Synology NAS Cheat Sheet

I am a big fan of network attach storage boxes (NAS) made by Synology. I must have installed a dozen of them. It has so many features that it's hard to keep track of how many and how to use them. So I have decided to create a cheat sheet of the features touted by the company and check off this list the features that I have actually tested out.

Below is the list of features (in italics) listed on the Synology website. Their latest firmware is the newly released Disk Station Manager (DSM) 5.0 Build 4458. I use their flagship model DS214se as the base model. It can be had for $160 on Amazon. Of course, this is just the NAS without the harddrives. So given that the DS214se is a 2-bay model, you would naturally buy 2 harddrives for it. With a few exceptions, I always setup the drives in mirror mode using Synology's own SHR RAID.

Below are some of the pictures of the DS214se.

Brand New User Interface

Visual design has been totally revamped to provide a cleaner look and touch-friendly user experiences.

High-resolution images are displayed when launched with Ultra HD or retina-display supported devices.

Badges-style notification counters appear on application icons.

Login page displays local weather information.

This is basically eye candy so I don't pay too much attention to it. It has the new flat look that is the rage these days found in UIs for Windows 8 and iOS 7. The icons are bigger and brighter in colors.

QuickConnect
QuickConnect now supports DSM, Photo Station, Audio Station, Surveillance Station, Download Station, Video Station, File Station, providing simplified remote access, without the hassle of setting up port-forwarding on your router.

All mobile apps support QuickConnect.

Enabling QuickConnect requires registering a MyDS Center account.

Web Station and Mail Station does not support QuickConnect.

If you don't mind doing port forwarding and already use a DDNS service, then you do not need using QuickConnect. However, I will explore this option in dept when I have time. 

Backup and Replication
Multiple version backup is now available on local backup, backup to another DiskStation. Only the differential blocks of data are retained among each version, allowing file history to be maintained with better storage efficiency.

Overview page displays scheduled and completed backup tasks.

Credentials for creating backup destinations can be saved as a profile to make backup task creation easier.

Data and configuration backup created in DSM 5.0 can only be restored in DSM 5.0.

Data and configurations that were backed up in DSM 5.0 cannot be restored using DSM 4.3 or earlier.

Control Panel

Layout has been redesigned for better navigation and organization.

Service list displays related firewall and port-forwarding settings.

VPN client settings have been integrated into Network > Network Interface.

Shortcuts on DSM Desktop that were created previously will be cleared after upgrading to DSM 5.0.

Shared Folders with Windows ACL Permissions
The access permissions of shared folders are based on Windows ACL, allowing you to fine-tune permissions beyond just Read Only, Read/Write, No Access. Newly created shared folders implement the permission settings of Windows ACL.

For shared folders created in DSM 4.3 or earlier, you can either convert the existing permissions to Windows ACL, or leave the permission unchanged.

The shared folders - photo, surveillance, and shares on external storage or volume with ext3 file system cannot use Windows ACL permissions.

Storage Manager
New overview displays the overall health of all disks and volumes, as well as hard disk utilization, volume, and iSCSI LUN usage.

Disk health information includes the current and historical health of hard disks

SSD Cache
Read/Write cache is supported. Two identical SSDs can be combined to create a RAID 1 read-write cache and enhance the performance of a volume or block-level iSCSI LUN.

A high-availability cluster cannot be created when SSD read-write cache is enabled.

Package Center
Auto updating allows packages to be updated automatically.

Log Center
Syslog Server and System Logs have been integrated into a single, centralized application.

Support Center
Support tickets can now be sent directly from DSM.

Remote access and log generation allow Synology support engineers to remotely diagnose technical issues on your Synology NAS.

File Station
File sharing links can be created and shared with your Google+ and Facebook friends. Those who receive the link will be asked to enter their Google+ or Facebook login credentials before accessing the folder or file.

You can view Microsoft Office documents using Office Online when QuickConnect is enabled.

Text Editor
Plain text files can be edited directly in DSM.

Rich features are available, such as the ability to change character encoding, recognize file types, and see variable highlighting.

DSM Help
Online help files can be viewed in DSM Help, allowing you to read the latest versions of documentation regarding DSM and packages.

Font size can be changed to larger sizes.

Web Station
The “http” group (http) is the service account for Web Station, introducing better flexibility and security. \

Web applications will run as the same permission as “http” group. We suggest reviewing the permissions of the web folder and assign appropriate permissions to http group.

The PHP version has been updated to 5.5. Please check the compatibility of your PHP-based web apps with php 5.5. The details can be found at Migrating from PHP 5.3.x to PHP 5.4.x and Migrating from PHP 5.4.x to PHP 5.5.x.

Performance has been enhanced with Apache MPM worker.

Media Library
The default indexed folders - photo, video, audio - are removable from indexed folders.

The types of media to be indexed in each default folder can be changed.

Synology High Availability
When binding two or more ethernet connections to create an aggregated heartbeat connection, load balancing and failover are supported.

iSCSI Performance
For iSCSI LUN with Advanced LUN option enabled, iSCSI random read performance has been enhanced by over 6 times, as illustrated in the below comparison:

IOPS (4KB)DSM 4.3DSM 5.0Improvement
Read IOPS from DS1813+ 135 995 637 %

Configured with 4 HDDs composed in SHR-1, the LUN used for testing is a 100G LUN with advanced LUN features enabled. Tested by IOmeter by 100% random read with 4k block size.

File Service
AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) performance has been improved, as illustrated in the below comparison of transferring 5000 x 1MB files to Synology NAS:

Mac to Synology NASDSM 4.3DSM 5.0Improvement
DS213j 25.14 MB/s 31.42 MB/s 25.0%
DS1513+ 31.64 MB/s 41.61 MB/s 31.5%

SPDY
Support for SPDY v3.0 accelerates the overall responsiveness of the user interface when using HTTPS connections.

Memory Compression
Least recently used data in memory is compressed, improving system responsiveness when under heavy load.

Wi-Fi
Connecting up to two USB Wi-Fi adapters is supported, allowing your Synology NAS to share its Internet connection via both 2.4GHz and 5GHz ranges.

You can bridge your wired connection with Wi-Fi hotspot(s) to extend your wireless network range and unify your existing local network and the wireless network hosted on your DiskStation.

Snapshot Manager
Synology Snapshot Manager software plugin available on vSphere and Windows Server environments to create application-consistent snapshots in DSM.

For VMware environments, you can install Synology Snapshot Manager for VMware vCenter Server on Windows Server. After installation, when a snapshot is triggered on DSM, vCenter Server will be notified and flush all the data from memory to the LUN to guarantee data consistency. Once the snapshot is complete, vCenter Server will resume normal I/O operation of VMware datastore.

For Windows environment, you can install Synology Snapshot Manager for Windows Server. After installation, when a snapshot is triggered on DSM, Synology Snapshot Manager will use the Microsoft 

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) technology to produce consistent point-in-time copies of data. 

Synology Snapshot Manager for Windows Server also supports performing snapshots when triggered by 3rd party software via VSS.

Synology Snapshot Manager for VMware vCenter Server supports vSphere 5.1 or later, and vSphere web client server plugin is required for application interface. Snapshot Manager for Windows supports Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2. VMWare applications support up to 3 maximum concurrent snapshot tasks.