Introduction and design
Billed by Netgear as the world's fastest desktop NAS, the six-bay ReadyNAS 716 is deserving of this accolade by virtue of a quad-core Intel Ivy Bridge Xeon E3 processor and 16GB of RAM. But that's far from all as, in addition to a pair of Gigabit ports, you also get two 10GbE interfaces as standard. All of which puts the latest ReadyNAS on a par with a mid-range server in terms of specification.
It also attracts a similar price tag, starting at £1,666 ex VAT (around $2,800, AU$3,000) without any disks which is well beyond the budget of most small businesses. It could, however, be justified by larger SMEs looking for fast, enterprise-class storage in a desktop format.
Quietly does it
The ReadyNAS 716 certainly looks the part, housed in the same large desktop chassis as other six-bay Netgear appliances with a built-in power supply. Plus, just like the ReadyNAS 515, it has a door over the storage compartment that features a touch-sensitive LED display. Blue status LEDs for the disks complete the futuristic look and with just one very large fan and a smaller one in the PSU it's eerily quiet in operation.
Carriers to take 3.5-inch or smaller 2.5-inch SATA disks are included and these simply slide into a vertical stack of six slots behind the front door. A small catch on each carrier prevents accidental removal but there are no physical locks, either on the carriers or the door.
The review system came pre-populated with six 100GB Intel SSDs – to bolster the "world's fastest desktop NAS" claims – but, in practice, most buyers will opt for magnetic disks to maximise capacity. We found the ReadyNAS 716 bundled with a full set of six 4TB WD RED disks selling online for £2,609 ex VAT (around $4,330, AU$4,630).
With 4TB drives fitted the maximum capacity is 24TB, but yet more can be added by plugging Netgear EDA500 expansion units into eSATA connectors on the rear panel. There are three eSATA ports altogether and the EDA500 is a five-bay device which, using 4TB drives, enables a further 60TB of storage to be added at a cost of £388 ex VAT ($650, AU$700) per expansion unit, plus the price of the disks.
Two USB 3.0 and a further two USB 2.0 ports are also provided, primarily for local backup purposes. And lastly, there's an HDMI port too, which could be used for, say, streaming data direct to a video display, although we think this is an unlikely use for such a big and costly system.
Setup and testing
Cloud-based setup for NAS appliances is fast becoming standard and Netgear is no exception with a dedicated portal that can be used to setup, manage and access multiple ReadyNAS appliances. No disks are required, there's no need to install a setup utility and it worked perfectly when we tried it.
Once configured the management interface is a little old-fashioned, especially compared to the desktop front-ends employed by Synology and QNAP, but it is very clean and we found it easy to navigate.
Default shares are created during setup but more of the same and iSCSI volumes can both be configured with the usual controls when it comes to user authentication and access. The latest implementation of the ReadyOS firmware also sees a switch from EXT4 to the BTRFS file system which, among other features, adds support for block level snapshots. Moreover, an unlimited number of snapshots can be taken of both iSCSI volumes and network shares, with simple tools to manage the process and roll back to an earlier snapshot using a timeline display.
There's also the option of installing and running add-on apps on the appliance. None are installed by default but there are plenty to choose from including ReadySurveillance, a network video recorder for use with IP cameras.
Ten Gigabit for all
Buyers looking to get an industry standard server in this price bracket increasingly expect the option of specifying 10GbE network ports, and now NAS servers are getting this treatment. To this end the QNAP TS-470 we tested recently can have two of its four network interfaces upgraded to 10GbE, but on the ReadyNAS 716 this is already done with two Gigabit and two 10GbE network ports provided as standard.
An Intel-powered adapter is used to provide this functionality, but to take advantage of the extra bandwidth you'll need servers with matching 10GbE interfaces and, for maximum flexibility, one or more switches with 10GbE ports. Fortunately these are also starting to fall in price with Netgear, coincidentally, leading the charge to bring the technology to small businesses.
Test results
For our tests we borrowed an eight-port Netgear ProSafe XS708E available for £583 ex VAT (around $980, AU$1,050) and, using this, the performance results were well in line with our expectations. Indeed, using a Fujitsu server to exercise the storage on the ReadyNAS we hit an impressive 420MB/sec when writing large files over a 10GbE connection and up to 480MB/sec for reads. When copying smaller files, however, the figures were reduced, and similarly, replacing the SSDs with magnetic disks slowed things down.
Some buyers will, of course, be limited to Gigabit networking and using its Gigabit ports the ReadyNAS 716 managed to take full advantage of the available bandwidth. In practice we would expect such buyers to take advantage of all four ports either through the various trunking options available in the Netgear firmware or by VLAN segmentation and, perhaps, upgrade to 10GbE later.
Verdict
We liked
In terms of styling you either like the black box that is the ReadyNAS 716 or you don't, and it's much the same with the touch-sensitive status panel on the storage door. We liked it, although once the appliance is up and running you're unlikely to do much with the built-in display other than impress visitors
The web management interface is where you'll spend most of your management time and we found this dated but very nice to use and easy to learn, with very simple tools, for example, to manage volumes and bond network adapters together.
A good number of monitoring tools are also available, but performance is what the ReadyNAS 716 is all about, and in that respect the Netgear desktop appliance is hard to beat except by switching to rack-mount alternatives.
We disliked
One concern with both the ReadyNAS and other high-end desktop NAS appliances is the basic concept of putting business-critical network storage in a desktop rather than a rack-mount device. All the more so when it comes to a high-end product like the ReadyNAS 716 which borders on mid-range server territory.
Of course there are lots of companies without rack facilities who will find the ReadyNAS box easier to accommodate. However, the lack of a lock on the storage seems a bit of an oversight and the appliance itself is a little on the bulky side, even for a six-bay device. Also, at this price point we would like to see a redundant power option whether for desktop or rack deployment.
Final verdict
Performance is the biggest selling point with the ReadyNAS 716, especially the 10GbE interfaces which come as standard – a first for a desktop NAS. It also has a lot to offer in terms of capacity with the option of expansion well beyond the basic 24TB of the standalone box, plus enterprise-class snapshot and backup capabilities. The only question mark is the price which puts it up against mid-range servers and rack-mount storage appliances where the advantages are not so clear cut.
from www.techradar.com
