How Do I Set Up a Network Synology Diskstation Ds718+ Review
Synology NAS mega-review: DS418play, DS718+, and DS1517+
Quick Links
- Introduction and setup (Ryan)
- DiskStation Director (Cody)
- Synology apps (Hashemite kingdom of jordan)
- Using the DS418play: Media server and fill-in machine (Ryan)
- Using the DS718+: Semi-portable and very flexible (Cody)
- Using the DS1517+: A paranoid nerd'due south overkill dream (Jordan)
Storage space is getting cheaper, whether y'all're talking about phones or computers. It used to price astronomical amounts of money to get even 1GB of storage. As storage has become cheaper, files sizes are increasing. A photo taken with the Pixel two might be nearly 10MB, and that adds up over fourth dimension. 4K video? Nosotros're talking many gigabytes.That's why many of us take gotten serious nigh bankroll up data, and the cloud is only half the equation. You should also have local copies of all your important files, and a network attached storage (NAS) machine is a good style to practise it. We've talked nearly Synology'southward NAS devices a few times on AP and Rita already reviewed the DS416play. This is a company that takes mobile integration seriously with more a dozen Android apps that work with its line of DiskStation NAS boxes. That's why nosotros (Ryan, Cody, and Jordan) have been testing the latest generation of DiskStation models to run into how they fit into our digital lifestyles. Nosotros're overall pretty impressed.
Introduction and setup (Ryan)
Most computers in this day and historic period come with SSD storage congenital in. You probably get a few hundred gigabytes of that, or maybe a terabyte if you lot spend big. Spinning drives might non exist equally fast, merely the capacities are much higher. Yous tin can get as much every bit 10TB in a consumer-level hard bulldoze, which has made it feasible to basicallynever delete a file again. That's a lot of data to exit lying around on a mechanical drive that will i day die, and that's where NAS boxes come in.
A NAS (or network attached storage) is basically a tiny figurer with an advanced storage controller. You add a few difficult drives, and the NAS makes the storage available on your network to all connected devices. NAS boxes come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny 2-bay enclosures to larger versions suited for rack mounting. The specs of the "estimator" $.25 likewise vary widely.
You might consider investing in a NAS box as opposed to a regular external hard drive if y'all have a lot of digital content that you don't want to risk losing. If I had a dollar for every external difficult bulldoze I lost to a mysterious failure, I'd take... well, I could go a loving cup of coffee. But it happens more I think it should. Even without the sketchiness of those external enclosures, the bare drives you install in your PC will eventually go belly-up every bit well. Some people are willing to prepare their own RAID arrays, simply many of the solutions are clunky and prone to failure. A NAS box takes care of all the hard work for you.
RAID arrays come in various types, most of which back up redundancy at the expense of infinite. By using some drives for "parity," you can rebuild a RAID array in the upshot a drive fails. Some types of RAID even allow you lot to recover from multiple drive failures. Synology's signature RAID setup, and the one we accept been testing, is called SHR/SHR2 (Synology Hybrid RAID). SHR allows for more than flexibility in drive capacity, and it supports two-drive redundancy in larger arrays. It also offers the most file management and recovery features when paired with a Synology NAS. When y'all add drives to your NAS for the first fourth dimension, you have the choice of traditional RAID levels, but SHR is probably your all-time bet.
One of the nearly of import features of a NAS is that it handles all the maintenance of your RAID assortment automatically. Your drives are checked continuously for bad sectors, and the array gets a full parity check every few weeks.
You lot use the DiskStation Managing director (DSM) for setup and about device management. We'll get into this in-depth later, merely the gist is DSM acts as the operating system for your NAS. You lot access it via your web browser, but it looks and works a lot like whatever other desktop Bone.
To access the files on your NAS, yous need to connect to information technology from another device. The easiest style to do so is just to find information technology on your LAN and add together it as a network location. Yous'll need to set up a username and countersign when configuring the NAS, so be prepared to enter that when connecting to it. You can also but load up DSM to see your files, and this comes with the benefit of plugging into device features similar the photograph gallery and video histrion with hardware decoding. There are also more than packages (programs) for DSM available online. You tin can install media tools like Plex, an office suite, postal service servers, and more than on your Synology NAS.
These devices are powerful, and there are a plethora of ways to use them. We'll tell you about how nosotros use these devices, how they interact with Android, and if they're worth the price. But first, let's talk about DSM and Synology's Android apps a flake more.
DiskStation Manager (Cody)
Initial setup for DSM simply takes a few minutes. It basically consists of inbound a username and countersign for an business relationship, selecting a schedule for automatic updates, and optionally setting upwardly an account on Synology's website to enable QuickConnect. Through QuickConnect, yous can assign a name to your Synology NAS and connect to it from anywhere on the Internet without setting up port forwarding or messing with any other firewall settings.
If you're completely new to setting upwardly a personal server, some of these steps might not be completely intuitive, but the step-past-step process should be easy enough for most people.
As a office of the setup procedure, Synology will recommend a standard set of kickoff-political party apps, or "packages" as they're called hither. These are the server-side components for many of the apps that can exist installed on a phone. This step can be skipped.
DiskStation Manager
At this point, initial setup is complete and the primary interface of DSM appears. It looks and behaves a lot like any Windows, Linux, or macOS desktop. There are icons on the desktop, moveable windows, a button at the top-left for launching apps. At the elevation-correct corner, there are buttons to display notifications, edit or switch user profiles, search, or toggle Synology's widget panel.
The widget panel is 1 of the nice little perks of DSM. Information technology'due south basically a configurable dashboard with an array of different blocks. I've prepare mine upwardly to show available storage, arrangement wellness, a resource monitor, and a list of scheduled tasks. Other panels that can be added include: Continued Users, File Change Log, Recent Logs, and Backup.
There's actually not a lot to say about the DSM interface itself. Since it's and then much like a regular desktop, in that location's basically no learning curve. Merely unlike near major operating systems, this one doesn't need to exist over complicated or packed full of extras. In fact, in that location are actually only 3 types of things you'll do once DSM is upwards and running: Change settings in the Control Panel, install and run packages/apps, and peradventure organize your files.
Control Panel
Brand no fault, for as simple as Synology makes information technology to prepare and utilise DSM, it'southward still a network appliance with a lot of features hidden under the hood. The Control Panel is dwelling house to most of the arrangement-wide settings that determine how the NAS behaves. Just like the Command Panel on Windows or System Preferences on macOS, most of the pages here are simply going to exist seen in one case – basically prepare information technology and forget it. However, if yous need to manage users or configure shared folders frequently, you tin create shortcuts by dragging icons from the Command Panel to the Desktop.
At that place'south a basic manner containing only the things most users will want to gear up, similar groups and user accounts, shared folders, some basic network settings, and other maintenance tasks on the Synology. You can also switch to an avant-garde mode with many more options if yous want to monkey with everything. This is where y'all can join a domain, prepare upwardly LDAP, enable a DHCP server, configure advanced privileges for applications and user access, and more.
While most users will probably run through nigh of the settings and never look back, we should probably highlight a few that everybody should look at from the showtime.
- Users – Naturally, you'll need to add users if in that location are going to be a few people working with the same NAS. If there are going to be a lot of people, y'all may even need to create user groups and configure different permission levels for everybody.
- External Access – If you didn't configure QuickConnect during the initial setup, information technology's extremely useful for accessing your Synology from the Cyberspace. One time information technology'due south configured, y'all can open a browser to https://<account_name>.quickconnect.to and immediately reach your login window. Alternatively, yous may prefer to prepare port forwarding with your router and use DDNS to maintain connectivity.
- Notifications – If you want to know about events taking place on your Synology devices, it'due south possible to get emails, web notifications through Chrome or Safari, and mobile notifications through the DS Finder app.
- Hardware & Power – There are several individual settings of note in this screen. There are fan speed controls, some toggles to turn on/off audible beeps, Wake-on-LAN can be enabled if it's going to be useful, and in that location's even a slider (with scheduling options) to adjust the effulgence of the power indicator LED.
- Update & Restore – Information technology's a skilful idea to set a schedule for DSM to perform automated updates. You don't take to auto-update, but it's a good practice for the sake of security. Y'all'll probably want the scheduled time to occur during hours that nobody will be using the NAS.
Parcel Center
People ofttimes dismiss a NAS as but a basic file server, and that's true for some of the products on the market place; merely 1 of the things that makes a product similar a Synology NAS more valuable is the ability to besides run apps. Synology offers quite a few first-party packages, and DSM allows users to also add third-political party sources and manually install apps.
During the initial setup, Synology recommends a few of its own apps for immediate installation. Package Center naturally contains most of the aforementioned apps in a department of recommendations. From here, you can scan through organized categories for other packages or search past names and keywords.
There are too many packages to discuss all of them, but in that location are a few categories and specific packages that will be invaluable to some people. Probably 1 of the nigh popular uses for a NAS is for storing Television shows and movies, then you may desire to install the Plex Media Server or Synology's own Video Station. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, you lot may want to install the iTunes Server bundle. You can install Download Station to automate some downloads, or grab the Active Directory Server if you're looking to ready directory service. Developers and designers will appreciate version control software like SVN and Git, or database software like MariaDB (a MySQL fork). If yous're really looking to go all out, at that place are even packages for the Apache web server, a couple of CMS options, and even runtimes for several development platforms similar Java, Node.js, and Python. These and many other packages are available through Synology's standard directory.
You lot can meet a full list of packages on Synology'due south website. Nearly packages are free, just a few similar the app to enable exFAT access are going to cost some money. Just recall that some packages aren't going to exist supported on every Synology NAS, so you may desire to check model numbers and make sure the packages you desire to apply volition be supported on a model you lot're considering.
Third-political party packages and repositories
Since some packages aren't developed by Synology, the certification process can sometimes overlook newer NAS models, meaning a package may work just fine, merely it won't show upwardly in the list of installable apps. This was a problem for me when I wanted to install Plex Server. When I began testing the DS718+, information technology was new plenty that it had not been added equally a supported model. I but had to download the correct package installer from Plex'due south website and load it manually. Plex is now officially supported on this model.
When you're looking for more applications to install beyond what Synology has certified, it might exist fourth dimension to add a third-party packet repository. The most popular third-party server is SynoCommunity, which hosts several pop packages like Vim, Home Assistant, ffmpeg, SickBeard and SiCKRAGE, Mercurial, Mono (open source .Net runtime), and many more.
Adding external sources is as simple as opening Settings, switching to the Package Sources tab, and calculation a new url to the listing. Yous'll be reminded that calculation a new source also adds a new security certificate, which is a good reminder that not all servers and apps are necessarily trustworthy, so be very conscientious and but add 3rd-party sources that y'all trust.
If you can't notice what you desire to run from an external server or a manually installed package, and maybe the runtimes for other platforms similar Java or Python aren't going to cut information technology, at that place's one more than popular alternative: Docker. This is a platform for running containerized apps –basically cross-platform software. From a user perspective, it's like running a miniature virtual machine. Setup and utilise of Docker is a huge topic all on its own, and as well big to hash out in this review.
Synology apps (Hashemite kingdom of jordan)
Synology has a slew of apps available for Android. Each ane of them taps into a specific part of your DiskStation via the packages nosotros mentioned earlier. The list is quite extensive, such that I had to create a separate Synology binder to keep myself sane. I'll be going through each of these one by i, walking you through the connection between Android and your NAS. The only apps that I will not be covering in this section are the DS router app (used for the Synology routers), DS cam (for monitoring IP camera feeds; I don't accept the means to exam this), MailPlus (I don't take a domain set up in club to test this e-mail app), and VPN Plus (another router app; one that I apply liberally, but does non tie into the DiskStation).
Conversation
Chat is a lot like Slack. It's a professional person internal communications plan that supports multiple users (after setting them up in DSM) and channels. Each of the latter can be customized with names, general descriptions, permitted members, and notification settings. Like any good communication server application, admins tin pivot letters to the channels, as well every bit run into what files have been uploaded or the links that users accept pasted in chat.
This is aimed at organizations or groups who apply Synology NASs as main or secondary servers. It lacks some of the functionality that you may be used to seeing in Slack or Discord, but everything in Chat is hosted on your DiskStation (or other Synology product) and thus in your control. I tin certainly sympathize the appeal, but I recommend passing on this app for personal DiskStation use.
Drive
Bulldoze is one of Synology's newer packages, available only in beta at time of writing. The Android app is available for anyone to download, but I had to install the test version of DSM to admission the package. There's also a Windows, Mac, and Linux customer for local syncing, much like Google Drive or Dropbox (and it works really well on Windows).
In my DiskStation usage, Drive replaced the onetime DS cloud app, though the functionality is different in certain regards. Deject allowed you to cull which folders or files to sync directly to your Android device for offline viewing. Information technology's a neat idea, but Bulldoze takes things a flake further. Much like Google Docs, Synology has its own suite of office applications bachelor to the DiskStation users. Files are saved locally to the automobile, and the Drive package lets you open them on the become, effectively creating your own cloud server.
You tin can set up squad folders in addition to your private stuff. Label support is as well included if you demand the extra organization. Everything is however in beta for at present, but I like the functionality here. Cloud Station is still a more reliable way of backing things up, but I really do not like the DS cloud app. It feels outdated and I don't find the offline sync functionality to my Android devices useful for me, personally. Even then, you lot tin download stuff from Drive straight to your mobile device.
DS audio
One of the main means I use my NAS is for media storage. A substantial chunk of my collection is my music library, which contains a wide multifariousness of both genres and file types. To be perfectly honest, I use Plex and the music functions within that application to listen to my songs on the go — ain't nobody got fourth dimension to bargain with Google Play Music (de)auth limits. In continuing with the honesty streak, I also have Plex Pass, which allows me to listen to music outside of my local domicile network.
For those of you who exercise not take advantage of Plex (or Kodi) in this mode, Synology has provided a manner for you lot to play any music file stored on your DiskStation. Beyond this, yet, y'all can sort, search, favorite, create playlists, and download annihilation for offline listening. The role player itself is nicely done, pulling in album artwork and lyrics for the song currently playing (if either are bachelor; I had a few that information technology couldn't figure out). There'due south fifty-fifty a slumber timer and multi-select (for favoriting, downloading, or sharing).
I wish information technology had a night theme option for the main parts of the app, but the playback screen is all you get if you don't like white.
DS file
This is the bread and butter of the DiskStation. DS file is the basic file manager for everything on your NAS, allowing you lot to scan through everything you take stored. While i of the almost important apps available, it'south also one of the more than boring ones. When you launch and login to the app, you're dumped right into the root folder of your machine. From here, go to where you want to go.
Much like DS cloud, you can set files to save offline — redundancy across apps and packages is pretty mutual with Synology software. You can too view tasks that you've established in DSM, such as automated upload/download between your phone and NAS, or any other remote activities you wish your server to practise. Finally, DS file contains an automatic photo upload option, à la every other storage service provider (Google, OneDrive, Plex, etc). Personally, I never use these sorts of things because I don't desire every single photo I accept to upload to my server.
Like I said, this is probably the most important app to have and the one I'd say to go along installed, even if y'all don't keep the others. Basic isn't e'er a bad thing, only if you feel so inclined, you tin add your NAS as a location in Solid Explorer File Director (I went with SMB for full general ease of utilise). I preferred using this method to DS file, but I like my night theme... and having my phone and NAS storage available to browse in ane app. The only downside is that I have to be on my local network, whereas DS file is available anywhere.
DS finder
In the event that you lot practise not want to login to DSM, DS finder is an app you should go on installed. Information technology'due south basically a mobile manager for your NAS, allowing you to bank check the status, remote reboot/shutdown, and receive push button notifications from your system. If the need arises, yous tin likewise trigger a "Find Me" signal to help you notice your auto. And once you lot set one as a favorite, you can login via DSM mobile, which offers a chip more utility than DS finder does (such equally updating packages).
There are three tabs: Full general, Network, and Storage. The get-go displays some basic information like the model proper noun, series number, physical retentiveness, DSM version, uptime, and thermal status (in both Celsius and Fahrenheit). The Network tab houses some typical stuff like server proper name and DNS, besides as LAN port IPv4/IPv6 and MAC addresses. Finally, the Storage tab shows a rundown of your storage health and chapters. Each disk is displayed separately with its own health and temperature indicators.
DS get
1 of the packages that is available to install on Synology devices is the Download Station. By inputting a URL or uploading a torrent file, the NAS will automatically download whatever you've told it to. This can be scheduled or delayed, told to download nether certain restrictions, and and so forth. This next app, DS get, is the Android companion for Download Station. Before I get into its specifics, I should point out that this app is crawly and you can use it from anywhere, even exterior your local network. I should also point out that we hither at AP do non recommend that anyone illegally download copyrighted content, but do as you wish understanding the potential consequences.
DS get is unproblematic. Subsequently launching and logging in, y'all're presented with your download tasks listing. Obviously, on your start fourth dimension through, this list will exist empty. In a higher place the listing, you're given both your up and down speeds (in KB/s); further up at the top of the screen are a filter push, a batch options central, and a plus icon to add a new task. When pressed, the latter opens a new carte du jour where you either enter the URL(s) or upload the files y'all want your NAS to download. Yous can tell DS become whether you desire to allow selecting files in the torrent and/or to require authentication. The last option is where to download the file.
In the hamburger carte du jour are four screens, including the tasks list. BT Search allows yous to search for BitTorrent files; only enter your search term, narrow down the categories if needed, and select whichever one best suits you in the carte afterwards. Opening a particular item brings upwardly the torrent information, like proper noun, file size, seeders, and the external link (very useful for checking which site you lot're downloading from). Alternatively, you can tap the overflow button next to each item in the search to either download straight abroad or open the external link directly inside DS become.
The concluding two sections, Browser and RSS, are self-explanatory. With the former, you lot tin can go straight to any site from which y'all wish to download something and do things manually from there. RSS is evidently where your RSS feeds for downloading would be displayed, simply those need to be added in DSM and cannot currently be managed in DS go.
DS annotation
DS notation is Go on, but stored on your NAS instead of Google's servers. This app provides y'all with note-taking and to-do list cosmos capabilities. If you lot've ever used Go along, and then DS note will feel very familiar. I've made an attempt to switch over to what Synology offers me — might as well, correct? — and so far, the transition has been pretty easy.
The main screen of the app is the All Notes section, which displays anything yous've jotted down, as well as the pick to create something new, change the display mode, add together an encrypted note, access sort settings, and batch select. Similarly, the To-Do List carte shows y'all all completed and uncompleted tasks. The text box at the top allows for adding a to-do quickly, while the search icon lets you, well, search through whatever yous wrote down to go washed. The overflow menu has options for sorting and filtering, likewise every bit batch select.
DS note also has support for notebooks, which reminded me of a functionality that I used heavily in Microsoft OneNote. Each notebook, when tapped, opens a screen much like the All Notes menu. You tin can also rename, add a favorite, share, or add together to your shelf (which is a drove of multiple notebooks). DS annotation also offers you lot the power to tag notes to your liking and to share things with other users on your server. Going back to the Continue similarities, you can create notes based on photos (from the photographic camera and/or gallery), videos, voice, or attachments. I personally don't utilize such things, but they're there if you need them.
DS photo
Coming in as the run-of-the-factory gallery app, DS photograph pairs with the Photograph Station bundle to conveniently display all of the photographs that you lot have stored on your NAS based on album (i.eastward. folders) stored in the Photos root directory. At time of writing, I just had one section of pictures on my DS1517+; my collection of badass wallpapers that I've gathered over the years seemed quite important to take backed upwards. As an avid Google Photos user, I saw niggling apply in DS photo initially.
I still don't use the app too ofttimes, simply there is an Android TV version if you need that. I'thou non a photographer, but DS photo is well-designed and functions as yous might expect. Withal, what may appeal to some is the auto camera backup feature, giving you your own Google Photos cloud solution (without all the Assistant stuff plainly). Any album can be downloaded to the device for offline viewing or shared with other users, and you lot tin can create what Synology calls "smart albums" (which I did not get around to creating during my testing). The dark theme is a nice touch, helping your photos stand out more than when viewing them.
I like DS photograph, fifty-fifty though I don't use it all that often. C'est la vie.
DS video
Like DS audio, DS video is a great app that I never utilise thanks to Plex (and it also has an Android TV variant). However, if you don't use Plex (or Kodi), or take a Pass membership, then this app might exist a practiced option for yous. Similar to DS photo, this is your standard video player for every A/V file on your NAS. Anything you upload to the Videos root directory, assuming that you have the Video Station bundle installed, will appear here. Movies are separated from Boob tube shows, Goggle box recordings (a cool feature that I cannot take reward of), and home videos (i.e. recordings from your phone).
I give DS video/Video Station credit for giving a Plex-similar experience. Selecting a movie will bring upwardly an info screen with runtime, release engagement, a synopsis, cast, and links to the IMDb folio. You also have the option to salve whatever file you want to your device. Like DS photo, the dark theme helps your media stand up out a bit better than the rest of Synology's bright white app backgrounds.
Settings are available for video transcoding, subtitles, and AC3 passthrough. The app can also deed similar a remote for its Android Goggle box counterpart, but that choice tin can be disabled to salvage battery life. Like I said, I don't utilize this app much thanks to Plex, but I'm actually glad it's hither for the people that want it.
Moments
Finally, nosotros have Moments, the other of Synology'southward two new services. Besides in beta at time of writing, Moments seems like Synology's attempt to add Google Assistant-style functionality to your photos. In that location isn't much to say on Moments from me, since I'g not storing more than wallpapers on my NAS. However, the bones premise is this: Moments gives you the ability to view the photos and videos stored on your DiskStation (much like DS photograph and DS video) in chronological gild, later on which Moments sorts them into "topical albums" and creates "fun and engaging life moments" out of them.
It's non a bad idea in theory, just Google Photos does this for me already — I practice realize that some people interested in Synology'south products don't utilize Photos or any Google product if they can help information technology. Being in beta, I am sure that Moments will better over fourth dimension, especially when it comes to the stable package rail. I institute Bulldoze to really be useful, able to completely replace DS cloud on my telephone. Moments, on the other paw, is not ane I keep installed on my main device for long. I will keep my eye on it, though, so hopefully information technology gets better.
The app clarification is non super helpful, past the way. Non to mention that it's littered with errors.
The DS418play is Synology'southward latest media-focused NAS box. It has four bulldoze bays, a Celeron J3355 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 4K hardware video transcoding engine. The retail cost before difficult drives is $430. Throw in a few 4TB drives, and you're looking at the better part of a chiliad dollars.
My initial impression of the hardware was positive. The drive bays lock into place to keep the drives secure. In that location's a small physical locking mechanism that requires a cardinal, but it doesn't look like the nigh secure lock. Information technology'southward probably only there to forestall opportunistic tampering or accidental opening.
With the drives mounted, the DS418play is a hefty fiddling cube, but it looks corking in a blatantly nerdy way. I originally intended to have it out in the open beyond the room from my desk. This would allow me to see the status LEDs on the front of the device. There'southward 1 for each bulldoze, equally well as one for the overall system. However, one of the start things I learned virtually living with a NAS is that it'southward louder than I expected.
For the beginning twenty-four hour period and a half, the DS418play churned constantly to verify the RAID array. The sound of iii hard drives clicking in unison is louder than you probably look, and information technology all seems to leak out from every gap in the enclosure. This isn't Synology'southward fault—mechanical drives brand racket. However, I finally had to move the NAS into my cupboard to muffle the dissonance a bit.
Backups
My first chore with this NAS was to go a good backup solution running. For local files on my PC, I decided to go with the standard Cloud Station packet. Synology is testing a new sync solution called Drive, but I didn't find information technology very piece of cake to utilise. Cloud Station uses a PC application to sync files across the network to your Synology NAS. I configured it to sync both ways, so my NAS has the same files equally the computer in the selected directories, but Synology also maintains multiple file versions. For anything I don't want to proceed on my PC anymore, I only use a mapped network drive to dump information technology into the appropriate folder on my NAS.
Many of my files stop up in the deject as they're created—for example, photos and documents. For these, I set upwardly Cloud Sync on the NAS. This package supports Dropbox, Drive, OneDrive, and basically everything else. Dropbox is the big one for me, so I logged in with my account and configured important folders like my photos to sync to the NAS. When I snap photos, they become up to Dropbox and are replicated on the NAS.
Media server
Being a media-focused NAS, I planned to use the DS418play to serve up videos on my devices. There is a hardware video decoder, but it's only for the stock Video Station player. I don'thate Video Station, only it's simply not as good as Plex. If I wanted to use Plex on the Synology, it would exist running in CPU mode, and the Celeron J3355 is nothing special. It can transcode a lower bitrate 1080p file, but even then it pushes the hardware.
My first option to ready this was a modern for the Plex package to enable hardware decoding. It looked a flake messy, and people reported various issues. I establish a much ameliorate pick was my NVIDIA Shield. The Shield and NAS are both wired to the network with a gigabit switch. And then, I mounted the NAS as a network location on the Shield, and added the video directory to the console'due south congenital-in Plex server. The Shield's server remains agile fifty-fifty when the device is comatose, and information technology's an accented monster when it comes to transcoding video.
Conclusion
As a backup device, the DS418play is everything I could desire. DSM is a robust web-based interface, and the device works equally a mapped network drive in Windows with high throughput. I dearest that I can accept information sync down to the NAS directly from the cloud, and information technology'due south easy to dump my files on it for archival.
I'm happy with this device as a media server as well, just most of Synology's NAS boxes would work just every bit well. The hardware decoder is also limited as it won't support Plex without fiddling, and the CPU isn't quite beefy plenty to handle transcoding. Still, the Shield plugs in to make full that gap ably. The DS418play is yet a good selection for a media server considering it has four bays and the Celeron scrap is a big step up from the ARM chip in Synology'due south cheaper four-bay unit.
The asking price is high, but a powerful NAS is never going to be inexpensive. This device is more than capable than a two-bay NAS, but it's not as extravagant as the "Plus" series devices. The DS418play feels correct for a power user.
Buy: Amazon
Using the DS718+: Semi-portable and very flexible (Cody)
The DS718+ is one of Synology'due south smallest NAS machines, harboring just two drive bays. For $400, this model comes with an Intel Celeron J3455 64-flake quad-core processor clocked at i.5 GHz. It has 2GB RAM, just tin be expanded to 6GB, or possibly more if some forum posts are to be believed. Two gigabit network ports are located on the back next to a pair of USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port. There's too an additional USB 3.0 port on the front.
Ii drives in one modest(-ish) box
It might sound odd to desire a NAS with but two drives, only minor NAS boxes have become a pop solution for people that have to deal with a lot of data while they're traveling, especially if it has to exist shared amid others. For case, an older model Synology NAS is used past the Fstoppers crew for video editing.
The DS718+ is "thin" enough to fit into full-size luggage with a little chip of padding on both sides, and the outer beat out is very sturdy and could certainly survive a fleck of corruption before taking damage. Of course, this is still a fairly heavy box, so I wouldn't suggest carrying it in anything other than a rolling suitcase. Also retrieve that hard disks with spinning platters are independent within, so they should nonetheless be handled as delicately equally possible to prevent damage to the spinning platters.
Since there can just be two drives, the RAID configurations are limited to either striped arrays (high functioning) or mirrored (college redundancy). I don't consider a NAS to exist a truly permanent fill-in solution, only in a mirrored configuration, information technology's practiced enough for immediate apply. This is a proficient NAS to travel with if you demand to accept lots of storage infinite available.
Media server
Like Ryan and Jordan, I employ Plex for some of my media consumption. In normal usage, I never ran into a trouble playing videos at the highest quality I had available. But that statement comes with a few footnotes. For starters, while I have a 4K television, I don't really collect 4K content. The other factor to consider is that Plex can be adequately clever about when video should be transcoded before streaming or if information technology can be cleanly decoded on the playing device.
The DS718+ is advertised as capable of transcoding 4K video in real-time, and that's technically truthful. Yet, when we talk about 4K, we're merely addressing a loose range of resolutions. Things like encoding format, framerate, sound channels, expanded colour gamut (read: HDR), and many other details can complicate things immensely. Technical specs for the DS718+ practise clarify some limits, basically that information technology tin handle 2-channel, thirty FPS videos encoded in H.265/HEVC or H.264/AVC. Unfortunately, every 4K video I could drum upwards was too much to handle, and I remember that'southward going to exist fairly mutual for most 4K videos that are "available" out at that place. The result was playback that could only run for a few seconds before pausing while the transcoder caught up. Information technology didn't affair if I tried it with Plex or DS Video, the results were the same.
Only as I mentioned above, Plex can often notice the native decoding capabilities of the Goggle box or set-top box and potentially stream the original file without whatsoever transcoding. Since both my Tv set and Shield could handle anything I threw at them, I never had any bug... Unless I forced transcoding, which would simply make sense if yous're testing similar I was.
Noise
While we're on the subject of watching Tv set, I desire to say that I'd never want to put this NAS box in the aforementioned room with me, and that'due south because of racket. The chunking sound from physical difficult disks combined with a constantly running fan are always there, and it becomes fairly anxiety-inducing subsequently a while. There's no sound damping and the metal example almost amplifies the dissonance.
It might not be considered loud by everybody, and I'd compare information technology roughly to the sound of a gaming desktop. I think this level of noise was adequately normal back in the late 90s, but I observe it much harder to take near me now that I'm accustomed to a virtually silent MacBook Pro and various other serenity or completely silent gadgets. I really like using a NAS as a media server, simply I have to recommend placing it in a different room or constructing something to stifle the noise (while still getting airflow).
Conclusion
I gave upwards desktop computers a piffling over a decade agone after an electrical tempest played peekaboo with my last one. Given the type of work I was doing then, and the piece of work I went on to practice afterward, portability was crucial, and then information technology was a no-brainer to get 100% laptop. I've never looked back on that conclusion, but at that place are some things I miss, similar having mountains of (upgradeable) storage. If I can't have that type of storage in a laptop, the side by side best option is having it in a NAS that tin be accessed from everywhere in my house, and fifty-fifty through the Net.
In the spirit of staying mobile, I like that the DS718+ is small enough to fit in a suitcase and carried onto a airplane. It'due south fast, high-availability storage combined with more than plenty calculating power to run a Plex server, establish Git repositories, gear up a spider web server, and much more. All of this tin can be washed with a custom Linux motorcar, just that requires a ton of time to maintain.
The price is probably higher than well-nigh of usa would unremarkably spend on a secondary figurer, especially one with a relatively weak CPU, simply I think the advantages of DSM make it a worthwhile investment. Synology maintains a steady update schedule and appears to do thorough testing, so my experience has been basically issue-free. In my perspective, as somebody that already doesn't have enough time in the mean solar day, it's worth a footling more than money to have something that solves a few of my problems and doesn't add any new ones.
Purchase: Amazon
Using the DS1517+: A paranoid nerd's overkill dream (Jordan)
Overview
The DS1517+ was released earlier this yr equally a function of the higher-finish Plus Serial refreshes (which also include the 8-bay DS1817+ and 12-bay DS2415+). It's a neat footling cube designed for minor office and home employ. It comes packed with five drive trophy on the forepart, each with its own status LED, as well as lights for power and all four RJ-45 1GbE LAN ports. Failover and link assemblage come supported out of the box, with 10GbE (with a compatible network interface card installed) every bit an additional option. Under the black exterior is an Intel Atom C2538, a 64-bit, quad-core CPU that clocks in at 2.4GHz. By default, either 2GB or dual-channel 8GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 4GB) comes installed, though that can exist expanded to 16GB (2 ten 8GB) if you wish. Along the back are the four LAN, two eSATA, 3 USB 3.0, and the PCIe ii.0 ports.
Synology sent me this machine with four 4TB IronWolf NAS drives, provided past Seagate, pre-installed (it supports three.5" HDDs, 2.5" HDDs, and 2.v" SSDs). If you lot demand more than five disks, but don't want to pay more than for a larger DiskStation, you tin can aggrandize the DS1517+ to fifteen drives with the DX517 expansion units. The PCIe 2.0 x8 slot on the back tin can be used for either the 10GbE NIC or an K.2 SSD for extra cache and performance boosts (Yard.2 NVMe/AHCI drives are not supported). Synology claims that the DS1517+ supports upwardly to 1,165 MB/s read and 527 MB/southward write speeds.
The default internal bulldoze file system is btrfs, but you can use ext4 if you lot wish (exFAT is purchasable in the DSM Package Center). Two 80mm example fans come up pre-installed, though in the default noise setting, they are quite loud. Frankly, this piddling NAS — supposedly rated at 26dB — is quite a bit noisier and more obnoxious than my gaming rig when the latter is nether total load. Part of that has to do with the difference in cases (my desktop has a whole bunch of sound dampeners in it; I dear Fractal Pattern cases), merely I've considered some higher quality 80mm fans for the DS1517+ to help it be a bit quieter. Thankfully, Synology makes it easy to swap them out.
A 200W PSU powers everything, with the DS1517+ rated at drawing a max of 42.1W. I saw fairly consistent temps of 40°C (with some obvious variation therein) when reading/writing, every bit Synology claims on its website, while I ran the system at the default "Quiet Way" fan speed and ~32°C in "Absurd Way" under peak load. And if yous need it, the DS1517+ supports vSphere 6, Windows Server 2012/R2, Citrix, and OpenStack for virtualization.
Without drives, the 8GB DS1517+ costs $789 over on Amazon (the 2GB costs $699.99), significant that you will easily surpass $ane,000 to push button this affair to its full potential with good drives and an M.2 SSD or 10GbE NIC. Every bit configured, the unit of measurement I received costs $1,309 from Amazon at time of writing. So how have I taken advantage of all of this power? Much as I tried to uncover evidence to the contrary, I plant this particular DiskStation to be a bit overkill for my usage, though I've had an accented blast using information technology.
Backups
1 of my chief desires for a NAS was a comprehensive backup solution for my PCs. Notwithstanding, I wanted more than just another method of keeping copies of files from my chief machine, though I take taken advantage of both Synology'due south Cloud Station and Drive packages for this. What I actually sought was a total system paradigm fill-in stored safely on my NAS (since external drives take failed me in the by).
For the time existence, I use Veeam Backup Amanuensis as an automatic solution. After creating a shared CIFS folder that pointed to a dedicated fill-in directory on the NAS, I ready a schedule in Veeam to run every morning at 12:30am. The initial chore took several hours, but now it only runs a check each nighttime and saves the delta. Veeam as well allows you lot to restore any backup that is still saved (I accept it set to keep them for 7 days) should something get wrong. I warrant that this setup is unnecessary, but when you're every bit paranoid every bit I am, information technology helps me feel more at ease knowing that this system is running as I sleep. And then far, the only problem I've run into is Veeam throwing an mistake afterward I changed the security document on the NAS. A few push clicks later on and all was back to normal.
Synology does a dandy chore at providing backup solutions for DSM centered around snapshots (which you can so salve to some other machine on your network if you have one). Other cloud accounts, like OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive, tin exist synced to the NAS if you want some other safe copy of your files downloaded locally on your network — I wish I had set this up when I was working on some of my final papers for school... I would have saved a lot of time.
Media
While the backup stuff sates my nerdy paranoia, media consumption is what I apply the DS1517+ for the well-nigh. I have my entire movie, Telly, and music drove stored on it and I employ Plex to manage it all. My wife and I watch movies or shows on my Shield TV, or I play songs in foobar2000 on my PC (I added my music directory as a shared network folder, which both foobar and Google Play Music Manager monitor). Like I said in the apps department, I don't apply the Sound, Photograph, and Video Station packages much thanks to my Plex Pass membership, but those options are available to you should you demand them.
Unfortunately, the DS1517+ is non great at dedicated transcoding for Plex (versus something from QNAP), though it tin handle a single 1080p stream at 10Mbps or less. Even when Plex announced hardware transcoding earlier this year, Synology was missing from the list of supported devices. Check on the company'south forums and you'll find a general consensus that these NASs are not best-suited for people seeking solid transcoding for Plex. One user I found suggested using a DiskStation for storage and an Intel NUC (or something similar) as an application-based server for Plex. Or you could go with Ryan'due south solution if you have a Shield TV, which I am in the process of trying out for myself.
Playing movies or shows on a unmarried screen works just fine, though whatsoever more will show the DS1517+ struggling (i.e. 70%+ CPU usage), as can exist expected. I found plenty of framerate stutter and other visual issues when I attempted to stream to my Telly and PC simultaneously.
Conclusion
I similar the DS1517+. Synology continues to amend DSM, merely y'all can take information technology one footstep farther by installing the SynoCommunity third-political party repository to get some extra functionality (WordPress, Apache, etc). I am currently running the beta track of the OS and I have experienced no bug thus far. Afterwards reading near my usage and such in a higher place, if you call up that yous'd utilise a NAS in a similar fashion, so I'd say consider saving some of your cash unless you actually like overkill.
This machine is quite a little beast, providing lots of options to give you lot highly efficient storage for your small office or home needs. You lot can easily create network drives in Windows (I did not accept a Linux installation to test, unfortunately) to do whatever you demand, even if it's to share to your music player of choice. The transcoding business organization is a bit of a disappointment, but I like the idea of going the Shield Idiot box road.
The starting price is pretty steep, I have to acknowledge, particularly when yous factor in buying practiced drives for storage — equally a side note, though, I'd definitely recommend getting the 8GB version over the 2GB, since it costs only some other $fourscore. I was impressed with the Atom CPU, only I've heard skilful things nearly the "upper echelon" of those chips in recent years. The C2538 is plenty powerful enough for nigh personal NAS needs, minus the raw processing power for hardware transcoding. For that, you may want to wait into the DS916+, something comparable from QNAP, or a NUC/Shield TV solution. If you lot make up one's mind that the DS1517+ suits your needs or tickles your fancy, then I say yous'd be making a skilful choice fifty-fifty if it might be more than nigh people need.
Cheers to Seagate for providing the HDDs for the DS1517+.
Purchase: Amazon
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Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/12/29/synology-mega-review-ds418play-ds718-and-ds1517/
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