We Got Served

Time to take a little peek over the fence. Over the past 18 months or so, WGS has exclusively focused on Windows Home Server based solutions for storage and backup, and has been very happy doing so. A couple of weeks ago, however, a post over on the WGS forums caught my eye – it was an innocent enough request, asking if anyone had run Windows Home Server and a Network Attached Storage device (NAS) together on the same network.

Now, many consider WHS and NAS to be competitors – surely they do the same thing – provide network storage, file serving and backup as primary features, and then a few goodies on top of that. Running both on the same network – that way madness lies, surely? It sounded like a great feature to investigate, so we got in touch with Synology, who kindly shipped us over their flagship home/small business-NAS device, the Synology Cube Station CS407, so we could take a good look at how Linux-based NAS devices are developing (and there are now a lot of them on the market) and see if there are indeed any benefits of running a NAS device on a Windows Home Server network, or indeed, whether it could be good enough to even replace Windows Home Server completely!

A Brief Primer on NAS

Network Attached Storage devices have been around for a good few years (well before Windows Home Server hit the market), and is classed as a dedicated storage device which exists on a network to provide storage support for other devices on that network. Much like WHS, they’re designed to run headless (without keyboard, mouse or monitor) and can be simple, single disk devices or multi-drive devices, the latter providing additional storage and data duplication(generally through a hardware-RAID configuration – Windows Home Server has it’s own proprietary solution for data duplication).

NAS devices run on a range of operating systems, but they’ll generally be open-source (FreeNAS or Linux) which, as they’re free, often leads to a NAS device working out cheaper than a Windows Home Server based system. Whilst NAS devices have traditionally been positioned for the business sector (and indeed to a large degree, still are), there has been growth in consumer-oriented NAS devices from a wide-range of hardware manufacturers over the past few years. At CES last January I was surprised to see just how many NAS devices were on show from manufacturers like Netgear, Lacie, Iomega, D-Link, Maxtor, Synology and many others, offering features non too far away from WHS’ remote access capabilities and a lot more. My hunch is we’ll see even more devices at CES this January. So, whilst it’ll be interesting to compare the two systems, we’ll mainly focus this review on how WHS and NAS could work together in your home.

Check out Wikipedia’s Entry on NAS for the full low-down.

The Windows Home Server team recently published a useful comparison between WHS and generic NAS devices – whilst it clearly showcases the features that WHS delivers over NAS (they’re selling a product, after all!), it’s a useful guide which clarifies the strengths of Windows Home Server over a network attached storage device. Such strengths include automated backup of multiple computers, simple, image-based restore of computers, easy to manage storage capabilities and (relatively) easy remote access setup of the home server. That said, many NAS devices have a few of their own tricks too, so it’s going to be fun to dig into the CS407 and see what’s on offer.

What’s in the Box?

The CS407 arrived this week. There are two variants available – the CS407, which is focused primarily on small business needs, and the CS407e which is focused on home users. The hardware in the CS407 is a little beefier, packing 128Mb RAM and a faster processor, but the software bundled with each version is slightly different. The CS407 is well packaged and comes with (almost) everything you need to get started – it’s a barebones NAS device, so you have to purchase and then install your hard drives separately. Let’s take a look at the unboxing shots:

In the box, you’ll find:

• Synology CS407
• Manual CD
• Quick Start Guide
• Power Cable
• Ethernet Cable
• SATA & Hard Drive Power Cables and Drive Mounting Screws

The CS407 will take up to 4 hard drives, so ensure you purchase these at the same time as the NAS (or reuse drives from other PCs) or you’ll come to a grinding halt at this point!

First Looks

The CS407 is a solid device, with a minimal amount of connections, lights and other paraphernalia – it’s got a specific job, and it’s specced accordingly.

The Cube Station comes in a very sober, business-like black, befitting it’s Small Business role – it’s home-focused brother, the CS407e comes in white which helps differentiate the two.

Up Front

The front face of the Cube Station is really straightforward. A large power button in the centre has an obvious use, whilst to the left you’ll find a status light and a second light showing network activity. On the right each hard drive has a separate light showing which drives are in use.

Around the Back

The rear of the unit is nice and simple. Much like the Tranquil PC SQA-5H we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, the rear of the unit is dominated by a large 80mm fan which is designed to extract the heat generated by up to 4 hard drives you can install in the unit. You also find the power socket, Gigabit Ethernet port and 2 USB ports for attaching additional drives.

Access to the internal drive bays is made simple with a twist screw on each corner of the back plate. Simply twist, unscrew and the rear plate folds down on its bottom hinge.

Installing Hard Drives

So, with the unit unboxed and checked out, it’s time to install your hard drives. Doing so is relatively straightforward for anyone who has installed new internal hardware in their PC before, but certainly isn’t as easy as using a drive tray system like the HP MediaSmart Server or the Tranquil PC SQA-5H – this is certainly an area Synology can improve on in the future.

Unscrewing the four screws at the rear of the unit allows you to access the Cube Station’s internals.

Four internal drive bay slots are available, and Synology helpfully include all required cables and screws to fit your drives into the bays and attach them to the SATA sockets on the unit’s motherboard.

So, let’s get those drives installed – we used two Seagate 750Gb drives to test out the CS407 – here they are, complete with two of the four power and SATA cables that are supplied by Synology in the box.

Okay, once the rear flap of the unit is open and the internal shell exposed, start by attaching the power and SATA cables to the CS407′s motherboard. The sockets are numbered 1 to 4, so make sure you attach the cables to the correct socket. You’ll find they slot in nice and easily. The photos below show firstly the power cables, and then the SATA cables attached to the motherboard.

Next, slide in your hard drives, with the first drive slotting in at the top of the unit, and other drives following underneath – Disk 4 should be at the bottom of the unit.

You’ll see that screw holes in the hard disk line up neatly with securing holes in the CS407′s inner chassis. Synology supply a set of screws to hold the hard drives in place. Get to work with that screwdriver!

Once the drives are secured, attach the other end of the power and SATA cables to the rear of the hard drives (again, make sure to attach the cables to the correct drives) and tidy up with the supplied cable ties.

Once the drives are in, simply replace the outer chassis, flip up the rear access flap and tighten the screw in each corner and your hardware installation is complete!

Okay, next up, plug the CS407 into you router or network hub/switch using the supplied Ethernet cable and connect the power cable. Then hit that big power button on the front of the unit and we’re ready to get some software installed!

Setting Up the CS407

As soon as you press the power button on the CS407, the power button will flash blue and the LAN light will begin to flash green as the device initialises. after a minute or so, the power button will finish its disco act, and the status and hard drive lights will illuminate. whilst all this is going on, take the enclosed CD and pop it in one of the computers on your network.

The installation CD contains a quick start guide as well as a full user’s guide, plus a number of applications. More on those a little later – for now, we’ll select Set up the Synology Server. A firewall prompt will appear which you should Unblock, and then run through the setup wizard (ignoring the slightly mangled English). A one click install is available for those looking for simple, easy installation – we’re always suckers for punishment here at WGS, so we’ll go for the step by step option.

The installer allows you to configure the CS407 with a static or dynamic IP, based on your needs.

Once you’ve configured all of the required settings, the CS407 formats the disks you installed earlier and you’re ready to continue.

Once the installation is complete, a web page will pop up prompting you to log into Synology’s management console, Disk Station Manager. Version 2.0 of the software was bundled with the CS407, although Synology update the software frequently and updates can be downloaded and installed easily.

Using Disk Station Manager

Disk Station Manager is a comprehensive management console for the CS407 – on first glance, whilst the user interface looks great, there are a lot of features exposed immediately, so it may be a little daunting for the beginner. That said, Synology offer a “wizard” mode which exposes the major tasks and allows you to drag and drop favourite features on to the page for easy access and a more advanced “complete” view of the main dashboard, exposing all available features – there’s a great effort to make things as simple and friendly as possible.

The left hand sidebar provides a tree view of the various knobs and buttons you can play with, split by “Information” (log files, status screen and an About page) “System” (network and time configuration, power management and firmware updates), “Privileges” (allows you to manage user access), “Storage” (disk management) “Network Services” (FTP & Web Server, iTunes and Multimedia controls, Internet Downloaded, IP Camera application and other goodies), “Backup” (guess) and finally “External Devices” (USB Hard Disk, Printer and UPS Management).

At first glance, there’s a very comprehensive set of controls and tools available within Disk Station Manager – a lot more functionality than is provided by the Windows Home Server Console and the user interface is very slick indeed. But is it as simple to use?

Well.. kind of. Let’s take data protection. As we know, Windows Home Server offers users with multiple drives a one click data protection option on each of its shared folders – simply named folder duplication. If I want to duplicate everything on that shared folder to another hard drive, I click the option and it’s done.

With NAS drives, it’s not so simple – data mirroring is offered, but is done through RAID configurations, and a variety of different configurations are offered. Absolutely fine if you’ve read up on your RAIDs, but to the average user, well, it’s time to go hit the books. That said, the wizard helping you set up drive configuration is very easy to use, but you may need to have the manual with you whilst you’re setting up.

In other areas, the functionality available within Disk Station Manager far exceeds that available in the Windows Home Server Console – disk management is comprehensive, offering full SMART reporting and testing, you can configure emails to be sent to you from the device in the event of any problems, scheduled hibernation and power downs – it’s almost as if the guys at Synology looked at some of our favourite Windows Home Server add-ins and built them into the box. Redmond take note, whilst we love our add-ins, you need to start baking this stuff into the WHS Console so it’s available out of the box.

Using a NAS Device With Windows Home Server

So, whilst a NAS device will help you grow the overall storage available across your network, it won’t integrate with Windows Home Server. Two main issues – firstly, as a separate device, you have no way of adding the hard drives in your NAS device to Windows Home Server’s storage pool. Secondly, with no Windows Home Server Connector available for Linux (and my hunch – one won’t be coming for some time, if at all), Windows Home Server is unable to backup the NAS device. So, this is going to be a pretty self-contained unit – of course, all of the computers on your network will be able to see the NAS device within Windows Explorer, and you can manually copy files to and from the home server without any issue, but don’t expect it to be supported in the same way other home computers may be.

So, if that’s the case – why use a NAS device at all with Windows Home Server? Well, for me, it’s really all about the applications which come bundled with the device, many of which are not available for Windows Home Server and, depending on your needs, can be really useful to both home and business users. So whilst Windows Home Server handles the main backup and remote access tasks on your network, you can have a separate device on the network which acts as an additional storage resource, and performs a number of specific functions. Let’s take a look at the apps on offer.

Backup

Whilst the CS407′s backup features may not be as powerful as Windows Home Server’s, you are able to use the device to back up files stored on networked PCs as well as back up the NAS device itself to an external USB hard drive (or over the network to a second Synology or other rsync compatible device on the network). A separate application, Data Replicator 3 enables you to backup specific files and folders on networked computers, as well as manage file restore  back to those computers if needed. Whilst these functions are useful, the ease and power of Windows Home Server’s automated backup and restore functionality are streets ahead of Synology’s offer and if you are running the device on a Windows Home Server based network, you’ll really have no need to spend a lot of time here, other than configuring manual backups of the NAS device itself.

Audio Station

Audio Station is an audio player which can play music stored on the device directly (when USB connected speakers are attached), stream music to other devices on the network or play music from a connected iPod. The CS407 is uPnP compatible and can playback a wide range of file formats including AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO and WMA Lossless on the audio side. Compatible video includes ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, VOB, WMV and XviD. When it comes to images, BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO are all supported. A wide range of digital media receivers can stream music from the CS407, including the PS3 and Xbox 360.

iTunes Server

Much like the HP MediaSmart Server, the CS407 has an in-built iTunes Server which enables any iTunes client on the network to see and playback music from the device.

Download Station

A major area of differentiation for the CS407 is its comprehensive internet download features which, depending on your particular needs, will be of major interest to some users. Download Station offers automated downloading of files from the internet via Bittorrent, NZB, FTP, eMule and HTTP (clearly, we mean legal files at this point, you understand!)

An application called Download Redirector (included in the CS407 Installation CD) is installed on each home computer on your network and downloads can be easily configured by an NZB or torrent file located on that computer, or simply by entering a URL into the application. For ease you can also drag and drop URLs and files directly into the application’s window – the request will be directed to the CS407 which will then handle the download via its inbuilt NZB (which will need to connect to a Usenet server) or Bittorrent client.

Whilst this feature may not be interesting to everyone, it does mean that you can set up the CS407 as a dedicated download manager on the network. It’s very easy to set up, and works really well – certainly there are no software add-ins for Windows Home Server at this point that work as well.

Web Station

Web Station allows you to run a fully featured PHP/MySQL powered website, served directly from the CS407. Dynamic DNS (which allows a computer or NAS device on your network to be discoverable via a URL) can be set up courtesy of direct links to DynDNS.com which is free to use. Whilst Windows Home Server’s remote access can be far easier to set up and manage, Synology provide much greater customisation and flexibility in allowing users to easily set up their own database-driven website on the storage device.

Photo Station

Photo Station is a photo, video and blogging application which allows you to create and publish photo albums, slideshows, video clips and a fully-fledged, RSS enabled blog to the CS407 – all of which can then be accessed by friends and family online.

Once again, the ease and power with which these applications work make Windows Home Server look very basic indeed – whilst OEMs like HP have successfully built media applications on top of the base WHS OS, Synology provide a wider range of media features in box. I’d love to see Microsoft look to develop these kind of features as part of the native operating system – I’m sure these kind of powerful self-publishing solutions would compel more people to give Windows Home Server a whirl.

Surveillance Station

The features just keep on coming! Also included in the CS407 is an surveillance solution which allows the NAS device to work with IP video cameras attached to your network – the CS407 acts as the central hub which receives and records the video captured by multiple cameras in MPEG4 format. Those seeking a security solution for their home or small office will be very interested in learning what the CS407 can do.

Summary

I’ve got to say, I’m greatly impressed with the Synology CS407. Whilst its backup and restore capabilities are no match for the power of Windows Home Server, Synology have put together a package of user-focused applications that create a well-rounded, feature-packed NAS device that’s a dream to use. Clearly Microsoft have focused their v1 product on the core basics – powerful backup, restore and remote access features that work extremely well, but they’re clearly lagging behind on the inclusion of less “worthy” apps which actually would make the product a lot more fun to use and even more essential.

I’m sure Redmond would point to WHS’ extensibility and a growing range of add-ins which should fill this gap in the future – but if Synology can include great photo, video and web publishing applications in box, along with fully featured download managers, iTunes compatibility, IP Camera support and more (along with a thriving community development scene of their own) there’s no reason for Microsoft to avoid doing so. I’m sure there’s a lot the WHS team can learn for v2 of Windows Home Server from such a fully-featured device as the Synology CS407.

If I had to choose between the two, I’d still recommend WHS over a NAS device, as computer backup is such an important requirement for home networks – but whilst it may initially seem strange, running a NAS device such as the CS407 alongside Windows Home Server will allow you to easily protect files and folders on your home network with powerful media publishing and other online applications, delivering the best of both worlds.

If you are in the market for a NAS device, the Synology CS407 is a great package – a brilliant set of features, friendly UI, and powerful performance – it’ll certainly continue to give Windows Home Server a run for its money in the years to come.