SANS DIGITAL EliteNAS EN104L+B - 1U 4 Bay NAS + iSCSI Rackmount RAID System w/ Intel Atom Dual Core DDR2 1GB, NAS OS installed (Black)

Pros: Decent functionality for the price.

Cons: The software it comes with is terrible. After tinkering with it for a while I decided it was more time efficient to just wipe it clean and use my favorite Linux distro (Debian).

Also, the fans are low quality - two of them are about to fail and it sounds like a propellar airplane is taking off inside my server cabinet.

Overall I would not buy a second one...I'd go for something more pricey that's less hassle

Other Thoughts: The 2GB SSD is best re-purposed to use as swap space.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

The cooling fan that we used are rated over 3 years and the product is cover by 3 year parts and labor warranty. If the cooling fan is failing, please contact us about the RMA service.

The build-in NAS OS is designed for easy management of the network service, yet provide flexibility on configuration. Please contact our technical support at tech@sansdigital.com or 1-800-980-1988 for service as well as any configuration issues for the NAS.

Pros: Inexpensive, rack mount SAN device. Interface is basic and straight forward. Good, basic instructions are provided on each page for completing basic functions. Snapshot & replication options are also available. Monitoring page provides h/w usage and load but no graphs. Fans are quiet as far as rack mount devices go. Comes with rack-mounting hardware.

Cons: The dual NICs are Realtek 8111, which are s/w-based. No easy way to add more NICs. The blue power LED on the front is VERY bright, I mean BLINDINGLY bright. Telnet is active by default. This should be disabled by default since SSH is already available (it can be done via the UI). The web UI has no h/w temp monitoring.

Other Thoughts: This is not an enterprise SAN device nor is it priced like one. I have not tested the ADS piece but intend to use it, if possible. No interaction with tech support, I had not needed it. Used with 4ea Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" drives. 35 MB/sec IO speeds observed, via iSCSI, which is comparable to my FreeNAS device w/2ea of the same drives.

Pros: It was part of a combo deal - very cheap. (but you get what you pay for)

Cons: The web management is riddled with bugs. I.E. restore to factory defaults didn't work, enumerating users in ADS didn't work, incorrect error messages, etc...

Also, the technical support was, by far, the least helpful technical support I've ever experienced. The technician didn't know what the 'admin' default password was without escalating to his RnD department when it's documented in the manual. Also, he denied the 'admin' user was even a default user. Another thing he had no clue about was what 'syslog' is. It seems that a technician should at least have heard of syslog. On top of all that, it would take 3 days to get a call back and only after e-mailing several times.

Other Thoughts: I recommend staying far away from SansDigital...

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

Please note the restore default will reset the unit to factory status, except the IP setting. The IP setting will retain for easier connection.

The ADS requires correct FQDN, DNS and IP for the AD server. If you have missing any of the information, you will not be able to join the domain.

The "admin" user is a default user and password is "111111". It is a default user admin. This version of the NAS is based on Linux and we also provide root access to the folder. "admin" user is recommended to use in the CLI to avoid unauthorized change.

We do not support syslog, except 3rd party add-on. Since a root access is granted, additional package can be installed.

Please contact us at 1-800-980-1988 or e-mail us at tech@sansdigital.com. You case is escalated to a senior engineer to better service you. Please refer to case # 1004849 for further assistant.