Synology DX1215II Drive Enclosure SATA - InfiniBand Host Interface External

The Synology DX1215II is a high-capacity, external drive enclosure designed to seamlessly boost your DiskStation’s storage capabilities. With its 12-bay desktop form factor, this expansion unit delivers generous expansion potential for growing data needs, while maintaining a compact footprint that fits neatly in workstation spaces or data-center desks. Built to work in harmony with Synology DiskStations, the DX1215II enables online volume and storage expansion, so you can add capacity, create new volumes, and grow your storage pool without interrupting ongoing operations. Whether you’re backing up large archives, hosting a multimedia library, or expanding cold storage for enterprise workloads, the DX1215II provides a reliable, scalable solution that preserves performance and simplifies administration. The InfiniBand host interface external connection ensures fast, low-latency communication between the expansion unit and your NAS, empowering you to scale storage without sacrificing speed or reliability. This external chassis is purpose-built to integrate into existing Synology ecosystems, enabling seamless storage expansion while keeping deployment footprints manageable and predictable.

• 12-bay storage expansion: Expand DiskStation capacity dramatically by adding up to twelve drives, enabling robust capacity growth for backups, media libraries, virtual machines, and large data workflows without replacing your existing NAS hardware.
• External InfiniBand host interface: The dedicated InfiniBand connection delivers high-throughput, low-latency communication between the DX1215II and compatible DiskStations, helping sustain fast data transfer rates as your storage pool grows.
• Desktop form factor with minimal footprint: A compact, self-contained chassis designed to sit on a desk or shelf, offering substantial storage headroom while preserving a clean, organized workspace and easy accessibility for maintenance.
• Online volume and storage expansion: Add new volumes or seamlessly expand existing ones from within DiskStation Manager (DSM) without taking systems offline, reducing downtime and keeping critical services available.
• Plug-and-play with DSM and hot-swappable trays: Designed for straightforward installation into a Synology environment, with hot-swappable drive trays that simplify drive upgrades, replacements, and maintenance while the NAS remains online in many scenarios.

Technical Details of Synology DX1215II Drive Enclosure

• Bays: 12 external drive bays for SATA-based storage expansion
• Form factor: Desktop external expansion enclosure that sits alongside your DiskStation
• Interface: InfiniBand external host interface for high-speed connectivity to compatible NAS devices
• Drive compatibility: Supports SATA-based drives (drives not included)
• Management: Integrates with Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) for online volume and storage expansion
• Power: External power supply required for reliable operation

how to install Synology DX1215II

Installing the DX1215II is a straightforward process designed to minimize downtime and keep your data flow uninterrupted. Begin by planning the expansion in DSM to ensure you allocate the additional storage to the right volume or pool. Here are the practical steps to get you started:

• Step 1 — Prepare and power down: While some environments support online expansion, it is best practice to power down the expansion chassis and the DiskStation when making the physical connections. Ensure you have a stable power source and a clean workspace.
• Step 2 — Position and connect: Place the DX1215II near your DiskStation. Connect the InfiniBand host interface cable between the expansion unit and the DiskStation’s IB interface port. Confirm the cable is fully seated at both ends to prevent intermittent connectivity.
• Step 3 — Install drives: If you are adding new drives, gently insert SATA drives into the 12 bays. Use the hot-swappable trays if your model supports them, ensuring each drive is firmly seated and locked into place. If you’re expanding an existing pool, you may choose to populate the bays according to your expansion strategy, such as sharding across multiple drives for performance or capacity utilization.
• Step 4 — power up and verify: Reconnect power to the DX1215II and the DiskStation, then power them on. Open DSM on your DiskStation management console and navigate to Storage Manager to confirm that the DX1215II is recognized as an expansion unit and that all drives are detected.
• Step 5 — configure in DSM: In Storage Manager, select Storage > Storage Expansion. Follow the guided prompts to add a new volume linked to the expansion or to extend an existing volume with the additional capacity provided by the DX1215II. Confirm the target volume, tiering preferences (if applicable), and any RAID configurations you intend to use. DSM will handle the integration, initializing new drives and redistributing data as configured.
• Step 6 — monitor and optimize: After expansion, monitor drive health, transfer performance, and capacity usage from DSM. Use Storage Manager and Resource Monitor to keep an eye on drive temperatures, SMART data, and throughput so you can address issues proactively and maintain peak performance.
• Step 7 — maintenance and upgrades: When performing maintenance, take advantage of hot-swap trays if supported, replacing or upgrading individual drives without interrupting critical services. Ensure you have current backups before making major structural changes to your storage pool.

Frequently asked questions

• Q: What is the DX1215II? A: The DX1215II is a 12-bay external drive enclosure with an InfiniBand host interface designed to expand a Synology DiskStation’s storage capacity and provide online volume and storage expansion without requiring a full NAS upgrade.
• Q: Which DiskStations are compatible with the DX1215II? A: The DX1215II is intended to integrate with Synology DiskStations that support external storage expansion via an InfiniBand connection. Compatibility depends on DSM capabilities and the available expansion interfaces of the NAS model. Always verify DSM version and expansion support for your specific DiskStation model.
• Q: Can I expand storage online without downtime? A: Yes. The DX1215II supports online volume and storage expansion, allowing you to add capacity and create or extend volumes while the NAS remains online and operational, minimizing downtime and service interruptions.
• Q: What kind of drives can I use? A: The enclosure is designed for SATA drives. You can use standard SATA hard drives or SATA SSDs that meet your capacity and performance requirements, keeping in mind the redundancy and performance architecture of your overall storage solution.
• Q: Do the drive trays support hot-swapping? A: The DX1215II features drive trays designed for quick tray changes. If your deployment uses hot-swappable trays, you can replace or upgrade drives without powering down the system, reducing maintenance windows and downtime.
• Q: How do I monitor the expansion’s health? A: After installation, monitor the DX1215II through DSM’s Storage Manager and Resource Monitor. You can review drive SMART data, drive temperatures, array health, and reconstruction progress to ensure optimal performance and early detection of potential issues.
• Q: Is InfiniBand necessary for operation? A: The InfiniBand interface provides high-speed connectivity between the expansion enclosure and the DiskStation, maximizing throughput for large-scale storage tasks. Depending on your network architecture and NAS model, you may choose to deploy other high-speed interconnects if supported, but InfiniBand is the specified interface for this enclosure.