How To Use Synology Nas

Synology offers a very user friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) device experience, but that doesn't mean unboxing it and starting it up is exactly a one-click affair. Let'due south go things up and running so nosotros can move onto all the fun projects a compact NAS with server-like functionality can facilitate.

What Is a Synology NAS?

Synology is a company, founded in 2000, specializing in Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. A NAS, simply put, is a figurer optimized for information storage, often with additional functionality layered on top. Synology has two primary product lines, DiskStation and RackStation, with the sometime intended for dwelling house users and pocket-size offices and the latter intended for larger commercial environments.

The DiskStation models range in size from simple one-bay models (starting at around $150) that offer a non-redundant place to park your data, all the fashion up to larger models that back up 12 drives (starting at around $yard+) with support for advanced multi-deejay back-up and even expansion via auxillary disk bays. Between the two ends of the size spectrum, they tin can effectively cover the home use needs of everyone from the "I need to backup my family photos" crowd to the "I need to support the unabridged net" crowd.

DiskStation models come with a propriety Linux-derived operating organization, known every bit DiskStation Manager. DiskStation Director comes with a very intuitive web-based interface that feels like you're using a desktop computer, consummate with like shooting fish in a barrel to place icons, well laid out menus, and abundant assist files. In add-on to cadre NAS features like file management, you can add a big array of custom plugins that handle things like organizing your family photos, torrenting files, and everything in between. The end result is a multi-function device that can perform the tasks of a full size computer, but without the energy consumption. (Fifty-fifty the beefiest DiskStation models consume less than half what a desktop calculator or full size home server would.)

Permit'southward expect at the setup process for the Synology DS916+, a iv-bay model with plenty storage room and plenty of memory and processing ability (including on-the-fly video transcoding for dwelling streaming applications). Information technology's a great model to showcase the setup process, as it sports the additional ports and such found on the larger models merely still shares the same operating system establish on all DiskStation models.

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The Physical Setup: Fill, Plug In, Boot, and Enjoy the Silence

Your Synology NAS comes with a power cable, an Ethernet cablevision, drive mounting screws, and, if you have a higher end model, information technology may also come up with hot-swap drive bay trays, and a second Ethernet cable (the high end DiskStations support dual network cards for increased network throughput). Before we take a look at the actual unit and how to fill it up, let's talk nearly disk selection.

Difficult Drive Selection

For an optimum NAS experience, we recommend starting with new drives, in the largest size your budget will allow. For our purposes we'll be using 8TB Western Digital Reddish drives, which are specifically designed for NAS utilize where performance is projected to exist around the clock in a tight space. Regardless of the brand of difficult drives you go with, you lot desire to, at minimum, avoid upkeep or desktop drives and stick with server/NAS drives.

If yous're contemplating what size drives to employ (or the effects of mixing different size drives), we highly recommend Synology'due south easy to use drag-and-drop RAID reckoner to help visualize how different drive combinations yield different amounts of usable space.

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Synology uses a custom RAID setup called Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)—seen as the selected option in the screenshot above—designed to keep your drives redundant. That means you'll need more drives, merely if one fails, you lot won't lose any data, because it'll exist mirrored on another drive. You can read more about RAID here, if you aren't familiar with it.

Fifty-fifty if you're familiar with basic RAID terminology, though, y'all're probable not familiar with Synolgy's Hybrid RAID setup if you haven't used Synology products before. It is a superior option for almost every consumer scenario, easily down. It offers more flexibility than traditional RAID, information technology's much easier to aggrandize your storage in the futurity if y'all use it, and it makes radically more than efficient utilize of disk infinite when the disk array doesn't accept perfectly matched drives. Don't take our word for it though—if you lot want to dive into the technical breakdown betwixt SHR and RAID, you can read up on information technology here.

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Calculation the Drives

Let's accept a wait at the instance with the removable cover off, and then popular (and populate) the bulldoze bays. To remove the face plate, simply wiggle it away from the chassis of the NAS. The plate is held in place by thick rubber fingers (designed to help silence vibration) and should come off hands with a offset impact.

Note the tabs at the meridian of each bulldoze bay. Simply push the tab gentle upwards and slide the tray out. Although tray screws are included with all the models (some of the more economical models in the Synology line don't take drive trays and require directly mounting of drives via screws), you don't demand to use them on the hot-swap trays. While you can do then if you're really set in your ways, information technology'south much better to utilise the hard drives in their trays without the screws past gently pulling off the side guards (seen below), pushing the hard drive into the tray, and then snapping the side guards back into place. (The only exception for the utilise of screws on the hot-swap trays is with the use of 2.5″ drives—you have to spiral mount them to keep them from sliding effectually.)

The difficult drives are held very firmly in place thanks to rubber grommets in the side of the trays, and the lack of hard contact between the bulldoze and the tray (thank you to the safety buffer) does an amazing job minimizing vibration. Once y'all've trayed all your drives, slide them dorsum into the NAS.

Where to Park Your NAS

With the drives in your NAS, information technology'due south time to take a peek at the back of the NAS to run into where everything will be plugged in, and talk briefly about where you'll identify it in your home. Showtime, hither'south the backside.

On this particular model yous'll find a ability jack, two LAN ports, an eSATA port, 2 USB ports (which can be used both for storage expansion and backup as well as using your Synology as a print server), and, of grade, the cooling fans. Why two LAN ports on the larger premium models? If you're using those models in a loftier-demand environment (eastward.g. your Synology is the file server for a large household or system that is accessing the NAS simultaneously) you lot can apply both LAN connections for a significant throughput boost. This kind of organisation shines when multiple people are all streaming HD video at once only is less important if you're the only one streaming video to a single destination.

With that in mind let'south talk about NAS placement. Wherever you place the NAS it should be, ideally, a cooler surface area of your habitation (ground floor and basements are great, stuffy attic guestrooms are non) with hardline access to your router or network switch. If y'all're a mostly-wireless household, this means you may be limited to placing your NAS next to wherever the router is installed.

Beginning Boot Setup: Configuring Your NAS

Once you've found the right spot for your NAS and wired it all up, it's time to boot it upward for the first time. Different a traditional computer, there won't exist a mouse, keyboard, and monitor attached. When you printing the ability button, it will kicking upwards quickly and and so just sit there (don't exist alarmed if you don't hear a thing, nosotros can't hear the fans on our unit unless we have our ear a few inches from the dorsum of it).

After powering it on, head to any estimator that's on your local network (Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection is fine, and so long as it's on the same network every bit the NAS). Open your web browser and head to http://find.synology.com, this volition pull up the Spider web Assistant startup wizard, seen below. Click "Connect" to start the process of configuring your Synology NAS.

The offset step is the naming of your server and the creation of the administration account. There's a couple things to consider on this step. Kickoff, your server proper name is how your NAS will announced on your network and will exist listed in various applications. A compact proper name that is easy to type out like, say, "blackbox" or "diskstation" is preferable to longer names with spaces similar "Miltons Magic Download Fun Time Box".

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Your username and countersign can be annihilation you want, only here'due south a pro tip for Windows users: if you brand the username and password for the administration business relationship of your NAS the same the username and password of your Windows PC, then you'll be able to seamlessly admission all the network shares on the NAS from your Windows PC without entering a password or username.

In the adjacent step, you can create a Synology account and a Quick Connect ID. This pace is not required,however, if y'all plan on accessing your Synology NAS outside your network for any purpose (and there are a variety of reasons you may wish to practise and then like accessing your files while away from abode, backing upwards holiday photos, or sharing files with friends) this is a handy way to skip piffling with configuration settings subsequently. QuickConnect is Synology'due south free included-with-your-NAS Dynamic DNS service that allows you to always punch dwelling house to your NAS with an piece of cake to remember addresses similar http://quickconnect.to/yourNASname instead of your home IP address.

Later on setting upward (or skipping) the Quick Connect stride, yous'll be prompted to install some cadre application packages. You can likewise skip this step and choice them one past one later, but given the utility of the core packages, we suggest installing them all (they accept upwardly a trivial amount of infinite when installed).

In one case you install (or skip), you're done with the basic setup process and the wizard volition close.

Getting Around DiskStation Director: The Nuts

After this last step, you'll be prompted to have a very brief tour of the DiskStation Managing director interface. Let's expect at a few of those cardinal areas now. Here's what the "desktop" of the DiskStation Manager looks like. There's access to applications with a shortcut and menu system, notifications in the upper right corner, and a system wellness and resource monitor in the lower correct corner.

On the left manus side, you have a primary card and desktop shortcuts. The Outset Menu-like button at the top of the screen will pull up all your apps, but there's direct access to four frequently used apps correct on the desktop: Bundle Center, Control Panel, File Station, and DSM Assistance, equally seen below.

The Package Heart is where you tin can install, update, and remove applications. If you see notifications from the Packet Center, this indicates that one or more of your installed applications needs updating.

The File Station is file manager that allows y'all to easily create and browse folders on your NAS with support for file manipulation (like cut, paste, motion, and delete) congenital right into the right-click context carte du jour.

The Command Console is similar to the control panel on other operating systems, and includes settings for everything from the network configuration to usergroup management. The Control Panel is a nifty last end for a setup tutorial, equally information technology allows us to evidence y'all how to update the operating system of your NAS before sending y'all off to play around with information technology. One time yous've opened the Control Console by clicking on information technology, click on the "Update & Restore" icon in the "System" section.

Here yous'll observe whatever bachelor core updates. Click "Download" to catch the update and and then once it has downloaded click "Install".

Your NAS will reboot and you'll be running the near upward-to-the-minute version of DiskStation Manager.

What Now?

At this point, y'all've got your new Synology NAS up and running. You may be asking yourself "But what well-nigh deejay configuration? Formatting? Network shares? Why aren't we setting that up?" Well, we aren't setting it up because DiskStation Manager set up it upward automatically in the groundwork for you. Based on the number of disks you lot insert during the initial setup, the NAS automatically selects the optimum configuration for those disk to maximize your storage potential (while withal retaining redundancy with RAID). Yous can become into the settings menu and mess around with the configuration to allocate the disks differently, only unless you have a strong need to do so, we'd encourage you lot to stick with the space/redundancy optimized default.

In addition, there are already network shares gear up upward with the administrator account of your NAS as the default user. Further, if you lot installed the application packages, there are default directories for many of those packages already in place. You can browse these directories either in the File Station app seen in the previous section of the tutorial, or just past pointing the file explorer on your PC to the name of the network share. We named our Synology NAS "blackbox" then it's accessible at \\blackbox\ in Windows, equally seen below.

With this basic setup out of the way yous're fix to use y'all're ready to start exploring the installed packages (and the available packages) in the Parcel Center, too as filling up your available storage with all that's fit to back up.