Need iSCSI NAS/SAN advice. QNAP vs. Thecus

[kentiler]

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating these 2 products to be used for virtual server drives - tier 1. QNAP TS-859U-RP+ and the Thecus N12000.

From the specs I've seen, the Thecus is higher performing - but of course it has 12 drives instead of 8, more memory, and more processing.

As a test, I tried calling both companies support lines this morning at 11:30am EST, which is 8:30am PST, but I couldn't get through to talk to anyone either place, and the QNAP support mailbox was full so I couldn't even leave a message.

The Thecus has a 5 year warranty where the QNAP has 2 years, but if you can't get through to support, who cares about the warranty!

The budget is around $5K. Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations about these or other products?

Thank you!

--Kent

 

[jeroly]

I can't speak about those products in particular, but I'll put in my 2 cents' worth for Synology's products. I got the 1511+ (5 drive bays, expandable to 15) and I really couldn't be happier. It supports iSCSI for virtual server support, as well as RAID 10 and the usual suspects like RAID 1,0,5,6, etc. It has extensive support for external access through SSH, https, as well as IOS and Android apps. It also provides a VPN server which supports both pptp and OpenVPN protocols. It supports both local and network backup (the latter through rsync -either as client or server), as well as 'Time Backup' with easy snapshot management. It has a DLNA server that I'm using for my video needs. It provides email notifications for error conditions and events.

You can also use it as a web server host, as well as for hosting your email as it has a built-in SMTP server. As it's really just running a version of linux under the 'DSM operating system' hood, you can do things like install Drupal on it. I'm not using the SMTP, but did test out the web server a bit. It also has a DDNS client that I use.

It's not cheap - around $800 without discs, but the alternatives you mentioned are, I believe, in the same ballpark if not more expensive. They're also actively working on improving the NAS's OS - I've gotten two updates since it shipped at the end of June. I had some issues at first with VPN over the internet but that turned out to be an issue with my network configuration rather than the NAS box.

I'd put it up near the top of the list of my satisfaction with the various gizmos I've bought over the years - it seems to just work and does what I want it to do.

 

[mark2010hall]

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating these 2 products to be used for virtual server drives - tier 1. QNAP TS-859U-RP+ and the Thecus N12000.

From the specs I've seen, the Thecus is higher performing - but of course it has 12 drives instead of 8, more memory, and more processing.

As a test, I tried calling both companies support lines this morning at 11:30am EST, which is 8:30am PST, but I couldn't get through to talk to anyone either place, and the QNAP support mailbox was full so I couldn't even leave a message.

The Thecus has a 5 year warranty where the QNAP has 2 years, but if you can't get through to support, who cares about the warranty!

The budget is around $5K. Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations about these or other products?

Thank you!

--Kent

Hi Kent,

You can get good deal in $5K, if you are still looking for other options then you can consult with ASG, they provide storage and data management solutions. For more details visit http://www.virtual.com/

 

[kentiler]

Hi Kent,

You can get good deal in $5K, if you are still looking for other options then you can consult with ASG, they provide storage and data management solutions. For more details visit http://www.virtual.com/

So what do you recommend from that site? The N12000 is the one I'm planning on going with. It offers HA if I buy a 2nd one, and we're planning on putting in 12 2TB Seagate Enterprise Drives, running RAID 50 with 1 hot spare.

--Kent