Thoughts on Synology NAS

Synology NAS' are well built and their software is (at present) competitive for power and ease of use. I have to admit, lately Synology has been making corporate decisions that are questionable, at least from the user perspective. It seems they are more interested in preventing problems (for them), than they are in selling systems. They are clearly not cutting edge and are not driving the state of the art. Having said that if you are interested in moving to one I'd suggest you get one that will hold you functionally as long as possible, which right now is probably no more than about 3-5 years. The state of the art in NAS development is growing steadily and right now Synology is not leading that drive in spite of their systems robustness.

Having said all that I'd recommend you do your research, Synology systems are widely used and there are many very good websites and youtube videos out there that will help you in your decision. If you do narrow down your choice to Synology, you should know what's involved in getting one up & running using Synology's DSM OS. I've used an older DS218j since 2015 which is now relegated as a surveillance host using Synology Surveillance System which runs perfectly. I've also run a DS423+ as a NAS and Jellyfin movie streamer along with several other container-based Apps. Up until recently it ran perfectly.

Some things you should consider. #1, you should have your NAS on a UPS. Taking one down, especially a Synology one with a power drop can be catastrophic as I've recently found out. My UPS failed (a very rare occurance) with my DS423+ apparently right in the middle of a write operation which corrupted my BTRFS file system pretty much bricking all 591 of my movies with no backup (yeah, I know, live & learn) so now I have to re-rip all of them. #2, If you do run with a UPS don't connect that UPS to any kind of a generator. Generators, especially older ones do not provide clean power as a rule and UPS's need clean power or they'll protest and continually "bounce". I suspect this was the source of my recent problems.

I've been looking hard at hosting my Jellyfin instance on an SSD NAS, but I think that technology is still evolving. There are several SSD NAS's out there but they have their problems. Using SATA SSDs you are pretty much limited to 4TB SSDs which are usually reliable but expensive. The same is true for NVMe SSDs but some of those systems exhibit heat problems. You can go with U.2 drives but again expense is a major factor. I'm hoping these problems will diminish and they'll become more competitive in the near future. From a RAW data storage perspective HDDs are your most cost-effective option. Just be aware that many HDDs on the market now are being sold as new when they aren't. I recently bought what I thought was a new Seagate 10TB EXOS HDD which showed only 53 hours of use, but actually had over 53,000 hours of use when closely examined.

Do your homework so you are comfortable with your decision.

Jabiru

I have a somewhat aging Netgear ReadyNAS with a pair of 8TB drives. Since Netgear has terminated their NAS product line, I may be looking for a new NAS soon. They went EOL on the product line a couple years ago, and there is no new product planned. I see they're still available in places like Amazon, but that must be old product still on the shelf.

OTOH, I have simple needs, I basically use the ReadyNAS as backup, and I already have several other layers of backup. The NAS really allows me to have access to the files throughout the network, that's it's primary mission. Rebuilding it if it dies won't be a big deal.

Jabiru said:

Do your homework so you are comfortable with your decision.

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Thanks for the suggestions, and I've been using a UPS forever, so yes, my NAS is on a UPS. Additionally, had you read my first post, you'd know I have a NAS, and have had it up and running since 2019.

Also, I never buy anything without doing research. It's my number one rule before purchasing. That said, asking questions and opinions here is also part of research.

You can't just read one post and think you know the whole story; you need to follow the thread to know the whole story. Or at the very least read the first post.

Thanks.

If need any sort of "Non Windows server" why even BOTHER with proprietary expensive things like that.

Even an OLD 15 year old Laptop running ANY version of Linux can give far better options than those "QNAP" OS things.


@gunrunnerjohn
@Jabiru

For simplicity simply install either Fedora or Linux Mint. Or even if you have slightly more knowledge - the legendary stable Debian system.

Networking always works straight OOTB and you can even install Windows VM's on a genuine Linux OS - KVM is as good as HYPER-V and a lot more flexible.

Note - Not Anti-Windows post here - just suggesting that using a proper Linux system these days on even really old hardware can work very well as a file / backup / multimedia device which has a huge amount of flexibility.

E.G old HP laptop circ 2016 vintage with only 8GB RAM - runs a W11 VM OK (even thouh officially CPU etc not supported), you can connect loads of external storage and works brilliantly as a file server etc
.

l
Why waste a load of money on quite inflexible and proprietary stuff. !!!

Just install Linux (any sensible distro) with a GUI -- KDE is probably the most "Windows like" or Linux mint - with SAMBA and you've got easy access (both ways) from / to all machines on your Lan including client connections !! All 100% Free software and on a machine some would have destined for the tip.





Cheers
jimbo

FYI...This article on XDA popped up for me a few days ago. Their thoughts on why/how Synology might be losing it's enthusiast base. Grain of salt and all that.

jimbo45 said:

If need any sort of "Non Windows server" why even BOTHER with proprietary expensive things like that.

Even an OLD 15 year old Laptop running ANY version of Linux can give far better options than those "QNAP" OS things.

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We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. I've had a NAS for at least 20 years, and the convenience of sticking it in the corner and never having to fool with it is great. A 15 year old laptop is unlikely to be running RAID for reliability, it's bulkier than my nice compact 2-drive NAS as well. My NAS also has a USB drive attached that does yet another daily backup of the RAID array for further redundancy.

Then there's the minor point of actually setting up that laptop and the applications for the job. You may have the time to fool around with yet another computer configuring all this, but some folks would rather have a canned solution.

The Synology DS223j is $189.99 on Amazon, pick the disks of your choice and do a quick setup and you're off to the races in a fraction of the time you'll spend screwing around with an ancient laptop.

gunrunnerjohn said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. I've had a NAS for at least 20 years, and the convenience of sticking it in the corner and never having to fool with it is great. A 15 year old laptop is unlikely to be running RAID for reliability, it's bulkier than my nice compact 2-drive NAS as well. My NAS also has a USB drive attached that does yet another daily backup of the RAID array for further redundancy.

Then there's the minor point of actually setting up that laptop and the applications for the job. You may have the time to fool around with yet another computer configuring all this, but some folks would rather have a canned solution.

The Synology DS223j is $189.99 on Amazon, pick the disks of your choice and do a quick setup and you're off to the races in a fraction of the time you'll spend screwing around with an ancient laptop.

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@gunrunnerjohn

I agree with an old laptop - but just saying it COULD be used if needed.

But this I found as a far better solution :

Actually why not get a "MiniPC" - similar price on Amazon -- I've got a number of these boxes now all doing various jobs - they even come equipped with Windows 11 PRO !!! so cheaper than an official version of Windows alone. The CPU in them is usually a decent Intel 4X 3.32GHZ N100 or better - base RAM 16GB, Internal NVME of 1TB plus space to add a classical SATA 2.5 inch SSD if you want a 2nd internal disk. You don't have to use the installed Windows -- although if you image it you can then use as a VM on Linux etc.

Connect external drives (RAID or otherwise) via 2 or 4 port external enclosures. Once booted with whatever OS you like they can just be left running 24/7 -- minimal power consumption, 100% reliable - and occupy such a small amount of space that you can hide them anywhere. With the latest Wifi you don't even need to use a LAN connection -- modern wifi can reach speeds of nearly 1Gbps.

With any Linux software RAID (mdadm) is a doddle to set up too. I use one of these boxes with RAID and 2 X 1TB HDD's (classic spinners) as a 24/7 security device (door / street cam) - it's been running 24/7 for nearly 18 months without even a single re-boot needed.

I've got one also with 2 X 14TB of external storage for client backups and file sharing another one dedicated as a media server for streaming multi-media and live TV etc and one just purely doing nothing to replace a box if one fails and one just for purely testing and playing around with - so around 6 in total -- far cheaper in total than even a modest laptop - especially as these things can be run headless if you have your own monitor etc.

Any decent Linux distro can install its server version in about 10 mins flat with minimal user config needed these days - you can of course run a GUI on it if you want plus any other apps - but if you just install copilot so you can access it remotely from any browser on a client laptop you've got a far better GUI type control than the synergy QNAP type of thing.


Cheers
jimbo

My point is that most folks just need the NAS for reliable storage, for that the $189 Synology box works great. My ancient Netgear ReadyNAS works fine and has for years. A couple years ago, one of the drives bit the dust, I got an alert, hot swapped the drive for a new one, and the NAS formatted it and rebuild the mirror, didn't lift a finger other than the physical replacement. I had the same experience with the even older Synology DS209 that my grandson is still using, pull a drive out, pop the new one in, and walk away.

I don't doubt that you can do it with Linux, my point is it's just easier and more compact to do a basic NAS with an NAS box. Given the low cost of the NAS boxes, the cost argument doesn't hold water either. Many years ago I used an old Windows computer for my network storage, but the RAID was a bit of a PITA to setup, that's gotten easier over the years.

gunrunnerjohn said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. I've had a NAS for at least 20 years, and the convenience of sticking it in the corner and never having to fool with it is great. A 15 year old laptop is unlikely to be running RAID for reliability, it's bulkier than my nice compact 2-drive NAS as well. My NAS also has a USB drive attached that does yet another daily backup of the RAID array for further redundancy.

Then there's the minor point of actually setting up that laptop and the applications for the job. You may have the time to fool around with yet another computer configuring all this, but some folks would rather have a canned solution.

The Synology DS223j is $189.99 on Amazon, pick the disks of your choice and do a quick setup and you're off to the races in a fraction of the time you'll spend screwing around with an ancient laptop.

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This ^^^

I actually thought about a mini-PC for a NAS, but also wonder would it hold up 24/7/365 as my WD NAS has so far for the last 6 years?

Dru2 said:

I actually thought about a mini-PC for a NAS, but also wonder would it hold up 24/7/365 as my WD NAS has so far for the last 6 years?

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Maybe my personal opinion, but I think a dedicated NAS box will be more reliable and easier to live with over the long haul. Given the prices of a basic 2-bay NAS box, I can't see any reason to screw around with a PC for this task. YMMV

I don't think about the NAS for weeks at a time, I know it's still alive because my automated backups don't barf. If it has any issue and isn't completely dead, it'll send me an alert so I can check into the problem.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Maybe my personal opinion, but I think a dedicated NAS box will be more reliable and easier to live with over the long haul. Given the prices of a basic 2-bay NAS box, I can't see any reason to screw around with a PC for this task. YMMV

I don't think about the NAS for weeks at a time, I know it's still alive because my automated backups don't barf. If it has any issue and isn't completely dead, it'll send me an alert so I can check into the problem.

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Thanks, and as a reminder, I'm looking at replacement options should my WD NAS finally give out. I'm just looking to be proactive as opposed to reactive. In short, I'm just thinking of the future.

All that said, you bring up some really good points and in fact we think alike here for a number of reasons. I wholeheartedly agree a dedicated NAS is the best solution for me, but it doesn't hurt to look at other options.

Anyway, in being "proactive" I'll be ordering a new set of 4 WD Red Pro drives to replace the ones that's been in the NAS since 2019. I also replaced the memory modules last year, so hopefully this will give me a few more years of use before I'm forced to replace the NAS unit itself.

At the end of the day, I'm just doing my research now, so I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do when replacement time is here.

Thanks to everyone who posted.

Sounds like a plan. If the NAS has lasted for five or six years, there is little evidence that it shouldn't last another five or six years at least. Electronic equipment failures follow a bathtub curve with a very long dip in the middle. After infant mortality, usually within a few hundred hours of operation, most properly designed equipment is very reliable for many years until gradually failures start to mount when components like electrolytic capacitors start aging. I typically would have more faith in a 5 year old box than a two month old box. I have test equipment on my bench that has had heavy use and is 40-50 years old, hasn't missed a beat.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Sounds like a plan.

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I just ordered 4 10TB WD Red Pro Drives direct from Western Digital. Got a $200 dollar bundle discount off that so it brought it down to $879 + taxes.

gunrunnerjohn said:

If the NAS has lasted for five or six years, there is little evidence that it shouldn't last another five or six years at least. Electronic equipment failures follow a bathtub curve with a very long dip in the middle. After infant mortality, usually within a few hundred hours of operation, most properly designed equipment is very reliable for many years until gradually failures start to mount when components like electrolytic capacitors start aging. I typically would have more faith in a 5 year old box than a two month old box.

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I agree, but I also like to be proactive. I usually start looking at PC components at around the 5-year mark. And most definitely start looking at drive replacements at that time. I don't think I've ever kept a drive in use longer than 4 years, so the NAS drives are overdue.

gunrunnerjohn said:

I have test equipment on my bench that has had heavy use and is 40-50 years old, hasn't missed a beat.

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Some things are not like the others. I have hi-fi gear going back to the 80's so....

Thanks