Guide to Native Drivers: DSM 6.1.7 and 6.2.1 on DS3615
Which DSM version shall I use? This is an oft-repeated question, complicated by the fact that different loaders support different DSM versions AND hardware platforms.
In simple terms, DS3615/DS3617 has the widest support for hardware and packages, and DS916/DS918 has support for newer, low-cost CPU's, transcoding and NVMe cache (DS918 only).
But the real questions are, what hardware do you have? What hardware do you want to buy in order to support what you want to do? And how
Bump for the addition of the 6.2.1 driver guide for DS3615. Comparing 6.1.7 and 6.2.1 is interesting, and I'll summarize findings here:
r8168/r8169 support was completely removed from 6.2.1 on this platform
Intel i40e and ixgbe drivers were enhanced on 6.2.1 to support newer cards
Mellanox mlx4 and mlx5 drivers were enhanced on 6.2.1 to support newer cards
Comparing DS3615 and DS918, in most cases there continues to be significantly better native driver support in DS3
