ASUSTOR LockerStor 2 Gen2+ Review: 5 Gbps Networking Makes a Difference
ASUSTOR has recently launched its LockerStor Gen2+ range: this is a revision of the second generation of LockerStor NAS, characterized by the arrival of 5 Gbps network connectors, thus offering superior performance in file transfers.
ASUSTOR LockerStor 2 Gen2+: 5 Gbps Networking Arrives
ASUSTOR has renewed its second generation LockerStor NAS range with the "Gen2+", which is equipped with a 5 Gbps network connection: a significant leap forward compared to the 2.5 Gbps connectivity available on the Gen2.
Apart from the network connectors, the LockerStor 2 Gen2+ is entirely identical to its predecessor. This means it uses the same Intel Celeron N5105 CPU, launched back in 2021, featuring 4 cores and 4 threads, with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz (boosted to 2.9 GHz). Accompanying it are 4 GB of DDR4-2933 RAM on a SODIMM module (expandable up to 16 GB) and 8 GB of eMMC memory for the operating system.
Regarding expansion ports, there are two USB 3.1 ports (10 Gbps, one on the front and one on the back), one USB 2.0 port, and one HDMI 2.0b port. Connectivity is provided by two RJ45 ports at 5 Gbps, which can also be used in trunking (that is, together, to achieve an overall speed of 10 Gbps). On the back of the device, there is a single 70 mm fan for cooling.
Looking at storage, we find two 3.5-inch SATA drive bays (which, it should be noted, require screws for installation, rather than adopting a tool-less system like most competitors) along with 4 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, featuring blocks that do not require screws and screwdrivers (but a screwdriver is needed to open the case and access the slots).
There are no limitations on the use of such drives (any SSD can be used, up to a maximum of 8 TB capacity each), but one must consider that each slot is limited by the single PCIe 3.0 lane it has; thus, it is not possible to fully exploit the performance of PCIe 4.0 and later SSDs. This limitation arises from the processor, which has a total of 8 PCIe Gen 3 lanes.
We received the LockerStor 2 Gen2+ from ASUSTOR with two Seagate Ironwolf 1 TB drives and two Kingston KC3000 1 TB NVMe SSDs already installed; both the mechanical drives and SSDs were configured in RAID 1. We tested the NAS both using the SSDs as cache and using them as separate storage. In this second case, the mechanical drives achieved remarkable performance, reaching 593 MB/s read speeds but stopping at 243 MB/s write speeds. Adding the cache resulted in identical read performance, while write speeds improved by about 25% to 307 MB/s.
Interestingly, the performance remains practically unchanged even when using only the SSDs; it was only by using both network connectors to reach a total of 10 Gbps bandwidth that we achieved superior performance, exceeding 600 MB/s in write speeds and saturating bandwidth with over 1 GB/s in reads.
ASUSTOR LockerStor 2 Gen2+: ADM 5.1 with Many Applications
The operating system of ASUSTOR is called ADM (ASUSTOR Drive Manager), based on Linux, and is accessible from any web browser. ADM offers the possibility to share files over the network using a wide range of protocols (SMB, NFS, AFS, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, SFTP, and SNMP), to create iSCSI targets for block storage, to set up an rsync server, and to manage virtual machines and containers.
The latter aspect is the most interesting, because App Central, which allows downloading applications to extend the NAS's functionality, enables the use of Docker-based applications. Directly from the ADM interface, there are many pre-configured applications ready for use like Calibre-web, Paperless-ngx, Immich, Jellyfin, Tailscale, and Vaultwarden. The ability to install such applications with one click significantly simplifies the procedure and makes it accessible to anyone; however, it should be noted that often the versions offered are outdated, dating back several months compared to the latest available.
The user experience of the system is smooth and fast, except for some interactions that become lengthy and frustrating: for instance, navigating through pages of App Central requires waiting several seconds for the system to load them. The problem seems to be related to client-side content management, as the browser tends to use all available CPU during these interactions, indicating that ASUSTOR still needs to work on optimizing its software.
Overall, ADM is a powerful and easy-to-use platform; if you are already accustomed to using NAS from other brands, it requires a bit of adjustments, as the settings are managed and distributed differently and sometimes not entirely intuitively (for example, the "settings" application contains settings related only to the ADM operating system, while everything else is managed separately).
There are still several rough edges that need to be smoothed out for ADM to be comparable to the platforms of QNAP and Synology, whose maturity remains superior.
One last point to note concerns virtualization, which is dependent on VirtualBox, in a very old and unsupported version and identical to that used on Linux distributions for desktop computers. This means that the VirtualBox Extension Pack must be installed to control virtual machines, and this pack is not open source, but requires purchase of licenses from Oracle to be used in a business context (a fact not mentioned by ASUSTOR on its installation page in App Central). Without the installation of the Extension Pack, VirtualBox becomes useless because it is not possible to control the VMs; this means that, in practice, the virtualization functionality comes at a cost for professional and business users.
We inquired with ASUSTOR about the issue, and the company responded that it is currently working on an alternative solution based on KVM, similar to those used by all competitors. This will resolve the problem at its root, but it is not known when the update will be released.
Conclusions
The ASUSTOR LockerStor 2 Gen2+ is a complete NAS capable of meeting diverse needs and many different use cases, from simple file sharing on the local network to storage for virtual machines via iSCSI. The presence of the two 5 Gbps network connectors makes it extremely flexible.
While, on the hardware front, the LockerStor 2 Gen2+ is a device with specifications sufficient to handle most tasks, on the software side, ADM is a platform that still requires time to mature and reach the same level of performance and functionality offered by competitors. The fact that a license is required to use VirtualBox in professional and business contexts limits the utility and convenience of the NAS, although a solution to the problem is on the way; we hope that the company updates the App Center to specify this limitation.
Overall, therefore, it is a valid device that stands out from many direct competitors for the performance it offers in terms of transfer speeds: if this is the primary selection parameter, the LockerStor 2 Gen2+ is an option to consider.