Network

Network service advertising

These options can make browsing for EVO shares on your network easier. Note that advertising for the host may not be the intended path for the workstation to use! EVO shares should be mounted (mapped) specifically using the intended network path, which may be a different address from what’s advertised and listed in the macOS Finder sidebar and Microsoft Explorer.

In addition to possibly being the incorrect route to EVO, when browsing an advertised share, each click to navigate its structure queries the server for a directory listing, which is much slower than browsing the cached contents of a mounted network share.

Host name - The host name is used to uniquely identify each EVO unit. It is a good practice to change the host name (“EVO” by default) to a name that helps identify the particular EVO unit, especially if your site makes use of more than one EVO.

Description - The environment’s naming convention for host names may not be very descriptive, so this additional field can help with identification for a system and its purpose.

WINS - This protocol is rather deprecated, and disabled by default. The Windows Internet Name Service enables EVO to act as a server to translate network share names into IP addresses. This is similar to how a DNS server allows you to only have to remember the name of a website, instead of its IP address. This may require that your network administrator add the IP address of EVO as a WINS service in your DHCP server. See Advanced for more information on setting your workgroup if your site doesn’t use the default value of “workgroup”.

Avahi - This software is made to speak the same Zeroconf protocol as Apple’s Bonjour for network advertisement. With this service enabled, the EVO shares will show up in the Network section at the left of Finder windows. Some network backup devices also use this information to help configure scheduled backups of NAS shares. This is enabled by default.

Note

While browsing to a location on the network is simple, it may not be the best method when it comes to working with the system. Once shares have been discovered on the network, editors should mount/map the volumes on their workstations instead of continuing to browse the target. This allows for directory caching and other communication optimizations.

DNS

For EVO to locate any devices by DNS (Domain Name System) instead of IP addresses (when defining an NTP server or mail server, for example), it must know the DNS server addresses for your network. Most networks have two DNS servers, but if yours has only one, enter it as the Primary. If the DNS address fields are left blank, Google’s Public DNS addresses will be automatically defaulted as the primary (8.8.8.8) and secondary (8.8.4.4) DNS addresses the first time EVO boots with Internet connectivity available.

Primary - 8.8.8.8 (Google primary DNS is populated as default if an internet connection is available)

Secondary - 8.8.4.4 (Google secondary DNS is populated as default if an internet connection is available)

Tip

Use the Custom test option on the Ping Test to test DNS server availability.

Ethernet ports

Use the Ethernet Port List to make changes to the default Ethernet connectivity settings. For reliable performance, EVO will not allow its Ethernet ports to have overlapping subnets.

Note

EVO’s eth1 port has the DHCP client role assigned by default. This allows EVO to be connected to the LAN to automatically receive an IP address from the router or DHCP server.

Warning

Incorrect Ethernet port settings can render your EVO unit unable to communicate with other systems on your network and even cause a loss of connection to the web-based interface. If you are unsure of the proper way to configure the Ethernet settings of your EVO system, please contact Studio Network Solutions or the authorized reseller that provided your unit for advice and recommendations.

Tip

If DHCP Client is assigned to a port and it does not receive an address, disconnect and reconnect its Ethernet cable to send a new request to the DHCP Server.

Aggregated interfaces

Multiple Ethernet ports can be bonded to act as one port. The aggregated interface is assigned one IP address, and once correctly configured at the switch, client workstations will be able to communicate over any aggregated port using a single IP address.

This provides redundancy as well as ease of configuration. If any link fails, the other(s) will be used. Performance depends largely on the configuration and features of the Ethernet switch. Some configurations will yield an aggregated link that is no faster than a single gigabit link (providing only redundancy), whereas others will produce a link that is capable of nearly the same total bandwidth as individually-configured ports.

Note

Link aggregation requires a switch to enforce the LAG policy.

To aggregate interfaces on EVO, select the appropriate checkboxes in the list of Ethernet ports and click the Save button. The new aggregated interface will retain the settings of the lowest-numbered Ethernet device that is part of the group. To release an aggregated interface, click the Deactivate button in the Aggregated interfaces list. The settings for the aggregate interface will be applied to the lowest-numbered Ethernet device that was part of the group.

Virtual switch assignment

For peak performance, each workstation should have a dedicated network controller reserved for communication with EVO, in a discrete subnet. However, some smaller production environments may not have an existing high speed local network, or the workstations may only have one Ethernet port available, etc. EVO’s Virtual Switch Mode can simplify the process of configuring workstations and in some cases eliminate the need for additional network hardware. It uses a small portion of EVO’s processing power to allow multiple workstations to communicate with EVO while maintaining a connection to each other and an external network, such as the internet.

This feature is limited by the number of physical ports available on EVO; additional network cards can be installed if more ports are needed. Multiple virtual switches can be created on one EVO. For example, a 16 Bay EVO that includes four 1GbE ports could be used to directly connect three workstations, with the fourth port used to connect to the internet, or all four ports could be used to connect to workstations in an isolated (private) network.

If redundant (failover) connections are used (multiple physical connections between an EVO’s virtual switch and a physical switch), Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) must be enabled on EVO as well as the physical switch. This is to prevent loopback errors on the network, which would severely impact communication. STP needs to be enabled any time there is more than one path to the same device on the network.

Click the plus symbol to select port members for a new virtual switch. Upon creation, the virtual switch assumes the IP address of the first port added, and the lowest MAC address found among the included interfaces. All the member ports must have the same MTU value. If the virtual switch is removed, the IP address remains associated with the lowest MAC address, and other member ports revert to their default IP addresses.

Note

The IP address of an existing virtual switch will not change when adding new ports, but if one of the added ports has a lower MAC address, the virtual switch will assume that MAC address.

Ping test

The Ping test is a tried-and-true method of making sure your network is set up properly and that you can communicate with other network devices. It simply sends a packet of information to a remote machine, and requests that the remote machine acknowledge that it received it by responding with another packet. The standard test will ping several preconfigured addresses on the internet. Alternatively, you can choose a custom address to use with the test.

Note

The default firewall settings in some versions of Windows may prevent those machines from responding to ping requests.