Synology: Unified Controller UC3200 Active-Active IP SAN for Mission-Critical Environments

Synology Inc. launched Unified Controller UC3200, a dual controller server aiming for highly available iSCSI data services in enterprises’ mission-critical environments, along with its expansion unit RXD1219sas.

“A common challenge for enterprise IT administrators is to find a near-zero downtime iSCSI solution with a simple user interface and affordable TCO,” said Jason Fan, product manager. “The brand new Unified Controller UC3200 is designed to tackle these issues. UC3200 is an active-active IP SAN solution that can maximize service uptime, and its intuitive OS also allows administrators to manage two controllers from one single portal, which facilitates management without a steep learning curve.”

Uc3200 rear

Reliability
Powered by Xeon 4-core, 2.4GHz CPU and 8GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM per controller, UC3200 delivers over 140,000 4K random write IO/s in an aggregated 10GbE environment. ⁽¹⁾

Memory: 8GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM, expandable up to 64GB.
10GbE built-in: one 10GbE and two 1GbE Ethernet ports supporting failover and link aggregation.
PCIe expansion: One PCIe 3.0 slot for additional network interface card’s expansion.
Scalability: 12 SAS drives bays by default, scalable up to 500TB with two RXD1219sas. ⁽²⁾
Modularized design: Key system components including SAS modules and system fans are replaceable to maximize system uptime.

Unitech Computer has joined the pre-launch beta program to help us ensure the stability of UC3200 in actual production environments.

“Synology UC3200 has far exceeded my expectations with its stellar user experience. The setup is effortless, not to mention the seamless failover between the two active-active controllers when something goes wrong with our virtual storage,” said Tony Chen, manager, technical support department, Unitech Computer. “Except email notifications, I’ve never heard any issues reported by my colleagues. I’ll definitely recommend Synology UC3200 to businesses seeking an iSCSI storage for their virtualization environment as it ensures high reliability and performance at a price that represents good value for money.“

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HA
With the hardware design, UC3200 helps businesses achieve near-zero service interruptions and further facilitate IT operations.

Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB): Allow one controller to take over the service when the other breaks down.
Self-encrypting drive: Support data encryption to secure critical data at the hardware level.
Built-in SATA-DOM: Isolate the OS from critical data.
Resilient cache protection: Sync the cached data between the 2 controllers to avoid data loss in case of a controller failure before data is written to HDDs.
5-year warranty

Designed for virtualization environments
UC3200 provides verified iSCSI virtualization integration with mainstream hypervisors.

iSCSI standard ALUA compliance: Allow hosts to identify the optimized paths to increase transfer performance and efficiency.
Application-aware snapshot: Provide a virtual DR plan for your virtualized workloads.
Virtualization-ready: Certified for vSphere 6.5, Hyper-V, Xenserver, and OpenStack Cinder.

RXD1219sas, capacity expansion for UC3200

RXD1219sas is a 2U expansion unit and a storage space upgrade solution for UC3200. You can add up to 12 additional 2.5″/3.5″ SAS drive bays on the fly by connecting UC3200 and RXD1219sas directly with two mini-SAS HD cables, and replace critical system components including SAS modules and system fans to ensure maximum system uptime.

Scalability: Plug-and-play design for seamless storage space upgrade.
Performance: Mini-SAS HD connectivity enabling high-performance data transmission.
Reliability: Redundant power supplies to maximize service uptime.

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⁽¹⁾ Performance figures may vary depending on environment, usage, and configuration.
⁽²⁾ UC3200 can scale up to 36 drives with two RXD1219sas, sold separately.