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  Origin Storage 09:19 on 13/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Data Locker ( 19 ), DataLocker 3 ( 14 ), DL3 ( 2 )   

  Dat­aLock­er: Great Da­ta Se­cu­ri­ty (At A Price) 

  

  One of the best parts about the con­stant­ly falling price of mem­o­ry has been an in­creas­ing ubiq­ui­ty. Any­one can pick up a few gi­ga­bytes of portable stor­age on the cheap, and eas­i­ly grab those mu­sic files or movies or doc­u­ments or pho­tographs to eas­i­ly share them across com­put­ers. All it takes is a thumb drive, or a portable hard drive, and you can have copies of your stuff ready at hand.

  Un­less you lose it, or it’s stolen. In which case, un­less you’ve been us­ing some se­ri­ous tools, you might as well con­sid­er your da­ta com­pro­mised. If it’s just your va­ca­tion pho­tos, that’s prob­a­bly not a big deal. But if it’s sen­si­tive in­for­ma­tion from your com­pa­ny- pre­sen­ta­tions or re­ports, for ex­am­ple- then the prob­lem is po­ten­tial­ly much larg­er. And that’s where Dat­aLock­er comes in, of­fer­ing so­lu­tions both op­ti­cal and mag­net­ic, in the form of the DL3 500GB portable hard drive and their Se­cure­Disk writable CD me­dia.

  The CDs them­selves seem pret­ty nor­mal- un­til you pop in the disk and take a look at the soft­ware in­clud­ed for burn­ing. Of­fer­ing AES 256 bit en­cryp­tion, you sim­ply choose a pass­word, and can se­lect whether to close the disk and fi­nal­ize the burn or leave any re­main­ing room open. No ad­di­tion­al soft­ware is re­quired, and no in­stal­la­tion need­ed, as ev­ery­thing is in­clud­ed on­board. One down­side, though, is that the discs on­ly work on PCs; Macs are un­sup­port­ed at this time (Lin­ux al­so ap­pears to be un­sup­port­ed). As long as you don’t write the pass­word on the disk it­self, you can pass it to any col­league or friend and rest at ease know­ing that the disks are well-nigh un­break­able. The idea is sound, and the price isn’t too bad- $3 for a CD, a bit more for a DVD, and us­ing the sys­tem is su­per-sim­ple.

  But if 5GB isn’t enough stor­age for you, Dat­aLock­er al­so of­fers rugged, portable, sexy hard drives in ei­ther 500GB or 1TB ca­pac­i­ties. And they sup­port USB 3.0 as well, mak­ing them quite fast. Self-en­crypt­ing, there again isn’t any soft­ware or drivers need­ed to use the DL3, and we loved the way the alu­minum body looked and felt. This is a drive that def­i­nite­ly stands out, with a very nifty, fu­tur­is­tic LCD touch­screen built in­to the drive it­self. You’ll need to in­put your pass­code to un­lock the da­ta, and there are quite a few fea­tures that set it above oth­er com­peti­tors. For in­stance, you can have the da­ta “self-de­struct” if there are too many in­cor­rect at­tempts. You can have the key­pad re-or­der the lay­out ran­dom­ly to avoid fin­ger­print lift­ing. They’ve thought of most ev­ery­thing- the on­ly oth­er fea­ture we might’ve liked to see is the abil­i­ty to ‘trace’ where it is plugged in if an in­ter­net con­nec­tion is avail­able, of­fer­ing some sort of re­mote func­tion­al­i­ty.

  This isn’t a sol­id state drive (though they do of­fer some), and it isn’t the best op­tion for those who sim­ply need some in­ex­pen­sive stor­age. In­stead, this is a se­ri­ous op­tion for those con­cerned with se­cu­ri­ty, whether for gov­ern­ment, fi­nan­cial, or med­i­cal ap­pli­ca­tions- or for those who sim­ply want pry­ing eyes kept firm­ly away from their da­ta. At $379 list price for the 500GB mod­el, it’s pricey, but you’re pay­ing a rea­son­able pre­mi­um for a touch­screen on your hard drive, even with­out the oth­er fea­tures. It’s solid­ly built, looks good, though did run a bit warm- we’re def­i­nite­ly us­ing the DL3 the next time we have sen­si­tive files to trans­port.

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  Origin Storage 17:12 on 27/01/2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: PC Pro Recommended ( 2 ), Thecus ( 52 ), Thecus N8900 ( 3 )   

  Thecus N8900 Review – PC Pro 

  Intel’s Atom has outgrown its usefulness in the business NAS appliance market, with manufacturers moving to more powerful Core i3 processors. Qnap set the ball rolling last month with the A-Listed TS-879, and now Thecus joins in with the N8900.

  Along with a fast 3.3GHz Core i3-2120 processor, it has 8GB of DDR3 memory and supports 6Gbits/sec SATA III hard disks. Supplied to us by Origin Storage, our review system had eight 3TB Hitachi SATA III drives, which looks good for the price.

  Thecus’s Setup Wizard provides quick access to the main web interface, where you start by creating your RAID arrays. If you want a single 24TB array, select XFS, as EXT4 only supports 16TB.

  We came across an annoying problem at this stage: the RAID wizard provides a slider bar to set the percentage of the array to be kept back for iSCSI targets, but this refused to move. After talking to Origin’s helpful support, it transpired that Thecus has changed the way arrays are created, but not updated the management interface or its confusing and poorly translated manual.

  The upshot is you don’t need to set aside space for iSCSI targets anymore. The N8900 uses the same method that Qnap and Synology have always adhered to, where targets are simply created within the chosen array.

  We also had problems setting up the N8900 for 10GbE testing. The review system came with a dual-port Emulex card, but we found this isn’t supported. The card is hard-set to use a PCI Express x8 slot, but the only available slot is x4.

  Fortunately, our testing kit includes dual-port Intel 10GbE cards that worked fine, and the N8900 proceeded to deliver superb performance. With a direct connection to a Dell R515 server equipped with a 10GbE Emulex card, we saw Iometer return a raw read speed for a mapped share of 540MB/sec.

  We then direct-attached a Broadberry dual-Opteron 4100 server to the second port, and with Iometer running on both systems we recorded a cumulative raw read throughput of 1,016MB/sec. Real world copies using drag and drop were also swift, with a 2.52GB video clip returning 287MB/sec for both read and write operations.

  IP SAN performance is excellent as well, with a 100GB target assigned to the Dell server delivering a raw read speed of 112MB/sec over Gigabit. Swapping over to 10GbE saw Iometer report a huge read speed of 780MB/sec, with drag-and-drop file copies returning to 500MB/sec.

  Business backup options aren’t as good as those from Qnap or Synology, with no cloud features or support for hosted services such as Amazon’s S3. The single-user copy of Acronis True Image Personal is of limited value as it doesn’t support Windows Server, and you have to upgrade to get features such as scheduling, disk cloning and incremental backups.

  The N8900 is easily the fastest 2U rack NAS appliance we’ve tested, and the 24TB model is excellent value. It can also be upgraded with a selection of freely available modules, but we can’t help thinking Thecus should have sorted out the web interface and user manual before rushing it to market.

  Read more: Thecus N8900 review | Storage appliances | Enterprise | Reviews | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/storage-appliances/372421/thecus-n8900#ixzz1kgAgdEdA

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  Origin Storage 10:44 on 12/10/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Origin Storage ( 42 ), Thecus N5200XXX ( 2 )   

  IT Pro – Thecus N5200XXX Review 

  The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.

  
  

  Thecus has been busy upgrading its higher-end rack mounted NAS appliances, but with the launch of the XXX family the company finally turns its attention to its desktop products. The five-bay N5200XXX brings some much needed improvements to its predecessor, the N5200Pro.

  Thecus catches up with vendors such as QNap, Synology and Netgear as the N5200XXX now has a 1.8GHz Atom D525 processor partnered with 1GB of DDR3 memory. Other physical changes aren’t as significant – the USB port count increased from three to five.

  However, unlike theQNap TS-559 Pro II, none of these are of the USB3 variety. Another point to consider is that although the N5200XXX can handle 3TB SATA drives, it doesn’t support new SATA3 models whereas the TS-559 Pro II does.

  The front panel hasn’t changed at all with a backlit LCD display providing system, network and disk status information and a keypad below allowing you to carry out basic configuration. Chassis cooling is handled by a large fan at the rear and we found that although noise levels are low, it’s not totally silent. In a busy office environment the appliance won’t be heard, but in a quiet room it will be noticeable.

  

  The ports on the rear of the Thecus N5200XXX.

  The review system was supplied to us by Origin Storage and came with five 1TB WD GreenPower SATA2 hard disks. Costing £648 ex VAT, this is superb value. A diskless model costs just £456 whilst a 15TB version costs £1,268.

  Installation is swift as Thecus’ Setup Wizard locates the appliance and provides quick access to the main web interface. The interface isn’t quite as slick as QNap’s or Synology’s, but is still very easy to use.

  There’s a good choice of RAID arrays with support for JBODs, mirrors, stripes, RAID 5 or dual-disk redundant RAID 6. For testing we created a five-disk RAID 5 array which took around six hours to build. However, after the initial formatting process, the array was made available for use after about twenty minutes.

  The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.

  The appliance supports iSCSI targets but prior to RAID array creation, you must decide how much space you want to keep aside for these. Target creation is simple and iSCSI thin provisioning is supported so you can create targets that only use a small amount of space on the appliance but appear much larger to the host. As more data is stored on the target, the appliance dynamically allocates extra space to it.

  

  IP SAN support extends to thinly provisioned iSCSI targets for better storage usage.

  For workstation backup Thecus includes a single-user copy of Acronis True Image Personal which does not support Windows Server. It takes manual backups of files and folders or entire drives as images to the appliance and can create a bootable disaster recovery disk. However, this is a heavily stripped down version so if you want job scheduling, disk cloning, incremental backups and more you must upgrade.

  Other backup options include support for Rsync where the appliance acts as a target for other appliances. A free add-on module allows it to replicate to other targets and another enables scheduled backups to locally connected USB and eSATA devices. The appliance’s operating system is also protected by Thecus’ dual-DOMs. The second DOM automatically maintains a backup copy which is called upon if the primary one fails and you can schedule regular backups too.

  Many vendors are adding cloud-based services to their appliances but Thecus isn’t one of them. So far, the best example we’ve seen of this feature is QNap’s MyCloudNAS service which allows you to use the appliance to provide your own secure cloud backup, multimedia and file sharing services to remote workers.

  The N5200XXX delivered respectable results in our performance tests. Using a Broadberry dual Opteron 4162-equipped rack server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip returned read and write speeds of 89MB/s and 86MB/s. Our 17.4GB collection of 10,500 files was also handled well with this folder copied to the appliance at a rate of 60MB/s.

  The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.

  The FileZilla FTP client reported averages of 99MB/s and 92MB/s for downloads and uploads. IP SAN performance is also good with the Iometer utility reporting a top raw read speed over Gigabit of 109MB/s for a 75GB target.

  The appliance’s capabilities can be upgraded with a good range of freely available software modules.

  The appliance’s capabilities can be upgraded with a good range of freely available software modules. The IP camera module supports up to five cameras and provides basic surveillance features. However, it’s not as good as the equivalent features on QNap or Synology appliances as you can’t view live feeds or enable motion detection and it can only take scheduled snapshots at intervals of between one and sixty seconds.

  The download station module can be used to retrieve remote files via BitTorrent, HTTP, FTP or eMule and home users will like the new Piczza module which provides a handy remote web photo server for organising galleries, sharing pictures and adding Google Maps links to show where they were taken.

  The N5200XXX delivers plenty of NAS and IP SAN storage features along with some serious performance improvements over its predecessor. It’s very good value although if you can afford it, QNap’s TS-559 Pro II is superior as it offers far more features, supports the latest SATA3 hard disks and is slightly faster.

  
  

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  Origin Storage 14:35 on 14/09/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Data Locker ( 19 ), DataLocker 3 ( 14 ), DL3 ( 2 ), FIPS140-2 ( 2 ), hardware encryption   

  Macworld – DL3 Review 

  A secure – if expensive – way of protecting important data

  Cliff Joseph

  Portable hard disks are widely available and very affordable these days. The only disadvantage with portable drives is the increased risk of loss or theft when you’re on the move. If you need extra security features to protect your data, and you don’t mind paying quite a bit extra for that protection, you might want to consider the DataLocker DL3 from Origin Storage.

  At first glance the DataLocker DL3 looks much like any other conventional portable hard Drive. It’s solidly built, with a brushed aluminium casing that will sit nicely alongside a MacBook. Origin says the drive is both ‘shock and drop resistant’, and a detachable rubber casing is included for additional protection too.

  Closer inspection reveals that the DataLocker 3 also has a small LCD display on the front panel. The screen turns on when you plug the drive into a Mac or PC, and displays a touch-sensitive numeric keypad so you can enter the password. The drive uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect your files, and without the correct password it will not connect to your computer, ensuring that no unauthorised users can gain access to your files. There’s even a ‘self-destruct’ option that instructs the DataLocker to delete files after a number of incorrect attempts to enter the password.

  We tested the 320GB model, and did have one slight problem at first. The drive is supplied with an initial default password, and when you plug it in for the first time you are prompted to create a password of your own. We weren’t able to do this, and it took a phone call to Origin’s technical support line to inform us that the new password has to contain a specific number of characters. Apart from that, the drive worked flawlessly.

  

  Enter the correct password on the touchscreen keypad to access those important files

  

  • Manufacturer: Origin Storage
  • Manufacturer: Origin Storage
  • Pros: Secure password-protected hard drive; rugged construction
  • Cons: Poor documentation; very expensive
  • Price: £278.40 320GB; £321.60 640GB; £355.20 1TB
  • Star rating:

  Macworld Buying Advice

  The manual could have done a better job of explaining how to create your new password, but the DataLocker does provide a very secure means of protecting your important files if the drive gets lost when you’re away from your office. That extra security comes with a premium price, but it may well be worth it if you need to protect commercially sensitive data.

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  Origin Storage 09:06 on 07/09/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Thecus ( 52 ), Thecus N22200XXX   

  OverclockersOnline Approves the Thecus® N2200XXX 

  Overclockersonline has spent an amazing amount of time reviewing NAS and was well prepared to take a look at the Thecus N2200XXX. With a barrage of speed tests and thorough analysis of features and the UI, they came away impressed on many levels and spent 14 pages giving this performance 2-bay NAS from Thecus a great review.

  This NAS gets great performance out of some great hardware: “The N2200XXX is geared towards individuals and certainly brings some outstanding performance to the table…With a 1.8Ghz Atom processor and DDR3 memory the N2200XXX certainly has some muscle behind it.”

  The feature set is quite formidable: “Loaded with plenty of features for digital media storage the N2200XXX is sure to meet the needs of even the most demanding home user.”

  Overall, the N2200XXX fits the bill: “Thecus has an excellent product on their hand in the N2200XXX, as it certainly fills the role of a product to satisfy the needs of most users. If you are in the market for a NAS device for your home office or for you digital media needs you certainly should have the N2200XXX on your short list.”

  See the full review at: http://www.overclockersonline.net/reviews/thecus-n2200xxx-nas/

  For more information on the Thecus N2200XXX : http://www.thecus.com/product.php?PROD_ID=50

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  Origin Storage 08:53 on 05/09/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Thecus ( 52 ), Thecus N5200XXX ( 2 ), Thecus NAS ( 5 )   

  Thecus® N5200XXX Outperforms on SNB’s Charts 

  SmallNetBuilder is well-known for its regular charts, reviews and extensive knowledge about NAS products. Submitting all Thecus NAS to a tough and extensive procedure, they came out with a set of performances charts and a comparison evaluating the price/performance ratio. Let’s not wait for any longer and discover the charts which are more meaningful than words.

  Below is the Thecus N5200XXX in the RAID 5 File Copy Write Performance test. As you can see, the N5200XXX takes a commanding lead with a score of 94.8MB/s.

  

  The most interesting chart is about the price/performance ratio, where it’s getting obvious that Thecus products are with dominating performance but still affordable

  

  Finally, in the RAID10 File Copy From NAS test, the N5200XXX is once again on top with a 82.5MB/s score. The Thecus N4200PRO is also in the second position with the score of 79.7MB/s.

  

  To wrap it up, the conclusion of SmallNetBuilder: “Still, if you want performance equal to or better than more expensive systems and leave your wallet a bit fuller, Thecus may be the way to go.”

  To see the full review, go to:

  http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/31493-new-to-the-charts-thecus-n5200xxx

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  Origin Storage 08:53 on 31/08/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: NAS Box ( 2 ), Thecus ( 52 ), Thecus N2200XXX ( 2 )   

  Motherboards.org Names Thecus® N2200XXX “Hot Product” 

  Besides making a video on the unboxing of the Thecus N2200XXX (see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmpXcsdlME), Shane N. from Motherboards.org also wrote a very detailed overview of this magnificent device. He went over specifications and performance of the N2200XXX and wasn’t disappointed a bit.

  That’s what the review said about the Thecus N2200XXX’s stunning exterior:  “There are some handy tools on the front of the N2200XXX that I really enjoyed and made use of during testing. There is a one-touch copy button that allows you to instantly copy any flash drive or card reader connected to the system. The built in card reader itself was a great addition. Also, the LED screen was a nice touch since you could easily since if both hard drives were installed, if the internet was plugged in, and overall, it was aesthetically pleasing.”

  He also stressed that the NAS demonstrate extreme speeds, which make this storage device very competitive in the NAS market: “The GUI for this product is very bright and easy to use. Nice choice of colors that allows for easy reading for the various settings that will be configured in the interface. There are a few neat settings that can allow you to really personalize your NAS to work exactly the way you want it to…”

  The conclusion: “I think this product is great for in home use and not left on for long hours in the day. Overall, it is a great NAS product that can hold all your information safely and still give you easy access whenever you need it. The Thecus N2200XXX is priced around 400 dollars and is a great buy if you feel the need a unit where you can store you files and information.”

  See the full review here:

  http://www.motherboards.org/content/thecus-n2200xxx-nas-server-review?page=7

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  Origin Storage 12:40 on 30/08/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Data Encryption ( 35 ), DataLocker 2 ( 3 ), DataLocker 3 ( 14 )   

  Adding Extra Protection 

  Everybody should be responsible for the protection of their data where ever it is stored. This next product could help in this respect when data is stored on an external hard drive.

  External hard drives provide an easy way of solving your storage needs. You simply attach the drive via USB to the appropriate system and then transfer data in whatever direction you require as you access or add files. This type of drive also brings the useful functionality of allowing you to move data between different locations. While these are undoubted benefits, an external drive does raise the issue of security as valuable data-holding drives may be lost or, even worse, stolen. You could, of course, protect your data with encryption or, if you are more of a belt & braces type, go for a product that gives you PIN security as an additional layer of security. The DataLocker from Origin Storage is such a product.

  The DataLocker is an external USB 3.0 hard drive that weighs 255g. Included with the DataLocker drive are a USB 3.0 lead, a black ribbed rubberised protective jacket, stylus and a Quick Start Guide on an A6 card. With dimensions of 120 x 80 x 22mm, this small box-shaped drive has a brushed silver front and back enclosing a black filling which contains the 2.5-inch drive. Dominating the front of the unit is a 2 x 2.5 inch touch screen, making this the first hard drive I have seen with this particular feature.

  The touch-screen is used for entering password details plus carrying out some other basic tasks such as disconnecting the drive and changing the default language. It has to be said that the display is fairly low resolution giving you monochrome chunky text but it does what it is meant to do. Positioned above the touch-screen is an LED strip light that provides power and drive activity feedback. Mounted on top of the drive unit is the USB 3.0 port for connecting to a computer.

  On first examination of the drive I was a little confused as the accompanying Quick Start card stated that the second step of the set-up process involved turning on the DataLocker. I was unable to identify an on/off switch. Fortunately I quickly realised that this function was probably activated by the touch-screen and, as it turned out, this was correct.

  Your first action on attaching the DataLocker to a computer should be to change the default 6-digital password. Using the on-screen pad, which initially will contain numbers but can be changed to letters if you prefer using this type of character, the password changing routine is straightforward. You just need to enter the new password twice which can be between 6 and 18 characters long. However you do need to ensure you do not forget the new password otherwise the only way to gain access will result in the loss of all data. The drive will also be wiped of all data if nine unsuccessful attempts are made to enter the password by a third party.

  Whether you opt for a number or character keypad, DataLocker randomises the layout so that you are not always pressing the same locations on the keypad. This helps negate the possibility of somebody detecting which keys are pressed the most.

  Running various read/write tests on the 320GB review model with 256-bit AES hardware enabled encryption produced the results seen in the table. It was noticeable that the drive performed far better when asked to read rather than write data. All the tests were performed using a USB 3.0 connection on a Windows 7 Home Premium system with an Intel Core i3 processor running at 3.07GHz with 3GB of RAM.

  Speed Test
  	Write	Read
  5GB of MP3 files	5 minutes 32 seconds	2 minutes 2 seconds
  59.1GB of video files	46 minutes 31 seconds	14 minutes 13 seconds
  101MB of document files	18 seconds	8 seconds

  With a product such as the DataLocker you have to remember that you are paying a fairly hefty premium for the extra protection offered. When compared to standard external hard disks, the DataLocker can not hope to compete on price alone but the product does offer you greater security and possible peace of mind. There are three different models of this product. As reviewed the 320GB version will cost £232, the 640GB version is priced at £268 while the current top of the range 1TB version will set you back £296. At these prices this product will appeal more to a business rather than home user.

  http://www.originstorage.com/datalocker3.asp

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  Origin Storage 09:45 on 24/08/2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: NAS Box ( 2 ), Thecus ( 52 ), Thecus N8900 ( 3 )   

  Thecus N8900 Unified NAS Product Review 

  Thecus N8900 8-Bay High-End Unified NAS – The One and Only!

  The Review

  The Thecus N8900 is the latest 8-bay SAS and SATA 6G combined unified NAS that is aimed at capturing an audience that is now demanding large capacity, high performance, utmost reliability, and the most flexibility at a price point that does not require senior executive red-tape buy in. Thecus has delivered on these needs demanded by its user base by upping the ante with a recent spate of new product launches, which includes the Thecus N8900 model. We have seen a migration by Thecus on the SAS and SATA platform with the Thecus N12000, N16000 and now the N8900, the latter packing a huge 24TB with the possibility of stacking more devices, it has the potential to compete with any small SAN, without the need to have a hefty budget.

  The offering of iSCSI, Virtual client support (VMware, Hyper V and more) as well as Dual Dom technology and RYSNC for replication the N8900 allows it to be positioned as primary storage by offloading data from file servers that need the extra performance to serve applications quickly and efficiently for users.

  The Thecus N8900 gave us excellent scores at our benchmark tests suffice to add they were the best ever achieved by any 8-bay NAS that has passed through our labs, showing it has the extra performance that many users need. The build quality was excellent clearly showing the commitment Thecus has made by integrating superior quality components and raising the overall reliability ratio of the unit. Clearly Thecus will keep this jewel in its crown firmly within its grasp, ensuring its competitors don’t prize it away. If you are in the market for an 8-bay that rocks, the N8900 will be an outstanding addition to your storage assets. The Thecus N8900 is a worthy recipient of our Excellence award.

  The Central Core

  At the heart of the Thecus N8900 purring and harnessing its power is Intel’s Core i3-2120 processor integrates 2 cores at 3.3GHz complimented with 8GB of DDR3 memory. The N8900 rose to our performance challenge admirably when we connected up 10 VM’s using RAID 5 and the resulting degradation was insignificant. The N8900 has one of the most solid performances we have ever recorded and the only bottleneck that stifles this performance is the network bandwidth, which can be boosted by port trunking features or merely upgrading with a 10GbE add-on card to get serious bandwidth performance.

  The Thecus N8900 has a comprehensive list of supported hard disk drives, the list is frequently updated to ensure newer drives are tested and inserted within its compatibility list. Anyone wanting to go out on a limb and integrate their own hard drives needs to be sure they use drives provided on the recommended list. Failure to do so will only result in issues that may cause the system to be totally unreliable and this will be an unwanted exercise in futility. Thecus can and may indeed refuse to help and warrant the product as they would be within their rights to do so.

  Connectivity is impressive with 3 x RJ45 (Ethernet) ports using the Intel 82574L supporting 10/100/1000 modes with WOL supported. This is then coupled with 6 x USB 2.0 host ports with 2 at the front and 4 at the back, and not to be outdone USB 3.0 and eSATA are both supported with 2 ports each at the back and front respectively. What is also very impressive is Thecus is the only manufacturer that has encouraged user upgrades by using an open policy and this has been further vindicated with inclusion of several free PCI-e extension slots (one 4-lane and two 8-lane slots), which can be used for virtually everything, including adding more USB 3.0 or eSATA slots. Companies with higher-end needs can install 10GbE Ethernet adapters, allowing you to use either traditional fiber or high-performance/low-cost base-T cable solutions. The N8900 specification is impressive and hard to beat at a price point that will make it a firm favorite for years to come.

  The OLED feature has now become a de-facto standard on all the newer generation of NAS systems. The display is crystal clear and provides all the relevant HDD, RAID monitoring and connectivity information you would need, as is with all the Thecus N12000 and N16000 models as well as the newer N4200. Great looking displays and features.

  Unpacking and removing the unit to installing all eight drives took us less than fifteen minutes, the packaging is impressive substantial enough to avoid damage, yet easy to unpack. The drive trays (caddies), do not come installed in the drive bays, but are provided in a specially cut foam that accommodates all eight trays in one large panel thereby allowing the panel to double up as an extra layer for packing purposes. If you are installing drives please take the necessary steps for using anti-static precaution in case you accidently touch the bare HDD controller located at the back of the drive. Everything needed to install drives is provided and the process is not difficult just needs care and attention when handling drives. We do advise all our readers to consider buying units ready assembled and tested by resellers who are specialist in the storage arena, who also carry out the required testing and burn in process. The important word here is “tested”; if the units are not tested with the hard drives installed to an accepted level to ensure a very low risk of Dead on Arrival (DOA), then don’t buy it with drives installed. Of course this comes at a small price premium and it’s most prudent when purchasing systems with this functionalities.

  Once booted you can access the management panel via static IP address allocated that is documented and is also displayed on the OLED panel the WAN, LAN1 and LAN2 ports all have their own static IP addresses. Once in, select the RAID option and continue to set RAID.

  The RAID levels supported are impressive and more than sufficient. Single disk, RAID 0 (Disk Striping), RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring), RAID 5, RAID 5+ Hot spare, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60 and JBOD (Linear Disk Volume). The Thecus N8900 supports AES 256bit Encryption. The RAID is courtesy of a PCI-e LSI 2008 HBA card that supports 6G SAS/SATA (x8) protocols, this is impressive from a strategy perspective as it allows Thecus to replace quickly if problems occur and not create a bottleneck in warranty swap outs, thus eliminating many of ifs and buts of warranty swaps. All other manufacturer still continues to adopt inferior onboard controllers.

  The IP address can be left as is i.e. static or select Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for the unit to determine an automatic configuration protocol on the network, enabling locating the NAS on your network with having to mess about with settings.

  Prominent Features

  Thecus has constantly continued to improve the GUI for the Management panel respecting what their customers had to say and its latest version is a major shift from the old days when they were prone to being criticized as unfriendly and difficult to use. The current revision is comprehensive and allows ease of use. The panel does provide an easy to use navigation with all the major functions listed to the left of the page and content displayed clearly in the rest of sections.

  One of the most unique additions to the Thecus N8900 is the deployment of HDMI connectivity allowing users to connect for Audio and Video seamlessly and with no other messy standards. This is new and innovative for Thecus on this platform. This would be a boom for users wanting to make the N8900 as their main storage server in a media center at home, with the excellent turn of performance, VMware compatibility and fast Ethernet the N8900 maybe in the fore front of convergence of NAS devices with home Media center solutions. The one feature that we were pleased to note was how cool the drives ran, and this was due to the powerful HDD fans that are installed, these though do increase the noise level somewhat higher than normal.

  RAID Options and Capacity expansion

  The Thecus N8900 has an impressive bevy of RAID options to choose from as we as being able to expand capacity on the fly. Many vendors will have you believe you can add two or more drives into an existing array and expand without loss of data in the current volume, we would advise one drive at a time is the safest option, but expand it does, as it will allow RAID migration to the next level, once you go to the next level it is not possible to go back. RAID options of RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 and JBOD are all offered with RAID 6, 10 , 50 and 60 being the most critical for deployment as primary storage as well as when the data is critical and requires a high level of protection. The implementation of RAID 50 and 60 is very sound at this level.

  File system support is also sufficient using EXT3; XFS, EXT 4, and ZFS the Thecus N8900 will not disappoint and will conform to almost all requirements.

  iSCSI with Thin Provisioning

  Another fine feature is a built in iSCSI target service that will allow the device to act as a NAS and iSCSI target. The iSCSI target will facilitate connectivity for up to 8 iSCSI devices allowing a small scale IP-SAN farm. iSCSI targets support Microsoft/Mac/Linux initiators, and the iSCSI initiator will allow the N8900 to stack with almost any of the other Thecus products from the 5-bay and above (N5200/1U4500/1U4600/N5500/N7700 series/N8800 series/N12000/N16000). iSCSI Thin Provisioning can configure to a virtual size of 16TB. MPIO and MCS are fully supported as is clustering and SCSI3 persistent group reservation. Thecus was amongst the very first manufacturer to implement iSCSI on this platform back in 2006 with the launch of Thecus N5200.

  Backup, FTP, Add-ons and Remote Replication

  Aside from redundancy, storing and sharing files centrally, the ability to share those precious family photos and video’s with family and friends via a secure remote connection established using an FTP server feature or even using the Multimedia Station feature by setting up a fixed IP address and utilizing your routers DDNS service or obtaining your own domain name from any DDNS provider such as http://www.dyndns.com/ is fully supported. Backup is taken care of by the bundled 5 user license using Acronis True Image OEM, this will be sufficient for many users. We hold all Acronis products in great esteem here and this one is no exception. As far as replication is concerned this is provided by the inbuilt NSYNC and allows for Volume, incremental and synchronized. Setting up the remote replication is a little time consuming but once set up it is flawlessly and continues to operate at a level that is only limited by the network bandwidth.

  Performance

  The Thecus N8900 with its sleek and smooth looks has a mean turn of performance, with 8GB of memory it will not only do proud not only in virtual modes but in any environment. The N8900 did exceptionally well in the media, office productivity and also Copy, Backup and Restore sections returning one of the fastest scores falling just short of the N16000 which has to date the best scores of all.

  Test Environment

  Thecus N8900 installed with 2TB Seagate Enterprise drives
  Firmware Revision: Version: v2.00.01
  RAID LEVEL TESTED: RAID 5

  Network

  HP ProCurve 1810G-24 Managed Switch

  Test Method

  We use a Real-World testing utility as well as a realistic Drag & Drop procedure as depicted in everyday normal operations.

  Our tests are carried out with a combination of reads and writes, we do not separate the two, both are combined to produce an overall result that depicts the actual performance of the device tested.

  This category is one of the most demanding from a file size perspective as the smallest size file is 2GB and the largest being 30GB.

  A combination of demanding Video, Audio and Images files are combined to make this the most challenging category of them all.

  The Office category is mainly for business users who may compare the typically used business applications, consisting of spreadsheets, databases, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, and email management. We have also combined Photoshop based images that are used to cut and paste within a document to make up a 30 page mailer as well as Visio templates used for presentation within a PowerPoint file that exceeds 15GB file size.

  Our Third category is a combination of files from the previous two categories to initiate copying, backing up, deleting all content and then restoring from a backup made within the RAID array.

  Test Results

  Thecus N8900 Read/Write Comparative Performance

  Video/Audio/Images                    101.80

  Office Productivity                         80.84

  Copy, Backup and Restore            88.41

  Overall Conclusion

  The most common criteria often stipulated by users comprises of performance, reliability, price, compatibility and quality for selecting the best NAS solution. In this test we discovered the N8900 system makes an excellent fit all these and more with its added media features that will allow users of all walks of life to relate closely with the N8900 to meet their individual needs. As a unified storage appliance the Thecus N8900 fits like a glove and will not disappoint.

  The Thecus N8900 with its sleek contours and excellent build quality is as good inside as it is outside, purring along with one of the best performance results we have ever seen in this category along with sporting the more features and more add-ons than anyone could desire. As far as performance is concerned the Thecus N8900 is undoubtedly and undeniably unbeatable. It is the NAS of the moment. If you are in a market for an 8-bay NAS stop looking, save valuable time and get the N8900 it’s all you will ever need.

  PROS

  Top Notch Speed

  Many Features

  Great Build Quality

  High Specification

  CONS

  None worth mentioning Verdict The Thecus N8900 gave us excellent scores at our benchmark tests suffice to add they were the best ever achieved by any 8-bay NAS that has passed through our labs, showing it has the extra performance that many users need. The build quality was excellent clearly showing the commitment Thecus has made by integrating superior quality components and raising the overall reliability ratio of the unit. Clearly Thecus will keep this jewel in its crown firmly within its grasp, ensuring its competitors don’t prize it away. If you are in the market for an 8-bay that rocks, the N8900 will be an outstanding addition to your storage assets. The Thecus N8900 is a worthy recipient of our Excellence award.

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  Tags: N12000 ( 8 ), Thecus ( 52 )   

  First Hands-On Thecus N12000 Test by Speicherguide.de 

  08/24/2011- Speicherguide is a German website dedicated to storage that has reviewed hundreds of products since being established in 2003. Thecus is no exception and Speicherguide has regularly tested Thecus NAS. Things changed a bit this time, since it’s about one of the first Thecus enterprise-class NAS: the 10GbE-ready N12000.

  The N12000 is one of the few NAS able to handle fast SAS drives, ideally sized for enterprise and the powerful hardware embedded within the N12000. There were no more bottlenecks for Speicherguide to encounter: “Since the N12000 supports link aggregation, we added the two Gigabit connections over a dynamic link together. Through this connection arose over CIFS/NTFS values ​​of only 118 MB/s read and 64MB/s writing. One can therefore assume that the SATA drives represent the bottleneck here. With SAS drives should these values ​​can be improved significantly.”

  One should not forget the NAS is not only great at file sharing but also for data backup: “Thecus delivers with the array five licenses of Acronis backup and recovery for Windows servers. The application can be easily and quickly install as usual. In addition to the “simple” backup, you can now create boot drive for full restoration.”

  In a nutshell: “With a street price of less than 4,000€ and a five-year warranty, it represents a serious alternative in the SMB market.”

  Pluses:

  • ISCSI support
  • Protection against multiple drive failure
  • Thin Provisioning
  • iTunes and Media Support
  • Fast and easy setup and administration
  • Expandable via PCIe slots

  To see the full review (German):
  http://www.speicherguide.de/Loesungen/Produkte/tabid/227/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/14438/Hands-on-Thecus-N12000.aspx

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