Happily setup the DS1511+ and parity checking finally completed after 10 hours for 3 x 2TB hdd. Tried to setup network link aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad) since the 5 port variant showed compatible so my 8-port must work no? NOPE! Failed and had to just enable “Network fault tolerance only” mode which only kicks in if 1 NIC fails. I’m now looking at a 55 MB/s transfer rate and wondering how can I boost this?!

If you’re wondering, why do i need more speed? Well, when trying to transfer almost 3 TB worth of data, you want all the SPEED you can get! (DS1511+ has advertised 165.91 MB/sec Writing, 197.8 MB/sec Reading)

Did some research to understand bit more in depth and came across a post that asked the questions swirling in my head.

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?p=42413

What exactly are the technical differences between the two Link Aggregation modes (“IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation” and “non-IEEE 802.3ad Adaptive Load Balancing”) that are supported by Synology? Is “Adaptive Load Balancing” the same as “Static Link Aggregation”, for example? The help-text in the UI does not really clarify this.

The answer?

Feature: ‘IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation’ vs. ‘Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)’
Load Balancing: Tx/Rx vs. Tx only
Layer 3 Address Aggregation: yes vs. IP and IPX only
Layer 2 Address Aggregation: yes vs. no
Requires a switch that supports link aggregation: yes vs. no

Static Link Aggregation (SLA) is a form of IEEE 802.3ad, but is NOT supported by Synology. ALB is NOT a form of IEEE 802.3ad, but IS supported by Synology.

If you need to get even more info, read Intel’s explanation.

So now, should I go into overkill mode and bring back the Linksys SRW2024 (now rebranded under Cisco) from the DC? or go with a more sane 8-port Zyxel ES-2108-G?