MikroTik Introduces RDS2216 Device — Hybrid Arm Server, NAS, and Switch

MikroTik has announced an unusual RDS2216 rackmount system that actually combines several devices in a 1U case. The new product can function as a server with Arm architecture, a network storage (NAS) and a switch.

The solution is based on the Annapura Labs AL73400 (AWS Graviton) processor. The chip combines 16 Armv8 Cortex-A72 cores with a frequency of up to 2 GHz. The equipment includes 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and 128 MB of NAND flash memory. The Marvell Prestera 98DX4310 switching chip with partial L3 unloading is used.

Image source: MikroTik

The system has two 10GbE ports with RJ45 connectors, four SFP28 25GbE ports, two QSFP28 100GbE ports, and four 10GbE SFP+ ports. In addition, there is a 1GbE connector and a console port (RJ45). There are two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, as well as a pair of SFF-8644. The server can carry up to 20 U.2 NVMe drives with a thickness of 7 mm (PCIe 3.0 x2) and TCG OPAL support. In addition, two internal M.2 modules with a SATA interface can be installed.

Power is provided by two hot-swappable power supplies, and cooling is provided by ten fans. The operating temperature range extends from -20 to +50 °C. RouterOS v7 (Special ROSE Edition) is used as a software platform. This system supports such functions as data encryption, snapshots, compression, and storage sharing via NFS, iSCSI, SMB, NVMe/TCP protocols. The device is made in an original olive color. MikroTik RDS2216 will go on sale at an estimated price of $1950 without installed drives.