Computing on Demand PC News & Reviews
LaCie NAS OS3 isn’t a large diparture from NAS OS2. Aside from some new bells and whistles, the interface looks very similar. This is unlike QNAP’s rather large departure in QTS 4 from QTS 3. The interface remains smooth and familiar.
LaCie’s official press release states:
RAID 5 SPEED BOOST
With this update, the LaCie 5big NAS Pro now features RAID 5 write speeds up to 100MB/s on a single LAN, a 25 percent increase from the previous NAS OS version. This speed boost enables admins to easily back up several computers at the same time. Alternatively, content creators can edit 1080p content directly from the NAS.
HYBRID CLOUD ADVANCEMENTS
In addition to letting users sync data between a computer and the cloud, NAS OS 3.1 now lets users sync data between a computer and the NAS. This ensures that all employees have the most current version of files on all their devices. Sync makes sure that an employee in sales, for example, will always have the most up-to-date price list and can pull marketing collateral from their phone or tablet during a sales pitch.
MORE PROFESSIONAL FEATURES
NAS OS 3 now features hardware monitoring that alerts the admin in real-time of potential issues with the fan, CPU and RAM. It also features SMART hard disk diagnostic tests and hardware status email alerts. These new capabilities let admins stay on top of data security and prevent downtime.
LaCie has also added support for multiple iSCSI initiators and targets. This brings flexibility to a company’s virtualization scheme, including those that integrate Citrix®, VMware® or Hyper-V® servers. Admins can combine storage into data center arrays while letting host computers mount network
Administration is essentially the same as with NAS OS2. However, there are a few enhancements definitely worth mentioning.
First, the storage manager has been completely redesigned. The interface is much more appealing and sensible, laying out volumes and iSCSI information in a very readable format. The ability to have multiple volumes alone is a major improvement.
Additionally, the hardware monitoring is vastly improved. We now have the ability to monitor CPU temp, case temp, and fan speed. Network utilization as well as CPU and RAM utilization are graphed and simple. Drive information is accessible through a Drive tab and can report back SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status.
There have also been some improvements to Backup. Backup not only supports their NetBackup Server (rsync), but can now create replication jobs to backup your LaCie Nas to a local disk or a network location (other rsync compatible NAS).
Much of the legacy interface configuration remains the same with some subtle enhancements. General Settings, Users, Shares, Groups, and the like.
