each server was logged into a different portal IP address on the appliance giving each one a dedicated Gigabit connection. The Iometer utility was used to test raw read and write performance and each server was run on a different UDV to avoid any contention.

With one server we saw Iometer report read and write speeds of 112MB/s and 110MB/s. Adding a second server to the mix saw overall throughput increase to 223MB/s and 220MB/s.

With a third server running Iometer we saw throughout rise to 336MB/s and 331MB/s. Finally, with all four servers in the mix we recorded cumulative raw read and write throughputs of 446MB/s and 421MB/s showing no contention for resources on the controller was occurring.

The RS16 IP-4 delivers impressive performance under load and costs a lot less than products such as HP's StorageWorks P2000 G3. If you don't need or want dual redundant RAID controllers then this IP SAN appliance is worth considering.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The UltraStor RS16 IP-4 provides a reasonable set of IP SAN storage features and we found it very easy to deploy. At this low price you won’t get dual controllers and redundant paths to expansion shelves, but it's still worth considering if you're looking for an IP SAN solution at a low price and willing to sacrifice features and redundancy to get it.

Chassis: 3U rack Storage: 16 x 3Gbit/s SAS/SATA hot-swap bays Hard disks: 16 x 1TB SATA2 disks Power: 2 x 460W hot-swap power supplies Cooling: 2 x hot-swap fan modules RAID controller with the following: CPU: 1.2GHz Intel IOP 81342 Memory: 2GB DDR2 cache Array support: RAID0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, JBOD Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet data ports, 10/100 management port Expansion: SFF8470 Mini-SAS port Management: Web browser, CLI

Costs for Fibre Channel (FC) and IP SANs have dropped significantly over the past year, but many SMBs still find them too expensive and prefer to use direct attached storage (DAS) to expand server capacity. Infortrend has traditionally focused on delivering affordable business storage products and its latest EonStor DAS appliances are designed to share the storage wealth with multiple application servers.

On review is the ESDS S16S-R2240-4 which is a 3U system that can accommodate up to sixteen hot-swap LFF hard disks. The price we've shown is for a diskless appliance, but for testing we were provided with a full complement of high performance 600GB 15,000rpm 6Gbit/s SAS disks. Infortrend also offers 10,000rpm SFF hard disks and lower cost 1TB, 2TB and 3TB 7,200rpm nearline SAS drives.

Hardware resilience is good with the review system including a pair of redundant, hot-swap controllers. Each one has four 6Gbit/s SAS host ports so you can link four servers using dual-redundant links for high availability (HA) or eight servers in a non-HA environment.

Each controller is equipped with 2GB cache memory which can be upgraded to 4GB. They each have a battery backup as well as Infortrend's CacheSafe feature which writes all cached data to flash memory for extra protection in the event of a prolonged blackout.

Expansion is very good as each controller has a dedicated 6Gbit/s SAS port for adding either J2000-S or J2000-R expansion shelves, allowing for a maximum of 112 disks. Both are very similar 3U units with dual power supplies and fan modules, but the R' model has four SAS ports allowing the use of multiple fault tolerant paths to the main controller unit.

Each controller has a dedicated network port for web management, although the RAIDWatch browser interface isn't that easy to use and yet is too basic for our liking. Once you've assigned IP addresses to the controllers, it's far better to install the bundled SANWatch application suite which is more sophisticated.

However, it's worth taking a moment to get to grips with how storage is handled by the appliance. Logical drives are collections of physical hard disks grouped together in a RAID array. Once you've created a logical drive you can then create logical volumes. A logical volume can be confined to a single logical drive or it can be spread over multiple logical drives for even greater fault tolerance.

The SANWatch Commander provides a complete overview of all Infortrend storage appliances present on the network.

A logical volume comprises the total capacity of all included logical drives. Volumes can be divided into partitions. These are the actual storage devices that will be presented to your servers and are mapped to either controller and assigned a unique LUN.

Plenty of backup options are available. Snapshots provides point-in-time copies of partitions which can be used for rollback and recovery purposes. Source partitions can also be copied or mirrored to target partitions on other volumes. Once a mirror has completed, the pair can be split and the target mapped to a new LUN.

This is useful for offloading backup tasks as the target can be removable media attached to another server, reducing any potential performance lag on the source. Once the backup has completed, the source and targets are resynchronised and then split again ready for the next backup.

Optional thin provisioning allows you to create partitions that only use a small amount of space, but appear much larger to the host servers. As capacity is used, the appliance dynamically allocates blocks to the partition and when all the space is used up you can expand a partition into any free space on the logical volume.

Using the Iometer utility configured with four disk workers, a 64KB transfer request size and 100 outstanding I/Os we saw the Dell server return impressive raw read and write throughputs of 800MB/s and 685MB/s respectively.

A handy performance monitor provides a real time view of read and write activity for each physical hard disk.

With the Broadberry server connected to the same controller and using the second partition we saw cumulative read and write speeds of 1308MB/s and 712MB/s. This showed some contention for controller resources was occurring, although these speeds are impressive nonetheless.

For real world performance we saw drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip to and from the Dell server return speeds of over 400MB/s. Our collection of small files was also handled well as a 22.4GB folder of 10,500 files was copied from the partition to the server at a rate of 160MB/s.

The EonStor S16S-R2240-4 scores very well for performance as only expensive 8Gbit/s FC SAN appliances will be able to match these speeds. It's also good value, although a close competitor is HP's StorageWorks P2000 G3 appliance.This is very similarly priced and, amongst its many connection options, supports 6Gbit/s direct attach SAS. Expansion and resilience are just as good, although the EonStor's larger 3U chassis does provide a higher base capacity than the StorageWorks's 2U head unit making it better value.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The EonStor acquitted itself well in our lab tests showing performance equal to more costly 8Gbit/s FC SAN appliances. It’s easy to deploy, provides excellent fault tolerance and expansion potential and it's good value too.

Chassis: 3U rack Storage: 16 x SAS drive bays Power: 2 x 530W hot-plug supplies Two hot-swap RAID controllers each with the following specification: Memory: 2GB cache (expandable to 4GB) with battery backup and CacheSafe Array support: RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, JBOD, global hot-spare Host interfaces: 4 x 6Gbit/s SAS ports Network: Gigabit Ethernet management port Expansion: 6Gbit/s SAS port Management: Web browser, Infortrend SANWatch Suite

Of all the main server manufacturers Dell has the sharpest focus on small businesses and has traditionally offered an extensive choice of single socket, entry-level systems. The new PowerEdge T110 II is its first Xeon E3 pedestal server and it targets small businesses looking for their first purpose built server or an affordable replacement for their old server which they've probably had for far too long.

Prices start at a remarkably low 239 ex VAT, but this only gets you a basic system with a dual-core 2.6GHz Pentium G620 processor, 1GB of RAM, one 250GB SATA hard disk, no operating system and a one year next business day warranty. The system on review costs a lot more but it does include plenty of extra goodies.

The new PowerEdge T110 II targets small businesses looking for their first purpose built server or an affordable replacement for their old server.

For starters, it was supplied to us with a high-end quad-core 3.4GHz Xeon E3-1270 processor. Intel's Xeon E3 family now consists of twelve members of which Dell offers four models for the T110 II. You can slash up to 110 off our price by opting for the slightly slower 3.1GHz Xeon E3-1220.

You can also cut costs further with the operating system as Dell can provide the T110 II with Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation pre-installed instead of Standard. It only costs 146 and as it came pre-installed on the review system we've included this in the price.

Foundation is a good choice for small businesses, but it has some limitations that you need to be aware of. It's 64-bit only, supports a single processor socket and a maximum of 8GB of memory. It can handle up to thirty simultaneous inbound connections and supports a maximum of fifteen Windows user accounts.

Dell is also offering the T110 II with Microsoft's latest SBS 2011. This could be a popular choice for this server especially as Dell is currently throwing in a free 8GB memory upgrade with the five CAL Standard version.

Thanks to its low power Xeon E3 processor, the T110 II is light on power consumption too. Using an in-line power meter, we clocked the review system drawing only 38W with Server 2008 R2 Foundation in idle. This rose to 110W when under pressure from the benchmark application SiSoft Sandra.

The server's side panel is removed easily by pushing back a locking lever on the top panel and this can be padlocked shut. The hole on the locking tab is also large enough to accept a security cable to stop the server itself being nicked.

Internal design is very tidy and there's plenty of room for adding more components.

Internal design is very tidy and the server has room for up to four 3.5in hard disks which are mounted in a cold-swap cage at the front. Each drive is fitted in a plastic carrier which we found easy to remove and combined power/interface cables are fitted next to each bay. Dell advised us that it is making a version available that will support up to six 2.5in hard disks as well.

Hard disk controller options start with the embedded PERC S100 controller which requires the hard disks to be cabled directly to the motherboard's SATA ports. This supports striped, mirrored and RAID 5 arrays and is sufficient for small businesses that don't want expensive SAS hard disks.

Our system included the PERC S300 PCI Express card which costs 73 and supports up to eight 3Gbit/s SAS, near-line SAS and SATA hard disks. And then for 90, there's the H200 PCI-E card which we don't recommend for this server. Although it supports expensive, high-performance 6Gbit/s SAS disks, it supports RAID 10 but not, oddly, RAID 5.

Alongside the single Gigabit Ethernet network port is an eSATA port for adding external storage. Six external USB2 ports are also available and there's plenty of room for internal expansion too as the motherboard has three spare PCI Express slots. Along with the SATA DVDROM drive there's also a spare 5.25in bay at the front as well.

Management options are more basic than Dell's higher-end PowerEdge servers as the motherboard doesn't support the iDRAC6 Express or Enterprise optional upgrades. It only has an embedded BMC (baseboard management controller) which shares access with the network port. It can be accessed remotely using Dell's IPMISH command line utility, but this only lets you control server power.

You also get the Windows-based OpenManage Server Administrator which provides local and remote web browser access. It doesn't have features such as KVM-over-IP remote control or power usage monitoring, but you can view temperatures, voltages and cooling fan speeds and it can issue alerts when problems are detected.

The PowerEdge T110 II is a very worthy candidate for a first server. It's well built, has plenty of room to expand and has a good choice of processor and storage options allowing small businesses to pick and choose to get the best value.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The PowerEdge T110 II is a fine choice for small businesses looking for their first server as it combines a balanced blend of build quality, features, expansion potential and value. The price of our review system may seem quite high but it does include a good specification along with a three year on-site warranty. If the price is too high however, Dell offers enough options to allow you to find the best balance between price and performance.

Chassis: Pedestal

CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Xeon E3-1270

Memory: 8GB DDR3 LV UDIMM expandable to 32GB

Storage: 3 x 250GB Dell SATA hard disks in cold-swap carriers

RAID: PERC S300 PCI Express card

Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, JBODs

Expansion: 4 x PCI Express Gen 2 slots, 1 x eSATA

Network: 1 x Gigabit Ethernet

Management: Embedded iDRAC6 BMC

Software: Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation Edition, Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

Warranty: Three years ProSupport on-site next business day

POWER CONSUMPTION

Idle 38W

Active 110W

Buffalo Technology was once a main player in the business NAS appliance market but has been in danger for some time of becoming an also-ran. Its last significant product release was the TeraStation III over two years ago which was good value.

The new TeraStation Pro family of desktop appliances are the first from Buffalo to go beyond four hot-swap hard disks. Processing power also gets a boost as the TeraStation Pro is equipped with an Atom 1.66GHz D510 chip whilst memory has been increased to 2GB.

You can't buy diskless appliances, but Buffalo offers models with 8TB, 16TB and 24TB capacities. We have the 8TB model on review which uses eight Samsung HD103SI SATA disks and at just over a grand looks very good value.

As its name suggests, the TeraStation Pro 8 Bay has eight easily accessible disk trays.

Build quality is good with the chassis made from solid steel and the hot-swap drive bays protected by a lockable front panel. Two large cooling fans are located at the rear, but they weren't loud as we found the appliance to be very quiet during testing.

The pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports support load balanced and failover teams and there are two USB2 ports for attaching external storage devices, printers or a UPS. Oddly, you only get a pair of USB3 ports on the new TeraStation Pro 6 Bay models which uses a variation of the same chassis.

Buffalo's NASNavigator 2 utility locates the appliance on the network and provides access to shares and a quick drive mapping service. The appliance's web interface can also be accessed from here. It's nowhere near as slick as those provided by QNap or Synology. Although it provides easy access to all features we found it could be sluggish at times.

The system comes preconfigured with all disks in a RAID 6 array which provides dual-disk redundancy. If you want more storage then it's easy enough to delete this and choose from stripes, mirrors or RAID-5 and the appliance supports four separate arrays as well.

During share creation you can decide which network services will be supported and apply user and group access restrictions.

Quotas for controlling disk space usage are applied to users as they are created. A soft quota warns them when they are getting close to their limits and a hard quota stops them from copying anything else to the appliance.

CIFS, NFS and FTP access can be activated individually on selected shares and secure FTP transfers are also supported. An unusual feature is the ability to enable the various network services on specific network ports only.

If you want IP SANs then Buffalo would like you to use its separate TeraStation iSCSI appliance. They are not available on the TeraStation Pro, so if you want a NAS appliance with IP SAN support then consider products from QNap and Synology. These vendors' appliances all support NAS shares and iSCSI targets in the same array, iSCSI thin provisioning and CHAP access authentication.

Buffalo scores better for business backup features. The appliance comes as standard with a 10-user license for the bundled NovaBackup Business Essentials software which supports Windows workstations and servers.

It runs scheduled backups of local folders to selected shares on the appliance and can manage a combination of full, incremental and differential backups. Disaster recovery is also available as it can create boot media and run bare metal restores from the appliance.

The bundled NovaBackup software supports Windows servers and workstations and the price includes a 10 user license.

The Atom processor and extra memory make this appliance much faster than the Marvell equipped TeraStation III, but speeds are still well short of those delivered by QNap and Synology. We used a Dell PowerEdge R515 server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit and saw drag and drop copies to a mapped share return read and write speeds of 83MB/s and 36MB/s.

FTP operations were better with the FileZilla utility reporting speeds of 99MB/s and 40MB/s respectively. Our 17.4GB collection of 10,500 small files proved to be handful as this was copied to the appliance at an average of only 20MB/s.

In contrast, the same folder was written to QNap's five-bay TS-559 Pro II at a rate of 65MB/s. We also clocked it at 107MB/s and 96MB/s for read and write operations in our single file transfer tests.

The TeraStation Pro 8 Bay is significantly faster than its predecessor and the 8TB version is cheaper than rival appliances fitted with the same capacity hard disks.. However, the TeraStation's average performance compared to rival appliances and general lack of features makes it a poor choice if you want more than basic NAS services from your appliance.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

As a basic, high capacity NAS appliance, Buffalo's new TeraStation Pro 8 Bay is a lot cheaper than much of the competition. However, it comes up short for features when stacked up against the likes of QNap, Synology and Netgear, performance isn’t great and it doesn’t support IP SANs either.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 1.66GHz Intel Atom D510 Memory: 2GB DDR2 Storage: 8 x 1TB Samsung HD103SI 3Gbps SATA hard disk in hot-swap carriers RAID: Software managed Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 6, 50, 51, 60, 61, JBOD Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 2 x USB2 Management: Web browser Software: Buffalo NAS Navigator 2 and NovaBackup Business Essentials Backup (10 licenses) Part code: TS-8VH8.0TL/R6EU

Thunderbolt has been a long time coming. Although the PCI-Express-based interface for external peripherals has been available on Apple Mac laptops since February of this year, the first Thunderbolt-equipped storage peripherals are only now trickling onto the market. The Promise Pegasus R6 is the first Thunderbolt storage device to arrive and it's a beast. The R6 is a six-disk RAID storage array, so it doesn't come cheap.

The current Apple Thunderbolt cables are so expensive since they have a Gennum transceiver and signal booster chip at each end.

Although the R6's price of 871 ex VAT will make some eyes water, it's easy to see where some of the money went. The metal case is robust and looks nice too. It's not too noisy either we only noticed its whirring hum in a quiet room. When placed next to a server underneath an air conditioner, it was barely audible. There's a second Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining other Thunderbolt peripherals, including Apple's Thunderbolt-equipped Cinema Display. Bear in mind that a Thunderbolt cable isn't included, so you'll need to buy one from Apple for around 40 ex VAT.

Our review sample came fitted with six 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi Deskstar hard disks. Although various capacities and a cheaper four-disk variant are available, a diskless version sadly isn't an option. The disks themselves are screwed into four easily removable trays, so replacing a failed disk or fitting a bigger disk is very easy. The trays aren't lockable though.

The R6 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10. Configuring the Pegasus with your chosen RAID level is straightforward using the setup program. The interface is a bit cluttered and could do with some tidying up, but it won't faze anyone who's ever had to configure a router, server or any other storage array. It's Mac-only, just like the drivers, which isn't surprising since Thunderbolt ports have yet to appear on Windows PCs. Once configured though, the Pegasus can be used with a Windows installation virtualised under OS X using a program such as Parallels Desktop.

When the Pegasus was configured using a RAID level with more data redundancy, large files performance was generally a bit slower while small files performance was a bit quicker.

The Promise Pegasus R6 is incredibly fast when configured as a RAID 0 array.

To see how much of this incredible performance was due to RAID rather than the Thunderbolt interface, we also tested the Promise R6 with just a single disk fitted. In this configuration large files were written at 176MB/s and read at 122MB/s. Small files were written at 169MB/s and read at 109MB/s. Even without the benefit of RAID, a Thunderbolt-connected disk is still clearly, if not so dramatically faster, than the alternatives. USB3 disks, for example, can reach 100-120MB/s when writing large files.

The Promise Pegasus R6 isn't as awe-inspiringly fast when fitted with just a single disk, but it's still fast.

Although the Pegasus R6 isn't available diskless or pre-fitted with solid state disks (SSDs), we wanted to see how just fast it could copy files when fitted with SSDs. We installed a pair of 240GB Kingston HyperX SSDs configured as a RAID 0 array. Although it was faster than a hard disk configuration in almost all of our tests, it wasn't dramatically quicker. Large files were written at 576MB/s and read at 596MB/s. Small files were written and read at around 208MB/s. The hard disk configurations did have the benefit of six disks though, where as our SSD configuration used just two SSDs. In any case we can't imagine too many SSD Thunderbolt arrays in actual use, if only because of the added expense on what is already a very pricy array.

The Promise Pegasus R6 is fast when fitted with a pair of Kingston HyperX 240GB SSDs, although not as breathtakingly quick as we were expecting.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

There's no doubt that thanks to Thunderbolt, the Promise Pegasus R6 is one of the fastest storage products we have ever seen. It's also very expensive, although its price per gigabyte of 18p, while high, isn't outrageously extortionate. However, even if you have the modern Macs required to use it, you'll need to transfer and manipulate seriously massive amounts of data regularly, such as HD or 4k video files or sprawling databases, to justify its high price.

SPECIFICATIONS Chassis: Desktop Storage: 6 x 3.5in 1TB 7,200rpm SATA2 hard disks in removable disk trays (not hot swappable) Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 Network: 2 x Thundebolt Other ports: 1 x serial port Management: Promise Utility 3.16 Price per gigabyte: 18p Power consumption Idle 42W Active 50W BENCHMARKS RAID 0 Large write 590MB/s Large read 499MB/s Large average 545MB/s Small write 196.9MB/s Small read 104MB/s Small average 150.5MB/s RAID 5 Large write 482MB/s Large read 374MB/s Large average 428MB/s Small write 220MB/s Small read 111MB/s Small average 165.5MB/s RAID 6 Large write 494MB/s Large read 250MB/s Large average 372MB/s Small write 185MB/s Small read 113MB/s Small average 149MB/s RAID 10 Large write 344MB/s Large read 228MB/s Large average 286MB/s Small write 141MB/s Small read 148MB/s Small average 144.5MB/s SINGLE DISK Large write 176MB/s Large read 122MB/s Large average 149MB/s Small write 169MB/s Small read 109MB/s Small average 139MB/s RAID 0 SSD Large write 576MB/s Large read 596MB/s Large average 586MB/s Small write 209MB/s Small read 208MB/s Small average 208.5MB/s

There's never a dull moment in the desktop NAS appliance market with each vendor constantly trying to outdo the others for features. QNap's latest TS-x59 Pro II range consists of three new desktop models and are the first to support 6Gbit/s SATA hard disks and have USB3 ports.

QNap has also pushed ahead with its support for cloud services as, along with Amazon's S3 hosted backup, you now have support for the ElephantDrive service which Netgear teamed up with some time ago with its ReadyNAS appliances. However, QNap goes a step further with its MyCloudNAS service which allows you to use the appliance to provide your own secure cloud backup, multimedia and file sharing services to remote workers.

The TS-559 Pro II uses the same 1.8GHz dual-core Atom D525 processor as the older Pro+ model but you can now expand memory. The appliance has 1GB which can be upgraded to 3GB using an extra SO-DIMM module. It's easy enough to achieve as you just remove the main cover where you'll find the extra slot easily accessible.

Physically, the TS-559 Pro II is virtually identical to its predecessor as the only external differences are the blue USB3 ports on the front and rear. Along with these you have dual Gigabit Ethernet, four USB2 and a couple of eSATA ports.

QNap's TS-559 Pro II is one of the first NAS devices to have USB3 ports.

Installation is simple as QNap's Finder utility locates the appliance on the network and offers quick access to its well designed web interface. This provides a side menu listing all features and selecting one shows all its details in the main window alongside.

QNap's web interface is well-designed and provides easy access to the myriad features.

The MyCloudNAS service is hosted by QNap which manages host name registration and dynamic DNS mapping for the appliance's services. A wizard takes you through the process where you provide a unique hostname and enable the services you want to publish.

The MyCloudNAS service is supposed to work automatically with UPnP routers, but may require port forwarding rules to be created manually.

It claimed to have succeeded with our Linksys WAG160N wireless router but when we tried to access the services they failed to load. Our solution was to manually add the relevant port forwarding rules to our router after which the services became accessible. Along with username and password access for each service you can also enable HTTPS only for better security.

There are plenty more features to play with as the appliance runs iTunes and UPnP media servers while the Multimedia Station can be used for publishing photos, videos and music in web galleries. The Web File Manager can be used to upload and download files from a browser interface, plus the appliance can host your own web sites.

Using MyCloudNAS allowed us to present the Web File Manager and Multimedia Station to remote users.

A good range of backup features are also provided with NetBak Replicator software running scheduled backups of Windows workstations and servers. Along with the cloud backup services, there's also support for Rsync servers for remote replication.

For real world testing we loaded five 1TB SATA drives and created a RAID-5 array which took around six hours to build. Our performance tests show that standard 3Gbit/ss SATA2 disks are quite capable of delivering the goods.

We used a Dell PowerEdge R515 server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit and saw drag and drop copies to a mapped share return read and write speeds of 107.5MB/s and 96MB/s. FTP operations were slightly faster with the FileZilla utility reporting speeds of 108MB/s and 103MB/s respectively.

Using the Dell server and a Broadberry dual X5560 Xeon server running the same OS, we mapped separate shares to them and ran Iometer on each one. After settling down, we saw an impressive cumulative raw read rate of 224MB/s.

IP SAN features are good as all QNap appliances support iSCSI thin provisioning which allows targets to be created that only use a small amount of space on the appliance, but appear much larger to the host. As more data is stored on the target, the appliance dynamically allocates extra space to it. Performance is good as well with a 50GB target returning a high raw read speed of 112MB/s.

IP SAN services come as standard and the appliance supports iSCSI thin provisioning as well.

For USB3 speed testing we inserted a Super Talent Express Drive Duo flash drive into the front port of the appliance and ran copy tests between this and a mapped share. Copying the test video clip to the share returned a read rate of 36MB/s and copying it back to the USB3 stick averaged a 16MB/s write speed. To put these results in perspective we ran the same copies using a USB2 flash drive which delivered read and write speeds of 20MB/s and 5MB/s.

For a five-bay desktop NAS appliance the TS-559 Pro II is competitively priced and has an excellent range of storage features. The USB3 ports improve backup speeds significantly and QNap's new cloud backup and file sharing services currently puts it one up over the competition.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

QNap's new TS-559 Pro II combines an excellent range of storage features with lightning fast performance. The USB3 ports also perform very well and will make significant improvements if you're backing up to external storage devices. Small businesses especially will appreciate QNap’s free MyCloudNAS service for providing secure remote access to resources.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 Memory: 1GB DDR2 expandable to 3GB, 512MB DOM Storage: 5 x 3.5in.or 2.5in SATA2/SATA3 hard disk hot-swap bays RAID: Software managed Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 5 + hotspare, JBOD Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 2 x USB3, 4 x USB2, 2 x eSATA Management: Web browser Software: QNap Finder, NetBak Replicator and Qget software bundled

Many NAS appliance vendors are now making rack mounted appliances, but some seem to have forgotten that expansion is a key business requirement. Not so with Synology as its latest RackStation RS2211+ can be linked to an RX1211 expansion shelf with 12 drive bays via a high performance Infiniband port.

The RackStation RS2211+ can be linked to an RX1211 expansion shelf with 12 drive bays via a high performance Infiniband port

The main unit has ten hot-swap drive bays so this dynamic duo allows capacity to be pushed to an impressive 66TB, although the latest 6Gbit/s SATA disks aren't yet to supported. We tested the RS2211+ and RX1211 together in this review, but for full power redundancy, Synology offers RS2211RP+ and RX1211RP combos which both have dual hot-plug power supplies.

The SATA interfaces are cabled directly to the hard disk backplane and the Infiniband expansion port is hard wired at the back. The appliance has a 1.8GHz dual-core Atom processor and a spare SODIMM socket allows the standard 1GB of DDR2 memory to be increased to 3GB.

A point worth highlighting is that the Infiniband connection represents a single point of failure. Higher-end appliances such as HP's P2000 G3 use dual RAID controllers with redundant SAS ports for expansion shelves, although these do cost many times more than the RS2211+.

Installation follows the same path as all other Synology appliances where an Assistant utility finds the appliance on the network and loads the DSM (Disk Station Manager) software for you. Array setup comes next and for testing we loaded four 1TB WD SATA disks and created a RAID 5 array.

Synology's slick web management interface provides easy access to all features and can be customised using drag and drop.

The RS2211+ delivered superb results in our real world performance tests. Using a Dell PowerEdge R515 rack server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, we saw drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip over Gigabit Ethernet return read and write speeds of 103MB/s and 92MB/s respectively.

The RS2211+ delivered superb results in our real world performance tests.

FTP speeds were even better with the FileZilla client reporting read and write speeds of 107MB/s and 105MB/s for the same test file. It also handled our 17.4GB collection of 10,500 files well with this folder copied to the appliance at an average of 58MB/s.

To test Infiniband speeds we connected the RX1211 expansion shelf with three 2TB SATA disks loaded. As soon as it was powered up they popped up in the DSM's Storage Manager interface where we created a separate RAID-5 array.

After connecting the RX1211 expansion shelf all its drives appeared in the management interface ready for configuration.

Running the same copy and FTP tests returned identical speeds showing the Infiniband connection had no adverse impact on performance. In our review of Synology's RS810RP+, we tested performance of the eSATA equipped RX410 expansion unit and saw a drop in read performance over this link of nearly 20 per cent.

IP SAN features are good with target support for the RS2211+ increased to 32. The appliance also supports iSCSI thin provisioning which allows targets to be created that only use a small amount of space on the appliance, but appear much larger to the host. As more data is stored on the target, the appliance dynamically allocates extra space to it. When you reach the limits of physical capacity you can add more drives and increase the size of the physical volume the target resides on.

Synology provides some of the best IP camera recording features with the Surveillance Station 5 improved to support IE, Firefox and Google Chrome. A search tool finds your IP cameras on the network and it supports scheduled recordings and motion detection too.

Backup features are reasonable, although the bundled Data Replicator 3 is now looking a bit dated. However, the appliance offers scheduled backups of local data to external USB devices, other Synology appliances or Rsync compatible servers and integrates with Amazon's S3 remote backup service.

Synology's Time Backup provides a simple snapshot service that allows multiple file copies to be retained.

Snapshots are handled by the Time Backup add-on package which has finally come out of beta testing. This automates snapshots of selected folders to another volume on the appliance or external device. A file version history is viewed from the Timeline screen where you can select one and restore it to its original location or a new destination.

The RS2211+ scores highly over rival rack mount NAS appliances from Thecus, QNap and Netgear which don't have any worthwhile expansion capabilities. Synology's Infiniband link is a single point of failure but it clearly has no impact on performance and the high maximum capacity makes the RS2211+ a far better choice for SMBs.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Synology’s RS2211+ is very good value when stacked up against similar rack appliances from Thecus, Qnap and Netgear. Its superior expansion potential makes it a better choice for businesses with big plans for the future and our tests show the Infiniband connection has no detrimental impact on performance. Synology also packs in plenty of features and offers some of the best IP SAN features in this class.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 Memory: 1GB DDR2 expandable to 3GB Storage: 10 x 3.5in.or 2.5in SATA hard disk hot-swap bays RAID: Software managed Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, Hybrid, hot-spare and JBODs Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 4 x USB2, Infiniband Management: Web browser Software: Synology Assistant, Download Redirector and Data Replicator 3 Options: RX1211, £864; RS2211RP+, £1,514; RX1211RP, £1,328 (all ex VAT)

Iomega has always had a relatively modest range of NAS appliances, but since its acquisition by EMC it has started to push more into SMB territory. This is a very crowded market with a huge range of choices, but Iomega's new StorCenter px4-300r aims to stand out with its cloud backup and file sharing features.

This 1U rack system is well-built with the four bays using solid metal disk carriers although they aren't lockable. Status LEDs for each drive are located in a strip just above the carriers and to one side is a tiny LCD providing basic system information and details on available disk and used storage.

The Storage Manager utility makes light work of installation.

Redundancy is good as there's room at the back for a pair of 170W hot-plug power supplies. Only one is included in the price we've shown and a second will set you back around 240 ex VAT.

The appliance supports mirrors, stripes and RAID 5 arrays and the two Gigabit Ethernet ports can be bonded together into fault tolerant, load balanced or 802.3ad aggregated teams. There are three USB2 ports for adding external storage devices, but expansion using extra disk shelves is not an option.

Iomega supplied our review unit with a quartet of 2TB SATA drives preconfigured in a RAID 5 array so we were ready to go. The Storage Manager utility makes light work of installation as it locates the appliance on the network and maps all the predefined shares to drive letters for you.

All available shares can be viewed from the interface along with iSCSI targets and the Storage Manager handles IP SAN creation very niftily. Just select an iSCSI target, choose connect from its drop down menu, pick a drive letter and leave it to handle initiator configuration and target logon.

Backup features are extensive and for most of these Iomega has its head firmly in the cloud. Iomega advised us earlier this year that it would be integrating EMC's MozyPro hosted backup service into its business NAS appliances and it's come good on this promise. You can create a new MozyPro account directly from the appliance's web interface which is a separate purchase.

Once activated, you can create scheduled backup jobs of selected folders to the MozyPro servers and browse existing backups to restore data back to the appliance. When our sister title PC Pro took a look at the MozyPro 2 service, they were impressed with the levels of features, but had serious concerns about the support provided by EMC.

The appliance supports Amazon's S3 hosted service and you can configure shares as Facebook or Flickr Active Folders. Then there's Iomega's Personal Cloud which is designed to provide secure data backup and file sharing to remote users as though they were on the same LAN.

We found setup easy enough although you will need to get down and dirty with your router as Personal Cloud requires the addition of a port forwarding rule to allow access from the Internet. The web console provides the port number and internal IP address you need to use for the rule.

Once we had added a port forwarding rule, the Personal Cloud could be accessed remotely by users we had sent invitations to.

We had no problems setting up a rule and could then send email invitations to users to join our private cloud. The email contains a username and unique access code plus a link to download a personalised version of the Storage Manager.

Iomega doesn't include any backup software, but you do have the Copy Job feature. This allows folders on selected workstations to be regularly copied to the appliance or you can use it to copy data from the appliance to another Rsync server. When the QuikTransfer button on the appliance is pressed it'll copy anything on an inserted USB device to a folder on the appliance. You can also tie it in with Copy Jobs that will be fired up when it's pressed.

The px4-300r fared reasonably well in our real world performance tests. Drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip using a Dell PowerEdge R515 with Server 2008 R2 64-bit loaded returned read and write speeds of 103MB/s and 47MB/s.

Backing up large collections of small files proved to be more challenging... CIFS write performance seems to be a problem.

Backing up large collections of small files proved to be more challenging with a 17.4GB folder with 10,500 files averaging only 20MB/s. CIFS write performance seems to be a problem as using FileZilla to FTP the video clip returned 83MB/s write speeds.

The StorCenter px4-300r has a good range of storage sharing features with extensive cloud-based services at the top of the list. It's easy to install as well, but with a diskless model costing over 1,000 it is very expensive. If cloud backup services aren't your cup of tea then we recommend Synology's RS411 as that 1U appliance is faster, offers a very good range of storage features and costs a lot less.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The StorCenter px4-300r has plenty of storage features with cloud-based backup and file sharing a highlight. Providing you don’t mind adding a port forwarding rule to your router, Iomega’s Personal Cloud will also prove very useful for sharing data securely with remote users. However, performance is disappointing and it is comparatively expensive making rival products such as Synology’s RS411 far better value.

Chassis: 1U rack chassis CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Celeron E1500 Memory: 2GB DDR2 Storage: 4 x hot-swap SATA drive bays Array support: RAID0, 1, 10, 5, JBOD, hot spare Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 3 x USB2 Management: Web browser Software: Iomega Storage Manager Warranty: 3 years RTB Options: Second power supply, £240 ex VAT

Promise Technology has never had a high profile in the small business NAS market but its latest SmartStor NSx700 desktop appliances aim to change that perception. Two new models are available and comprise the six-bay NS6700 and the four-bay NS4700 on review here.

Previous SmartStor appliances failed to pass muster in our speed tests - we were unimpressed with the older NS4600 and its pedestrian performance. Promise now steps in line with much of the competition as both new models use a 1.8GHz dual-core Atom processor and memory gets a much needed quadrupling to 1GB of DDR2 RAM.

The appliance's newly designed web interface provides a useful dashboard showing the status of all components and drives.

Build quality also sees big improvements as the chassis is now all-metal and the cheap plastic drive carriers from the NS4600 and NS4300 have been replaced with sturdier metal frames. The appliance also has five USB2 and two Gigabit Ethernet data ports, but no eSATA.

For initial installation you can use Promise's SmartNAVI client which runs as a background task accessible from the System Tray and automatically finds appliances on the network. The setup wizard setup checks the network, applies a range of default settings based on what it finds and automates array creation.

Promise's new web interface looks very smart with its one-click setup routine but we recommend avoiding any wizards until you're sure you know what you want to do with your storage. Promise works differently compared to other vendors as it uses disk arrays to group selected physical drives together into pools.

Within these pools you create multiple logical drives and choose a RAID type for each one. If the pool comprises four drives you can choose from stripes, mirrors, RAID 5 or RAID 6 for the logical drive. However, be careful during this phase as although the NS4700 supports NAS and IP SAN operations, each logical drive can only be used for one of these and the mode must be set during creation.

We installed four 1TB WD SATA drives, grouped them into a single disk array and manually created two RAID-5 logical drives for NAS and IP SAN performance testing. For NAS operations we needed to create a file system on the logical drive from the web interface after which a set of default shares were presented.

Take your time during logical drive creation as, along with an appropriate RAID type, you must select either NAS or IP SAN operations.

For real world performance testing we used a dual Xeon X5560-based Broadberry rack server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit. The improved hardware in the NS4700 made a big difference with drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip returning read and write speeds of 85MB/s and 78MB/s

FTP operations were faster with the FileZilla client reporting speeds of 90MB/s and 81MB/s. A 17.4GB collection of 10,500 small files was copied to the appliance as a rate of 57MB/s. Our results show that the NS4700 is around three times faster than its predecessor.

For IP SANs, the appliance presents a single iSCSI portal so any initiator that logs into it will see all available targets although you can apply CHAP authentication to restrict access. Performance for a single 100GB target was very good with Iometer reporting a fast raw read speed of 111MB/s.

Server and workstation backup is very well catered for as Promise includes an unlimited user version of Acronis' Backup and Recovery Server 10 software which supports Windows XP and Server 2000 upwards. The only proviso is this is a special edition for Promise products and will only allow vaults to be created on its SmartStor NAS appliances.

The new hardware in the NS4700 has made a big improvement to performance.

The NS4700 also supports snapshots for point-in-time volume backups and allows data on the appliance to be backed up to external USB disks. Cloud backup is supported too as the web interface has an option for connecting to Amazon's S3 hosted service and you can replicate the appliance to another one using Rsync.

The new hardware in the NS4700 has made a big improvement to performance as it's a lot faster that its SmartStor predecessors. It also has a fine range of storage features and good value with Span Computers selling a diskless model for just over 600 ex VAT.

However, despite being aimed at small businesses, the NS4700 isn't easy to install and we found the documentation very unhelpful. Many topics such as IP SANs get scant coverage and the relationship between disk arrays, logical drives and usage modes need explanation to avoid making time consuming mistakes during installation.

Competition in the SMB NAS market is white hot and we think Synology's slightly cheaper five-bay DS1511+ is a better bet. In an exclusive review in our sister title PC Pro we found it delivered stunning performance and has additional features including hybrid RAID and iSCSI thin provisioning plus monstrous expansion potential.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Our performance tests show the NS4700 has benefited hugely from the improved hardware as it’s around three times faster than the older NS4600. It has good range of features including some decent backup software, but it’s not the easiest to configure and Promise needs to make big improvements to its documentation. We recommend checking out Synology’s nifty five-bay DS1511+ before buying.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 Memory: 1GB DDR2 Storage: 4 x hot-swap SATA disk bays RAID array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, JBOD Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 5 x USB2 Management: Web browser Software: Promise SmartNAVI and Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 NAS Edition

At some point in the past - perhaps even today - you've no doubt experienced that sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach after accidentally deleting an important file or folder. That feeling is even worse if your hard disk fails and you lose its entire contents, including months or years' worth of work, documents, finances, photos, videos and music.

If you've simply deleted a file, the good news is that it's almost always possible to recover it as the file still exists on your hard drive; the area it occupies has simply been marked as available for other data to be written over it. However, if your disk has been dropped, set on fire, submerged in water or any other horror, it might rattle or stop spinning entirely. Here, things become a lot more complicated.

Computer Weekly's fire damaged digital camera and SD card

The extracted and cleaned memory chip from the SD card

Whatever your situation, there are data recovery companies that can attempt to restore your precious data and return your life to normality. One such firm is Kroll Ontrack, based in Epsom, Surrey. IT Pro visited their facility to see how engineers are able to recover lost data in special clean rooms.

Due process

The process starts with a call to one of Ontrack's data recovery team to discuss exactly what has happened, and work out the most cost effective way to recover it. Data on just about every medium can be recovered, from magnetic tape through to the latest SSDs (solid-state drives) including USB flash drives and memory cards in your phone or camera.

Even if the data is stored on a RAID array or in a virtual machine, Ontrack can usually recover it. Robert Winter, Ontrack's Engineering Manager, gave us a guided tour of the lab and explained that, "data is recoverable in the vast majority of cases". Even if the contents of your drive have become corrupted due to a virus or some malfunction, there's still hope.

There are various options depending on the nature of the problem. For example, it might be possible to recover the data instantly via the internet in as little as an hour if it's a simple case of accidental file deletion or corruption and all your hardware is intact and working fine. However, if the hardware is faulty - either a failed disk or other component, such as a RAID controller - you'll almost certainly have to send the equipment to Ontrack's lab. For the most complex or sensitive situations, engineers can visit your premises to repair the problem and recover the data on-site.

There are also various service levels, which determine how quickly your data is recovered and returned to you. For mission-critical business data, Ontrack's engineers will work around the clock, but where budget is more of a concern, rather than time, there are cheaper options.

Recovery position

When your hard disk(s) arrive at Ontrack's lab, they're bagged and tagged to allow them to be tracked through the entire recovery process. They then head to the pre-diagnosis area and are checked to find out if they're physically working. If there are any unusual rattles or the bearings are seized, they head into the clean room. However, for those that will power up and spin, they are connected to one of the imaging PCs.

Bagging and tagging incoming hard disks so they can be tracked throughout the data recovery process

Kroll Ontrack's imaging computers

The disk's contents are then copied with Ontrack's proprietary software. The software can automatically skip over bad areas - portions of the disk that may be damaged or corrupted. It then scans in reverse', backing up as far as it can until it reaches the end of the bad area in order to recover as much of the data as possible. Once the disk has been imaged, the data is stored on Ontrack's severs, which are currently fitted with 140TB of storage. The disk itself is now finished with, but the image must be worked on by the experts in the logical recovery area. This is split into various sub-areas for different file systems including Windows, Mac, Unix, plus other areas for RAID and virtualised systems.

Working on servers and RAID arrays

As well as disks, data can be recovered from tape backups usually for for migration to a different format. Accidental initialisation can also be overcome and backup data recovered.

Clean room

If a hard disk isn't working and can't be imaged in the pre-diagnosis area, it heads into the clean room. The engineers within will first listen to the disk and - using their considerable experience - will be able to determine whether it's safe to remove its lid or not. Some disks' chassis are integral to the spindle so opening it can render the disk useless as it can't be spun up or reassembled.

The clean room is equipped with special benches which prevent any dust or debris falling on the platters. Disks which are deemed safe to open have their lids removed and a visual inspection is carried out to check for problems. Each platter surface is inspected for damage as this can vary between platters.

We submitted our own damaged disk to Ontrack for assessment. Our disk, which spun up but refused to show up on the BIOS, had only minor damage on the upper surface of the platter.

IT Pro's damaged laptop hard disk

Unfortunately, the underside had a spiral scratch due to the head being in contact with the platter as it returned to it's parked position - a classic sign of a disk that has been dropped while operating. This kind of damage means the data can't be recovered from that platter.

If the data lost is mission critical, it may be possible to recover data from platters with minor damage. Ontrack's software allows the engineers to move the heads to a safe, undamaged area in order to copy the 'good' data off before attempting to image the damaged area. Allowing the heads to read the damaged area could cause further damage and destroy good data.

If a particular platter is beyond repair, the software can tell the disk to ignore any data being read from that platter's read/write head in order to trick the disk into thinking it is working correctly - otherwise it may refuse to read any data at all.

Microscopes are used for inspecting platter damage more closely, and to check for any damage that isn't visible to the naked eye. Another recovery technique involves cleaning any debris from the platter surfaces before powering the disk up to image it. Even smoke particles can damage the platter, as they are larger than the gap between the read/write head and the platter - just a few microns - and can get caught between them.

When a disk is dropped or knocked, perhaps when a laptop is placed roughly on a desk, the read/write heads can hit the platters. The damage can be minor or severe, but if any particles are chipped off, this can fly around and cause further damage - this is why it's important to act quickly if you suspect your disk has been damaged following a drop.

Some disks arrive in the clean room with seized bearings. The engineers are able to fix this, either by fitting replacement parts or by repair, in order to get the drive spinning again. Ontrack currently stores around 1,500 different hard disk models which can be used for spare parts to repair failed disks quickly.

Kroll Ontrack claims to maintain a huge supply of spare hard disks

Even circuit boards can be quickly swapped over where the problem is electronic rather than mechanical. Often, you can't simply replace a controller board with an identical model as calibration data is stored on the chips. Ontrack can copy this data to a new board to get a drive running again.

Don't lose your head

Solid-state disks

SSDs are still relatively new, and the recovery process is not yet automatic. Where an interface has been damaged - for example if the SATA connector has been snapped off - engineers can repair the electrical connections in order to copy the data off the drive. The same technique also applies to USB flash drives, which are fairly vulnerable to damage.

Removing memory chips from a SSD with the aid of a microscope

When it isn't possible to repair the interface, or there's another problem causing the data to be inaccessible, the memory chips can be removed from the circuit board and the data read directly from them. Data is usually stored across the chips using RAID, but the data should still be recoverable using Ontrack's proprietary software as long as the intricacies of the chip manufacturer's RAID implementation is documented.

A logical solution

Once the data from the disk has been imaged, it passes to the logical recovery team to recover the files the customer has requested. As long as the file system isn't something obscure, the data can usually be obtained fairly quickly. Even if the data was stored in a virtualised environment, or a RAID, it can be recovered but it adds extra steps to the process.

It's possible to recover files which are either corrupted or written over a damaged area of the disk, but it isn't always possible to extract the full file. Ontrack has techniques to read individual records in databases and emails within Outlook PST files. Engineers can also search for the signatures of particular file types, such as Word documents, and as long as the filename is embedded, this can be restored as well, instead of leaving the customer with a slew of files with numerical filenames.

It's crucial to have a backup strategy in place to avoid having only one copy of your critical files.

Engineers rarely open files to see what they contain only when checking that the data has been restored correctly are files opened. However, should an engineer find a selection of suspicious filenames and suspect they may contain illegal material, they must report it to the police. An investigation can then be carried out and, if the customer is suspected to have broken the law, they can be prosecuted. However, this has only happened once or twice in Ontrack's history.

What's the damage?

As we've mentioned, there are various services depending on how quickly customers need their data back: Emergency (working round the clock), Express (your data has priority, and recovery work continues on Saturdays), Standard (data is recovered during normal office hours) and Home User (time isn't a factor).

To recover a single laptop hard disk for these services would cost:

Emergency 350 + 1,495 to 2,995 + VAT

Express 95 + 795 to 1,495 + VAT

Standard 75 + 495 to 995 + VAT

Home User fixed price 599 inc VAT

For a complex enterprise system, for example a four-disk RAID from a Microsoft Exchange server, the prices are proportionally more, due to the extra labour required:

Emergency 800 + 6000 to 8000 + VAT

Express 500 + 4000 to 6000 +VAT

Standard 300 + 2000 to 4000 + VAT

If you've simply deleted some files or have an operating system or file system problem, you could try Ontrack's EasyRecovery software, which starts at just 25. Of course, while it's remarkable that Ontrack can restore data from hard disks you may have thought completely dead, it's crucial to have a backup strategy in place to avoid having only one copy of your critical files.

Most of today's 2U rack servers want to cover every base of operations and try to combine just the right mix of processing power, expansion potential, storage capacity and, of course, value. One of the best examples is the HP ProLiant DL380 G7 which has all these features and more in a well-built system.

IBM's System x3620 M3 differs as it is designed primarily with high storage capacity as a key feature. To this end it only supports large capacity 3.5in SAS and SATA hard disks and has room in its front panel for up to eight of them.

IBM offers a good range of storage choices as you can keep the price down and go for high-capacity, low-performance SATA drives. The base system relies on its embedded SATA controller which supports up to four cold-swap 2TB drives plus mirrored and striped arrays. IBM offers SAS and near-line SAS drives for the x3620 but you'll need to upgrade the embedded RAID controller to use them. The motherboard's UEFI means that the x3620 shouldn't have any trouble supporting 3TB disks unlike older BIOS-equipped servers.

We had the basic ServeRAID M1015 8-port PCI-E card which can handle mirrors and stripes but this can be upgraded with an advanced feature key to support RAID5 and 50. The M5014 PCI-E card has eight 6Gbit/s SAS ports plus 256MB of onboard cache whilst the M5015 is optimised for SSDs and has 512MB of cache memory and a battery backup pack.

If you want more storage options from your IBM server then check out the x3650 M3 which closely matches the DL380 G7 for features as it supports eight 3.5in or sixteen 2.5in SFF drives.

Four fans at the front look after motherboard and hard disk cooling but, unlike the DL380 G7 or Dell's PowerEdge R710, they are not hot-swappable. They aren't so easy to remove either as all fans are mounted in a single tray and individually cabled to a narrow power board tucked down behind the drive bays.

A single expansion cage sits to one side and provides three PCI-E slots. However, don't be fooled by the three mounting points on the backplate as there are only two PCI-E slots behind it. The third slot is located much further back inside the chassis and is only suitable for RAID cards that are internally cabled to the drive backplane.

The x3620 has two embedded Gigabit Ethernet ports but, unlike the x3650, doesn't support IBM's optional dual-port Gigabit daughtercard. Four embedded ports are now a standard feature on nearly all 2U rack servers and are included on HP's DL380 G7, Dell's R710 and even Gateway's budget priced GR380 F1.

The review system came with two 675W hot-plug power supplies, but 460W power supplies are also available. The x3620 proved to be easy on the utility bill as we measured the review system pulling only 135W with Windows Server 2008 R2 in idle. With SiSoft Sandra pounding the pair of 2.27GHz E5507 Xeons this rose to only 214W. We compared this with a PowerEdge R710 equipped with a pair of 2.27GHz E5520 Xeons, 12GB of memory and four hard disks. In idle it drew 150W and peaked under heavy load at 270W.

From the IMM interface you can monitor critical components and control power. To get KVM-over IP remote control and virtual media services you need the extra hardware key which plugs into a dedicated header on the motherboard. It costs an extra 225 ex VAT.

Unlike HP's iLO3, the IMM doesn't provide any power metering or graphing tools but these features are available in IBM's Systems Director software. The base product is freely available with all IBM servers and requires the extra Active Energy Manager plug-in.

We place IBM's Systems Director a close second to HP's Insight Control software for systems management. It's much easier to use than Dell's Management Console and provides an impressive range of tools including network discovery, server monitoring, inventory and remote update services.

The x3620 M3 has a high storage capacity and is comparatively good value. The price we've shown is IBM's estimated street price but we found a diskless system with a single E5507 Xeon, 4GB of memory and an M1015 RAID card for around 1,550 which is only slightly more than Dell's R710.

Overall, the x3620 M3 is good overall value when stacked up against HP and Dell and is a fine choice for running storage hungry applications. However, if you want more from your 2U rack server, such as four Gigabit Ethernet ports, hot-swap fans and support for SFF drives, then HP's DL380 G7 is the better choice.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The x3620 M3 is worth considering if storage capacity is a top priority as it can be boosted to 16TB using low-cost 3.5in SATA hard disks. HP’s DL380 G7 and Dell’s R710 can’t match this as they only support SFF disks.

Our tests show the x3620 M3 has low power usage and good deals are available providing you shop around. However, its limited features means the DL380 G7 is still our preferred choice of 2U rack server as it offers a lot more for a very similar price.

Chassis: 2U rack

CPU: 2 x 2.27GHz Intel Xeon E5507

Memory: 8GB 800MHz DDR3 expandable to 192GB

Storage: 2 x 250GB SATA hard disks in hot-swap carriers (max. 8)

RAID: IBM ServeRAID-M1015 SAS/SATA PCI Express card

Array support: RAID 0, 1, (optional RAID 5, 10 and 50)

Expansion: 3 x PCI Express

Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Power: 2 x 675W hot-plug supplies

Management: Embedded IMM with 10/100 port

Software: IBM ServerGuide 8.4, Systems Director 6.2.1

Whereas Dell and HP were quick to see the benefits of AMD's Opteron 6100 server processors it's taken a lot longer for IBM to catch on. Big Blue's first four-socket 6100 server is finally out the door and IBM has granted ITPRO exclusive access to the first review sample in the UK.

The System x3755 M3 uses a 2U chassis so it matches the rack cabinet processing density of Dell's 2U PowerEdge R815. Its low profile also makes it more compact than HP's 4U ProLiant DL585 G7.

IBM has clearly prioritised storage capacity as, unlike Dell's and HP's servers, the x3755 doesn't support 2.5in SFF hard disks. There's room at the front for eight standard 3.5in disks allowing capacity to be pushed to 16TB using 2TB SATA models.

IBM also offers 2TB near-line SAS drives or you can go for 600GB 15k SAS drives if performance is more important than capacity. The server doesn't have an embedded disk controller so our review system came with IBM's base ServeRAID M1015 PCI Express SAS card.

This eight-port card supports mirrors and stripes and can be upgraded to RAID 5 capabilities. Alternatively, you can specify an M5015 card which supports all these RAID arrays, has 512MB of cache memory plus battery backup and can be upgraded to handle dual-drive redundant RAID-6 arrays.

The price of the review system includes four 2.1GHz 12-core Opteron 6172 chips which have a TDP rating of 115W. Memory support is a lot less confusing that that provided by the 5500 and 5600 Xeons as all Opteron 6100s support 1333MHz memory. The server has eight DIMM slots per processor and supports up to 512GB using 16GB RDIMM modules. A 128GB limit applies if you use lower-cost UDIMM memory modules.

IBM scored well in our power tests. With Windows Server 2008 R2 in idle we measured the x3755 drawing a very modest 214W. Using SiSoft Sandra to push all 48 physical cores to near maximum utilisation saw the power draw peak at 552W.

The x3755 uses noticeably less power than its closest competitors. A Dell R815 with quad 2.2GHz Opteron 6174 processors and 64GB of memory was measured at 335W in idle and 618W under load. An HP DL585 G7 with four 1200W supplies and the same processors, but only half the memory, recorded 356W in idle and a much higher peak of 710W.

Build quality of the x3755 is extremely good and easily a match for Dell and HP. Internal cooling is handled by a bank of five hot-swap fans and these are accessed via a small hatch in the server's lid. Due to the internal layout you can't run the server with the whole lid removed and doing so will initiate an immediate system shutdown.

Internal design is quite unusual and had been largely dictated by the power supply canister which sits on top of the motherboard. This is hinged at the front and can be easily released and swung up to reveal the processor and memory sockets underneath.

An expansion cage is located to the left side and IBM's tool-less design makes it very easy to remove. The M1015 RAID card is fitted in a dedicated slot in the cage's riser and there are three more PCI-E slots at the back with all accepting half-height, half-width cards.

IBM is also pitching the x3755 for server virtualisation duties and its internal USB port can be used to boot an embedded hypervisor. However, both Dell and HP have been more imaginative as they also offer internal SD memory card slots for this function.

For remote management the server comes with IBM's embedded IMM (integrated management module) which has its own dedicated network port at the rear. You can monitor critical components, remotely control power, run unattended firmware upgrades. There's also support for KVM-over-IP remote control and virtual media services. The latter allow the host system remotely controlling the server to present its floppy and optical drives to it so they appear to the server as local drives. This is useful as no optical drive is built in.

General systems management is handled by IBM's Systems Director 6.2 which is included as standard. It provides network discovery, inventory, system monitoring and alerting facilities. The Active Energy Manager plug-in adds power capping functions and trending graphs of power consumption over time.

We've quoted IBM's estimated street price for the review system and we'd expect its channel partners to offer good discounts. They'll have to go some way to beat Dell's R815 on price though, but we still rate the System x3755 M3 as a top choice as a four-processor server platform since it's power efficient, well designed and has a high storage capacity.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

IBM’s new x3755 M3 brings together a fine combination of high processing density and low power consumption. It's well-made and well-designed with very good power redundancy for a 2U rack server. It doesn’t support SFF hard disks but IBM’s crafty design means it can pack in eight hot-swap 3.5in drives giving it great internal storage capacity. It can’t match the low price of Dell’s PowerEdge R815 or HP’s DL585 G7 for expansion potential, but its lower power consumption makes it a fine server that's well worth the price premium.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 4 x 2.1GHz AMD Opteron 6172 Memory: 64GB DDR3 1,333MHz RDIMM expandable to 512GB Storage: 250GB SATA hard disk in hot-swap carrier (max. 8) RAID: IBM ServeRAID-M1015 PCI-e card Array support: RAID 0, 1, (optional RAID 5) Expansion: 3 x PCI Express Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet Power: 3 x 1100W hot-plug supplies Management: Embedded IMM with 10/100 port Software: IBM ServerGuide 8.4, Systems Director 6.2.1

The latest microservers are aimed squarely at small business that have traditionally relied on a PC for providing simple file and print services. HP was first out of the blocks with its compact MicroServer N36L and now Fujitsu has introduced its Primergy MX130 S1.

The MX130 targets small businesses of up to 15 users that want a central location for basic file sharing and print services. Along with Windows Server 2008 R2, the server is also validated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We can't see many small businesses wanting to tussle with the latter though as it's far too complicated.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation can be preinstalled for 145 which is good value. Fujitsu advised us it also plans to offer SBS Essentials 2011 on this server when Microsoft launches it later this year.

The system on review looks pricey when compared to the HP MicroServer. However, the Primergy's 3.1GHz AMD Athlon II X2 255 is a lot faster than the little 1.3GHz Athlon II Neo in the MicroServer, although you can save cash by opting for an Athlon 220 or a single-core Sempron processor.

The price for the review system also includes two 1TB SATA hard disks. We shopped around and found an Athlon 220 model with 2GB of RAM and a pair of 250GB drives on EBuyer for around 250 ex VAT which puts it closer in price to the MicroServer.

Rather than design a completely new chassis for the MX130 S1, Fujitsu has simply used its standard Esprimo desktop casing. Physically, it's little different from the Esprimo E5645 that failed to impress us when we recently reviewed it.

However, a big bonus of this chassis is it's designed to be very quiet and we can say it's almost silent. The cooling arrangement is a little strange, though, as the chassis has a fan mounted at the front, but the processor heatsink is barely an inch behind it and is also fitted with its own fan.

The cover is removed by pressing buttons on each side and pulling the complete shell forwards and it can be padlocked shut. The four memory slots are easily accessible and the server can be upgraded to 16GB, but if you opt for Server 2008 Foundation remember this OS only supports up to 8GB.

For storage the motherboard has six embedded SATA ports, but the integral AMD RAID controller only supports mirrors and stripes. Up to two 3.5in hard disks can be fitted with one mounted under the power supply and the other beneath the 5.25in bay.

HP's MicroServer provides far easier access to its four drive bays as they are located right behind its front door with the hard disks fitted in flimsy but easily removable carriers. To get at the drives in the MX130 you need to remove the shell and unclip the front bay or the power supply unit and swing them up.

You can increase the drive count as optional 2.5in hard disk mounting kits are also available. Two drives can be placed under the power supply, two more in the front bay and, if you dispense with the optical drive, another pair can be squeezed in here as well.

There's room to expand as the motherboard has two PCI Express slots as well as another pair of 32-bit PCI slots. They are easily accessible and all support half-height expansion cards.

Some businesses are putting microservers into small remote offices to provide basic file sharing functions with AD access controls. In these scenarios it would be very useful to be able to remotely monitor and manage the server from the head office, but the MX130 is devoid of these features.

The MX130 was supplied to us with Fujitsu's ServerView software installed, but as the server doesn't have an embedded iRMC2 controller there's little you can do with it. We were advised that this will be rectified later this year with the release of a ServerView agent for local management only, along with the ServerView Installation Manager software.

HP's MicroServer is currently your best bet if you want full remote management. For only 55 extra you can have the Remote Access Control PCI Express card. It's surprisingly sophisticated as it has web browser access, hardware monitoring, power controls, virtual media services and KVM-over-IP remote control.

Fujitsu's MX130 S1 has a reasonable hardware specification, is remarkably quiet and has good expansion potential. However, its desktop PC chassis is not designed to provide easy access to the hard disks and if you want full remote management capabilities then HP's little MicroServer is a much better choice.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The Primergy MX130 S1 is compact and quiet with good expansion potential but, apart from support for ECC memory, doesn’t offer much more than a standard desktop PC. HP’s MicroServer may have a slower processor but it costs less, its hard disks are far more accessible and it beats Fujitsu easily for remote management with its optional RAC card.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 3.1GHz AMD Athlon II X2 255 Memory: 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 expandable to 16GB Storage: 2 x 1TB WD SATA cold-swap hard disks (max 2 x 3.5in or 6 x 2.5in with optional 2.5in disk mounting kits) RAID: integrated six-port AMD SATA controller Array support: RAID 0, 1 Expansion slots: 2 x PCI Express, 2 x 32-bit PCI Ports: 12 x USB2 (2 front, 6 rear, 4 internal) Network: Gigabit Ethernet Power: 250W internal supply

We take the cables that transfer data to and from our computers for granted, but the technology behind them is actually quite intricate. USB is the most familiar and is used to connect seemingly everything to our computers, from printers and keyboards to scanners and hard disks.

USB3 is the latest version of the familiar connector technology and is finally making its way into the majority of laptops thanks to the chipsets included with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. With a theoretical speed of 4.8Gb/s, we found that a typical USB3 hard disk was four times faster than a USB2 disk. Despite this impressive performance, USB3 could be dead on arrival thanks to the emergence of Thunderbolt.

What is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is a new cable and connector technology that is designed to be significantly faster and more flexible than existing cabling. It can transfer data and video, as well as potentially network packets and audio, over a single cable. Thunderbolt's potential for reducing the tangled mass of cabling snaking out of our computers is obvious.

Compared to USB3's theoretical speed of 4.8Gb/s, Thunderbolt has a theoretical speed of 10Gb/s, more than twice as fast on paper, with room to grow even faster.

Does it actually work?

As with any new technology, we were initially sceptical of Intel's grandiose claims, but we were instantly won over by a demonstration of the technology at Apple's London offices. The company's new MacBook Pro laptops are the first to go on sale equipped with a Thunderbolt port.

When connected to a prototype five-disk RAID 0 array from Promise, the laptop was able to simultaneously play four 1080p videos stored on the array without any apparent dropped frames or loss of audio sync. Even more impressively, in a separate test, a 6GB file was duplicated in a mere 15 seconds!

Thunderbolt's staggeringly fast file duplication performance is truly jaw-dropping. For a rough comparison, a Lenovo ThinkPad X301 laptop with an internal SATA II 128GB Samsung SSD duplicated a different 6GB file in two minutes, 54 seconds.

How does it work?

Although the initial Thunderbolt prototypes used fibre optic cabling, the version of the technology used in the MacBook Pro laptops is based on familiar, tried and tested copper cabling due to the current high price of optical wiring.

The rest of Thunderbolt is actually based on several existing technologies. The connectors themselves are Apple's existing Mini DisplayPort plugs which are used to connect monitors and projectors to the company's MacBook, Mac mini and iMac series of computers. Each Thunderbolt cable actually consists of two 10Gb/s PCI Express channels for transferring data and a DisplayPort channel for video. A special Thunderbolt chip has to be present in the computer and each Thunderbolt peripheral.

Can I buy Thunderbolt peripherals now?

No. Several companies have announced their support for the new technology, but only storage manufacturers LaCie and Promise have committed to bringing out Thunderbolt-equipped RAID arrays by the middle of this year.

How do I connect more than one Thunderbolt peripheral?

Since the MacBook Pro laptops only have a single Thunderbolt port, Thunderbolt peripherals should have two ports each allowing devices to be daisy-chained together. At the moment, only a maximum of six Thunderbolt devices can be connected to a single port.

Can I upgrade my existing computer to Thunderbolt?

At the moment, only Apple is shipping Thunderbolt-equipped computers. Intel is apparently working with other manufacturers to bring Thunderbolt to their computers, but the chip giant doesn't have any details about whether it will be possible to upgrade existing computers to Thunderbolt.

Some sources state that upgrades won't be possible since the Thunderbolt chip requires direct access to the computer's PCI Express channels. This apparently wouldn't be possible even using a PCI Express expansion card, but we don't have confirmation of this.

Although some have claimed Apple has an exclusive use of the technology until next year, Intel spokesman Stephen Dunne specifically told ITPRO that this isn't true. Both Apple and Intel characterise their involvement in the development of Thunderbolt as a 'close technical collaboration'.

Can I continue using my current non-Thunderbolt peripherals? Can I plug non-Thunderbolt devices into a Thunderbolt port?

Although Thunderbolt could theoretically eliminate the need for all other ports, the current six device restriction and the large number of existing peripherals means that the MacBook Pro laptops still come with Ethernet, FireWire 800 and USB2 ports among others. This is likely to be the case with other computers too for some time even as Thunderbolt catches on.

It's possible to connect current peripherals to a Thunderbolt port using soon-to-be available adapters, but these won't be able to take advantage of Thunderbolt speeds. Intel claims that the presence of non-Thunderbolt devices on the daisy chain won't slow down Thunderbolt peripherals.

Apple's customers can use their existing Mini DisplayPort monitors and projectors with the new MacBook Pros since Mini DisplayPort and Thunderbolt connectors are identical and therefore compatible with each other. These displays would necessarily have to be at the end of the daisy chain since they don't have a second port to continue the chain. Even if they did, current Mini DisplayPort devices don't have a Thunderbolt chip to maintain the speed of any Thunderbolt peripherals.

As any FireWire user knows, the topography of a daisy-chain can be potentially confusing. This is perhaps one of the few inherent potential disadvantages of Thunderbolt compared to USB which uses hubs instead of a daisy chains to connect multiple devices to a single port.

Can a Thunderbolt cable power a portable hard disk and other portable peripherals?

This shouldn't be a problem. USB2 ports can provide just 500mA while USB3 can provide 900mA. Thunderbolt cables can provide 10W of power several times as much.

Can you use a Thunderbolt disk as a boot disk?

Apple officials wouldn't be drawn on whether it would be possible to use a Thunderbolt disk as a boot disk. Nor would they be drawn on whether it would be possible connect two Macs together using a Thunderbolt cable and transfer data between the two as if one of the computers was just a hard disk, as with FireWire's incredibly useful Target Disk Mode. We would be very surprised if this wasn't the case though.

Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards from companies other than Apple are probably still on the drawing board, but we suspect booting support would depend on the motherboard's BIOS/EFI.

Conclusion

Thunderbolt is one of the most impressively jaw-dropping technologies we've seen in the past five years and perhaps the first such technology we've seen since the first WiFi-equipped laptops were introduced around ten years ago.

Companies will be undoubtedly cautious about adopting the technology following the Sandy Bridge SATA flaw. Plus, it will take some time for companies to release both Thunderbolt-equipped computers and peripherals and for those products to drop in price. Plus, if your company has just bought and deployed new computers, it's unlikely you'll want to upgrade or replace them anytime soon, even if you do transfer massive amounts of data around. If you are planning such a procurement though, then it's definitely worth keeping an eye on Thunderbolt.

Dell already has the largest range of AMD equipped servers of all the blue chips and the latest PowerEdge R515 widens the gap even more as it's the first rack system to market with the lateest Opteron 4100 processors. It targets SMBs on a tight budget looking to replace their worn out legacy servers, but also has a sharp focus on applications requiring a lot of local storage.

Compared with the 5500 and 5600 Xeons and their disparate specifications, the Opteron 4100-series is simpler. They all have 6MB of L3 cache, support for 1,333MHz DDR3 memory and a HyperTransport speed of 6.4GT/sec. Your main decisions are therefore about the clock speed, power consumption and whether you want four or six cores. There are four chips with a TDP of 75W, three HE models with a TDP of 50W and a pair of ultra low-power 32W EE models. The R515 on review includes a pair of 2.1GHz 4170 HE processors which is the entry-level six-core 50W model.

AMD claims of low power consumption were confirmed in our lab tests. With the server fitted with both 750W hot-plug supplies and Windows Server 2008 R2 running in idle, we recorded the system drawing 124W. With SiSoft Sandra pushing all twelve cores to near maximum utilisation, this peaked at only 215W.

To put this in perspective we compared it against a Dell PowerEdge R710 with dual 2.26GHz E5520 Xeons, 12GB of DDR3 RAM, four 146GB SFF disks and pair of 570W power supplies. In idle we clocked power consumption at 150W and peaking under full load at 270W. The Opteron-equipped R515 is clearly more power efficient than an otherwise similarly-specified Xeon-equipped R710.

There's a price to pay for the higher drive count though. As the entire front panel is taken over with disk carriers so you can't have Dell's LCD display and diagnostics panel. There's no room for an optical drive either, but Dell has used the rack brackets on each side to mount a power button plus VGA and USB2 ports.

You have plenty of hard disk options as Dell offers SATA, near-line SAS and SAS plus the hot-swap carriers have mounting holes for 2.5in. and 3.5in models. Those with deep pockets can also specify SSDs and the chassis even has another bay inside with room for two more cold-swap SFF drives.

If that isn't enough there are three internal RAID controllers to choose from as well. However, with so much storage on tap, we think the only card worth having is the PERC H700 as fitted in the review system. This supports up to sixteen 6Gb/s SAS drives, all array types including RAID 6 and 60 and has 512MB of cache plus the battery backup pack.

The R515 isn't the best choice for virtualisation duties as it only supports up to 128GB of memory - most dual processor Xeon servers can handle up to 192GB of RAM. The R515 also doesn't have the internal SD card slot as found on the PowerEdge R610 and R710 models used for booting an embedded hypervisor.

The shorter chassis makes for a busy interior but we found all key components could be easily accessed. There's plenty of expansion potential thanks to the riser card with three PCI Express x4 and one x8 slots. The front slot is set aside for the RAID card and the three rear mounted slots accept full-height, half-length cards.

Remote management options abound and you start with the iDRAC6 embedded controller which shares the first network port and only offers basic remote access. All you can do is access the server via the CLI and turn power on or off, so we recommend the optional iDRAC6 Express at the very least.

Costing an extra 57, this module snaps into a proprietary slot on the motherboard and includes Dell's unique Lifecycle controller. It still shares the first network port but provides full web browser access with server and power monitoring plus OS deployment and diagnostics tools.

For full KVM-over-IP remote control and virtual media services you'll need the iDRAC6 Enterprise card which is included with the review system. Fitted in a separate slot to the Express card, it augments it with a separate network port for dedicated management access.

Dell's Management Console 2.0 software sees some significant improvements as it can now run on Server 2008 R2 64-bit and installation has been noticeably streamlined. It runs automated search routines to populate its database with discovered systems plus SNMP enabled devices and provides extensive alerting and inventory features. Compared with HP's Insight Control and IBM's Systems Director, this Symantec Altiris-based software is a heavyweight. Ideally it should run on a dedicated Windows Server since it requires a lot of resources so it's not well-suited for smaller sites with only a few servers and systems which would be better served using the iDRAC6 Express controller.

The R515 is a top choice for running storage hungry applications as it has a very high capacity for a 2U rack server. The number of options available make it highly customisable and currently it's also your only choice if you want low-cost Opteron 4100 processors in your rack server as IBM and HP have yet to support them.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Dell is currently the only vendor to have AMD Opteron 4100-based rack servers and the R515 shows these processors off to their best ability. It’s better value than most 2U Xeon 5600 servers, has a commendably low power consumption and the range of options makes this a very good choice for applications requiring a lot of local storage.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 2 x 2.1GHz AMD Opteron 4170 HE Memory: 16GB 1,333MHz DDR3 Storage: 5 x 146GB SFF SAS hard disks in hot-swap carriers (2 internal) RAID: PERC H700 with 512MB cache and BBU Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 6, 50, 60 Expansion: 3 x PCI Express slots Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Power: 2 x 750W hot-plug supplies Management: Dell iDRAC6 Enterprise Software: Dell Management Console 2.0 Warranty: 3 years on-site next business day service

It makes sense for small businesses to use a server for even simple tasks, such as file sharing, but many still see them as expensive and overly complex. HP wants to change their minds as its latest MicroServer N36L is aimed at businesses of up to ten users that want something highly affordable and easy to use.

HP gets the ball rolling by selling the MicroServer at a low price. Only one model is available and its starting price of 235 will have a more than a few small businesses taking notice. Even better is the fact that HP is currently running a 100 cashback offer until the end of February.

The MicroServer is a chunky little desktop cube equipped with a dual-core 1.3GHz AMD Athlon II Neo N36L processor and 1GB of 800MHz ECC DDR3 memory. The price includes a single 250GB SATA hard disk with room for three more inside, but the removable drive carriers are cheap plastic and not very sturdy.

No OS is included in the price but HP offers a choice of Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Windows Server R2 Standard and Foundation. We can't see small businesses with limited IT skills wanting to mess with Linux, so Server 2008 R2 Foundation would be the best bet which, HP tells us, can be preinstalled for 169.

There are a number of restrictions with Foundation. It only supports a maximum of fifteen Windows user accounts. It's 64-bit only, supports only a single processor with multiple cores and won't let you upgrade beyond 8GB of memory, but these are unlikely to be too restrictive for the smaller business, budget-conscious users the MicroServer is aimed at.

The MicroServer itself is well built with a lockable metal door protecting the hard disk carriers. Up above is a single 5.25in bay which is empty on base systems. We had the optional DVD writer supplied in the review system which costs an extra 35.

The small power button on the top edge is a little too exposed, but fortunately won't shut the OS down if pressed accidentally. Below this are four USB ports plus two more round the back along with an eSATA port. There's even an internal USB port which can be used for connecting a boot disk for use with a virtualisation hypervisor.

There may be four drive bays but hardware RAID options are very limited. The motherboard uses an AMD RAID controller which only supports JBODs, stripes and mirrors so you can't create RAID 5 or 6 arrays.The controller doesn't support hot-swap either, so if a drive fails the server must be powered down to replace it. However, it can handle 2TB SATA drives so there should be sufficient future storage expansion for most uses.

As you'd expect, it's very cramped inside. The only way to access the pair of PCI Express slots and memory sockets is to release the motherboard in the base of the server and slowly slide it forward unplugging the various interface and power cables as they become exposed. It takes time, but your patience will be rewarded.

The embedded AMD processor may not be overly powerful, but its TDP of 12W keeps consumption right down. We measured the review system drawing a mere 22W with Foundation in idle which rose to only 31W with SiSoft Sandra pushing the processor to the max.

Another feature that sets the MicroServer apart from your average desktop is HP's optional Remote Access Card (RAC). Costing 55, it slots into the PCI-E x1 slot and provides a dedicated network port for remotely managing and monitoring the server.

Once it's installed, a new IPMI option appears in the BIOS menu where you can assign a fixed IP address to the card or leave DHCP to hand one out to it. In terms of features we put the RAC in between HP's entry-level Lights Out 100i and its top end iLO3.

The web interface provides details on fan speeds and temperatures, plus the ability to remotely power the server on and off or reset it. PEFs (platform event filters) can be used to assign actions to specific events, so if the fans fail or temperatures rise then the server can be automatically powered down, reset or rebooted.

Two features that make the RAC excellent value are KVM-over-IP remote control and virtual media services. The former provides full remote access to the BIOS menu and OS whilst the latter allows you to present devices such as optical drives over the network for the server to use.

The MicroServer is worth considering as a first server as it's good value, small, quiet and has four disk bays. RAID support is very limited and upgrades will be time consuming, but the optional RAC card makes it a good choice for remote office deployments as no other server at this price offers this as an option.

The MicroServer may be low on processing power and tricky to upgrade, but it is a good value choice for small businesses that want their first server. It’s disappointing that despite having four drive bays it doesn’t support RAID 5, but HP’s optional management card does mean it’s well suited to deployment in small remote offices.

Storage company Drobo has announced a new range of redundant storage arrays aimed at businesses, along with the after-sales care to back them up.

Drobo's eponymous multi-disk storage arrays used a RAID-like technology, branded BeyondRAID, to ensure data redundancy but, unlike traditional RAID arrays, can consist of disks of any size and are easier to set up and administer. Many previous Drobo arrays have been aimed at consumers, but the new B series models are aimed specifically at businesses.

The massive B1200i is the most interesting since it has iSCSI support and can accommodate up to 12 disks. It supports tiered storage, so frequently accessed data is stored on the fastest available disk, as well as thin provisioning. It's rack-mountable and has dual, hot-swappable power supplies.

The smaller Drobo B800i and B800fs can take up to eight disks, but the B800fs drops iSCSI support. The B800 models will accept SATA hard disks in any combination of capacities. Oddly, Drobo claims that only the B1200i can accommodate SSDs and SAS hard disks. All three models are backed up by the 24/7 DroboCare service which aims to deliver replacement parts on the same business day any fault is reported.

All three models can now be managed from the new Drobo Management console which aims to provide an animated, but logically organised administration interface whether your Drobos are located on another floor or in another country.

The B800-series Drobos should be available shortly with prices from 1,409, but the B1200i won't be available until April. We'll bring you full reviews as soon as we can.

Data centres are often short on space which forces server manufactures to be ever more innovative in the quest for higher compute node densities. With the CyberServe X34-Q104 Broadberry has managed the remarkable feat of squeezing four independent servers into a low profile 1U rack chassis.

The X34-Q104 is based on Intel's latest Server System SR1640TH platform, provocatively codenamed Thunder Hill. The system shows some lateral thinking by Intel as up until now its rack server products have been functional, but basic and uninspiring in the design department.

The four server nodes consist of two separate motherboards each fitted in independently powered trays. Each motherboard has two processor sockets each filled with a 2.4GHz Xeon 3430 processor. There are thus four processors in total, with each one designed to appear as a completely separate server.

The chassis itself functions purely as a shell for the two trays. The only components inside it are two 450W cold-swap power supplies which the trays mate with when inserted from the front.

Tray design is impressively tidy as all components are neatly laid out down the length of the tray with hardly a wire or cable out of place to mar their perfect symmetry. The front part of the tray is used to house two hard disks and even here Intel has reduced cabling requirements by placing the SATA and power interfaces up at the front.

Broadberry offers a good choice of storage options and supplied the left hand tray with a pair of 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA drives and the right hand tray with two 80GB Intel SSDs. The price for the review system includes all of these drives although Broadberry advised us it could supply the system with four 80GB SSDs for 2,550 or four 500GB SATA drives for 2,180.

The one feature we didn't like was the basic Matrox G200 video chip on each node. These only have 32MB of video memory and support a cramped maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 which is a real pain for local management.

From the appearance of the motherboards you wouldn't guess they were two independent nodes, but a glance at the back gives the game away. The rear panel for each tray has a complete set of ports, comprising monitor, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual USB2 and remote management sockets, for each node.

The tray's front panel has power and ID buttons for each node, along with LEDs for network activity and warnings, plus two more USB ports. We found having four USB ports per node really useful as we could leave the keyboard and mouse plugged in even if we wanted to use a USB flash drive or other such storage device.

Each tray has its own 450W cold-swap power supply. When you remove a tray the supply stays put, but if you need to replace it, the unit can easily be withdrawn from the rear.

The server also has power frugality as a key focus and our power tests confirmed what a miser it is. As we brought each node online we took measurements with them running in idle and with SiSoft Sandra pushing all cores on each one to near maximum utilisation.

The X34-Q104 is remarkably quiet as each tray has three dual-rotor cold-swap fans at the front. During normal operations this server is quiet enough to sit on a desk. The fans did increase speed when we ran the SiSoft load test, but this was only briefly and even then noise levels weren't a concern.

Each node has an integrated BMC (baseboard management controller) and the bundled Intel Active System Console provides basic local server monitoring. We recommend adding the optional RMM3 Lite-V modules to each node as these activate web browser-based monitoring which provides full access to power controls, plus extensive views of all sensor data.

Remote management features aren't as good as those you'll find on HP's embedded iLO3 as you can't monitor, control or cap overall power consumption as you can with ProLiant servers. However, unlike HP you get KVM-over-IP remote control as standard, and not as a chargeable upgrade, which also allows you to define virtual floppy and optical media for the node to use.

The CyberServe X34-Q104 is one of the best designed and most well-built systems we've yet seen from Intel's Server Systems family and is well suited to a wide range of tasks including hosting and web server farms. Space constrained data centres looking to do more with available space will find its low power consumption appealing and it's also very good value with each node in the review costing only 600 each.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Broadberry proves that four can go into one as the X34-Q104 delivers a high-density compute node package at a very low price. RAID is not an option for each server node, but the system is otherwise well designed and power consumption for all four nodes is impressively low.

Chassis: 1U rack Power: 2 x 450W cold-swap power supplies Compute Nodes: four, each with the following specification: CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Xeon X3430 Memory: 4GB 1,333MHz ECC DDR3 expandable to 32GB Storage: 80GB Intel SSD or 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA hard disk Controller: Embedded Intel SATA controller RAID: None Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Ports: 4 x USB2 Software: Intel Server Deployment Toolkit Options: Intel RMM3 Lite-V module, £35 per node

If there's one thing businesses can be sure of it's that demand for network storage will never stop growing. However, despite being faced with this voracious appetite, administrators simply can't keep on feeding it with more hardware. They must instead manage existing resources more effectively to reduce wastage.

SRM (storage resource management) was always supposed to be the answer, but we remain unconvinced by many of these products as they can be expensive and overly complex with few capable of managing mixed vendor environments. Storage Profiler from SolarWinds aims to avoid all these problems as it's designed to be easy to use, good value and capable of working with a wide range of network storage hardware.

Network resources supported include file and backup servers, RAID arrays, HBAs, NAS appliances, IP and FC SANs and VMware environments. However, pricing can be complex as Profiler has a number of optional components with the base product capable of monitoring SANs, NAS appliances and HBAs from vendors such as NetApp, EMC, Cisco, HP/3PAR, Dell/EqualLogic and IBM.

Licensing is based on the number of physical hard disks to be monitored, so even if your NetApp array has one virtual drive, a license is required for each member disk. Profiler can also monitor FC switches from Cisco, Brocade and QLogic, but this costs an extra 690 per switch.

For Windows Servers and VMware systems you need the Virtual & Server Profiler. It includes agents for Windows systems which provide enhanced reporting on system utilisation and resident files. Profiler doesn't use SNMP to gather information about system utilisation, so if you want to know about CPU, memory, disk and network usage on your Windows servers you will need this agent. It instead uses the VMware API to query host systems about system utilisation, VM activity and storage usage. It also provides details on end-to-end mappings and the relationships between VMs, datastores, LUNs and physical arrays.

For testing we had all options licensed and found installation to be a simple task with the Profiler server loaded on a Windows Server 2008 system in a few minutes. It doesn't offer automated agent deployment so we installed these manually on our Windows Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 test systems.

The console's home page opens with a basic summary of managed systems and provides plenty of links to help and tutorials. Profiler uses policies and rules to control most functions. One rule allows agents to auto-register with the server which we found occurred within seconds of the agent being loaded.

A network discovery tool looks for EMC, LSI, NetApp and VMware systems and a new feature is support for SMI-S. Our test environment also included a VMware ESX Server 4 system which Profiler found and, once we had provided login credentials, added it to the list of managed hosts. SNMP must be configured for VMware and we found SolarWinds provides excellent instructions for this.

The main console page has an overview of monitored resources with pie charts showing total usable and raw storage plus VMware datastore usage. Beneath this are tables showing the top ten servers with the least amount of storage capacity available along with the highest processor and memory usage.

Select any of these graphs and you can drill down for more information and eventually arrive at individual systems. This window shows disk, processor, memory and network performance graphs as well as a capacity analysis which lets you see if free space on each volume is declining or increasing.

The Backup Profiler can be difficult to configure as it requires a lot of information about the backup application including log file locations and data and time formats. We also found out the hard way that it doesn't currently support CA ARCserve r15. We had more luck with Backup Exec r12.5 Profiler successfully detected two servers running this software. The Backup Monitor window kept track of successful, running and failed backup jobs on these backup servers.

Add servers to Backup Groups and you can view graphs of total backed up data, throughput and the percentage of successful jobs. If a backup job fails, the icon for the relevant server turns red to highlight this immediately. The event monitor keeps you updated on any problems with colour coded alerts and, once profiles have been configured, you can request alerts on issues such as capacity shortages, high processor usage and so on.

Profiler comes with hundreds of predefined reports covering all areas from volume usage for systems and groups to backup operations or available storage assets to SAN topologies. You can also use any of these as templates, customise them to suit and have them emailed out at regular intervals.

Even though some of the optional modules will push up the price, we still think that SolarWinds Storage Profiler is comparatively good value. It supports an extensive range of hardware vendors, is relatively easy to deploy and is capable of providing a wealth of information about your storage network.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

If you’re not sure what’s on your storage network then we recommend checking out Storage Profiler as it’s capable of providing a lot of useful information about an extensive range of devices. You will need the optional modules to get the best out of it, but this software will make sure you never run out of storage space again.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Memory: 2GB Hard disk: 50GB Operating system: Windows Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 (32 and 64-bit) Options: Virtual & Server Profiler – £1,315 for up to 10 virtual or physical servers, £2,635 for up to 25 virtual or physical servers. Backup Profiler per primary backup server – Symantec Backup Exec, £350; CA ARCserve - £520, Symantec NetBackup - £3,450.

Since their launch earlier this year, AMD's Opteron 6100 series of processors have garnered a lot of interest from the blue chips with many significantly expanding their server ranges to accommodate them. In this review we take a closer look at Dell's first dual-socket Opteron 6100 rack server, the PowerEdge R715 and also see how well it stands up to HP's latest seventh-generation ProLiant DL385.

One of the main claims by AMD is that the Opteron 6100 removes the artificial price barrier to four-processor (4P) computing. In our review of Dell's quad-socket 2U PowerEdge R815 PowerEdge R815 we agreed as this rack server was far more cost effective that a four-socket Xeon 7500 server.

Move down to two-processor (2P) platforms and the advantages aren't so clear cut as the Opterons face stiff competition from Intel's 5500 and 5600 Xeons. AMD scores higher for physical cores as the R715 comes with a pair of 12-core Opteron 6174 processors. The 6-core 5600 Xeons can match this but only with Intel's hyperthreading producing 24 logical cores.

The R715 shares the same chassis with both the PowerEdge R815 and the Xeon-based R810 where the front panel is split into two sections horizontally. The lower half provides an unimpeded air flow through the chassis. Above you have a hot-swap hard disk bay, optical drive and Dell's nifty little LCD display which provides clear visual warnings of faults.

Dell is promoting the R715 as a general purpose server but for storage duties it doesn't come close to HP's DL385 G7 which we exclusively reviewed in our sister title PC Pro. The front panel design only has room for up to six SFF hard disks whereas the DL385 can accommodate up to sixteen disks.

The R715 scores highly as a virtualisation platform for a number of reasons. First up is memory capacity as the server supports up to 256GB of memory running at 1333MHz although a full set of 16GB RDIMMs will set you back over 12,000. If you decide to cut costs don't forget that using cheaper UDIMM memory limits capacity to 32GB and they can't be mixed with RDIMMs.

Boot media support for embedded hypervisors is the best of all the blue chips as Dell sells an optional dual SD memory card expansion board with two 1GB SD cards for a modest 67. Fitted on top of the optical drive, the controller automatically copies the contents of the primary SD card to the secondary one to provide boot media redundancy.

Two hot-plug supplies are supported. Our review system came fitted with a pair of 750W modules. If you go for the high power Opteron 6175SE processors you should fit Dell's 1100W supplies to cope with their 140W TDPs.

The Opteron 6174 processors in the review system have a lower TDP rating of 115W and our inline meter recorded a modest draw of 145W with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 in idle. With all cores pushed hard by SiSoft Sandra this peaked at 344W. Intel's 5600 Xeons aren't so hungry as an IBM x3550 M3 rack server with the same amount of memory and two 2.66GHz X5650s pulled 155W in idle and 280W under load.

ProLiant DL380 G7.

Dell's new iDRAC6 console is much smarter than the previous version and opens with a complete status report on all critical components. On the Enterprise version you also get a thumbnail preview of the server's screen and quick access to KVM-over-IP remote control.

Power monitoring gets far more attention as the console now provides tables showing peak and average power usage along with statistics of total usage over time. It also shows real-time consumption graphs and power capping can be set in Watts, BTU/hr or as a percentage of total available power.

HP's iLO3 has better remote control performance and tighter access security with AES hardware encryption. The iDRAC6 doesn't offer any encryption options although remote control performance is good with only a slight lag to mouse actions.

As we've shown in processor performance tests carried out by PC Pro, the performance of AMD's Opteron 6100 is roughly in line with Intel's 5600 Xeons. Their higher physical core count and greater memory support for 2P platforms make them good candidates for virtualisation duties.

For those with an eye on the future it's also worth noting that the Opteron 6100 is the first phase of AMD's 'Maranello' 6000 platform series. Dell confirmed to us that the R715 will support the next 'Interlagos' 12- and 16-core processors as drop-in upgrades making the R715 a good long-term investment.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Dell's first dual Opteron 6100 server is a good value platform for virtualisation and is clearly capable of handling many other duties including small databases and server consolidation. However, if a high storage capacity is a key requirement then HP's ProLiant DL385 G7 is a far better choice and although Dell has improved its remote management features, they're still not as good as HP's.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 2 x 2.2GHz AMD Opteron 6174 Memory: 32GB DDR3 1333MHz RDIMM memory expandable to 256GB Storage: 2 x 146GB Dell 15K.2 SFF 6Gb/s SAS hard disks in hot-swap carriers RAID: Dell PERC H700 RAID card with 512MB cache and BBU Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 6 Expansion: 6 x PCI-Express 2.0 slots Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet Power: 2 x 750W hot-plug supplies Management: iDRAC6 Enterprise Software: Dell Management Console Warranty: 3year on-site next business day

Although Intel launched its 7500-series Xeon processors way back in March it's taken HP an inordinate amount of time to deliver a production server supporting these new enterprise processors. HP has granted us exclusive access to the new seventh generation of its ProLiant DL580 rack server and we see whether the wait has been worthwhile.

HP has certainly taken its time. Dell was first through our lab doors six months ago when it gave us an exclusive on its PowerEdge R910. This was followed shortly afterwards by Fujitsu's Primergy RX600 S5 and IBM's massively expandable System x3850 X5 .

As we've already reviewed the main players in the Xeon 7500 market, this puts us in a good position to compare the DL580 G7 with all of its rivals. NEC Computers threatened to launch its Express5800/A1080a some months ago but this has never materialised in the UK so we don't consider this a competitor to HP.

HP has taken the 4U chassis from the DL580 G5 and redesigned it with a much higher drawer which contains all four processor sockets and memory. The drawer is easily removed by pressing the button at the top which releases a large handle. Locking tabs on both sides of the drawer stop it accidentally falling out and with these depressed the drawer can be slid out completely.

The Xeon processors are mounted in a line across the back of the drawer and each is fitted with a large passive heatsink. The price for the review system includes four 2GHz Xeon E7540 processors. Each one has six processing cores, giving a total of 24 cores.

In front of the processors are eight bays in a row for the cold-swap memory modules which slot in easily and are locked down with a couple of plastic levers. Each module has eight DIMM slots allowing capacity to be increased to the maximum 1TB.

There isn't much room left in the front of the server but HP has managed to squeeze in eight SFF hot-swap disk bays. We were supplied with two 300GB 6Gbps SAS drives but HP also offers near-line SAS models so you can focus on capacity and price rather than performance. Limited storage capacity is one of HP's weaknesses as you can't expand beyond eight internal drive bays. This is the same as for Fujitsu's RX600 S5 but both Dell's R910 and IBM's x3850 have enough room for up to sixteen SFF drives.

Pushing all the processors and memory up to the front of the server leaves a lot of space round back and HP has put it to very good use as expansion potential is the best of all. The drawer mates with a power distribution connector and a horizontal system board which takes up half the width of the chassis.

The system board has a dedicated slot for a vertical SPI board packed with masses of embedded features. It has a Smart Array P410i RAID controller and cache memory slot with a pair of SAS ports cabled directly to the drive backplane.

The review system included 1GB of HP's flash-backed write cache and the battery backup pack. The P410i supports mirrors, stripes and RAID-5 as standard and an advanced license pack adds RAID-6 support.

The SPI board has four Gigabit Ethernet ports and has a separate expansion slot for HP's dual port 10-Gigabit SFP module. Adding this upgrades the first two Ethernet ports to 10-Gigabit status without using a standard expansion slot.

the DL380 G7. It provides a dedicated Fast Ethernet port for management access and you also have pairs of USB and PS/2 ports.

The system board has two internal USB ports, as well as a connector for a SSD which slots into the side of the chassis. The SPI board has a SD memory card slot. These are all provided specifically for booting the server with an embedded hypervisor so you have a big choice of boot media to use.

We thought Fujitsu's RX600 and its ten PCI Express slots had the edge for sheer expansion potential but HP goes that little bit further. The system board has five available PCI Express slots but you can add an extra I/O expansion board with options for six more slots which can even be used as a mixture of PCI-E and PCI-X.

Power redundancy is good as the review system includes four 1200W hot-plug modules, the maximum number possible. It did well in our power tests with the four Xeons drawing 530W in idle and peaking at 736W under extreme pressure from SiSoft Sandra.

This shows the benefits of the six-core Xeons as Dell's R910 and its quartet of X7550 eight-core Xeons hit a peak of 859W under load. Both IBM's x3850 and Fujitsu's RX600 had the same eight-core processors and pulled maximum loads of 835W and 895W respectively.

Although the system on review has a relatively small amount of memory included, the DL580 G7 is still good value and compares well on price with Dell's R910. Storage capacity isn't as high but it has top expansion potential and redundancy plus HP won't be beaten for its classy remote management features.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Businesses looking to replace expensive RISC based systems will find HP’s new ProLiant DL580 G7 is a cost effective Xeon 7500 based alternative. IBM’s x3850 does have some unique capabilities for increasing memory and processor capacities but it costs around twice as much. Storage capacity for the DL580 isn’t as good as Dell’s R910 but HP offers a very good combination of expansion potential, component redundancy and remote management.

Chassis: 4U rack CPU: 4 x 2GHz Intel Xeon E7540 Memory: 32GB 1,066MHz RDIMM DDR3 expandable to 1TB Storage: 2 x 300GB HP SFF 15K 6Gbps SAS disks in hot-swap carriers RAID: HP Smart Array P410i with 1GB cache and BBU Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 Expansion: 5 x PCI Express slots (max. 11) Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet Power: 4 x 1200W hot-plug supplies Management: HP iLO3 with 10/100 Ethernet management port Software: HP Insight Control

Data storage growth is now one of the biggest IT challenges to businesses large and small. Deduplication is an increasingly popular data reduction technology that can keep it under control. It has been gradually filtering down to SMBs and FalconStor's latest FDS (file-interface deduplication system) appliances have some unusual features.

The FDS SA101 on review is an entry-level rack mount appliance. FalconStor's choice of hardware platform gets our vote of confidence as it is a well specified Dell PowerEdge R710.

Storage is presented as CIFS and NFS network shares so deployment is simple. Data reduction is carried out locally so it has the advantage of working with any backup software and you can run drag and drop copies to deduplicated shares as well.

FalconStor aims the SA100 series of appliances specifically as replacements for tape based backup at remote sites and branch offices. Encrypted replication is included as standard and made all the more valuable as a single appliance supports up to 150 sources.

The appliance has four 1TB SATA hard disks preconfigured as a RAID-5 array. This is split into virtual volumes handling a variety of functions including the index, database, system applications, data cache and repository.

It uses an 820GB backup cache to store incoming data ready for deduplication. This leaves you with a 1TB repository and FalconStor's claimed deduplication ratio of 20:1 increases this to a logical 20TB. If you need more physical capacity, then consider the SA102 model which has a 2TB repository that can be upgraded via a license to 4TB.

Initial installation starts with the web browser interface and a quick setup page where you name the appliance and assign IP addresses to the four Gigabit Ethernet ports. The interface also provides access for adding licenses, viewing documentation and bonding the network ports into load-balanced teams.

You then use the FDS Console utility which is installed directly from the web interface. FalconStor supports Symantec's OpenStorage (OST) API allowing it to work with NetBackup's data mover function and the plug-in is installed from here as well.

The FDS Console takes a while to get to grips with as it's not as the one included with Quantum's DXi4520 which is more intuitive. We also found the documentation all too brief and lacking in detailed explanations of the various features.

Even so, FalconStor has a lot more deduplication options making the SA101 very flexible. Policies are configured at the appliance level in the Console and you have three options where you can allow it to run automatically as data is being received.

It can be run to a schedule where you set a start date and time and opt to have it recurring hourly, daily, weekly or monthly and add exclusion periods. Alternatively, you can take full manual control and fire up deduplication tasks on demand. Policies include file exclusions with a list of file extensions that you don't want deduplicated. You can also exclude files smaller than a certain size and specify creation and last access dates as criteria.

The Hosted Backup feature allows backup software installed directly on the appliance to use local deduplicated shares without having to go outside the box. However, FalconStor advised us that there are few backup products that can run on its Linux operating system, so it's currently of limited value.

To test deduplication ratios we ran our own standard set of lab tests that look at file server performance. We used a 4GB data set consisting of 1,000 files and introduced controlled changes within a percentage of the files during a simulated strategy of daily incremental and weekly full backups.

We configured a test server with Windows Server 2008 R2 and chose CA's ARCserve as we find it more amenable than Symantec Backup Exec when using network shares as backup locations. After the first full backup was completed, we modified 2 per cent of data in 40 per cent of the files prior to each subsequent backup.

We used FalconStor's statistics to see what ratios were being achieved and after a one-month simulation we saw it report a deduplication ratio of 8.9:1. This was better than Quantum's DXi4520 which reported a ratio of 7.22:1 for exactly the same test.

To gauge general performance we used ARCserve to copy a 28GB test folder with over 13,000 files to a new share on the appliance with automatic deduplication enabled. Over Gigabit Ethernet the job was completed at a rate of 168GB/hour as opposed to Quantum's 152GB/hour.

Our tests show that FalconStor uses more efficient deduplication algorithms than Quantum and is faster for backup operations. However, it costs a lot more and this is highlighted by the size of the repositories offered by each vendor.

Quantum's entry-level DXi4510 costs around the same as the SA101 but has a repository of 2.2TB. FalconStor's FDS SA102 uses the same chassis as the SA101 but its 2TB repository will set you back nearly 16,000.

The FalconStor FDS SA101 appliance has versatile policy-based deduplication and superior remote site replication features. However, if cost is a high priority and you're prepared to accept slower performance for data reduction and backup operations then Quantum's DXi4500 family of appliances are better value.

Verdict

FalconStor’s FDS SA101 performed exceptionally well in our lab tests showing it was capable of providing higher backup speeds and better deduplication ratios than much of the competition at this level of the market. Remote site replication is also good as it supports up to 150 sources as standard but the repository is very small considering the high price and it can’t be upgraded.

SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS

Chassis: 2U rack

CPU: 2 x 2.26GHz Intel Xeon E5520

Memory: 16GB 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM

Storage: 4 x 1TB WD Enterprise SATA hard disks in hot-swap carriers

RAID: Dell PERC 6/i with 256MB cache and BBU

Network: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet

Expansion: 4 x PCI Express slots

Power: 2 x 570W hot-plug power supplies

Management: Web browser and FalconStor FDS Console

Software: Symantec OST plug-in included

Promise has launched a two-bay network attached storage (NAS) device that costs just 145 ex VAT.

The SmartStor NS2600 has two hard disk bays so supports both RAID 0 and RAID 1. It is then up to the user if it is deployed for either maximum performance or greater data redundancy.

Promise claimed the NS2600 used just 7W of power when it sleep mode, so it's environmentally friendly too.

As well as several consumer-oriented features, such as a UPnP media server and a download manager, the NS2600 also has several business-focused features. These included the ability to act as a print server, potentially saving the cost of a dedicated network printer, and the ability to act as a repository for IP security camera footage.

It supports Microsoft Active Directory and can even be used as a web or SQL server which will be attractive to smaller businesses with tight IT budgets.

We suspect the NS2600 is the two-bay version the larger and more expensive NS4600, which was favourably reviewed by our colleagues at Expert Reviews.

However, Promise isn't as well known as rival NAS manufacturers Synology and Thecus, who make NAS devices with the benefit of broader support amongst third party plug-in developers. It may, therefore, struggle to attract customers not motivated purely by price.

The SmartStore NS2600 will be available shortly and is backed by a two-year limited warranty.

SMBs looking for low cost network storage arrays often have to make compromises as SATA hard disks have traditionally been their only option. IBM's new System Storage DS3500 family are arrays built around high-speed 6Gbps SAS disks but have a surprisingly low starting price.

You have a choice of two head units with the DS3512 reviewed here supporting a dozen 3.5in hard disks. The DS3524 is also a 2U appliance but this can handle up to twenty-four 2.5in drives and has a starting price of 3,087. Both models have a single hot-swap controller module which can be upgraded with a second where they run in active/active mode.

The DS3512 can be fitted with a wide variety of disks. Along with standard SAS and full disk encryption (FDE) SAS disks. you can fit near-line SAS disks which have a spindle speed of 7,200rpm instead of the faster 10,000 and 15,000 rpm speeds of more traditional SAS disks. They have the high capacity and low cost of SATA disks but with SAS drive electronics.

Generally sold in 2TB capacities, near-line SAS drives are sounding SATA's death knell for business storage applications. They do away with the need for a SATA to SAS interposer thereby reducing manufacturing costs plus potential points of failures and they have the same level of host queuing support as standard SAS drives.

The controllers have an extensive range of data port options. You start with a pair of fixed 6Gbps SAS ports for DAS connections but there's room for an optional host card. IBM has dual-port 6Gbps SAS or four-port 8Gbps FC and Gigabit iSCSI options. The DS3512 on review came with the FC host card.

Expansion potential is extremely good as limitations are based on the drive count rather than the number of shelves. Each controller has an embedded 36-port SAS expander linked to its expansion port so a pair of controllers supports up to 96 hard disks. You can daisy-chain as many shelves as you like as long as you don't go over this number of drives.

You can mix and match IBM's EXP3512 and EXP3524 expansion shelves, join them with multiple redundant SAS paths and have different SAS drive types within the same shelf. The controllers have 1GB of cache but the battery backup plays a different role than usual. In the event of a power failure it keeps the controller running so cache contents can be de-staged to an on-board 8GB SD memory card.

Deployment in the lab was simple enough as the DS3512 is managed with IBM's Storage Manager 10 Client (SMC10) utility. This kicks off with a discovery routine that searches the network for storage arrays and displays them ready for configuration using a variety of wizards.

Your first job is to create RAID arrays and SMC10 offers plenty of advice and assistance on the best choices. It also checks all the physical drives and lists them based on capacity, interface and spindle speeds for easier identification. You can take manual control where you select an array type, choose the member drives and decide whether to set any aside for hot-standby duties. SMC10 validates your choices and then offers to carve the storage space up into equal sized logical drives or lets you create them yourself.

Logical drives are then mapped to hosts and SMC10 automatically identified our test servers connected to the controller via 8Gbps Brocade FC HBAs. During this phase you can decide whether a host has dedicated access to a logical drive or shares the mapping with others.

Shared host access to logical drives is controlled by host groupings, or partitions. The system comes as standard with support for four partitions which can be increased to a maximum of 64 using IBM's optional premium feature upgrades.

Premium upgrades are also available for FDE key management and Volume Copy which duplicates one logical drive to another location within the same appliance. FlashCopy snapshots provide point-in-time backups of selected logical drives and you get support for two as standard which can be increased to eight.

Remote mirroring is not supported on the older DS3000 series of appliances but this is now available allowing you to replicate appliances over their FC ports. Logical volumes can be resized on the fly whilst dynamic capacity expansion allows you to drop in more disks or expansion shelves and add them to existing logical drives.

For performance testing we started with a Broadberry CyberServe dual Xeon X5560 server running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 and linked via a Brocade 8Gbps FC card. We mapped it to a dedicated volume and saw Iometer report a fast 648MB/s raw read throughput.

We then added a Dell PowerEdge R715 dual Opteron 6100 server also equipped with a Brocade 8Gbps FC card and mapped a second dedicated volume to it. With Iometer running on both systems we saw a cumulative raw read throughput of 1,280MB/s showing no contention for resources was occurring.

IBM's System Storage DS3512 delivers a fine blend of SAS-based storage features and is priced right for SMBs. We found it particularly easy to deploy in the lab, performance is excellent and the levels of redundancy and expansion options make it highly versatile.

Verdict

IBM’s System Storage DS3500 arrays are a good choice for SMBs as they can start small and scale easily with demand. Few other SAS storage array vendors can match IBM’s starting price or its support for DAS applications plus optional FC SAN or IP SAN upgrades making it very flexible. We found performance over the lab’s 8Gbps FC SAN to be excellent and the high expansion potential is made all the more impressive as the only limiting factor is the number of disk drives rather than disk shelves.

Chassis: 2U rack Storage: Supports up to twelve hot-swap 3.5in near-line SAS, SAS and FDE hard disks Controller: 1 x hot-swap controller (max. 2) Processor: 800MHz PowerPC RoC Memory: 1GB cache (upgradeable to 2GB) with BBU and 8GB SD memory card RAID: 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, hot-swap and hot-standby Data ports: 2 x 6Gbps SAS, SAS expansion Network ports: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet management Power: 2 x 585W hot-plug supplies Management: IBM Storage Manager 10 Client Expansion options: Two port 6Gbps SAS, four port 8Gbps FC or four port Gigabit iSCSI host cards

Super Talent has announced three new ranges of SSD RAID devices.

All are due for release later this year.

The PCI Express RAIDDrive SSDs are designed to increase bandwidth by replacing the SATA bus and the company claimed it supports more than ten times the bandwidth of the SATA II at 4Gbps.

The three ranges are aimed at different market areas. The RAIDDrive ES, available in capacities of up to 1TB, is designed for the enterprise server for use in a range of scenarios including business intelligence or virtualisation applications. It can be configured as either RAID 0 or RAID 5 before it is sent out and fits into a 3U rack chassis.

There is also a RAIDDrive WS for workstation users also offering up to 1TB capacity as well as the RAIDDrive GS with 2TB of capacity designed for gamers to "supercharge their IO subsystem."

Super Talent claimed that its RAIDDrives can support read speeds of 1.4Gbps and has 1Gb of DRAM cache inside enabling write speeds of up to 1.2Gbps.

CH Lee, chief operating officer of Super Talent, said in a statement: "RAIDDrive SSDs are a quantum leap ahead of existing SSDs in sequential transfer speeds... [It] shatters previous storage system bottlenecks and sets a new standard in performance."

The products will start shipping in early next month with OEM pricing for the 1TB RAIDDrive GS at $4,999 (3,022).

Iomega has without doubt been in the small business and home NAS market longer than just about any other vendor and for its higher end products has always offered them only with Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 (WSS2003) installed, The StorCenter Pro 200rL represents a break with tradition as this is its first rack appliance to run a Linux kernel.

WSS2003 brings a number of pros and cons with it as it offers a vastly superior range of features to most Linux based systems but these do come at a comparatively high price. It's clear price is the biggest bonus for the 200rL as the 1TB model on review costs a lot less than Iomega's WSS2003 versions but here we find out whether it stacks up in the features department as well.

The 200rL is a well built 1U rack system and the review model came with a quartet of 250GB SATA hard disks mounted in solid hot-swap carriers easily accessible at the front. The system is supplied with them preconfigured as a four drive RAID-5 array but you can break this and create a stripe, a dual-drive mirrored stripe or just use them as separate drives.

The hardware specification is a mixed bag as processing comes courtesy of a 3.2GHz Celeron D module but this is only teamed up with a meagre 512MB of DDR memory. You can't upgrade this as the cooling shield covering the processor and memory sockets is glued in place. The network connection is handled by a single Gigabit Ethernet port and you get three USB ports for adding external storage devices and sharing printers over the network. Cooling is handled by a pair of fans at the rear but noise levels are high enough to make it quite obtrusive in a small office environment. It'll be fine in a rack enclosure but it's not something we'd want sitting on a desk near us.

The bundled Iomega Discovery utility makes light work of installation as it hunts down the appliance on the network and provides quick links for mapping drives and running the web management interface. We also noticed that Iomega has now implemented secure management access over HTTPS although you can't enforce this.

The web interface is easy enough to use and is almost identical to that offered by Iomega's desktop Linux appliances. The home page provides a basic status report on the appliance and available storage space along with a control panel alongside for restarting and shutting down the appliance and returning it to factory defaults. System alerts can be sent to up to three email accounts and the appliance supports SMTP server authentication. You can also connect an intelligent UPS to one of the USB ports where the appliance will monitor battery power and shut down before it runs out.

Firmware upgrades can be performed directly from the web interface and Iomega has resolved earlier problems on its Linux appliances where this process would reset the system back to factory defaults. The drives can be monitored from the web interface and you can enable or disable support for USB storage devices. However, there no facilities for spinning the drives down to save power during extended idle periods and no SMART support is available either.

For access security you have a local user and group database and the appliance also supports NT domain or AD server authentication. Folders can be made public or restricted to specific user and groups where you can further specify read and write privileges. Quotas can also be applied to selected users to limit the amount of storage they can consume. Client support is up with the best as the 200rL supports CIFS/SMB, NFS and AFP protocols so will work happily with Windows, Linux and Macintosh systems.

CIFS access can't be switched off but you can decide whether NFS and AFP are enabled on each folder. The appliance runs an FTP server but features here are very limited as it only supports anonymous access and only one folder of your choice may be made available to FTP clients. Any USB storage device will be automatically shared as soon as it's inserted and global settings are provided for determining user access restrictions to all USB devices.

The 200rL delivered a very good performance in our real world tests. We used a dual socket quad-core Xeon Dell PowerEdge 1950 rack server and copying a 2.52GB video clip between this system and the appliance returned average read and write speeds of 48MB/sec. FTP performance was even better with the FileZilla client utility reporting read and write speeds of 71MB/sec and 58MB/sec.

Backup features need to be good in a business environment and Iomega offers a reasonably good package. You can run backup tasks that secure selected local folders from the appliance to a USB device or to another system over the network. A scheduler allows jobs to be automatically run daily or weekly but only full backups are supported. It can create a new backup folder each time the job is run or you can set it to overwrite the previous backup.

Workstation backup gets a better deal as Iomega includes a copy of EMC's Retrospect licensed for five users. Note that this is the Express version which doesn't support tape drive and cannot be installed on Windows Server systems. Nevertheless, it's easy enough to use as it provides plenty of wizards to assist with backup and restoration tasks. Schedules can be created to secure workstation data to the appliance at regular intervals and a useful feature is that once the first full backup has completed all subsequent jobs will only copy new and changed files.

The small business NAS appliance market is intensively competitive with a large number of vendors now looking for a piece of the action. If you want a simple, well built and easily deployed storage solution then the StorCenter 200rL is well worth considering but systems such as Netgear's ReadyNAS 1100 rack appliances deliver far more features for your money.

Verdict

As a basic business NAS appliance the StorCenter 200rL gets the job done, although for the price we would have expected more. Performance is good, it’s well built and is very easy to install and use but compared with the latest raft of products from vendors such as Netgear, Qnap, Synology and Thecus the 200rL is short on features.

Chassis: 1U rack

CPU: 3.2GHz Celeron D

Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM

Storage: 4 x 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA in hot-swap carriers

Array support: RAID0, 10, 5, JBOD

Network: Gigabit Ethernet

Ports: 3 x USB2

Management: web browser

Software: EMC Retrospect Express 7.5 with 5 client licenses