[Kevin OBrien]

Synology has announced the launch of the RS10613xs+ following last week's release of the RS3413xs+. Built specifically for SMEs, the new 10-bay 2U RackStation is Synology’s most advanced hardware to date, providing fast and scalable storage at a reasonable price; the ideal storage solution between NAS and SAN. The RS10613xs+ can quickly scale to up to 106 SAS drives (up to 424TB raw storage) by taking advantage of the 8 new RX1213sas expansion modules. This allows businesses to expand their capacity on the go and as needed.

Synology Launches the the RackStation RS10613xs+

[Stoyan Varlyakov]

Seriously, guys, where are you taking this site? Are you storagereview or storagenews?
I've had this exact same info on the Synology a month ago, and what you are quoting is more-or-less the marketing brochure.

Just a few points for you should you decide to do a review.
- Does this device have only SAS controller or redundant SAS controller? Is using expensive SAS drives in it pointless?
- VAAI integration is available only on file based iSCSI = slow
- Jumbo frames do not work. Once enabled the Synology crashes like hell (verified using VMWare 5.1 and Microsoft Server 2012)
- 802.3ad DYNAMIC trunking ports are needed so that one can trunk ports on the Synology.

P.S. The grammar nazi in me won - duplicate "the" in the title

[Brian]

This is a news launch coverage, we both cover the news and review the products. We have 50+ reviews in the queue right now...getting there. Your input in terms of testing ideas is appreciated, thanks for reaching out.

[Stoyan Varlyakov]

Brian, on 21 November 2012 - 12:01 PM, said:

This is a news launch coverage, we both cover the news and review the products. We have 50+ reviews in the queue right now...getting there. Your input in terms of testing ideas is appreciated, thanks for reaching out.

Highly anticipating your review, as always. Sorry if sarcasm level in previous post is higher than acceptable.

Cheers,
SV

[Brian]

We need a healthy dose of sarcasm from time to time.

[deepthought]

Stoyan Varlyakov, on 21 November 2012 - 11:39 AM, said:

Seriously, guys, where are you taking this site? Are you storagereview or storagenews?
I've had this exact same info on the Synology a month ago, and what you are quoting is more-or-less the marketing brochure.

Just a few points for you should you decide to do a review.
- Does this device have only SAS controller or redundant SAS controller? Is using expensive SAS drives in it pointless?
Obviously No, SAS disks runs faster, great for VMs. Mirroring the box gives redundancy of data and system.
+ SSD caching increases read speed by 3-4 times
http://download.syno...White_Paper.pdf
http://www.synology....uk#tabs-xs-plus


- VAAI integration is available only on file based iSCSI = slow
ISCSI is block

- Jumbo frames do not work. Once enabled the Synology crashes like hell (verified using VMWare 5.1 and Microsoft Server 2012)
Really? Jumbo frames have to match with switch. Not a deal breaker for most people anyway.

- 802.3ad DYNAMIC trunking ports are needed so that one can trunk ports on the Synology.
Failover is possible, as is MPIO but yes not trunking.


I don't work for Synology. Why so negative?

This post has been edited by deepthought: 28 November 2012 - 12:23 PM

[Stoyan Varlyakov]

- VAAI integration is available only on file based iSCSI = slow
ISCSI is block
--it can be block, but if you want VAAI it is only file. This I have personally checked on a test 413+ which is supposed to host the same software as the xs+ series.
Check Synology website if you don´t trust me

- Jumbo frames do not work. Once enabled the Synology crashes like hell (verified using VMWare 5.1 and Microsoft Server 2012)
Really? Jumbo frames have to match with switch. Not a deal breaker for most people anyway.
-- Valid point. I tried running a crossover cable to eliminate the cause of switch, because both my switches which run Jumbo frames just fine were not working with the syno. It stopped working again.
The problem is Jumbo gets enabled, works OK (or seems so), but once you saturate the bandwith, the device disappears.

- Does this device have only SAS controller or redundant SAS controller? Is using expensive SAS drives in it pointless?
Obviously No, SAS disks runs faster, great for VMs. Mirroring the box gives redundancy of data and system.
-- SAS runs faster than SATA? This is the case with 15k drives, but if you compare 7.2k SAS to SATA I seriously doubt you will see any performance increase. In fact from my tests I see the SAS benefit only because HA is enabled when running dual controllers
And if you are running 15k SAS, filling a Syno box with such drives, will cost considerably more than the box itself and from my experience it is more or less pointless to run full array of SAS disks over iSCSI.
Another point - read caching is good in case you re-read a file multiple times. In case of large sequential access patterns, this will improve nothing. Additionally if you are using the syno for VMs, chances are you will be doing a lot of writing in random IO, which is cached in main memory which is a potential content hazard...

All-in-all this makes the idea of this line of synology a bit odd...

I am so negative, because all positive things are really marketed, but no one mentions what I wrote above.
That is after all my opinion. I went from Syno-enthusiastic to Syno-disappointed so there you go...
I still have my small 2 bay home storage from Syno and find it great, torrents VPN etc.
But the concept of having an enterprise solution which has a torrent client and Android management, which cannot be disabled is a bit... odd ?

[deepthought]

Stoyan Varlyakov, on 29 November 2012 - 03:55 AM, said:

- VAAI integration is available only on file based iSCSI = slow
ISCSI is block
--it can be block, but if you want VAAI it is only file. This I have personally checked on a test 413+ which is supposed to host the same software as the xs+ series.
Check Synology website if you don´t trust me

"You might be right, am checking with Synology"


- Jumbo frames do not work. Once enabled the Synology crashes like hell (verified using VMWare 5.1 and Microsoft Server 2012)
Really? Jumbo frames have to match with switch. Not a deal breaker for most people anyway.
-- Valid point. I tried running a crossover cable to eliminate the cause of switch, because both my switches which run Jumbo frames just fine were not working with the syno. It stopped working again.
The problem is Jumbo gets enabled, works OK (or seems so), but once you saturate the bandwith, the device disappears.

- Does this device have only SAS controller or redundant SAS controller? Is using expensive SAS drives in it pointless?
Obviously No, SAS disks runs faster, great for VMs. Mirroring the box gives redundancy of data and system.
-- SAS runs faster than SATA? This is the case with 15k drives, but if you compare 7.2k SAS to SATA I seriously doubt you will see any performance increase. In fact from my tests I see the SAS benefit only because HA is enabled when running dual controllers
And if you are running 15k SAS, filling a Syno box with such drives, will cost considerably more than the box itself and from my experience it is more or less pointless to run full array of SAS disks over iSCSI.
Another point - read caching is good in case you re-read a file multiple times. In case of large sequential access patterns, this will improve nothing. Additionally if you are using the syno for VMs, chances are you will be doing a lot of writing in random IO, which is cached in main memory which is a potential content hazard...

All-in-all this makes the idea of this line of synology a bit odd...

I am so negative, because all positive things are really marketed, but no one mentions what I wrote above.
That is after all my opinion. I went from Syno-enthusiastic to Syno-disappointed so there you go...
I still have my small 2 bay home storage from Syno and find it great, torrents VPN etc.
But the concept of having an enterprise solution which has a torrent client and Android management, which cannot be disabled is a bit... odd ?

"We got IOPS go from 2.6k to 8.5k with Intel 320 as SSDCache and Seagate 7.2k SATA 4k random read via CIFs (out of cache).

I haven't seen a SAS option sell yet on this model but Thecus were selling the N12000/16000 with sucess so this now competes. NL SAS vs SATA similar speeds but 10k SAS would fly and not need read cache necessarily.

We like this box because it is a good investment:
1.10GbE
2.SAS/SATA option
3.SSD Cache.
4.HA
5.JBOD expansion
6.RAM expandable to 32GB

Some performance figures:
http://www.synology....uk#tabs-xs-plus

But each to his own. There isn't much else on the market at this price that offers all this.

Bye for now"

This post has been edited by deepthought: 05 December 2012 - 08:15 AM