Synology DiskStation DS1621xs+ NAS announced featuring VMware agentless backup, Xeon D, 10G and optional M.2 NVMe caching SSDs
Introduction
This article is an update to my previous, closely-related article about some hands-on time I had with this 2018 product:
which generated many reader comments where it became evident that others felt much as I did. We wanted a version of this NAS where we didn't have to choose between 10G or M.2. Instead, we want to have both.
Nov 18 2020 Update - reader Romain Shein left this closely-related very helpful comment below this article:
It is probably worth mentioning that many existing Synology owners may instead consider an addon card https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/E10M20-T1, which should allow for the best of both worlds (10G and M.2x2) in a single slot.
The Synology E10M20-T1 became available on Amazon on June 11 2020, and is available at B&H and Newegg too. I have now ordered one to test with my compatible Synology 1618+!
Now it appears Synology has now given owners exactly this powerful combination, sure sounds like a particularly good match for virtualization home labs, especially those with 10G networking such as the popular Xeon D-based Bundles. This DS1621xs+ isn't shipping quite yet, but will be arriving on October 1st 2020, according to Newegg.
Hopefully a reader gets a chance to try one of these, if you do, please let us know how it goes!
Disclosure - I do not have a test unit or budget for this new DS1621xs+. "TinkerTry.com, LLC" may earn a small income from readers who use the shopping links below.
Shop
- B&H Photo & Video - Synology 6 Bay Nas Diskstation Ds1621Xs+ (Diskless)
Synology Press Release
Bellevue, WA– September 10, 2020 –Synology Inc. launched DiskStation DS1621xs+, redefining performance expectations in a compact tower form-factor. Pairing a quad-core Xeon processor together with ECC memory and onboard 10GbE, the DS1621xs+ raises the bar for high-performance data storage and management.
A super-fast and super-dependable micro-server
The DS1621xs+ shares a powerful Xeon processor found in some of our datacenter bound devices, but now in an 11.5L chassis. Over 3.1 GB/s seq. read and 1.8 GB/s seq. write performance means you can tackle larger data sets and handle more users, even quicker than before. We also paired it with ECC memory for maximum dependability. Together with Btrfs and our comprehensive data backup options, your data is in safe hands.
Small, but plenty big
Six internal 3.5" bays enable up to 96 TB of raw storage capacity. When that's not enough, bump that up to 256 TB, on-demand, by adding on two additional DX517 expansion units for a total of 16 drives. The DS1621xs+ also includes two M.2 2280 slots for blazing-fast NVMe cache so that you can make your storage go over 20X faster without sacrificing any bays.10X faster networking for serious work
Finish content creation projects, big backup tasks, and anything that needs fast file transfers quicker with 10GbE, built-in. Slot in an additional 10 or 25GbE card to speed up and tackle high-resolution network rendering projects or provide even faster transfer performance for multiple virtual machines.
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Photos
Well, all I have are vendor renders, at least for now. Tap or click twice to view close-up, in very high resolution.
Video
This video is about the DS1618+ model that I had my hands-on.
See also at TinkerTry
See also
By the way, some of you may not have noticed that VM backup solution NAKIVO can be installed directly on many NAS models including Synology, and this new DS1621xs+ is one of the many compatible models listed at Synology here, awesome!
Having backup software installed directly on the NAS makes a lot of sense for small businesses who wish to separate their backup storage from their compute cluster, allowing for easier recovery from host/server disasters since the backup server is running on the NAS itself, not on a VM.
See also Synology Active Backup Suite, which I have not TinkerTry'd yet.
- Synology Active Backup Suite
Active Backup centralizes backup tasks for VMware, Hyper-V, Windows endpoints, Office 365 and G Suite to Synology NAS – and lets you manage from one simple console. Fast and reliable recovery delivered to keep running services, VMs, and files instantly available.
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