Netgear ReadyNAS Duo Review

Today the victim of our ministrations is the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. The 2 disk ReadyNAS Duo is the smallest in the three device ReadyNAS family - which also includes the 4 disk ReadyNAS NV+ and the 6 disk ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer Edition.

Netgear describe the Duo as "A NAS (Network Attached Storage) Device for the Home":

• Provides extra storage that can be conveniently shared with all your computers
• Access stored content anywhere via the Internet
• Optional “spare” hard drive protects against drive failure by making a duplicate copy of all your data
• Supports most network music, picture and video players
• Embedded BitTorrent™ client for direct downloading from the Internet
• ReadyNAS Vault™
• Integrated offsite backup for files and folders
• Mac-friendly

The Netgear specifications are quite comprehensive; rather than repeat them all here are the critical specifications:

• 2 Serial ATA channels
• Compatible with SATA and SATA II HDD
• Hot-swappable trays
• 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• 256 MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM SO-DIMM
• Embedded 64 MB flash memory for OS
• Supports Windows, Mac, Linux/UNIX Clients
• Setup wizard and easy browser-based interface
• NETGEAR Auto-Expandable X-RAID™

There is no specification on the type of CPU, so it's likely an APIC or similar embedded CPU (the architecture is labelled Padre with the model IT3107). These types of CPUs often struggle to perform under heavy mixed loads as they are optimised for specific tasks. The use of a DDR SO-DIMM may offer us a chance to upgrade the memory and get better performance.

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo supports just about any type of computer likely to be found in its native SOHO environment:

• Windows® using SMB (Server Message Block) - aka CIFS (Common Internet File System). Note that OSX and Linux can generally use SMB as well as their own native protocols
• Mac OS 9/X using AFP - Apple Filing Protocol
• OSX, Linux and UNIX using NFS v2 / v3 - Network File System
• Web browsers using HTTP and Secure HTTP (the normal protocols for Web pages)
• FTP clients using FTP and Secure FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
• Various clients and other Netgear NAS devices using RSYNC (Remote Sync)

By default, all management is performed using a web browser. While the specifications list protocols like SSH, which allow for command line access to, and management of the ReadyNAS Duo, SSH is not listed in the manual and required a manual download and installation process documented on the community website ReadyNAS.com .

Interestingly the download and installation of the latest ReadyNAS firmware (v4.1.5) and the extra addon modules for SSH revealed the first bug in the Netgear UI - despite the system being configured for Australian Eastern Time (AEST), the date and time in the alert messages and system logs are all in Pacific Daylight Time - roughly 18 hours behind the local time. This would likely confuse a less technical administrator - given the overall quality of the web interface, this bug was quite a surprising find.

Possibly the only truly missing piece of functionality in the ReadyNAS Duo is the ability to join a Windows Domain - this is possible with its big brothers, so was a surprising omission here. While it's uncommon for a home to have a domain, the existence of Windows Small Business Server and Windows Foundation Server are common in tiny and small businesses (under 15 users) and it would have been nice to be able to integrate the ReadyNAS Duo with the domain rather than needing to manually create accounts for each person, and duplicate groups and permissions.

Unpacking and setting up the ReadyNAS Duo was a revelation. Since the test unit was the ReadyNAS Duo RND2150, it came pre-loaded with a 500GB 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda hard disk. The entire initial setup process consisted of just 4 steps:

1. Unpack the ReadyNAS, the network cable and the power supply;
2. Connect the network cable to the ReadyNAS and the switch;
3. Connect the power supply
4. Open the Web Admin page (http://nas-xx-xx-xx/admin)

This could not be made much simpler, except that the default name for the NAS is NAS-xx-xx-xx - where the x's are the last half of the NAS' network identity, printed on the sticker at the back of the NAS. A better plan would have been to place the default name on the back - since the network address is already unique and the sticker matches the NAS, it should be just as easy to put the name on the sticker beside the address.

The NAS comes with two shares defined by default:

Both shares allow guests to read and write all files by default. Not the most secure configuration but definitely the simplest for a novice user to unpack and have "just work".

There are no user accounts defined other than the default Admin account. Surprisingly, however, this account is not able to access shares - it is used only for administrative access.

Also, the only protocols enabled by default for these shares are for Windows and Mac OS. The NFS protocol preferred for OSX, Linux and UNIX is completely disabled by default, as is access to shares using a web browser, FTP and Remote Sync (RSYNC).

The basic steps therefore, from box to production, need to include creating the right user accounts in addition to the basic tasks previously listed, and enabling the right protocols for your network.

The ReadyNAS Web UI, called Frontview, makes this pretty straightforward. 6 clicks and 3 pieces of information (username, email address and password) will create a user account, and another dozen clicks enables the NFS and FTP protocols for the default shares.

It's a piece of cake, and because Frontview responds quite snappily, you're up and running in less than 5 minutes. That's really respectable.

It doesn't matter if the ReadyNAS has a beautiful administrative interface, and supports every computer built since the IT Pliocene era (1995), if it's too slow to be useful. No-one really wants to wait for half an hour to copy a movie to their brand new network disk, when it takes 2 minutes to a disk inside their PC.

So how well does the ReadyNAS perform?

The tests use the following two data sets:

Small Files:

• 2144 files, in
• 311 directories, totalling
• 136,417,700 bytes (130.10 MB)

Large Files:

• 27 files, in
• 17 directories, totalling
• 783,609,012 bytes (747.30 MB)

The test client was configured as follows:

• Acer R510 Server (Intel 7320 Chipset)
• 2GB DDR-333 ECC RAM (2 x 1GB dual channel)
• 3.0GHz/800MHz Intel Xeon
• HighPoint RocketRAID 2210 PCI-X card in 64 bit, 133MHz slot
• 3 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB drives in RAID 5
• Intel Pro/1000 MT Network Connection
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64

To understand whether the server itself would be a limit, the dataset was copied from one directory on the server to another on the same disk (a stress test). On the small file set the server averaged 26,930,343 bytes per second, or 1541.0 MB per minute. On the large file set, the server was faster at 64,884,409 bytes per second, or 3712.7 MB per minute.

All tests were conducted five times and the average taken after discarding any results that were obviously different from the rest. Tests using FTP were slower than Windows file/print sharing and thus the Windows results are shown here.

First the results with the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo configured with the single Seagate disk:

Stress Test

The same tests were then repeated after adding a Samsung HD502IJ 7200rpm disk so that the data on the NAS was protected using RAID 1. The tests were not conducted until after the device had reported that the synchronisation of the data was completed. Interestingly the NAS reported speeds of nearly 50MB per second (3000 MB per minute) while creating the mirror, about 4 times the best write performance seen over the network with a single disk.

Stress Test

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo comes with a single DDR-333 SO-DIMM, the same as used in many notebooks from a couple of years ago. A memory upgrade from 256MB to 1GB comes in at just $70 - so if it improves performance it's probably worth it. The tests on the mirrored disks are thus repeated with the memory upgraded from 256MB to 1GB:

Stress Test

Performance Graph

For ease of viewing this graph uses MB per minute as the horizontal axis:

The results of the performance testing are disappointing, to say the least. So strange were these last results, in fact, that I ran and re-ran the performance tests (especially those with the expanded memory) dozens of times instead of the usual 5. What I found was that despite being well optimised for disk activity (witness the 50MB per second at which the NAS rebuilds a disk), the embedded CPU is simply not powerful enough to run the disk and the network at full speed. In fact, while copying files to and from the NAS, the embedded CPU would often be running at 100%, and yet at other times would be idling while the test PCs were waiting for data.

Now that I've seen what the ReadyNAS Duo is capable of, I can safely say where it is best suited.

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo promised much, but underdelivered when it counted. The slick Web Admin interface and flexibility (supporting all the major PC and server operating systems) are great, being able to use the same disks and trays in the more expensive ReadyNAS modelsis very, very cool, but for such an expensive NAS, performance was below par.

As an example, the ReadyNAS Duo with a single 500GB disk is around $589 at TechBuy. The Intel SS4200 I reviewed a few weeks ago is about $20 less, without any disks. But the SS4200 is up to 20 times faster than the ReadyNAS and takes two more disks, for a total of 6TB instead of the current 2TB in the Duo.

Alternatives like the LaCie "2big" and iOmega StorCenter are also competitors. The LaCie unit is about $80 cheaper than the Netgear; yet it comes with two 500GB disks and similar specifications (Gigabit networking, multiple protocols and USB expansion). The iOmega unit is the same price as the ReadyNAS, but again it comes with both 500GB disks pre-populated.

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo is available from TechBuy:

• With a single 500GB Drive: The RND2150
• With a single 750GB Drive: The RND2175
• With a single 1000GB Drive: The RND2110

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Comments (3)

• |123.211.45.xxx |2009-05-03 10:12:16 Goosefeather  - DNR2000 Installation
  I installed one of these bare bones systems yesterday. As the disk I bought required the Radiator 4.1.5 firmware upgrade (according to Netgear's approved hardware list), I was reticent to install disks before doing so.
  Unfortunately, with no disks on board the system does not initialise/get an IP address as per the documentation.
  After a 56 min call to support (lucky it was 1-300 as it was diverted to the US over our weekend), eventually got tech's advice to load a disk. Once disk on board, it booted up OK
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• |80.3.187.xxx |2009-05-04 21:20:05 tokaboy  - Readynas Duo performance figures
  Youre performance tests are wrong pal.
  No other eeview in the world complained about the Duuo's perfomance and it regularly sits in the top section of testing charts.
  SmallNetBuilder mentioned "excellent performance" in their review.....
  http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30462/75/
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• |150.101.192.xxx |2009-05-14 22:37:13 David Rawling  - Author
  Thanks for taking the time to comment.
  
  The graphs provided by SmallNetBuilder on page 7 of their review show almost identical performance to our tests - over 1000 Mbps Ethernet, the Duo topped out at 30 MBps reads and 15 MBps writes on both reviews, and I think this shows consistent results.
  
  We focus on repeatable results - we use the same tests with the same data sets on multiple devices (servers, virtual machines, other NAS and even PCs) and the results are repeatable and consistent, and we publish the highest results we achieve.
  
  Happy to discuss by email - djr (AT) pdconsec.net.
  
  Dave.
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