Synology DS416 4-bay NAS Review

Introduction I've taken a look at quite a few 2-bay NAS units lately and while they already allow for an impressive 16TB raw storage, that might not be enough for everyone. Today I'm taking Synology's DiskStation DS416, a 4-bay feature-rich and high-performance NAS server, for a spin on my test bench. The Synology DiskStation DS416 is built around an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-212 32-bit dual-core CPU with 1.4GHz, floating point unit, and hardware encryption engine. The CPU is backed by 1GB DDR3 memory that sadly isn't upgradable. The DS416 is a full-fledged NAS that comes with everything you'd want from a performance system. It features dual Gigabit Ethernet network that supports all types of failover and link aggregation, allowing you to keep your system connected under heavier load or when one connection should fail. The DS416 also features three USB 3.0 ports where one of them is conveniently placed on the front of the NAS for easy access. With powerful hardware like that, the DS416 is able to deliver an average reading and writing speeds of 220 MB/s and 140 MB/s respectively while encrypted file transfers come in at an evenly impressive 146 MB/s reading and 65 MB/s writing. Those figures naturally depend on what hard disk drives you use as well as the method of data access and your network setup. The drive bays feature a convenient tool-free drive installation for 3.5-inch drives where as you still need screws to mount 2.5-inch drives. The latter is a rare occurrence anyway and shouldn't be anything to bother anyone. The drive bays are covered by a removable front plate that gives the NAS a cleaner overall look by hiding away the drives. The drive bays aren't the only thing that you can swap out in this NAS, the fans are also redundant. The DS416 incorporates a passive cooling design on the actual components and only uses two 92mm fans on the rear to keep everything at an optimal temperature. When the system detects a fan failure, the built-in redundancy mechanism ensures continuous operation until the replacement fan arrives. The DS416 is naturally powered by DiskStation Manager (DSM), the award-winning operating system from Synology. It has a beautiful and functional user interface and all the features you will need at home or in a small to medium-sized business. It offers all the network protocols you'd want including SMB2, AFP, NFS, WebDAV, and FTP. Server admins don't need to worry about maintaining two set of user credentials either as the DS416 comes with both Windows AD and LDAP integration. An added convenience factor is the network recycle bin that is featured on AFP, CIFS, File Station, and WebDAV. All files deleted in a shared folder will be automatically moved into the Recycle Bin instead of being destroyed. The DS416 isn't just an all in one server when it comes to features, it also has the power to handle it. You can easily turn your DS416 into a mail server with webmail interface, set up a VPN server connect as a VPN client, create a print server for USB printers and much more such as Radius server, Proxy server, and Syslog server features. Creating your own personal yet comprehensive cloud solutions is no problem either with the DS416 thanks to the Cloud Station package.It is the perfect package to sync files across multiple devices, perform offline edits and later synced them, and keep up to 32 historical versions for easy restoration. You also got all the normal backup features that you'll want such as 2-way sync between different DiskSations as well as support for commercial cloud services such as Glacier Backup and HiDrive Backup. The Synology DiskStation DS416 has a comprehensive security package, starting with AES 256-bit encryption but also more advanced setups like 2-step verification. It also comes with AppArmor that can block malicious programs from accessing unauthorized system resources and you can customize the trust level in the package center to only accept apps from certain publishers. The built-in firewall is another useful feature just as the Denial of Service (DoS) protection. Antivirus can also be downloaded and installed for that extra level of security. Overall, everything you need to keep your data safe from malicious code and people. Synology also offers a row of mobile apps that you can use to easy connection and usage of your NAS from your mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. The apps include DS note, DS audio, DS video, DS photo+, DS cloud, DS file, DS download and DS cam. Feature Highlights Dual-core CPU with hardware encryption engine Dual LAN with failover and link aggregation support Over 221.05MB/s reading, 139.51MB/s writing Effective backup solution for all desktop and mobile devices Front USB 3.0 for fast easy access Hot-swappable & tool-less hard drive tray design Running on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) Packaging and Accessories The Synology DS416 comes in a simple brown package with a sticker for model inside. It has all the relevant features presented as well as an image of the unit that is inside. The rear of the box has a second sticker with some of the hardware highlights. Inside the box, next to the NAS itself, you'll find an AC adapter with power cable for the region where you purchased it, two RJ45 LAN cables, screws for use with 2.5-inch drives, and a Welcome and Quick Installation Guide. Everything you need to get it setup and I like that Synology included two LAN cables so users can get port trunking up and running right away. A closer look It is time to take a closer look at this beautiful 4-bay DS416 NAS. Synology wrapped the glossy front plate with a protective film to make double sure that it arrives at your home looking the way it should. A minor thing, but one that can make a difference. Removing the front panel and we see the four push buttons at the top that when pressed will allow you to pull the drive trays out. The drive trays feature an easy-to-install method that doesn't require any tools at all. Just place the hard disk drive inside the drive tray and push the sides back on. Done, now you can insert the drives into the NAS. The Synology DS416 was one of the most difficult NAS I have had when it comes to taking it apart. It was clearly not designed for that and there is no real reason why you'll ever need to open it up. The only reason could be to replace a failed fan down the line. But I got it open and we can have a closer look at the hardware inside. The motherboard is very simple with a passive cooled CPU in the middle and everything else spread out over it. The motherboard features two daughter boards where the first is the PCIe to SATA bridge where you'll connect your drives. The bridge card is unspectacular in itself as it doesn't feature much besides the connectors. The second daughterboard is for the rear two USB 3.0 ports. The front port is directly attached to the motherboard. This daughterboard also has the two 3-pin fan connectors as it is conveniently placed just below the fans. In the middle of the board is an EtronTech EJ168 USB 3.0 host controller that controls the two ports on the same board. There is also a hidden eSATA port on this daughterboard, but it there's no case cut-out for it so you can't access it. Whether this is because the CPU's onboard SATA controller doesn't support more, I don't know. I wasn't able to dig up the CPU specifications anywhere, but it will be my best guess. Having a closer look at the motherboard, we see four RAM modules next to the CPU, each 256GB DDR3 memory. There are two Realtek RTL8211DN chips for each of the network connections that are compliant with up to 10Baste-T IEEE 802.3 and supports all the features you'll want. There is another EtronTech EJ168A USB 3.0 host controller on the motherboard, same as the one we saw on the daughterboard, and this one controls the front faced USB 3.0 port. And these are the fans built into the Synology DS416. System Specifications, Features & Power Consumption Hardware Specifications Software Specifications Login Synology's DSM operating system has a very fresh welcome and login screen. It will display the given server name in the middle and show the server's time and date in the top corner. You can also customize the login screen to your liking. Change the colours and upload your own background images. Dashboard The dashboard is one of the best on the NAS market. It reminds a lot more about a full desktop-based operating system than a web interface. You have a taskbar with start button at the top, to speak in windows terms, and a desktop that you can drop links to functions and features onto. You can multi-task in it, minimize, and maximize windows. DSM also supports overlay widgets. Power Consumption The chart contains the actual power consumption measured at the PSU connection and while loaded with a maximum amount of drives. Peak, or maximum, power draw will occur during boot times. Setup - Initialization and Storage Options Initialization Setting up a Synology NAS is really simple and the included Quick Start Guide has the few details you'll need to get started., Alternatively, you could also download the Synology Assistant that can help with a lot more than just the initialization. As coincidence will have it, two of the drives I loaded the Synology DS416 with had previously been used in another Synology NAS and as such it offers me easy migration from the old system and to the new. If all disks were fresh or cleaned before use, it would show Initialize instead of Migrate. The option to easy migrate data from an old NAS to a new is great and as you can see below, you got several options in this regard. You can make a clean installation where only your files are kept or a full migration that includes most settings too. On a fresh installation, the screen below would be the first you'll see and this is where we install the operating system. You can let it install the latest version from Synology's web servers or you can provide a local file manually. The overall installation doesn't take long, but how long will depend on your internet speed in case you selected to install DSM from an online location as well as the size and speed of the installed drives. After the installation, you will need to provide a few basic information to the NAS. The name of the device so you easily recognize it in your network neighborhood as well as the administrator username and password. You can optionally choose to share your network location with Synology for easier reach. You're also able to define the update settings for DSM during the initialization. My recommendation is to download and install the latest updates automatically, but the choice is yours. The Synology QuickConnect feature is a simplified DDNS service hosted directly by Synology itself and for their devices. It allows for much easier connection to your NAS when you're away from home and it saves you the hassle of setting up a normal DDNS service. The last thing you'll need to choose during the initialization is whether to install the recommended packages or not. You can always add, remove, and change this later. The packages will be downloaded from the internet, so in case you have a slow connection, you might want to skip this for later. After the installation finished, you'll be greeted with a small guide that explains where the basic functions are located, followed by the popup of the built-in help system. If you didn't choose to install DSM updates automatically, you might want to visit the update feature found in the control panel. Synology releases updates quite frequently and it's always worth it to have the latest features and bug fixes. Storage Options Synology NAS' will set the drives up as a Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), but that might not be what you had in mind. Luckily it's very easy to change and you got all the options on the DS416 that you'll want. The initial Storage Manager page will show an overview of your storage setup, both volumes and iSCSI usage. It will also tell you whether your setup is healthy or not. You can create multiple volumes and Disk groups on the DS416 and which you pick is down to your needs. SHR1 or RAID5 setups are probably the most common for a 4-bay NAS. You can also get a detailed view on all the installed drives as well as their health, run S.M.A.R.T. tests and more. The DS416 comes with support for iSCSI LUNs and Targets. iSCSI is supported on almost any modern operating system and it is a very efficient way to share storage and optimize the distribution. You can create up to 10 iSCSI Targets or LUNs. The Hot Spare function allows you to designate drives to jump in anywhere a drive fail should occur. It is a great addition to the normal RAID functionality for those who need extra security and peace of mind. Setup - Users, Groups, Shares, and File Services Users DSM creates two users by default, the admin user you specified during the initialization and a guest account that is disabled by default. You can create pretty much as many users as you'd like, the DS416 supports up to 2048 accounts. Creating a new user doesn't require you to enter anything but the username and a password that can be generated randomly too. There are more options such as emailing the user about his new account and you can also disallow the user to change his own password. During the user creation, you're also able to assign the new user to groups, specify what shared folders and apps he should have access too, as well as set a disk quota he is allowed to use. The import function allows you to recreate a lot of users with ease and it is a nice feature to have available. There are several advanced settings available for all your users such as password rules, 2-way verification setup, and home directories for users. User Groups User groups are an easy way to maintain control of your users rights with as little effort as possible. For the most part, you'll have the exact same rules set for a lot of your users and why should you set them all individually when you can just set them for all at once. The group creation is a lot like the user creation except that you only have to enter a name and an optional description. The following pages are the same as for the user creation. Once the group is created, you can add and remove users from the group via the Edit Members button at the top. Shared Folders Shared folders are one of the basic cornerstones in a NAS and these are the folders you'll see when you connect to your NAS. Some apps create their own folders for use, but you can create plenty yourself beside them. The DS416 supports up to 256 shared folders. Creating new shares is just as easy as it was to create users. Enter a name and select what drive volume you want it to be created on. That is it, but there are more options available such as network recycle bins and encryption. One the new shared folder is created, the edit function pops up and allows you to set who and what has access to the new share. File Services Windows file service is enabled by default, but you'll need to enable Mac and NFS service yourself should you need them. It is however as easy as selecting a box and applying the settings. DSM also comes with a built-in FTP client and it isn't as scraped as you might think. It has settings for the passive range and external IP detection as well as FXP for a direct server to server transfer and FIPS cryptographic modules. Universal standards such as TFTP and WebDAV are also supported by the DiskStation Manager operating system. Setup - There is more, Add-Ons & External Devices Hardware and Power Synology's DSM has far too many features to show them all, but there are a few more that are worth highlighting such as the Hardware and Power management pages. The power scheduler can help you save on the power bill as well as extend the lifetime of your hardware. After all, why should be NAS be running when you don't need it. You can set the times for internal and external drive hibernation separately on the DS416. There is also support for uninterupted power supply units (UPS). Network The network settings are pretty basic and what you'd expect. You can set a name and manual or automatic address assignment as well as define proxy settings. With two LAN ports available, you can set them up for link aggregation and failover. DSM is pretty smart in this regards and will also let you know when a mode you set isn't valid. For the screenshot below I plugged the two cables out of my smart switch and added one to a normal over-the-counter switch instead. DSM notices this and disables the aggregation until it's valid as well as letting you know about it. Traffic shaping and routing are also possible with the Synology DS416 This is also the place where you change the administration port and enable HTTPS connections. DSM also supports wireless networks and Bluetooth, but that requires additional hardware in form of a USB adapter. External Access It is real easy to get a connection to your NAS from everywhere in the world. Synology has their QuickConnect feature that sets up a secure DDNS service for you with just a few steps. There is also support for traditional DDNS providers for those who wish to continue with what they're already using. The router configuration is a really cool page that allows the NAS to setup port configurations automatically in your router thanks to UPnP. This is a lot easier than having to control two sides of the settings manually. Security There are quite a few security features built directly into the DSM operating system from basic logout timers to automatic blocking on false login attempts and a firewall. External devices The NAS will automatically detect external USB devices that you plug in and mount them for you. Remember to securely eject them before you remove them again, a thing you'll need to enter the admin panel for. You do however not need to go all the way through the control panel, but can just press the small eject icon on the top navigation bar. The NAS can also work as a print server, sharing your USB printers out over the network. Package Center The package center is where you'll find all the extra features you might want. The recommended packages are the ones we also got offered to install during the initialization and they're all highly recommended in their respective fields. I would especially recommend owners to install Note Station and Cloud Station with the accompanying mobile apps. They can make you life a lot easier and more convenient. There are quite a few more packages that you can choose to install from antivirus software over email and VPN servers to Plex server and CMS systems. And much more There is so much more in DSM, such as a pretty good information center that will show you all the relevant information about your NAS There's also the Task Scheduler that allows you to run scripts and function at regular times of your choice. A handy tool for regular tasks. Why do them yourself when the system can do them for you. Testing Method Most of the hardware for NAS testing isn't an important factor when it comes to benchmarks, most of it comes down to the network infrastructure. I will be teaming the two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports on my test bench and connect them to my managed switch. The same will be done with the available LAN ports on the NAS, which should give a great testing environment. As part of the testing, the NAS is connected through a Netgear GS724TPS managed Gigabit switch and then to our test bench to give the best real world setup test that we can and the NAS itself will be packed with Western Digital's latest RED NAS drives. Intel's NASPT software does require us to drop the memory down to 2GB, as using any more would lead to data caching and skew the results. I will be testing the NAS box performance under each of the RAID options that it has available as well just a single drive. Full volume encryption and shared folder encryption will also be tested where available, to check what impact it has on the performance. The USB 3.0 speeds will be measured with our trusted Angelbird SSD2go Pocket drive. Test system: Supermicro C7Z97-OCE Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3 Exceleram EP3001A 2GB PC3-10666 Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Sapphire R7 240 2GB be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C Lian Li PC-T60 Disks in Product: WD RED NAS 6TB Angelbird SSD2go Pocket 512GB Network Setup: Netgear ProSAFE GS724TPS Smart Switch We would like to thank our sponsors for supplying us with the components needed for the test system as well as drives. Software used: With a device of this sort having so many different applications, Intel's NASPT software covers all the bases and also gives us a set of results that we will be able to utilize and give a benchmark against other similar systems in the future. Intel NASPT (Network Attached Storage Performance Toolkit) performs its test by transferring varying sizes and quantities of data to and from the device based on twelve different scenarios. HD Video Playback HD Video playback is a read test, where a single 2 Gb file is read in 256 kB blocks sequentially from the drive. This simulates where a 720p HD video is being watched across the network to a media player on the other end. 2x HD Video Playback 2x HD Video Playback works with exactly the same data set as the first HD Video test, however this time the same content is streamed twice from the NAS box simulating two simultaneous streams being made to external media players. 4x HD Video Playback In the same way that the 2x Video Playback streams to the equivalent of 2 external media players at the same time, the test here doubles that again up to a simulated 4 media players. HD Video Record The HD Video Record test is, as the name suggests, a write test to the NAS box. A single 2 GB file is written to the device in 256 kB blocks sequentially to the disk. HD Playback & Record The HD playback and record test now put the drive under the same single record and playback tests as before, but now at the same time. This will factor for the quick changes needed to switch between reading and writing two large blocks of data across the network to the device. Content Creation For content creation, Intel have simulated access to via video creation applications. This is made up of 98 files with 12 MB reads and 14 MB writes in varying sizes of blocks. The activity is predominantly non-sequential with the majority of access time made up of writing to the drives. There are quiet periods of read/write activity interrupted with busy periods to present a difficult workload on the drives. Office Productivity The office productivity simulation is very similar to the content creation, with a total of 607 files written to and read from the drive. A total of 1.4 GB of data is written to and read from the drive with a close balance between each made - the majority of write access is made up of 1 kB writes. File Copy To NAS This test quite simply put copies a single large file from the test system to the NAS box to show how well the system can sustain a single write speed. The 1.4 GB file is copied to the drive and written in 64 kB blocks. File Copy From NAS File copy from the NAS works in exactly the same way as the copy test, but it works in the opposite direction. The single 1.4 GB file is read off the NAS in 64 kB blocks. Directory Copy To NAS In the directory copy to NAS test, a directory tree representing that of a typical commercially available office suite is copied to the NAS to trace the bulk copy of a complex directory. A total of 2833 files making up 247 MB are moved, but the file sizes vary considerably with an average size of 41.4 kB. Due to the varying sizes of the files, only around 50% of the writes are sequential. Directory Copy From NAS In the same way that the file copy from NAS traces the same file back across to the test system, the directory copy from NAS does exactly the same but to the entire directory that it copied across previously. Photo Album Last of all is a test based around a photo album. When a photo album is viewed on-screen, only the images that you see are loaded from the drive and so when you scroll through the album, the new images have to be fetched and read. The album here contains 169 photos with varying file sizes based on the size, quality, and detail in the image. Reading the files in a photo album puts an unusual read load upon the drive as the metadata is read, a thumbnail constructed and finally the image viewed. Encryption Security is an ever-growing concern and encryption is a great step to achieve this. This page will provide a comparison between encrypted data and a normal single drive and what impact it will have on the performance. Not all NAS feature Full volume and Shared Folder encryption, but I will test what is available. Folder Encryption iSCSI vs. Shared Folder I've also started to include an iSCSI comparison whenever it is available. Windows 7 and forward all have iSCSI initiators built in and the setup only takes a few clicks on your NAS and PCs. It is a convenient and smart way to share storage over your network and its popularity is ever growing. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the Synology DiskStation DS416 can be had at NewEgg for $527.99, at Scan Computers for £341.28, or starting from €429.64 trough Geizhals. Overview Let us start out by talking a little bit about the design. The Synology DS416 is as square a box as it can be, yet it is stylish designed with round corners and glossy front plate that hides the drive bays away. The sides feature Synology's trademark logo-vents in order to provide better air intake and cooling for the components and the front plate also has openings on 3 sides for air intake. You get dedicated, bright, and easy to see LEDs for power and status as well as each of the four drives, but no dedicated LEDs for the USB access or LAN connections. The airflow is taken care of by two 92mm fans on the rear. There isn't an abundance on ports or connection on the DS416, but there is what you need. We find a front faced USB 3.0 port and two more USB 3.0 ports on the rear of the NAS where the two Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports also are. Other than that it only features a power connector and a Kensington lock. The noise level is low and I never really noticed it running during my benchmarks and testing, and that is no surprise with a rating of just 20.2dBA. It is also an eco-friendly NAS with a low power consumption and plenty of power saving features such as customizable drive hibernation times and on/off schedules. The performance was pretty good too for a system like this and that also goes for encrypted shares and iSCSI LUNs. The CPU is powerful enough to drive these functions aided by its hardware acceleration features for encryption and the floating point unit. Overall, a solid NAS that will perform as it should and offer plenty of features. Pros: Dual LAN for Link Aggregation and Trunking Dual-core CPU and 1GB RAM 256-bit AES Encryption Up to 10 iSCSI LUNs and Targets Energy efficient Good performance DSM Operating System Cons: No eSATA port No one-touch copy button Memory not upgradeable "The Synology DS416 is a NAS that offers all the features you want on a solid hardware platform with built-in acceleration features. You can't do much wrong by getting one of these." Thank You Synology for providing us with this review sample.

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iSCSI vs. Shared Folder

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