Netgear's Marvell Based ReadyNAS NV+ v2 Review
by Ganesh T S on November 9, 2011 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
- NAS
- NetGear
The ReadyNAS NV+ v2 shipped with 2 x 1TB Hitachi 7200rpm drives. We mapped one of the default shares on our Windows testbed. The Intel NASPT benchmarks were run. In addition, we ran our standard robocopy benchmark to transfer a 10.7 GB Blu-ray folder structure.
Netgear's X-RAID2 solution automatically handles RAID level management and volume expansion as more drives are added. The ReadyNAS website has a very high level explanation of how X-RAID2 works. We added a 1 TB Samsung 7200 rpm drive to the mix and measured the time taken to expand the volume (from RAID-1 to RAID-5).
| X-RAID 2 Volume Expansion | |
| 2 x 1TB RAID-1 to 3 x 1TB RAID-5 | 07:36:25 |
With the new 3 x 1TB configuration, we repeated our NAS benchmarks.
We see a discernible loss in the performance. Does this mean that larger number of drives would tend to lower the performance of the unit? We added another 1TB Samsung 7200 rpm drive in the fourth bay and measured the time taken for volume expansion.
| X-RAID 2 Volume Expansion | |
| 3 x 1TB RAID-5 to 4 x 1TB RAID-5 | 10:31:57 |
With the new 4 x 1TB configuration, the benchmarks were rerun.
We see that the performance is back on track. Note that these numbers compare very favourably with those obtained in the Synology DS-211+ review. At half the price (for the Duo v2), the Netgear units seem to be very good value for the money.
One of the NAS aspects we have started testing recently is RAID rebuild. With all the four bays occupied, a disk failure was simulated by removing the hard drive in the first bay. A Samsung 1 TB hard drive was put in place of the original Hitachi drive in that bay and the time taken for rebuild was recorded:
| ReadyNAS NV+ v2 RAID-5 Volume Rebuild | |
| 4 x 1TB RAID-5 Rebuild after Single Hard Drive Failure | 04:58:29 |
During all stages of the volume expansion / rebuild process, the existing data remained accessible. Operation in degraded mode was made evident in the front display as well as the system health tab in the web interface.
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JHBoricua - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I'm pretty sure the difference in the power supply draw of the Ready NAS and the HP Microserver is not that much when fully loaded. And somehow, I doubt the support from Netgear is anything to talk about, having dealt with them before.LeftSide - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
My HP Proliant Microserver with a dual core 1.3Ghz with 8Gb ECC DDR3 ram running Solais 11 express idles at 15 watts. I've added 2 hitachi 3 tb drives, and have not measured power yet, but 15 watts is pretty good.nasuser - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
"but many SMBs / SOHOs don't have time to build or maintain a NAS themselves."And more to the point many don't WANT to or have the expertise.
Whatever the criticisms of various consumer NAS, unbox -> plug in -> turn on and you're ready to go in a few minutes.
No OS to install, or hooking up to a display etc. And if/when they fail - getting back to a factory default status is as easy as a reset button press.
If all you need is basic network storage, I think devices like these can save alot of time & effort and at a reasonable price point.
alanh - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I have a mixed environment at home and am looking for something like this that I can use to do automated backups of Macs via Time Machine and PCs via [whatever other method]. Does this work for the former on Lion and does it include software for the latter?beginner99 - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
I've been considering such a device too lately but for now I just keep the stuff in my desktop. Those consumer NAS have the advantage, that they are very small. A DIY build will easily be double the size unless you go for an expensive special case (Chenboro...) and then it won't be any cheaper. You will also be very restricted with the motherboard (mini-itx with enough sata ports).dj christian - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
IDY?JHBoricua - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
" A DIY build will easily be double the size unless you go for an expensive special case"Not necessarily. As I pointed out earlier, for the same price of the diskless NV+, you can get a HP Proliant Microserver with 8 times more RAM than the default NV+ config, a better CPU and without hardly a difference in power draw. And you don't have to sacrifice on the size either.
Here's a size comparison.
ReadyNAS NV+ dimensions: 7.9 H x 5.2 W x 8.7 D in
HP Proliant Microserver dimensions: 10.5 H x 8.3 W x 10.2 D in
You get 6 SATA connections (5 internal, 1 eSATA), one internal USB port mounted on the motherboard (that could boot your Os), 1 half height PCIe x16 and 1 half height PCIe x1 open slots for future expansion and can be expanded with up to 8GB of RAM (8 times the NV+ maximum).
It's a much better deal for the DIY'er and offers better flexibility.
Evadman - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
An HP Microserver is 2.5 times bigger than an NV (you even posted the dimensions) 360 cubic inches vs 890 cubic inches. Comparision picture: http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1634...The ReadyNas is much more of a plug and play system than the HP is. Plug it in, throw drives in it, and it works. The HP is an actual server, so you need to do an order of magnitude more configuration and setup, not to mention continual maintenance. The ReadyNas handles all that in the software to a much higher degree than the HP. If you are looking for pure performance and configuration options, the HP may be a better solution. If you want easy, the Readynas may be a better solution. Both have their own niche, so it depends on the skills the user has and how much effort they want to expend.
Full disclosure/experience/whatever: I have three NV+'s along with a server with a 50TB RAID 60 array running Server 2008R2 on an Adaptec 52445 along with other NAS type devices from other companies.
jleach1 - Saturday, November 12, 2011 - link
Someone explain how a MSRP of $399 is cheaper than the current NV+?I see em going for between 250-350?