[quotemsg=16675805,0,1888934][quotemsg=16675687,0,179891][quotemsg=16675484,0,1888934]You beat me to the reply about the software stack. In regards to the off-the-shelf Mini-ITX comment, that is also false. The system uses proprietary hardware designed to reduce the footprint and optimize airflow. Building a system like this with the display, one-touch copy and drive sleds would be difficult for the price. Tack on the extensive software features, warranty through one company and the support tying it all together.
I'm also sad to report that Windows is not longer a viable solution for file storage if you want decent bandwidth. We'll have a few of a Windows based system in the coming weeks.
Around six months ago i had a spare dual Xeon board and purchased a Supermico 4u case with 36 3.5" drive bays and four 2.5" internal bays. I used 12Gb/s HBAs to build the arrays with Storage Spaces and the performance was awful outside of cache. It didn't take very long to get outside of the cache either with sequential transfers to the system. The system was also connected to the network via 40GbE.
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Everything that item does can also be done by a knowledgeable individual. There is absolutely nothing special about it. This is just regular stuff with a custom form factor. All they did was make an easy to use GUI bolted on top of a BSD based distro. It's going to be regular BSD ZFS for the underlying file system with volumes created inside and then exported with NFS, SMB or as a block device via iSCSI. iSCSI isn't a very good solution, it's a "poor mans' SAN" type of implementation for when the application doesn't warrant doing FC or converged fabric. Unless someone is doing labs or absolutely needs block level access across a network it's best to stay away from it. Windows is fine for 1GbE, the overhead from SMB and NTFS cause issues if your trying to do higher bandwidth then that and doing either NFS or iSCSI on a windows platform is just begging for pain.
Seeing as they don't make 40GBe connectors I then assume your talking about 4 x 10Gbe ports? Are they active-active or active-passive? Also with 802.3ad are you using mode 2, 3 or 4 (mode 1 isn't used anymore unless doing back to back configuration)? This all has pretty significant impact on how packets are handled, especially if your trying to do a benchmark.[/quotemsg]
Actually they do make 40GbE connectors and they are not new. I have several from Mellanox (ConnectX-3, that can also do 56GbE), Intel (XL710) and Supermicro (XL710-based). I also have some new 100GbE connectors on the way.
The QNAP system is not based on a BSD distro and does not use a ZFS file system.
As for iSCSI being a poor man's SAN. We are talking about an $1,100 storage appliance and not a configuring where you need an $1,100 switch, a handful of $500 cards, $100 GBICs and a spool of fiber. The TS-863+ costs just a little over what the tools cost to cut and make connections for fiber.
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Just tore through one of these and they are based on a customized Linux distro using LVM, so it's actually worse then BSD ZFS in terms of capability. It's a mini-itx board mounted sideways with a 10Gbe PCI-e adapter plugged into it's slot. There is an active community of people who load Ubunto, RHEL or even a "NAS" variant of BSD onto these devices.
I looked into the 40GbE and I'll be damned if someone actually made them. The spec allows for them but since 100GbE was also made at the same time I figured people would just jump from 10 to 100 and not muddle around, especially since cheap 40GBASE-T won't be standardized until next year.
I mention iSCSI because if this is aimed at "home office" market, what on earth would need remote block level access to a storage volume? The performance impact of trying to run it over a home gigabit network is so bad and the price of disks so cheap, that it makes zero sense. That's why it's largely relegated to lab environments where the user is doing some sort of project / module and needs a cheap way to simulate an "enterprise" like environment.
This device, and others like it, are very expensive for what they offer. It seems more a collection of bullet point style features where the point is to have more +1's then the competition. There is no denying the market for home automation is expanding as our lives become more and more integrated with technology, and many people either don't have the knowledge or have the knowledge but not the time, to do it themselves. Or in the case of branch offices of business's, they want someone else legally liable for when / if something breaks. That is the market these are aimed at because otherwise there is absolutely nothing special inside them, which is the point I made earlier. They are just file servers where someone else has built some really nice management software.
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