Synology DS214play: Intel Evansport Almost Done Right
by Ganesh T S on May 20, 2014 3:00 PM ESTEncryption Support Evaluation - Single Client CIFS on Windows
Consumers looking for encryption capabilities can opt to encrypt a iSCSI share with TrueCrypt or some in-built encryption mechanism in the client OS. However, if requirements dictate that the data must be shared across multiple users / computers, relying on encryption in the NAS is the best way to move forward. Most NAS vendors use the industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption algorithm. One approach is to encrypt only a particular shared folder while the other approach is to encrypt the full volume. Synology supports only folder-level encryption in DSM.
On the hardware side, encryption support can be in the form of specialized hardware blocks in the SoC (common in ARM / PowerPC based NAS units). In x86-based systems, accelerated encryption support is dependent on whether the AES-NI instruction is available on the host CPU. The Atom CPU in the Evansport SoC doesn't support AES-NI, but the SoC does have a security engine. Unfortunately, Synology's firmware doesn't take advantage of the security engine's APIs. The encryption is done using the host CPU and the performance is hit heavily. We enabled encryption on a a CIFS share to repeat our Intel NASPT / robocopy benchmarks. The results are presented in the graph below.
Enabling encryption pulls down the performance numbers, most times by more than 50%. If encryption is important, it might be better to wait for the next generation of Atom-based NAS units (the new Atom CPUs have AES-NI) or opt for a higher-end unit sporting a CPU with AES-NI capabilities. On the other hand, the hardware-accelerated transcoding capabilities are lost with other platforms.
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Lundmark - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
Plex does work on the ds214play! I use it all the time on mine. Just download the latest package from the Plex website and upload manually.It doesn't support hardware transcoding however, and it probably never will (on evansport).
Be Careful - Friday, May 30, 2014 - link
Hey what do you know about İntel?Please read and learn.
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/corevpro.html
ScooterComputer - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link
One place that I also found it interesting that Synology didn't employ the transcoding feature of the SoC was with Surveillance Station, even in the latest SS6.3 Beta. The number of cameras and features the DS214play supported (requiring transcoding) was below what I'd expect compared to even the DS214. [http://www.synology.com/en-us/products/compare_pro...]Fallout552 - Monday, June 16, 2014 - link
How would hooking one of these up to the router and then (best case conditions in theory) streaming via powerline to an HTPC for transcoding work? Would a DS214se work just as well since the transcoding is taking place on the HTPC, not the NAS?raymondub - Saturday, September 20, 2014 - link
Hii was thinking to buy the Synology DS-214+ or DS214Play and to use it with the raspberry Pi to watch movies on TV. I d like to watch also movies on 2 different samsung galaxy tab 2 through DS Video . So which is the best ? DS-214+ or DS214Play ?
thx