Synology / QNAP NAS's in the "field"

[SHimmer45]

Hi all,

 

after some feedback about users of synology/qnap/thecus NAS's who use them to as the main storage area for user folders instead of a traditional "server"

i know they are popular as backup targets with alot of people on here but how do they perform in a more front line role.

Looking at replacing an old poweredge file server (10k SAS 3Gb/s PERC6) which has done a sterling job.

 

Do you find 7200rpm disks are quick enough?

Are you using SSD Caching?

How are you presenting the storage to users / Servers --> Users

 

 

cheers

[3s-gtech]

How many concurrent connections are you expecting? These boxes are impressive (the rack mounted x86 powered ones even more so) but you'll need to balance usage with model. Don't try using a desktop NAS as a replacement for a file server for 1000 users!

[SHimmer45]

looking at the rack mounted equipment.

school has around 1100 users (250 - 300 concurrent users is average)

 

looking at collecting some data to give me an idea on load and the like but will take a little time to get a good amount of data from that

[3s-gtech]

Our main storage is all based around 7200rpm disks, it's a little while back but I even think we used SATA (WD Black IIRC) for the larger arrays (shares and home areas). That's more than adequately quick, run from VMs which don't share this storage with others (so a dedicated array for the file shares). These servers are quite old. I'd imagine that specced correctly you can get great performance from a NAS in this role - however, it's worth looking at overall costs. My servers do this as well as hosting several other VMs, so the costs drop as they scale out. Each one came in at about £1000 including disks as I bought refurb.

[SHimmer45]

noticed that the R2416 has a concurrent connection limit when using CIFS/AFP/FTP

would they have bundled CIFS and SMB together seeing as CIFS and SMBv1 are "sort of" the same thing

[Paid_Peanuts]

I'm also interested in this, primarily to use something like their FS2017 with 10Gb SFP+ iSCSI as our VMware storage. A 24 bay 2.5" 2U rack filled with Intel 1TB SSD is coming in at circa 10k!

Compare that to tier 1 manufacturers like Dell, HP and the like and it's a fraction of the price!

You could also mix and match the drives to achieve SSD hot tiering (or what ever synology call it as they all have different names).

I have spoken to one NM who uses Synology for his VMware storage and he couldn't say enough good things about it.

 

I am seriously tempted when our storage comes up for renewal next year.

Would love to hear anyone who does this already or is also thinking about using Synology.

[SHimmer45]

compared to stuff like Dell and HP the pricing does look good.

some of the initial pricing on Dells website is enough to make you fall off your chair.

My data collection finishes tomorrow so will be interesting to see what sort of actual real world load the current kit is under

[Paid_Peanuts]

compared to stuff like Dell and HP the pricing does look good.

some of the initial pricing on Dells website is enough to make you fall off your chair.

My data collection finishes tomorrow so will be interesting to see what sort of actual real world load the current kit is under

 

I think I saw on another post you purchased a Synology? If so which one did you go for and what disk configuration?

[SHimmer45]

no havent purchased any kit yet...

 

 

just getting around to attempting to graph some data not sure i have it setup quite right as the numbers look off / low

 

my thoughts are that the server is not actually doing a great deal over the course of a school day

Edited June 13, 2017 by SHimmer45