Technische Universität Ilmenau

The faculty of Computer science and automation has various requirements regarding storage-solutions. Synology NAS-Server RS2212RP+ is a flexible, versatile and scalable supplement to our server landscape. Torsten Paschke, Institute of Technical Computer Science & Engineering Computer Science, TU Ilmenau

The Company

TU Ilmenau is the only technical university of the State of Thuringia, which stands for a long tradition in the education of electrical and mechanical engineering. The school currently offers 7,000 students with pioneering interdisciplinary programs that comprehend more than 40 bachelor and master degrees in Engineering, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Economics, and Social Sciences.

The Challenge

In 2011, the entire faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Automation moved to a new building called Zusebau. The department contained faculties from 9 divisions. To have the building entirely well-equipped, not only fundamental architectural technology was required, but also the storage system needed to be robust, solid, and of high quality. In short, reliability was an important factor of consideration when purchasing a NAS system. It should be able to ensure smooth operation that can sustain a long period of time. Furthermore, flexibility of the NAS system was on the top list as well since the 9 divisions had different requirements for a NAS server. Lastly, it was expected to have a storage system that requires minimum administrative efforts.

The Solution

As the faculties are well-trained in the field of computer science, it was effortless for them to set up and configure a NAS server. The only requirement would be to find a storage system that's reliable and versatile to fulfill the faculty's different and complex requirements. After conducting the market research in the area of dedicated storage solutions, Synology RackStation RS2212RP+ was chosen. The school now deploys 9 servers, successfully delivering storage requests from respective departments. In most cases, the NAS servers are deployed as additional backup storage which data are accessed from Linux, Solaris, and Windows system. Some divisions only use the server for network sharing or Windows AD integration. In general, RAID data protection is used to secure all departmental data and educational materials.

Take one case from the 9 divisions as an example, the RS2212RP+ is used as an iSCSI target to backup systems. The backup mechanism for its cross-platform systems are connected directly via rsync shares to NFS shares or iSCSI. The RS2212RP+ also serves as a PXE server to boot up multiple client computers via the network. The dual network interfaces are used in the multi-path mode in order to increase reliability and performance.

The Benefits

In general, the RS2212RP+ has proved to be the robust and reliable solutions for TU Ilmenau. So far only a hard drive failure occurred which did not cause any data loss, thanks to RAID protection. After a rebuild within an acceptable amount of time, the system was back in its best possible condition. This is also a strong proof to RackStation's reliability. The NAS servers are relatively easy to manage and can be adapted very well to the different structural requirements. "Synology server offers very flexible storage solutions to meet all demands, " said one of the faculties. " The RS2212RP+ is ideal for any future rising demands."

Recommended Models

  • RS2212RP+

Recommended Features

  • Deployment flexibility
  • iSCSI integration
  • Backup Server
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