Synology RackStation RS212 Review

It has been a while since we have looked at a Synology product, and today we are reviewing their new RS212 NAS server designed for an office environment. The RS212 is a rack mount NAS server supplied with a replaceable motherboard and support for hot swappable drives. All the I/O ports are placed on the front panel for quick, easy access. The RS212 is designed to withstand high temperature environments, up to 45c. Those who are confused with the Synology product naming conventions can use this as a guide: “+” series = performance range. standard series (no digit) = mixture of performance and storage. “j” series = entry level consumer, concerned about capacity but not performance. DS = DiskStation RS = RackStation First Digit = number of bays Second numbers = year for the release Therefore we now know that the RS212 is a member of the RackStation series, has 2 drive bays and was created for year 2012. Features: 12-Inch Depth to Fit in 2-Post Rack & Wall Mount Rack 2 LAN with Failover and Link Aggregation Support VMware®, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V® compliance Quiet and Power-saving Hot-swappable Hard Drive Design Running on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) The RS212 arrives in a long, flat box with only the 'Synology' branding on the front. They include a product sticker on the top of the box with the main specifications. Inside, the RS212 is protected between thick foam, and is encased underneath a soft padded cover. They include drive mounting screws, a power cable and literature on the product, with the software required. We tend to visit the Synology Download Center for updated versions of the software. Synology also include a rack mount assembly kit. The RS212 is crafted from a metal chassis, as would be expected for a business oriented device. It is quite heavy, weighing 3.12kg. It measures 44 x 430.5 x 287.5 mm. The right side includes three small fans which intake air from this side of the chassis, forcing air across the left, then out. The left side of the chassis features several holes to allow for improved air flow around the hard drive area. All of the connectors are at the front of the unit, apart from the power socket which is at the rear. The left of the RS212 features two drive bays, with support for 3TB hard drives. It has support for 2 LAN connectors, with Failover and Link Aggregation Support. There is also a USB, eSATA and COM port at the front for additional backup capability. At the right, are various status indicators for power, hard drive and network activity. The power switch is underneath. Synology are using 256MB of Hynix DDR3 memory, and a 1.6ghz processor which are connected to the Marvell 88SX7042-BDU1 chipset, offering PCI-e 4 Port SATA II support. This motherboard can be removed for complete replacement by Synology in case of failure at a later date. At the side, are three 40mm fans, which we hope are well under control by the Synology firmware, otherwise noise emissions could get painful. At the back, protected underneath a little layer of thick cardboard is the custom built power supply, which feeds all the components inside, including the motherboard and fans. A small daughtercard at the left holds both power and data headers for the dual hard drives, which simply slide in from the front of the chassis. Synology are using metal drive trays for this product which is a welcome addition. Both trays have a fine padded layer on top to protect the sensitive drive electronics. Installing both drives only takes a few minutes. The engineering standards are what we would expect from Synology, a very smooth movement as both drives are slotted into the internal power and data headers. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. We have covered the Synology DiskManager Operating system many times before, but it is certainly worth a recap. It is one of the finest operating systems on the market for a NAS system, and doesn't need a high spec list of hardware to run well either. The multitasking support means that multiple tasks can be handled simultaneously. The first step is to ensure you are using the latest version of the operating system for the device. We recommend to ignore the software on the disc and to head over to the Synology support site, which is updated on a regular basis. One point worth making is the speed of the Synology website, we were able to grab the 174MB file in a matter of seconds, achieving 100mbit download speeds. The next step is to install the Synology Assistant, which is also available on the optical disc, or direct from the Synology website here. The software will initially report a 'configuration lost' Status which is correct, as the software has to be installed. Simply click 'install' via the main menu, then follow the step by step instructions, which really are idiot proof. The whole process takes 10 minutes or so, depending on the size of the drives. If everything went according to plan, then the Status will change to 'ready'. Simply double click on the RS212 product line and it will automatically load your default browser. Log in with 'admin' in user name and a blank password. This can be changed later to something more secure. Now that the drives are configured, the first step is to configure a volume. This particular product supports Synology Hybrid RAID, Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1. The volume can be migrated from basic to Raid 1 at a later date. While setting up a volume, the software allows for a thorough disk check procedure. If you are using new drives we recommend you don't turn this on, as it takes a very long time to complete. If however you are using older drives you had stored in a drawer in the house, then this might be a good option to enable. The Synology software will automatically set up a volume for you, unless you select the 'custom' option, which allows for RAID options as shown above. The software will proceed to configure the drives as you requested (in our case RAID 0), but thanks to the multi tasking software, you can look in other areas of the operating system without interruption until this is completed. The software has a management panel with various cache management, and S.M.A.R.T. information panels. Our Samsung HD502HJ 500GB drives can be seen above. Setting up a shared folder only takes a couple of seconds. The operating system can handle up to 2048 user accounts, 256 user group, 256 shared folders and 128 concurrent connections. More than enough for a general office environment. The default name of the hardware can cause a confliction on a network, if another RackStation is already installed and left with the default product name of 'RackStation'. We recommend that all devices are given individual names to resolve any potential networking access problems. We named this product to 'RS212' as shown above. If you fail to find your new NAS system on a network, this could be the problem. The control panel offers easy access to various parts of the operating system interface. There is support for the Macintosh operating system networking protocols, which is enabled by default. The NFS protocol is also supported. There are FTP options to allow friends and family members to get access to the NAS, from outside the local network. WEBDAV support is also included, which is handy, especially for Macintosh users. As this unit supports Failover and Link Aggregation, there are two LAN connectors on the front. These can be adjusted in the network section of the panel, as well as full support for Jumbo frames. Sick of the blue scheme? Then Synology let you change the interface colours to green or orange. The power section of the panels can be used to fine tune the noise and performance of the fans, as well as configuring the system to automatically reboot after an unexpected power failure. UPS systems are also fully supported, as well as scheduling and HDD hibernation settings. If you don't want to keep checking for updated versions of the software, then the NAS system can be instructed to automatically check online and then subsequently download and update the device to the latest revision. Be aware that if you let the RS212 automatically handle updating, then some downtime during work hours could be possible. The DiskManager software offers many applications for media and networking support. Photo station supports BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f image formats and 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 video formats. The DNLA/UPnP Media Server can support both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless audio formats. 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR and WMA3 video formats. It also can handle BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f ) image formats. iTunes Server is also supported with MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF audio formats, M4V, MOV and MP4 video formats and M3U, WPL Playlist Format. Two printers can be hooked into the system supporting LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk and Multi Functional Print Server. If all this isn’t enough it also offers the following iPhone and Android applications.: DS Photo+, DS Audio, DS Cam, DS File (iPhone only) and DS finder (iPhone only). Frequently used programs can be pinned to the taskbar for easy access later. There are many nice touches throughout which we are sure will be enhanced further as time progresses. Survelliance station is a useful feature, especially for a business. Users can hook an IP camera into the unit. We have looked at this in detail before and if you missed it before you can read it here. We are testing the Synology RS212 within our gigabit network which is pretty much as good as you will get for a home or small office environment. It is a mixed network with several 1GBit switches for ultimate performance. This review was delayed a little as one of our gigabit switches failed recently and we had to wait on a replacement. All tests are performed ten times to ensure that no abnormalities can creep into the final results. Performance is strong, averaging 95 MB/s read and 47 MB/s read in these particular tests. Performance with mixed files is slightly lower than the DS211j, averaging 62 MB/s read and 35 MB/s write. Still, very good results for these specific tests. We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Noise was measured from a meter away. The RS212 is generally relatively quiet, with the three small fans spinning very slowly. Placing a heavy data load on the two drives raises the ambient temperature of the chassis and the fans spin up to compensate. The noise emissions peak at 34.5dBa which might be a little loud for a bedroom environment. The RS212 is designed however for use in a small business, which would assuredly have a dedicated IT room. We measured power from the socket with 2 x 500gb Samsung hard drives installed. When idle, the power consumption hovers around the 12 watt mark, rising to 23 watts when both drives are active writing data. RackStation devices generally tend to consume a little more power than the DiskStation products, especially when idle. Good results, although a few degrees higher than some of the DiskStation products we have tested in recent months, due to the confined shape of the chassis and use of small fans. The Synology RackStation RS212 is a well designed NAS server system, built from high quality metal materials with replaceable internal components, ideal for a small business environment. The use of nippy 1.6ghz processor and 256MB of DDR3 memory means that the DiskManager Operating System is able to respond quickly to commands and can handle the multi tasking environment with a high level of responsiveness. I wasn't twiddling my fingers while a task was waiting to complete. This really is a testament to the highly optimised and low demand software overhead ... which is one of the finest NAS oriented packages on the market today. The internal design earns the RS212 bonus points, as we really like the layout, and easily removable, replaceable motherboard. The use of three tiny 40mm may raise an eyebrow, but the noise levels are well balanced for such a slim line design, only becoming audible when internal temperatures cause the triple fan configuration to speed up. Tolerances for an office environment are higher than for a home environment, so we see no need to raise a concern here. Power consumption is efficient and overall bandwidth is ideal for the target audience ... that being a small office environment for networked file sharing and backups. The price of this product is around the £400 inc vat mark in the United Kingdom as we head to publication. At this price the RS212 is a very good investment and one of the better budget oriented business NAS systems we have tested in the last year. Bear in mind that if you need more performance, then Synology offer more expensive business solutions. Pros: Great price. Quality materials used. Good cooling system. Fast performance. Cons: Not fast enough for a more demanding business environment. Small fans. No key locking system for the hard drives. Kitguru says: Yet another good product from Synology.