ioSafe N2: A Disaster-Resistant Synology DS213
by Ganesh T S on March 4, 2013 12:00 PM ESTMiscellaneous Aspects and Final Words
The ioSafe N2 is a 2-bay NAS, and the applicable disk configurations are JBOD, RAID-0 and RAID-1. Synology makes the RAID level transparent to the user using the Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) feature. SHR can be set up with either single or dual disk failure resiliency, but, in the case of the ioSafe N2 / Synology DS213, only single failure resiliency is supported. Most users of the ioSafe N2 are either going to use RAID-1 (manual) or SHR (which essentially turns out to be the same). Hence, we performed all our expansion / rebuild duration testing as well as power consumption recording with the unit configured in SHR mode.
The disks used for benchmarking (WD4000FYYZ - Western Digital 4TB RE) were also used in this section. The table below presents the average power consumption of the ioSafe N2 as well as time taken for various RAID-related activities.
ioSafe N2 / Synology DS213 RAID Expansion and Rebuild / Power Consumption | ||
Activity | Duration | Average Power Consumption |
Single Disk Initialization in SHR (4 TB) | 11h 27m 17s | 19.44 W |
RAID-0 to RAID-1 (4 TB to 4 TB / 1 to 2 drives) | 9h 8m 52s | 31.37 W |
RAID-1 Rebuild (4 TB to 4 TB / 1 to 2 drives) | 9h 9m 17s | 31.00 W |
Coming to the business end of the review, it is clear that there isn't much to complain about with respect to the ioSafe N2. A point-wise summary of the pros and cons of the unit is presented below.
Pros:
- Excellent performance and feature set (including hot swap, multiple iSCSI LUN support etc.) for a non-x86 based NAS
- Hard disks are user-accessible while maintaining disaster resistance
- Reasonably priced
Cons / Nitpicks:
- No in-built support for 2.5" drives
- Restricted pool of HDDs to choose from
- Floor mount / physical theft protection could have been integrated in the chassis (like it was done in the SoloPRO) instead of being made optional
As one can see, the cons listed above do not really affect users who purchase the ioSafe N2 with pre-installed hard drives. Even the physical theft protection aspect can be easily handled with the Kensington lock feature.
Before the ioSafe N2 was announced, I was using the SoloPRO connected to a NAS unit as a centralized disaster-resistant storage device. The only drawback in that configuration was the fact that a failed hard drive in the SoloPRO would have rendered the chassis completely useless for further use. The ioSafe N2 solves this problem in an elegant manner. As such, we can definitely recommended it for users looking to protect their electronic data against unforeseen circumstances. My only regret is the lack of competition for ioSafe in this area to drive down the pricing further.
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Death666Angel - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - link
Well, all I could find about the drives is that they are rated for operation between 5°C and 55°C. Not sure what ioSafe means.But I have to say, I find it hard to believe that any enterprise would subject their HDDs to non-climate-controlled rooms. So staying below 30°C environmental temperatures should not be a problem in any enterprise situation.
robb.moore - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
That particular series of WD enterprise drives (FYYZ) runs hotter than most. Both Synology and ioSafe recommend a 30C operating environment in order to maintain 55C or lower on the drive PCB. Hope that helps!-Robb Moore
Robb Moore
CEO
ioSafe
random2 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
I get your point although I'll be a great number of enterprise class drives are not installed in purpose built rooms serviced by hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of HVAC equipment.random2 - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - link
*For the ioSafe N2, an updated version of the DataCast component is being used. This design allows for more water to be part of the mixture, and we can even see water droplets forming on the inside after operating the unit for a short time. The more water we have in the surrounding material, the better is the fire resistance.*Since this just seems to be so counter-intuitive to most of us working with electronics, can you shed a little more light on how ioSafe came up with this idea for cooling etc. I realize the actual drive housing must be hermetically sealed, but this is still pretty cool stuff.
ganeshts - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - link
I had some coverage of the DataCast and other related components in the SoloPRO review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5731/iosafe-solopro-... : DataCast is based on the final patent in that page (a super-saturated enclosure made of gypsum or similar material). Hope that answers your questions.random2 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Thank you Ganesh...Appreciate the link a great deal.Cheers.