New to NAS and need some guidance

[Howard2k]

I use a 218J and it's great. I use it for backups, storage, and my Lightroom library is split across my NAS and my local storage.

For remote access I use a VPN tunnel to my router and get in through there. The upstream Internet bandwidth is a limiting factor though. I have 10Mb/s, which is not great. 40Mb/s is clearly better.

However... Synology has decided that in a new NAS deployment you no longer get some HDD features on some of its NAS devices unless you purchase a drive from Synology. They sell Toshiba and Seagate drives rebranded as Synology. So buy a Toshiba drive from Amazon and you won't get those features. Buy a Toshiba drive from Synology with a Synology label on it and you do.

Right now this seems to affect the + series only, and there are simple workarounds, but it's still something you should be aware of if buying Synology.

Synology could bring “certified drive” requirements to more NAS devices

German press release suggests expansion of the company’s “integrated ecosystem.”…

arstechnica.com

 

[Analog Kid]

Regarding Synology, be aware that they are moving away from the consumer/enthusiast market. Starting with their 2025 Plus models, only Synology-certified drives are supported (which currently means Synology-branded drives only), and use of any other drive models is actively blocked by DSM (the Synology NAS operating system).

Say it ain't so! I've been worried they'd go in this direction. I've got a couple old NAS boxes that I keep around that just take the smaller capacity drives as hand-me-downs as I upgrade my primary box-- so I use the drives for ever less critical purposes until they die. This will definitely force me to a different vendor in the future.

Are there any document links describing this change? (oops, just saw @Howard2k's post)

 

[klasma]

Say it ain't so! I've been worried they'd go in this direction. I've got a couple old NAS boxes that I keep around that just take the smaller capacity drives as hand-me-downs as I upgrade my primary box-- so I use the drives for ever less critical purposes until they die. This will definitely force me to a different vendor in the future.

Are there any document links describing this change? (oops, just saw @Howard2k's post)

See https://nascompares.com/guide/synol...mpatibility-what-works-what-doesnt-right-now/.

Basically, they allow migration of existing storage pools from older DS models, but only allow adding or replacing with Synology drives. In addition, you get scary warnings all over the UI on the migrated pools. They really don’t want you to use third-party drives anymore.

 

[Analog Kid]

See https://nascompares.com/guide/synol...mpatibility-what-works-what-doesnt-right-now/.

Basically, they allow migration of existing storage pools from older DS models, but only allow adding or replacing with Synology drives. In addition, you get scary warnings all over the UI on the migrated pools. They really don’t want you to use third-party drives anymore.

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of documentation I was hoping existed.

Despite more than a decade of good experiences with Synology, I can't in good convenience recommend anyone buy into that ecosystem if this is the direction they're going. There had been hints in DSM that certain features were going to become subscription supported, but nothing that was fundamental to my use cases. I won't rely on single branded drives though, that defeats the purpose of a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.

Synology was my solution to issues I was having with Drobo as a company (do not use Drobo, their support is atrocious). Now it looks like Synology has crossed over the line and I need to find another manufacturer when I'm ready to update my hardware.

 

[JamesMay82]

I’ve got same use cases as op but when I looked into I was advised that the remote access wasn’t very secure with them and that put me off..

I’ve just get by with Samsung t7 ssd and a LaCie RAID.

 

[Howard2k]

I’ve got same use cases as op but when I looked into I was advised that the remote access wasn’t very secure with them and that put me off..

I’ve just get by with Samsung t7 ssd and a LaCie RAID.

For that reason I remote into my router and terminate the tunnel there. Then it's just LAN from the router to the NAS.

 

[Bigwaff]

Synology was my solution to issues I was having with Drobo as a company (do not use Drobo, their support is atrocious).

Drobo no longer exists. Chapter 7 liquidation in 2023.

 

[hobowankenobi]

I’ve got same use cases as op but when I looked into I was advised that the remote access wasn’t very secure with them and that put me off..

I’ve just get by with Samsung t7 ssd and a LaCie RAID.

I've seen this too, but without much evidence to support it...but it has been years since I looked into it. Only ever used Quick Connect for encrypted backups, for which it always worked great.

Here's a reasonable thread discussing it.

Short version: Use very strong user name and PW, be sure to use their 2FA feature, and understand that at least for shared data that you present access to via QuickConnect, like most web services, if credentials are leaked or guessed, data can be accessed....once 2FA is hacked or spoofed.

 

[phrehdd]

If I were to get a NAS at this time, I would figure out not just the use but how my network is set up - speed of ethernet, how fast data needs to be moved to and from the NAS etc. As example - your router may handle 1 gig connections or 2.5 gig or 5 gig or 10 gig. You may want a NAS that can handle those connections readily. Also, if you need to attach an external drive for any reason, the speed also needs to be considered (USB 3.0, 3.1, or 3.1 Gen2 aka 3.2 etc.).

In my case, I don't need super fast speeds as I use my system for mostly back up of data and media files. My reads are nearly all media files (music and movies). Some people who need full backups from time to time might do well with good port speed connectivity and the RAID of the NAS been efficient in speed as well as ability to repair.

If speed was not an issue, a simple mirror drive NAS set up would suffice if only yourself from multiple computers was using the NAS. Alternatively, traditional RAID 5 or 6 is acceptable as a compromise of speed and redundancy/repair. If cost is not as much an issue a RAID 1+0 (RAID 10) is a good option and so forth.

There are some newer tech items out there that use all solid state drives - Asustsor's flashstor and Terramaster has one as well. Neither are as fast as they could be but no mechanical drives required. For me, my tastes for traditional drives would put me in the Synology (today's make), QNAP, and Asustor market. I have had for years QNAP with zero issues ranging from 3 drive to 6 drive NAS. My friend has Synology and also has had no issues. Today, I use that Asustor Flashstor 6 solid state drive NAS for no real reason other than I wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

 

[CMoore515]

Anything pre-2025 Synology will serve you fine. I have a 920+ and an expansion bay on the way in a SHR RAID.

 

[NeonNights]

I've been a satisfied Synology user since 2012 and on my fifth Synology NAS. Going forward, I won't be buying anymore Synology products due to their anti-consumer practices (or will only buy older pre-2025 models). Definitely avoid the "2025" newest models, as @klasma pointed out, because it locks you into Synology-branded hard drives -- translation "super expensive" hard drives. Stick with 2024 and earlier models. You can tell the year by the last two digits of the model number, such as DS420j (4-bay, 2020 model), DS923+ (2-bay, 2023 model), DS1522+ (5-bay, 2022 model), etc.

I started off with 2-bay models and graduated to 4-bay models. Although OP is starting out with their first NAS, I would still recommend looking at 4-bay NASes. Why? It is cheaper in the long run. A 4-bay may cost a few hundred more than a 2-bay, but the cost difference is offset by lower hard drive cost for equal total storage. The 4-bay will also give you greater flexibility to expand in the future, and potential for faster transfer speeds (assuming you aggregate multiple Ethernet ports or get a Synology model that supports 2.5gbe or 10gbe).

For example:

2-bay DS223 ($285) + Two 12TB HDD (~$200 each) = total $685 (10.9TB total storage with SHR/RAID)

4-bay DS423 ($399) + Four 4TB HDD ($70 each) = total $679 (10.9TB total storage with SHR/RAID)

Synology RAID Calculator is a good tool to give you an idea of how much storage you'll get with SHR/RAID, based on number and capacity of different drives.

Keep in mind that the value-line J-series and non-Plus Synology models are fixed at 1GB or 2GB RAM and you can't upgrade the memory. Only the Plus models (DS1522+, DS423+, DS923+, etc.) allow expanding memory later as you see fit. Also, some of the Plus models give you the option of adding 10gbe later on. Lastly, when shopping for hard drives try to avoid SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) and stick with CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording). If a drive's price is too good to be true, chances are it's SMR.

If budget is a concern then look for used Synology models and used enterprise-grade hard drives on sites such as serverpartsdeal.com. And maybe hold out for Amazon Prime Day sales in July. Hope that helps.

EDIT: Despite the bad taste that 2025 Synology models leave, I love all my past Synology NASes and currently have my DS1522+ backing up to a spare DS418 off-site. OP, just keep in mind that RAID is NOT A BACKUP. RAID offers redundancy and/or performance, but if you delete something then it is deleted across your RAID setup (I realize Synology provides a Recycle Bin option, but the point is people shouldn't think of RAID as "backup"). RAID allows you to recover in the event a drive goes bad, but do not consider it as your backup. You should still have a proper backup of your NAS data (preferably off-site) in case your NAS is stolen or lost in a fire.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I have a DS1618+. Have had it for about 5 years. It’s overkill probably, has 6 bays. But everything is redundant, I can have two drives fail and still be ok. It holds my photo archive (professional photographer), it backs all my devices and drives up, holds my jellyfin server, music server, and lots of other small docker apps (which I realised existed and got into precisely becuase I got the nas).

Anyway. At the time I got it it was 600 empty of drives, and I slowly added and upgraded drives over time.

I don’t know much about the current state of the nas market, but this thing is perfect and has no signs of slowing or becoming redundant. If you can pick up one cheap I fully recommend it.

It’s directly attached to my Mac via 10gbe, for speed.

 

[LionTeeth]

Never owned a NAS before, but I'd like to fix that and I could use a little guidance. My intended uses:

• Plex Media Server
• Data backup/syncing (to replace Dropbox)
• Photo storage/backup/syncing (with good photo management, searching, browsing, etc)
• Remote File Access (from laptop or mobile device)
• Shared file access (from various computers of everyone in my family)

Not interested in building my own rig and I'd much rather buy something pre-built and ready to go out of the box, so I'm looking at something from Synology right now. The number of options are overwhelming, though.

I will be the only user, so it's unlikely that I'd be watching Plex, backing up data, and browsing photos simultaneously.

Having never used a NAS I don't know yet if I'll use it as a standalone device connected directly to an ethernet cable, or if I'll connect it to my Mac Studio desktop computer, which I typically leave on and running all the time.

My Spectrum internet service is 1 Gbps down, 40Mbps up. I currently use an Eero Pro 6e, which supports a maximum wired speed of 2.5 Gbps.

Any suggestions for a RAID 0 option from Synology? What about a RAID 5 option?

Not sure if there is any other relevant information that would be helpful, so let's start there. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

You are me two years ago. Synology is exactly what you need and is easy to set up. I got a Ds218 I think.

You will access it via its IP address in any web browser in your house. I have mine running plex and it's super fast even for 4k HDR files. I back up all my photos to it, and even my business docs on my main mac via an application you install that uploads any changes in docs immediately.

I got two 4gb drives running in RAID (it uses one drive and backs up to the other one. The R stands for Redundant). I need to upgrade though so I'll be getting two 16 gig drives.

But yeah that's what you need and it's super easy!

 

[ChrisA]

I have four 8TB Thunderbolt drives. Better than a NAS. Much faster and simpler.

Yes, unless you also have five computers and you want the SAME data on all five.

What you are saying is that you don't need a NAS. Most people don't. You do not need a "central" storage place if you own just one computer. But as soon as you own two, then you hate to have that problem where "that data is on my other computer". And the more devices you have, the worse the problem gets.

You are me two years ago. Synology is exactly what you need and is easy to set up. I got a Ds218 I think.

You will access it via its IP address in any web browser in your house. I have mine running plex and it's super fast even for 4k HDR files. I back up all my photos to it, and even my business docs on my main mac via an application you install that uploads any changes in docs immediately.

I got two 4gb drives running in RAID (it uses one drive and backs up to the other one. The R stands for Redundant). I need to upgrade though so I'll be getting two 16 gig drives.

But yeah that's what you need and it's super easy!

I agree, Synology does what the OP wants. But Synology is like Apple, their stuff is easy to use but hobby users complain that you can no longer "fiddle" with it as the RAM and disk drives must be bought from Synology and the CPU is sized for efficient power usage and not for running random apps. For those who like to build stuff and chase specs NOTHING beats "TrueNAS". It is currently the best out there, but it has a steeper learning curve by far. Yes, as said, the company seems to be moving away from the enthusiast/hobby market to cater most to professional users (who are willing to pay more)

So Synlogy is like Apple, ease of use and quality are very good, but at the cost of vendor lock-in and a higher price.

Still, people here are not telling you the important stuff, like how to back up a NAS.

 

[NeonNights]

Agreed, @ChrisA. "I have four 8TB Thunderbolt drives. Better than a NAS.", is basically saying your primary PC is your NAS if it's shared on the network or you remote into it...but without the redundancy, and still no backup. And yes, a NAS still needs a backup.

I have a collection of external SSDs and Thunderbolt NVMe drives too, but it's not the same as my beloved 20TB NAS that I'm planning to expand to 60TB (with a secondary NAS as backup).

 

[eyoungren]

Yes, unless you also have five computers and you want the SAME data on all five.

What you are saying is that you don't need a NAS. Most people don't. You do not need a "central" storage place if you own just one computer. But as soon as you own two, then you hate to have that problem where "that data is on my other computer". And the more devices you have, the worse the problem gets.

And the problem of 'I forgot to share the drive of the other computer that has the data'. Or, 'now I have to leave that other computer that has the data on 24/7 so my other computers can access the data'. Or 'I shut off the computer that has the data'.

All of which is a hassle.

Still, people here are not telling you the important stuff, like how to back up a NAS.

I have a particular folder on my second NAS (Synology) that is backed up nightly to my first NAS. Then is backed up weekly to Dropbox. While it would be irritating to lose the stuff on my Synology, most of it is just stuff collected over the years that I don't access much, and other stuff I could replace if I felt like getting around to it. The folder I DO backup is the stuff I value more.

I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner for all backups. Mac/PC to NAS, NAS to Dropbox. Technically, I should have a dedicated Mac for that (I used to), but right now all the NAS backups to Dropbox are being handled by CCC on my MacPro.

 

[pwhitehead]

UNAS Pro or could wait for the rumoured desktop NAS.

Yes, I agree! I have a UDMSE and this is what I'll be purchasing in the future. I have an 8T raid G-Raid, but I need network storage for my photos and media.

 

[ThailandToo]

Yes, unless you also have five computers and you want the SAME data on all five.

What you are saying is that you don't need a NAS. Most people don't. You do not need a "central" storage place if you own just one computer. But as soon as you own two, then you hate to have that problem where "that data is on my other computer". And the more devices you have, the worse the problem gets.

I agree, Synology does what the OP wants. But Synology is like Apple, their stuff is easy to use but hobby users complain that you can no longer "fiddle" with it as the RAM and disk drives must be bought from Synology and the CPU is sized for efficient power usage and not for running random apps. For those who like to build stuff and chase specs NOTHING beats "TrueNAS". It is currently the best out there, but it has a steeper learning curve by far. Yes, as said, the company seems to be moving away from the enthusiast/hobby market to cater most to professional users (who are willing to pay more)

So Synlogy is like Apple, ease of use and quality are very good, but at the cost of vendor lock-in and a higher price.

Still, people here are not telling you the important stuff, like how to back up a NAS.

Actually running many computers. I find NAS systems underperform greatly. Easier to network computers and share files across. Much faster usually. Especially when 80% is running on one system a Mac Studio.

 

[eyoungren]

Actually running many computers. I find NAS systems underperform greatly. Easier to network computers and share files across. Much faster usually. Especially when 80% is running on one system a Mac Studio.

I don't share that experience.

 

[NeonNights]

Actually running many computers. I find NAS systems underperform greatly. Easier to network computers and share files across. Much faster usually. Especially when 80% is running on one system a Mac Studio.

I am curious what is your use-case where you need 4x8TB drives with Thunderbolt interface. Networking your computers neuters your Thunderbolt speed though, so you're not any better off than a NAS. Plus, Thunderbolt drives use more energy and get insanely hot.

Personally, a Synology NAS is more power-efficient for large, shareable storage. You also get great apps to organize your photos, music, videos, DLNA/Plex server, Docker, and VMs too. My NAS is my personal cloud and the family's iPhones and Android automatically backs up their photos/videos directly to the NAS from anywhere in the world. I also record 7 surveillance cameras to my NAS and have a dedicated 10gbe connection between my DS1522+ and my main MacBook Pro, and 1gbe for all other networked devices. It is plenty fast enough to edit 4K video straight from the NAS and transfer speeds are blazing fast. My Thunderbolt 4 drive is faster, for sure, but the NAS offers a better balance of capacity, performance, resiliency, power efficiency, and expansion.

 

[ChrisA]

Actually running many computers. I find NAS systems underperform greatly. Easier to network computers and share files across. Much faster usually. Especially when 80% is running on one system a Mac Studio.

So you use one computer 80% of the time. Yes it would be faster to turn that computer into a file server. It becomes the "NAS" for the other four computers.

Another solution is to set up a Mac Mini as the "NAS". You attach as many drives as needed using USB 3 or TB. Then, you rather than Eithernet, not you can use Thunderbolt networking at 40 Gbits per second.

Thunderbolt networks only work point-to-point, between two computers. The server connects to the most-used desktop(s) via TB and also to the WiFi router with Ethernet. The reason you might move server funtions to a dedicated Mac mini or to a Synology NAS is because it needs to run Linux in a VM or maybe some Docker containers for some services, and you want those moved off the desktop computer.

What do I do? I have started to rethink how I use the Synology NAS. Now I keep the "master"
data files on my Mac Mini. These get sync'd to the NAS and made available to ipad, iPhone and other computers from the NAS. This way the data is MUCH faster to access from the Mac Mini.

Another similar option is to use "Synology Drive." This keeps the "master copy" in the NAS but keeps the data mirrored locally. (assuming I have a large enough local disk.) This might be smarter, and I might go to this, but I've not tested Synology Drive software enough yet that I would depend on it. But it might be the best way.

Either way, I would have two copies of all the data

 

[robinp]

Would recommend Synology plus Tailscale. Tailscale allows you to connect to it from anymore without exposing it to the outside world.

 

[darkcompass]

Not sure to be honest I just know it works (wherein lies the appeal)

It’s a 2018 running sequoia so you tell me

Was running a 2012 until recently with no problems but the machine itself was dying

I looked into nas boxes but they seemed pretty expensive and I didn’t want to have to screw around with Linux

Using a mac mini as a server, with attached storage and running plex is fine for me too. Time Machine backups are on a Capsule.
Whatever works for you @nathansz It might we worth mirroring the data drives in Disk Utility for redundancy just in case.

 

[Ifti]

Using a mac mini as a server, with attached storage and running plex is fine for me too. Time Machine backups are on a Capsule.
Whatever works for you @nathansz It might we worth mirroring the data drives in Disk Utility for redundancy just in case.

How is the capsule running?

 

[beltzak]

There’s a lot of good stuff in some comments and the options there are in the wild are too wide but I’ll share my experience.

I use Qnap devices for two main purposes. Backup and Data Storage Server with Cloud Services.
The small or old devices are used just for backup. And the heavy one, I have a TVS-h1288X 12 bay, 2nmve, 80GB RAM Xeon 6Core CPU, 10GB 2 ports and 4 2.5GB ports with 80TB . 5 pools with RAID 1 and 1 pool with RAID 5.

1) I recommend to buy 4 or 6 bay devices as usually just cost a little bit. For example there is one model that the 6 bay just cost 100$ more than the 4 bay model.

2) For nothing else than backup you have enough with a 2 bay model.

3) Each case is dependent of the infrastructure and networking.

For example in a 1GB ethernet network it does not matter if you have no raid, raid 0,, raid 1, raid 5, raid 6 or raid 10 if you are just 1 person working. I mean “work”. Because you are not going to get more than 120MB/s transfers and that’s pretty low for today’s standard, so 1GBE not good for centralized data. With 2.5GBE you getting 300MB/s (tops) so not near a standard local SSD hard drive (500MB/s) and very far from NMVE SSD 2500MB/s up to 11000MB/s (cutting edge tech).

So that being said, my personal setup up is, more and less, the following:
- Centralized data with my main computer (10GB) connected directly to a 10GB por in the NAS. Transfers up to 1100MB/s. Usually 450MB/s reads in a RAID 1. I change to Windows, Mac, iPhone or iPad my stuff is there. Laptops, other computers (FreeNAS, now TrueNAS old i7 4770k computer for backups), Proxmox (testing old i7 6700K) all have access to this data trough a Unifi 1GBE switch.

- Virtual Machine within Virtual Machine or VM Nested. I like to keep my Qnap and NAS clean or Vanilla Operating System. I don’t rely on Music, video, photo, docker, container or any APP from QNAP. For security reasons and compatibility and reliability with issues in updates or whatever. A clean OS is easy to maintain. So I use Virtual Machines.
1- for Jellyfin Server.
2- for XCP-NG Virtualization server.
3- Xen Orchestra,manages XCP-NG.
Inside XCP-NG I have all the stuff I need, podman containers (docker like) with several services like photoprism, nextcloud, paperless, nginx proxy manager, invoice ninja, Odoo or whatever. If needs to be exposed it’s going through nginx proxy manager (testing pangolin).

- Wireguard VPN to connect to my network (used to use OpenVPN but very slow for big transfers). WG-Easy is awesome.

- I limit connections to my country only in NAS firewall.

- I also own a pfSense as a router.

- I avoid subscription based services.

- I hate Synology HDD DRM solution for kidnapping the market. I have seen prices increased 100$ for just a 8TB HDD compared to a Seagate IronWolf Pro (top NAS solution from Seagate). Imagine for a 16 or 20TB HDD. What’s the difference 200$ or more? WTF.

- Test TrueNAS, looks like you have quite a lot hardware at home. People talk about Unraid too (haven’t tested).

- Test XCP-NG or Proxmox virtualization SO.

My backups are in a old computer which is switch on every 3 months, HDD have long lives if they’re switched off 360 days a year.

Also my backups are in a old QNAP that switches on just 2-3 hours a week just to backup all data in my main QNAP (Air Gap).

I have a remote 2 bay QNap for my most important data.

I think this covers up, at least the most important stuff.