NAS Explained
Asustor AS6208T
The Asustor AS6208T can house up to eight hard drives or SSDs, in fact there is a 10-tray model as well. The unit is tied towards four Gigabit Ethernet jack, meaning 1000 / 8 minus QOS and random overhead like error-correction is roughly a maximum of 100 to 125 MB/sec on a Gigabit Ethernet connection.
The tested AS6208T can house eighth storage units, these can be set up in Single, JBOD, RAID 0/1/5/6/10 + hot-spare. We'll be using RAID5 today. Once you have installed your hardware, you'll need to bind the NAS towards your Ethernet with a CAT5e/6e cable to a switch; the Asustor NAS offers more connectors though including USB 3.0. When you have your HDDs installed, and the device connected through your PC you'll need to start-up a software suite to bind and setup your configuration. Please look at the install CD for that. Or if you have a smartphone, simply use a smartphone app like FING and scan the network, Asustor will show up with a corresponding IP. Type in the IP into your browser and you can start setting up the unit.
- Intel Celeron 1.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (Automatic Overclocking to 2.24GHz)
- Read Speed of up to 398+ MB/s and Write Speed of up to 355+ MB/s Under Link Aggregation and RAID 5 Configurations
- 4 GB Built-in Dual-Channel DDR3L High Speed Memory (Expandable up to 8 GB, 4 GB x2)
- 4 x Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- Front of Device: 1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (5 GB/s) Port
- Back of Device: 2 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (5 GB/s) Ports, 2 x USB 2.0 Ports, 2 x eSATA Ports
- 1 x HDMI 1.4b Port
- 1 x S/PDIF Audio Output Port
- Infrared Receiver
- Supports RAID Volume Management: Single, JBOD, RAID 0/1/5/6/10, RAID 0/1/5/6/10 + Hot Spare
- Supports Hot Swappable Hard Disks
- Disk Tray Locks
- LCD Panel
- Supports Largest Capacity Hard Disks on the Market (8 TB)
- Smart Fan Temperature Control
You network toplogy needs to match though:
- Your switches need to support Link aggregation (layer2)
- Your NAS needs to support Link aggregation (this one obviously does)
- You need multiple Gigabit controllers in your PC or use multiple PCs
- You need fast enough storage units
- You'll need multiple network links for and to your switch.
Power Consumption (based on eight used HDDs):
- 59.5W (Operation);
- 31.2W (Disk Hibernation);
- 1.5W (Sleep Mode)
Operating system compatibility wise the NAS supports file sharing across Linux, UNIX, Mac, and Windows platforms. We will be testing with Windows 8.1 and 10. Also for the more advanced among you, windows AD (Active Directory) is supported to help create an easy-to-access environment. SSH login and web page SSL login enables users to transfer, store, and share data securely. Since this product acts as a server ALL PC's within your network can connect to it, with or without access rights. You can manage it from any client as you simply log into the web-interface and configure it. The unit's size is: 215.5 (H) x 293 (W) x 230 (D) mm and weighs in at 6.2 (kg) / 13.67 (lb).
Press Release
ASUSTOR announced the launch of its newest NAS series in the powerful 8-bay AS6208T and 10-bay AS6210T models. These two NAS models both feature powerful core specifications and rich expansion interfaces that enterprise environments demand. They are not only able to integrate existing resources and equipment but also provide 4 high speed Ethernet ports, allowing businesses to flexibly deploy them in high traffic environments. Under RAID 5 configurations and link aggregation these two new models feature read and write speeds of over 398 MB/s and 355 MB/s, providing stable performance and enhancing productivity in high traffic enterprise environments.
Featuring impressive hardware specifications like all ASUSTOR NAS devices, the AS6208T and AS6210T both feature HDMI 1.4b ports, S/PDIF fibre optic audio output, infrared receivers, hardware acceleration engines and stunning playback performance of ultra high resolution 4K and 2K videos. Additionally, both of these high capacity models are compatible with the largest hard disks on the market (8 TB), making them the first choice for multimedia prosumers looking to create a digital entertainment storage center and hub.
The AS6208T and AS6210T both come built-in with the latest ADM 2.6 firmware providing RAID data protection, high-grade AES-NI hardware encryption technology, a 256-bit data encryption mechanism, firewall, network defender, antivirus software for installation and other safety mechanisms to keep data safe and secure.
Suggested Retail Price (US):
- AS6210T $999
- AS6208T $899
Network Attached Storage
Times have changed and our storage requirements have moved from Kilobytes, to Megabytes, to Gigabytes and now even Terabytes of storage. And sure, it won't be long until we reach Petabytes either. Oh and after that there's Exabyte and then Zettabyte.
| File Storage Capacity by Bits and Bytes | ||||
| Byte | Kilobyte | Megabyte | Gigabyte | |
| Kilobyte | 1,024 | 1 | 1,024 | 1,048,576 |
| Megabyte | 1,048,576 | 1,024 | 1 | 1,024 |
| Gigabyte | 1,073,741,824 | 1,048,576 | 1,024 | 1 |
| Terabyte | 1,099,511,627,776 | 1,073,741,824 | 1,048,576 | 1,024 |
| Petabyte | 1,125,899,906,842,620 | 1,099,511,627,776 | 1,073,741,824 | 1,048,576 |
| Exabyte | 1,152,921,504,606,850,000 | 1,125,899,906,842,620 | 1,099,511,627,776 | 1,073,741,824 |
| Zettabyte | 1,180,591,620,717,410,000,000 | 1,152,921,504,606,850,000 | 1,125,899,906,842,620 | 1,099,511,627,776 |
So we passed the Terabyte marker. With our hefty demand in storage capabilities, the industry had to constantly adapt and introduce new features in hardware. Storage units got much bigger in volume over the year, 6 TB HDDs have just been introduced onto the market with 10 TB already in the pipeline. In that line of storage solutions there is one product series growing fast and now reaching SOHO and consumer based markets. They are called NAS units, network attached storage. And there has been a lot of development in these nifty little boxes. Pretty much they are little servers that you can hook onto your network and then function as file-server.
The NAS units are often small, do not use a lot of power compared to say your PC, but they are highly configurable, offer redundancy as some models can even handle RAID internally. Network Attachable Units are among the most advanced home servers available on the market today. Products feature multiple HDDs setups, partitions, RAID, USER and USERGROUP based access, FTP, web server, MySQL, hot swappable drives; these are just some of the features that a NAS unit can handle. And though expensive, a product like this is just too darn handy when it comes to file-storage and management over your network.
