Price : Too low to display
Synology DiskStation DS211+, bundled with 2x1TB HDDs, offers a high-performance, secure, and full-featured network attached storage solution that helps small and medium-sized businesses centralize backup, protect critical assets and share files quickly and efficiently. Synology protects your investment in the DS211+ with a 2-year limited warranty.
This review is from : Synology DiskStation 2-Bay 2 TB (2x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS211+ 2100 (Black)
Excellent NAS! . This is my first NAS box ever owned. I read a lot of positive reviews about Synology overall and specially about the DS211+ prior to taking the plunge and buying this. I ran it with a pair of Hitachi 3TB drives (0S03086). No compatibility issues, as far as I'm concerned. Setup was fairly easy with the DS Assistant and the Wizard, I had a RAID1 setup in a matter of minutes. The documentation is pretty good. The CD that comes with it has everything you'll need, but it can be somewhat disorganized (I ran it off a Mac, not sure if the autorun is a lot better on a Windows machine). You're better off just grabbing the files off the Synology website. These files are: (1) The latest DSM OS software, (2) DS Assistant either the Windows, Mac or Linux version depending on your environment, (3) DSM User Manual and finally (4) Setup Guide.
Again, it doesn't take much to set it up if you're familiar with computers and if you're looking at this particular item, chances are you are.
This being my first NAS setup, I can't really compare and comment on its performance and speed in comparison to other products. I had about 80GB's of storage on my external drive that I copied over to this box and it took me several hours. I guess the redundancy of copying the same files into two drives will do this and is expected when running a RAID1 setup.
Hardware has a nice finish, very light and quiet. There are three fan modes to choose from. The front bezel comes off easy. Just four screws for your 3.5" drives into the carriage and you're set.
As for the previous reviewer, I had no issues restarting/shutting down the box via the web interface. DSM has so many options, I've been spoiled and can't find myself using another NAS.
Now for the one thing that has been bugging me so far: Hibernation.
I have tried different hibernation time frames (from 20 minutes to an hour of inactivity). The hibernation feature works, BUT the box wakes up randomly on its own and then hibernates back again. This will repeat itself. I have been working with Synology tech support on this issue and it's still unresolved. Yes, I have ran the NAS unplugged from the network to ensure there are no computers waking it from sleep. I have also ran the hibernation debug tool per tech support's instructions and still haven't really narrowed it down to what could be waking up the box at random intervals. This irritates me because I want it to work perfect. I have tried the Synology forums as well, but little help that has been. There are no other tasks enabled that would wake it up either, so it's kinda confusing and irritating. I could disable hibernation altogether, but that's not really how I want my setup to run and not good for the drives in the long run. For this, I have rated this 3/5 stars. I hope to fix this issue soon and perhaps it's just a software issue that Synology can address with a future DSM release. If you visit the Synology forums, hibernation appears to be an issue with many of the products, so maybe it is something to do with the OS.
Worth it? If hibernation was no issue, absolutely. The software has so many options, there's nothing not to like about it. Hardware is very nice too. Just this one quirk I'm having. I'd do a little more research before dropping this much money on this item.
***** 4/2/2011 UPDATE *****
This deserves 5 stars now. The above issue with the hibernation has been addressed with the latest DSM Software (3.1-1604).
Excellent NAS! . This is my first NAS box ever owned. I read a lot of positive reviews about Synology overall and specially about the DS211+ prior to taking the plunge and buying this. I ran it with a pair of Hitachi 3TB drives (0S03086). No compatibility issues, as far as I'm concerned. Setup was fairly easy with the DS Assistant and the Wizard, I had a RAID1 setup in a matter of minutes. The documentation is pretty good. The CD that comes with it has everything you'll need, but it can be somewhat disorganized (I ran it off a Mac, not sure if the autorun is a lot better on a Windows machine). You're better off just grabbing the files off the Synology website. These files are: (1) The latest DSM OS software, (2) DS Assistant either the Windows, Mac or Linux version depending on your environment, (3) DSM User Manual and finally (4) Setup Guide.
Again, it doesn't take much to set it up if you're familiar with computers and if you're looking at this particular item, chances are you are.
This being my first NAS setup, I can't really compare and comment on its performance and speed in comparison to other products. I had about 80GB's of storage on my external drive that I copied over to this box and it took me several hours. I guess the redundancy of copying the same files into two drives will do this and is expected when running a RAID1 setup.
Hardware has a nice finish, very light and quiet. There are three fan modes to choose from. The front bezel comes off easy. Just four screws for your 3.5" drives into the carriage and you're set.
As for the previous reviewer, I had no issues restarting/shutting down the box via the web interface. DSM has so many options, I've been spoiled and can't find myself using another NAS.
Now for the one thing that has been bugging me so far: Hibernation.
I have tried different hibernation time frames (from 20 minutes to an hour of inactivity). The hibernation feature works, BUT the box wakes up randomly on its own and then hibernates back again. This will repeat itself. I have been working with Synology tech support on this issue and it's still unresolved. Yes, I have ran the NAS unplugged from the network to ensure there are no computers waking it from sleep. I have also ran the hibernation debug tool per tech support's instructions and still haven't really narrowed it down to what could be waking up the box at random intervals. This irritates me because I want it to work perfect. I have tried the Synology forums as well, but little help that has been. There are no other tasks enabled that would wake it up either, so it's kinda confusing and irritating. I could disable hibernation altogether, but that's not really how I want my setup to run and not good for the drives in the long run. For this, I have rated this 3/5 stars. I hope to fix this issue soon and perhaps it's just a software issue that Synology can address with a future DSM release. If you visit the Synology forums, hibernation appears to be an issue with many of the products, so maybe it is something to do with the OS.
Worth it? If hibernation was no issue, absolutely. The software has so many options, there's nothing not to like about it. Hardware is very nice too. Just this one quirk I'm having. I'd do a little more research before dropping this much money on this item.
***** 4/2/2011 UPDATE *****
This deserves 5 stars now. The above issue with the hibernation has been addressed with the latest DSM Software (3.1-1604).
Synology DiskStation 2-Bay 2 TB (2x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS211+ 2100 (Black) Reviews
Heaven . OK, so this unit is probably overkill for a home network. But I have to tell you ... I LOVE THIS THING. We retired roughly 4-5 older drives filled with hundreds of gigs of music, pictures and movies and consolidated to this NAS. We've done everything we can to stress it. Turned on XBOXs to stream movies, kicked off multiple enormous file copies, opened media players to stream music ... all at the same time. The device doesn't even seemed stressed. It's unreal. Of course, it is pricy, so the performance is to be expected.The software that ships with the device is very well done. It lets you do pretty much anything a home or small business would want ... media server, file server, security cameras, backup server, you name it. Very feature rich and pretty simple to configure.I only have one major complaint. It takes FOREVER to load massive amounts of data onto the disks. I attached 3 USB drives to the device to copy content to the NAS. I only got roughly 3MB/sec transfer speeds per device. YIKES!!! It took 2 days to copy our movie library. Found that odd. I expected a lightening fast USB transfer speed. It's faster to transfer via a fast ethernet network than via USB.Other than that, heaven. This little thing rocks.BTW, I installed two "Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Desktop Hard Drive - WD2002FAEX" drives that I bought from Amazon. They work like champs. They are crazy fast with this device.
Heaven . OK, so this unit is probably overkill for a home network. But I have to tell you ... I LOVE THIS THING. We retired roughly 4-5 older drives filled with hundreds of gigs of music, pictures and movies and consolidated to this NAS. We've done everything we can to stress it. Turned on XBOXs to stream movies, kicked off multiple enormous file copies, opened media players to stream music ... all at the same time. The device doesn't even seemed stressed. It's unreal. Of course, it is pricy, so the performance is to be expected.The software that ships with the device is very well done. It lets you do pretty much anything a home or small business would want ... media server, file server, security cameras, backup server, you name it. Very feature rich and pretty simple to configure.I only have one major complaint. It takes FOREVER to load massive amounts of data onto the disks. I attached 3 USB drives to the device to copy content to the NAS. I only got roughly 3MB/sec transfer speeds per device. YIKES!!! It took 2 days to copy our movie library. Found that odd. I expected a lightening fast USB transfer speed. It's faster to transfer via a fast ethernet network than via USB.Other than that, heaven. This little thing rocks.BTW, I installed two "Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Desktop Hard Drive - WD2002FAEX" drives that I bought from Amazon. They work like champs. They are crazy fast with this device.
Synology DiskStation 2-Bay 2 TB (2x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS211+ 2100 (Black) Opinions
Could not be happier -- mostly . This is my 2nd NAS (but first Synology product). My previous NAS was a Netgear ReadyNAS and while that device did accomplish the basic job of being a network attached storage device, that's about all it was good for, however, it was very slow (I was getting maybe 11-13MB/sec copy speeds).On the other hand, after doing a ton of research and trying to decide between QNAP and Synology, I pulled the trigger and went with the DS211+. I could not be more satisfied. Storing data on the network is just a fraction of what this thing can do. Not only are all my photos, MP3's and other critical data now safely stored across both 2TB drives (mirrored), but the copy speeds are much improved (40-50MB/sec).I installed DSM 3.2 right off the bat and in doing so, the 2TB drives were formatted and ready to use within 10-15 minutes (initial syncing between drives took a few hours but that ran in the background). I installed two Western Digital AV-GP 2 TB SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Hard Drive - WD20EURS and they work just fine.One thing I really love is the ability to add 3rd party applications (or "packages"). One is called "SABnzbd" which downloads and reassembles files from usenet servers. The other two are "Couch Potato" and "SickBeard". Google them to find out what they do.Not only can I access my files and manage the NAS from my office, but there are several Android apps installed on my phone that allow me to do the same. I can even stream music from the NAS to my phone using their free "DS Audio" Android app. It quite a neat/weird/liberating feeling knowing that I can play any song in my personal MP3 library from anywhere there's a cell signal.As for the "mostly" part of my review title, the only thing I can really say is a "con" is the price. It's a tad expensive, but I look at it as the BMW or Lexus of NAS devices. Pay more, get more.In the end, this device is rock solid, incredibly quiet (my ReadyNAS was quite noisy in comparison), feature-rich, and powerful. I strongly suggest you visit the Synology corporate website and user forum to get more info.Highly recommended!
Could not be happier -- mostly . This is my 2nd NAS (but first Synology product). My previous NAS was a Netgear ReadyNAS and while that device did accomplish the basic job of being a network attached storage device, that's about all it was good for, however, it was very slow (I was getting maybe 11-13MB/sec copy speeds).On the other hand, after doing a ton of research and trying to decide between QNAP and Synology, I pulled the trigger and went with the DS211+. I could not be more satisfied. Storing data on the network is just a fraction of what this thing can do. Not only are all my photos, MP3's and other critical data now safely stored across both 2TB drives (mirrored), but the copy speeds are much improved (40-50MB/sec).I installed DSM 3.2 right off the bat and in doing so, the 2TB drives were formatted and ready to use within 10-15 minutes (initial syncing between drives took a few hours but that ran in the background). I installed two Western Digital AV-GP 2 TB SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Hard Drive - WD20EURS and they work just fine.One thing I really love is the ability to add 3rd party applications (or "packages"). One is called "SABnzbd" which downloads and reassembles files from usenet servers. The other two are "Couch Potato" and "SickBeard". Google them to find out what they do.Not only can I access my files and manage the NAS from my office, but there are several Android apps installed on my phone that allow me to do the same. I can even stream music from the NAS to my phone using their free "DS Audio" Android app. It quite a neat/weird/liberating feeling knowing that I can play any song in my personal MP3 library from anywhere there's a cell signal.As for the "mostly" part of my review title, the only thing I can really say is a "con" is the price. It's a tad expensive, but I look at it as the BMW or Lexus of NAS devices. Pay more, get more.In the end, this device is rock solid, incredibly quiet (my ReadyNAS was quite noisy in comparison), feature-rich, and powerful. I strongly suggest you visit the Synology corporate website and user forum to get more info.Highly recommended!
Perfect! . Exactly what I was looking for. I wish I would have purchased one of these much sooner.Setup was fairly easy. Very intuitive, especially if you have any computer and networking background. For home use, I think the 2-bay device is the way to go, unless you really need more than 3 TB of storage space. I like the low amount of power it uses and it goes to sleep when not in use. I also have it set to shut down at night and automatically turns itself on in the morning.I have multiple computers in my home and it does not matter which computer I log onto, all my files are centrally located. Same download folder, documents folder, Outlook .pst file, photos, financial data file, all in the same folder for each computer. Pros: Very quiet, low power usage, affordable, reliable (so far)Cons: Initial setup with 3TB HDD in a RAID configuration takes a long time. I can't really fault the device however, as formatting just takes a long time to complete.
Synology NAS . Great product! Everyone should have this for peace of mind. I have the Synology connected to a PC - Windows and Apple Mini and it handles files between them effortlessly. I would recommend the WD Black 1.5TB hard drives just for their 5 year warranty. Also consider some sort of UPS if for nothing else than the conditioned power.
3rd Synology Diskstation...love it! . Previously owned Synology Diskstations DS106e and DS207+. I was disappointed I couldn't upgrade to DSM 3.2 on the DS207+ so I ordered a DS211+ with 2- Hitachi Deskstar 3 TB SATA drives. It does everything I require and much faster than the previous units. Love Synology and Amazon. Next day delivery allowed me to play with my new toy the next morning.
Cons Review
Compatibility . Check the compatibility lists! I listened to tech support at company x who said BOSCH NDC 255 P cameras should work on this product since it supports ISCSI, this is not the case. The Synology DS211+ uses a form of Linux, BOSCH NDC-255-P requires windows storage server 2008 ISCSI implementation. The device also had issues when trying to reboot or shutdown, meaning it wouldn't without pulling the plug. I also didn't like the fact that I needed to install DSM on the harddrives. not using an imbedded OS doesn't appeal to me. I certainly and currently don't keep my DATA on the same hardrive as my OS why would I do this on a NAS, seems antiquated. Would I buy this for my own use, probably not after playing with it, however it's not a bad product, just over priced and has some oddities that I can't overlook.
Product Image
Feature Synology DiskStation 2-Bay 2 TB (2x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS211+ 2100 (Black)
- 108MB/sec Reading, 55MB/sec Writing
- Windows ADS and ACL support
- Complete Backup Solutions
- 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption Engine
- Hot Swappable Hard Drives
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Product Details
EAN : 0812890010850UPC : 812890010850
Brand : Synology
Color : Black
Weight : 9 pounds
Height : 12 inches
Length : 15 inches
Width : 13 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Synology America Corp
Model : DS211+ 2100
Publisher : Synology America Corp
Size : 2 TB (2 x 1TB)
Studio : Synology America Corp
Where To Buy
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