Once there was the smallest server ...
As they say, computer users are divided into those who make backups and those who STILL do not. Understanding this, more and more users prefer not to keep “eggs in one basket”, increasingly turning their attention to the possibility of centralized information storage. The hero of this review has become a small box from a well-known Taiwanese manufacturer, whose possibilities for home use will be enough with its head. This server is on a diet (consumes only 5 W), silent, small and inexpensive (from 3000 rubles) - well, if you are interested in this question, then I suggest not postponing the acquaintance.
Meet - Synology USB Station 2 .
I’ll say right away that the article will not have the next thoroughly detailed description of the most interesting web interface - I wrote about it at least twice ( 1 , 2 ), and it’s easier to see once - the necessary link will be slightly lower.
')
Specifications
The size of the package is very modest, but quite informative - it draws possible ways to use this device:
Inside was:
- Synology USB Station 2 Server
- Two-meter patch cord
- Network adapter
- CD with software
- Papers
For a start, everything is there - it is necessary to connect the wires, install the software and everything will work right away. Papers contain only information for a “quick start” - a full-fledged current manual (in the right language) is better to download from the site.
When I removed all the inscriptions from the box in the photoshop and asked on Twitter what kind of device it was, the response options were delivered again) Card reader and magnetic flash drive destroyer, flavoring and air ionizer, doorbell and alarm, portable speaker and dock - Station for iPhone - only a small part of what was suggested. And this is just the smallest (46x122x111 mm and weight in 147 g) server - slightly larger than the average ashtray. The fact is that inside there is no space for a hard disk - it is supposed to be connected from the outside ... that is, initially it’s not even a NAS.
The appearance is as simple as possible - in front there is the name of the device and three status LEDs:
... left - button to safely disconnect all connected USB devices:
... and behind, in fact, several connectors - just USB (two in number - for connecting hard drives, flash drives, printers, Wi-Fi-dongles, speakers, etc.) and a gigabit LAN port for connecting to the network. There is also a connector for external power and a Reset button to reset the system settings to the default state.
On the back side are 4 rubber legs (to stand on the table) and two holes (to hang on the wall).
The body is made of pleasant matte (rough) plastic that does not get dirty and does not glare. Indicators, though big, but shine quite unobtrusively.
There is no power supply as such - everything works from the network through a small adapter. This servachok consumes neither more nor less than 5 W in active mode. On this in appearance everything.
Synology has an interesting product strategy - all devices (from small to large) differ in their hardware characteristics, but the DiskStation Manager software shell (also called DSM ) is all one. There are certain differences in the capabilities of some functions of the program part, but otherwise this statement is true - for this reason, the entire range of devices remains relevant, and over the years, like wine, it only prettier. Knowing this, I decided to postpone the paragraphs about the software and, even before switching it on, I took the screwdriver.
Initially, there is nothing to unscrew - all the screws (there are two of them) were hidden under the rubber feet.
Who is the bun? )
Turn off them and get full access to the insides of the system.
The only board was fixed on the bottom of the case - and unscrew these screws. As a result, we get a thin bare board.
On the one hand, there are all interfaces (including UART), Marvell 88F6180 processor (800 MHz, 256 KB L2; although cpuinfo displays 88FR131 ), Genesys GL850G USB controller and two Gigabit Ethernet controllers ( GST5009 and Marvell 88E1116R )
On the other hand, there is a battery from Mitsubishi (so, it turns out, what they do!), 128 MB of Elpida EDE1116AEBG-8E-F RAM (DDR2-800) and a Samsung K9F1G08U0C flash memory chip (initially it is glued with a sticker). Well, and still unknown miniUSB-connector - I did not try to plug something into it, but I assume that it is for some kind of service debugging.
As you can see, there are no coolers and radiators - even the processor is cooled passively. It means that it will be quiet, and this is great. Moreover, it is not clear why the size of the device is “so large” - even from photographs it can be seen that it could be twice as thin.
Okay, I collect everything in reverse order. Although if not assembled, the top cover will remain removable and with a flick of the wrist, the network drive will be able to turn into an elegant place for a stash! )
uname -a
cat proc / cpuinfo
cat proc / meminfo
free
df -h
Synology was one of the first companies that introduced support for 3 TB drives into its devices - even a storage with a total capacity of two hard drives (albeit connected via a USB interface) of 6 TB can be connected to this server. My test stocks turned out to be more modest - I used a 32 GB flash drive.
As always, everything starts with the program Synology Assistant - it allows you to find a lost drive in the network and enter its admin panel. In the same program, you can still do a lot of things (for example, connect a printer, turn off the device remotely, or simply monitor the status of all drives on the network), but seeing the latest server firmware in it, I first decided to update it. The file I needed weighed about 67 MB and required a flash drive for flashing it - it will not be possible to upgrade without the media.
For "adult" devices, the DSM 3.1 beta recently came out with a pleasant changelog, but for USB Station 2 there is only the previous software version so far - I upgraded from DSM 3.0.1336 to DSM 3.0.1417, just for two changes:
First we create a shared folder on the connected media and add different users to the system (if necessary). We include the necessary services (Windows and Mac file services, FTP / Telnet / SSH / DLNA / UPnP / DDNS / WebDAV), activate the necessary applications (Audio Station, File Station, Download Station, iTunes service) and, in principle, everything - we can For a long time, forget about the settings.
It would be possible once again to write a sheet of text or throw out a ton of screenshots, but I, perhaps, will refrain from rewriting the available functions - first, I already partially told about all this (links above), second, you can download the manual (where everything is described in detail with pictures), well, thirdly, there is a wonderful link by which you can see everything yourself on a live example:
Clickable
In addition to the hard drive, you can also connect a printer to the device, which in a few clicks will be available for the network. But the list of supported USB devices does not end there - for example, you can connect a wireless module. I used D-Link DWA-140 , with the configuration of which there were no problems.
Moreover, you can connect USB speakers and through them the music coming from the Audio Station application built into the server (capable of playing MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, M4A, OGG and others) will play; they can also be connected to the DLNA-player. Many other formats are supported (including photo and video) - all this can be made available over the network, but all the older models in this regard will be more interesting. You can also use content from mobile devices - the necessary software is available for many platforms (iOS, WM, Android and Symbian), but this topic is worthy of a separate article - if you want, I will tell you.
Otherwise, this device is very similar to those about which I wrote earlier. The only significant disadvantage of this drive is, perhaps, the speed of work. She, to put it mildly, is not the highest; although perhaps I was doing something wrong. By the way, I will be grateful if someone will help me with the testing algorithm (in Windows OS) of the speed characteristics of such devices; Intel NASP does not like its sluggishness.
A folder with 293 files (in fact, the contents of the CD from the kit) was copied to 406 MB (by dragging files to a network drive in the explorer) to the drive for a long 2 minutes, that is, the recording speed was only 3.5 MB / s, which is very small. The archive of this folder (283 MB file) downloaded a little faster, in 75 seconds (3.7 MB / s speed). The speed was similar when uploading a file through the web interface.
FTP write speed is slightly higher - more than 5 Mb / s. Reading - about 10.
The situation can be corrected by a more efficient hard drive connected to the box (recall that I used a USB flash drive), as well as its file system (I had NTFS, although supported by FAT32 or EXT3 / EXT4 could well increase the speed). And again, I may have done something wrong - in other reviews on the network, the speed was up to 12 Mb / c for writing and up to 25 for reading.
* UPD *: Indeed, the disk with FAT file system works more efficiently - the FTP write speed reaches 10-11 MB / s.
Resource monitoring tab in admin panel (during one of the copies):
In addition to Synology Assistant, there are also two cross-platform (Win / Mac) utilities - Data Replicator 3 (for backup and recovery of data) and Download Redirector (to control the torrent-downloader without having to log in to DSM; any program created in user system). If you install the second program, then after logging in on the desktop, this icon will appear - if you drag the torrent file onto it (FTP / HTTP / eMule and NZB downloads are also supported), it will be sent to the server and downloaded to the installed drive.
It is a pity there is no sorting by folders, but it could turn out very convenient.
Compact size
Two USB ports for drives, printers, etc.
Mighty software shell
Low energy consumption
No noise
Price (from 3000 rubles)
The ability to store a nest egg)
Low data transfer rate on NTFS file system
Again, almost no cons, how so? That's how. At least, I did not find anything significant anymore. Low data rate? Everything is relative - for such a home for undemanding users is enough, and even for analogs in this price range, the speed is unlikely to be higher.
Of course, it would be possible to point out that there is no RAID0 / 1/5, that you can connect only an external USB drive or that there is no Wi-Fi in the box initially ... but it’s like in the review of the Audi TT to write “ it would be very good, be the ground clearance and trunk volume as in Q7 ". In this case, the "flaws" are obvious at the very beginning, but otherwise - the price is quite consistent with the quality.
Is that FreeAgent DockStar with 3 USB connectors and with space for a 2.5 "hard drive. Initially, there is no disk either, and the price (I did not find it on sale) is slightly higher, from 3,800 rubles. I can not say anything more, because I did not use it.
So, well, it seems that here he is that network drive, in the comments to the review of which the phrase “... yes I am for this money ... whoo!” Should not appear. Well, or vice versa, it will appear immediately from some clever man who wished to cut down the plus signs in an easy way)
The prices for Synology products really bite (and in multidisc solutions, they really bite and even bite so much), but this does not apply to USB Station 2 - finally, the product line has been enriched with a product that anyone can afford. Of course, you can once again try to dissuade yourself and take some helpless craft on the principle of “if only for a ruble, but cheaper,” but I still advise you to be tempted to try it once. After all, the popular wisdom “the miser pays twice” was not even in the reviews of glands invented, but here it is fair as never before.
What can I say - once again the company has provided the public with an interesting and high-quality product that will surely find a cozy place in this world. This is the initial level, but for the centralized storage of information within the apartment it should be enough. You can find a lot of other methods of application - here you can master the main instruction once or completely go through all the software menus in order to know about the potential. And he is there, despite the modest size of the box. Of course, for more serious tasks, something more productive will be needed with hardware support for various technologies (yes, the same RAID), but otherwise USB Station 2 is not like the others and is good in its own way ... and on the whole it complements the existing range of models very harmoniously.
Just now you have read to the end (well, or just inspected all the pictures and decided to stop at the conclusion, in the hope that I’ll summarize everything here, ha-ha) a review of the third product from Synology and I will honestly say this each time I like it more and more. All “humanly” and conscientiously - they make high-quality (in all aspects) and practical products, they are deeply involved in software development and support; they listen to every opinion and wish, don’t bother sending out press releases, and even if they send something, there’s no advertising in the letter - just good news with huge changelogs. I think this is a very correct strategy - this attitude does not just bribe, but makes you try once and not look at anything else (something like Apple does). But I repeat - you need to clearly imagine at least a couple of possible scenarios for the use of such devices, otherwise all their power will gather dust on the shelf.
GL
Meet - Synology USB Station 2 .
I’ll say right away that the article will not have the next thoroughly detailed description of the most interesting web interface - I wrote about it at least twice ( 1 , 2 ), and it’s easier to see once - the necessary link will be slightly lower.
')
SpecificationsEquipment
The size of the package is very modest, but quite informative - it draws possible ways to use this device:
Inside was:
- Synology USB Station 2 Server
- Two-meter patch cord
- Network adapter
- CD with software
- Papers
For a start, everything is there - it is necessary to connect the wires, install the software and everything will work right away. Papers contain only information for a “quick start” - a full-fledged current manual (in the right language) is better to download from the site.
Appearance
When I removed all the inscriptions from the box in the photoshop and asked on Twitter what kind of device it was, the response options were delivered again) Card reader and magnetic flash drive destroyer, flavoring and air ionizer, doorbell and alarm, portable speaker and dock - Station for iPhone - only a small part of what was suggested. And this is just the smallest (46x122x111 mm and weight in 147 g) server - slightly larger than the average ashtray. The fact is that inside there is no space for a hard disk - it is supposed to be connected from the outside ... that is, initially it’s not even a NAS.
The appearance is as simple as possible - in front there is the name of the device and three status LEDs:
... left - button to safely disconnect all connected USB devices:
... and behind, in fact, several connectors - just USB (two in number - for connecting hard drives, flash drives, printers, Wi-Fi-dongles, speakers, etc.) and a gigabit LAN port for connecting to the network. There is also a connector for external power and a Reset button to reset the system settings to the default state.
On the back side are 4 rubber legs (to stand on the table) and two holes (to hang on the wall).
The body is made of pleasant matte (rough) plastic that does not get dirty and does not glare. Indicators, though big, but shine quite unobtrusively.
There is no power supply as such - everything works from the network through a small adapter. This servachok consumes neither more nor less than 5 W in active mode. On this in appearance everything.
Disassembly
Synology has an interesting product strategy - all devices (from small to large) differ in their hardware characteristics, but the DiskStation Manager software shell (also called DSM ) is all one. There are certain differences in the capabilities of some functions of the program part, but otherwise this statement is true - for this reason, the entire range of devices remains relevant, and over the years, like wine, it only prettier. Knowing this, I decided to postpone the paragraphs about the software and, even before switching it on, I took the screwdriver.
Initially, there is nothing to unscrew - all the screws (there are two of them) were hidden under the rubber feet.
Who is the bun? )
Turn off them and get full access to the insides of the system.
The only board was fixed on the bottom of the case - and unscrew these screws. As a result, we get a thin bare board.
On the one hand, there are all interfaces (including UART), Marvell 88F6180 processor (800 MHz, 256 KB L2; although cpuinfo displays 88FR131 ), Genesys GL850G USB controller and two Gigabit Ethernet controllers ( GST5009 and Marvell 88E1116R )
On the other hand, there is a battery from Mitsubishi (so, it turns out, what they do!), 128 MB of Elpida EDE1116AEBG-8E-F RAM (DDR2-800) and a Samsung K9F1G08U0C flash memory chip (initially it is glued with a sticker). Well, and still unknown miniUSB-connector - I did not try to plug something into it, but I assume that it is for some kind of service debugging.
As you can see, there are no coolers and radiators - even the processor is cooled passively. It means that it will be quiet, and this is great. Moreover, it is not clear why the size of the device is “so large” - even from photographs it can be seen that it could be twice as thin.
Okay, I collect everything in reverse order. Although if not assembled, the top cover will remain removable and with a flick of the wrist, the network drive will be able to turn into an elegant place for a stash! )
Quite inside
BusyBox v1.16.1 (2010-12-24 03:09:45 CST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. uname -aLinux USBStation2 2.6.32.12 #1417 Fri Dec 24 03:05:41 CST 2010 armv5tel GNU/Linux synology_88f6180_us2 cat proc / cpuinfoProcessor: Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS: 794.62 Features: swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer: 0x56 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant: 0x2 CPU part: 0x131 CPU revision: 1 Hardware: Feroceon-KW Revision: 0000 Serial: 0000000000000000
cat proc / meminfoMemTotal: 125856 kB MemFree: 21796 kB Buffers: 27508 kB Cached: 36000 kB SwapCached: 5952 kB Active: 40284 kB Inactive: 41120 kB Active (anon): 10860 kB Inactive (anon): 11484 kB Active (file): 29424 kB Inactive (file): 29636 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB SwapTotal: 251896 kB SwapFree: 237528 kB Dirty: 0 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 12860 kB Mapped: 15208 kB Shmem: 4448 kB Slab: 18704 kB SReclaimable: 9760 kB SUnreclaim: 8944 kB KernelStack: 672 kB PageTables: 1176 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 314824 kB Committed_AS: 246724 kB VmallocTotal: 516096 kB VmallocUsed: 136 kB VmallocChunk: 513464 kB
freetotal used free shared buffers Mem: 125856 104068 21788 0 27508 Swap: 251896 14368 237528 Total: 377752 118436 259316
df -hFilesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on / dev / synoboot1 65.1M 65.1M 0 100% / / tmp 61.5M 520.0K 60.9M 1% / tmp / dev / sdk1 30.1G 3.5G 26.5G 12% / volumeUSB1 / usbshare
Turn on and work
Synology was one of the first companies that introduced support for 3 TB drives into its devices - even a storage with a total capacity of two hard drives (albeit connected via a USB interface) of 6 TB can be connected to this server. My test stocks turned out to be more modest - I used a 32 GB flash drive.
As always, everything starts with the program Synology Assistant - it allows you to find a lost drive in the network and enter its admin panel. In the same program, you can still do a lot of things (for example, connect a printer, turn off the device remotely, or simply monitor the status of all drives on the network), but seeing the latest server firmware in it, I first decided to update it. The file I needed weighed about 67 MB and required a flash drive for flashing it - it will not be possible to upgrade without the media.
For "adult" devices, the DSM 3.1 beta recently came out with a pleasant changelog, but for USB Station 2 there is only the previous software version so far - I upgraded from DSM 3.0.1336 to DSM 3.0.1417, just for two changes:
- Multifunctional printer or laptop computer over the same network.After updating to a given IP address, a smart admin panel (on ExtJS?) Opens, not as functional as in more expensive drives, but not less good. An intuitive desktop (with a taskbar and icons), which in a couple of clicks gives access to any device settings.
- HDD Hibernation is now supported on the external USB HDD.
First we create a shared folder on the connected media and add different users to the system (if necessary). We include the necessary services (Windows and Mac file services, FTP / Telnet / SSH / DLNA / UPnP / DDNS / WebDAV), activate the necessary applications (Audio Station, File Station, Download Station, iTunes service) and, in principle, everything - we can For a long time, forget about the settings.
It would be possible once again to write a sheet of text or throw out a ton of screenshots, but I, perhaps, will refrain from rewriting the available functions - first, I already partially told about all this (links above), second, you can download the manual (where everything is described in detail with pictures), well, thirdly, there is a wonderful link by which you can see everything yourself on a live example:
http://demo.synology.com span000 (admin: synology)True, this link is an advanced version of the admin panel, which has all the points inherent in full drives; In USB Station 2, the admin panel is simpler, so I will post a couple of screenshots so that you know what it has and what it does not have.
Clickable In addition to the hard drive, you can also connect a printer to the device, which in a few clicks will be available for the network. But the list of supported USB devices does not end there - for example, you can connect a wireless module. I used D-Link DWA-140 , with the configuration of which there were no problems.
Moreover, you can connect USB speakers and through them the music coming from the Audio Station application built into the server (capable of playing MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, M4A, OGG and others) will play; they can also be connected to the DLNA-player. Many other formats are supported (including photo and video) - all this can be made available over the network, but all the older models in this regard will be more interesting. You can also use content from mobile devices - the necessary software is available for many platforms (iOS, WM, Android and Symbian), but this topic is worthy of a separate article - if you want, I will tell you.
Otherwise, this device is very similar to those about which I wrote earlier. The only significant disadvantage of this drive is, perhaps, the speed of work. She, to put it mildly, is not the highest; although perhaps I was doing something wrong. By the way, I will be grateful if someone will help me with the testing algorithm (in Windows OS) of the speed characteristics of such devices; Intel NASP does not like its sluggishness.
A folder with 293 files (in fact, the contents of the CD from the kit) was copied to 406 MB (by dragging files to a network drive in the explorer) to the drive for a long 2 minutes, that is, the recording speed was only 3.5 MB / s, which is very small. The archive of this folder (283 MB file) downloaded a little faster, in 75 seconds (3.7 MB / s speed). The speed was similar when uploading a file through the web interface.
FTP write speed is slightly higher - more than 5 Mb / s. Reading - about 10.
The situation can be corrected by a more efficient hard drive connected to the box (recall that I used a USB flash drive), as well as its file system (I had NTFS, although supported by FAT32 or EXT3 / EXT4 could well increase the speed). And again, I may have done something wrong - in other reviews on the network, the speed was up to 12 Mb / c for writing and up to 25 for reading.
* UPD *: Indeed, the disk with FAT file system works more efficiently - the FTP write speed reaches 10-11 MB / s.
Resource monitoring tab in admin panel (during one of the copies):
In addition to Synology Assistant, there are also two cross-platform (Win / Mac) utilities - Data Replicator 3 (for backup and recovery of data) and Download Redirector (to control the torrent-downloader without having to log in to DSM; any program created in user system). If you install the second program, then after logging in on the desktop, this icon will appear - if you drag the torrent file onto it (FTP / HTTP / eMule and NZB downloads are also supported), it will be sent to the server and downloaded to the installed drive.
It is a pity there is no sorting by folders, but it could turn out very convenient.
Advantages and disadvantages
Compact size Two USB ports for drives, printers, etc. Mighty software shell Low energy consumption No noise Price (from 3000 rubles) The ability to store a nest egg) Low data transfer rate on NTFS file systemAgain, almost no cons, how so? That's how. At least, I did not find anything significant anymore. Low data rate? Everything is relative - for such a home for undemanding users is enough, and even for analogs in this price range, the speed is unlikely to be higher.
Of course, it would be possible to point out that there is no RAID0 / 1/5, that you can connect only an external USB drive or that there is no Wi-Fi in the box initially ... but it’s like in the review of the Audi TT to write “ it would be very good, be the ground clearance and trunk volume as in Q7 ". In this case, the "flaws" are obvious at the very beginning, but otherwise - the price is quite consistent with the quality.
Competitors
Is that FreeAgent DockStar with 3 USB connectors and with space for a 2.5 "hard drive. Initially, there is no disk either, and the price (I did not find it on sale) is slightly higher, from 3,800 rubles. I can not say anything more, because I did not use it.
findings
So, well, it seems that here he is that network drive, in the comments to the review of which the phrase “... yes I am for this money ... whoo!” Should not appear. Well, or vice versa, it will appear immediately from some clever man who wished to cut down the plus signs in an easy way)
The prices for Synology products really bite (and in multidisc solutions, they really bite and even bite so much), but this does not apply to USB Station 2 - finally, the product line has been enriched with a product that anyone can afford. Of course, you can once again try to dissuade yourself and take some helpless craft on the principle of “if only for a ruble, but cheaper,” but I still advise you to be tempted to try it once. After all, the popular wisdom “the miser pays twice” was not even in the reviews of glands invented, but here it is fair as never before.
What can I say - once again the company has provided the public with an interesting and high-quality product that will surely find a cozy place in this world. This is the initial level, but for the centralized storage of information within the apartment it should be enough. You can find a lot of other methods of application - here you can master the main instruction once or completely go through all the software menus in order to know about the potential. And he is there, despite the modest size of the box. Of course, for more serious tasks, something more productive will be needed with hardware support for various technologies (yes, the same RAID), but otherwise USB Station 2 is not like the others and is good in its own way ... and on the whole it complements the existing range of models very harmoniously.
Just now you have read to the end (well, or just inspected all the pictures and decided to stop at the conclusion, in the hope that I’ll summarize everything here, ha-ha) a review of the third product from Synology and I will honestly say this each time I like it more and more. All “humanly” and conscientiously - they make high-quality (in all aspects) and practical products, they are deeply involved in software development and support; they listen to every opinion and wish, don’t bother sending out press releases, and even if they send something, there’s no advertising in the letter - just good news with huge changelogs. I think this is a very correct strategy - this attitude does not just bribe, but makes you try once and not look at anything else (something like Apple does). But I repeat - you need to clearly imagine at least a couple of possible scenarios for the use of such devices, otherwise all their power will gather dust on the shelf.
GL
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/114448/
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