ago u/StorageReview Synology has quietly added support for M.2 SSD volumes. But then a few years down the road they realize they are running out of space. The benefit of this naming scheme is to prevent download loops which can occur on import when there is a discrepancy in the release title compared to the contents of the file itself (for example, if the release title says DTS-ES but the contents are actually DTS). Hello. That is the concept of a RAID. Video streaming is quite lenient on local bandwidth since a device can buffer data and therefore will not use a lot of bandwidth in real-time, but if you have 150 folks streaming *at the same time*, you want to use Link Aggregation on the NAS. The computer arranges files by name, character by character. 4. , It is still a huge issue, having your NAS constantly attacked. And I know a lot of users are crying foul about it. This feature also means you can have an advanced network setup without getting additional hardware. But backup is a matter of a daily thing, dont wait till something is broken to think about it. Mine gets thousands of attempts a day and I have done quite a few things to mitigate that. They are just a tiny bit noisier than the Pros. The most reductive way to describe a RAID would be that it allows you to combine multiple hard drives into a bigger one that provides protection for your data if one of those hard drives fails. What do those Synology model numbers mean? For myself the perfect NAS seemed to be the DS1821+. Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. It also has the following, which makes Synology servers so powerful right out of the box: Supporting all standard RAIDs and SHR, a Synology server delivers all the storage setup youd want, from the most basic to the most advanced levels. I dont see this in Synology Video Station. Groundhog Day.mp4. Anything Im missing? If you need to rename many files at once, Ihighly recommend using the free tool called Bulk Rename Utility available to download from here:http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a07c348ca7236340828e8a0b5b359006" );document.getElementById("e141a2b30a").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Sign me up for Dong Knows Tech's newsletter. Before getting a Synology, you should remember some possibly unpleasant items below. honestly for transcoding 4k content i would highly recommend not getting a Synology system and building your own instead. Diagnosis Proceed to Resolution if all the following conditions are met: The file or folder name is correctly displayed in DSM > File Station. The S is for the primary unit (you need at least one of these) and the X is for the expansion unit. They come with front-facing drive bays, and you can easily replace/install drives. The normal ones (no letter) are basic all rounders, good for home file use and will do some basic transcoding, but nothing to performance heavy. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. Hiya, so before I start renaming 64 tv shows of ~ 3TB and ~ 1600 files, I'd like to make sure how to cover both naming conventions of Kodi (or better, the scraper for thetvdb.com) and Synology Video Station simultaneously. We already know the size of the hard drives we want so all that is left is to choose the brand. Now, you know my answer. Examples are content streaming, surveillance apps, photo sharing, downloading, etc. is there something like S01.EX##? A NAS with this suffix such as the DS216j is a budget, home-orientated model with a slower processor and often less RAM than more expensive versions. It has a start button, a desktop, a taskbar, and a control panel. However, its NAS operating system, QTS, is bloated and disorganized. Required fields are marked *. The aim is to have a single point of storage (the Synology DiskStation NAS), but two separate Hardware. We have 5 Synology Servers, all four bay or more and they are so close to perfect it is incredible. Hi Mitchell, Thanks for this, all good suggestions. The aim is to have a single point of storage (the Synology DiskStation NAS), but two separate libraries - one one the Vero 4K with Kodi/thetvdb.com scraper, and one on . Cookie Notice Theres also a +II model, the DS216+II, which is identical to the DS216+ but has a newer processor, as Intel discontinued the old chip. For years, Synology NAS servers (for homes and SMBs) used Intel Atom or Celeron CPUs. Before you can pick a Synology NAS you must be able to break down their model names. I was thinking about buying Synology NAS, but ended up building one myself. Does that make sense? Id call that a negative many people lost thousands of files and data. 6 WD HDDs were used over 5 years (4 are Green and 2 WD Red), and 2 Seagate HDDs were used for 1-1/2 years (1 barracuda and 1 Iron wolf). Is that a possible issue? Log in!Click here if you need help allowing ads! Finally, the app can also scan your video metadata, to easily detect the media files formats. This is a tremendously helpful article, much thanks. Youll have to buy additional (and transferable) ones at $60 a pop if you want to use more cameras. Your naming TV Show Name/Season 1/TV Show Name Episode Title S01E01.avi is not correctly identified anymore by syno. However, the suffix and model number rules of thumb still apply. Specifications. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. After that, the first time you turn the new server on, youll be prompted to upgrade the OS, like in step #4 above, to the latest version of DSM built for the model. This is very true. Each TV Show requires its own folder in the Source folder. https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/help/VideoStation/category. hi Dong, Under " Policies", click Repositories. If anything starts behaving poorly you immediately know the culprit. There are more than 30 models listed on the companys website, with cryptic names such as RS3617xs+ and DS216+II. The numbers after DS or RS is where it gets a bit confusing. Shared Folder Sync works locally and over the Internet via VPN or QuickConnect. These are said to have the best price/performance ratio. A file or folder name on Synology NAS is displayed as something like 12HWA0~8 when accessed from a client computer via SMB. We got degraded volume warnings it seems one of the three disks fell out of the volume. Every Synology NAS follows the same naming convention: Starts with two letters representing the form factor. Also, if you use two drives, you might want to use two SSDs since you will need to use them in RAID 1 (or SHR equivalent). Still, running Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system, it shares the Plus notion of non-xs servers, such as the DS923+, meaning it can host . Plus series is the more powerful one with Intel CPUs and more RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options. That is why I said that picking the number of drive bays is going to be the most important decision. I have containers running stubby+dnsmasq (DNS over TLS), iperf3 (LAN bandwidth benchmarking), librenms (simple LAN inventory and stats), and mariadb. I would rather not go through and individually edit the information in Video Station, especially as this would do nothing for those files that don't show up anywhere. But I could live with partitioned weekly or nightly backups. DNS is hierarchical by design, so taking advantage of that will provide us with some benefits later on. Like all things, Synology NAS servers are not perfect. I manage 6 Synology NAS and have had much better durability and less instance of bad sectors with Exos. It must follow the form {edition- [Edition Name]} . That turned out to be the simplest decision I would have to make. If someone is using a NAS with a 100BT Switch, I encourage them to consider spending $29 to go buy a 1GBit Switch . They are great if youre into Linux. Synology typically upgrades their models every two years so a DS1819+ is really only one release behind the DS1821+. Synology has quietly added support for M.2 SSD volumes. Plex naming convention is also quite important. The Synology supports encryption itself for the entire volume which you can turn on or off depending on your needs. Synologys VMM is one of the most powerful NAS add-on features. You need to add the Episode Title by yourself. Sure it's not the coolest looking car and doesn't have flashy gimmicks inside but it is a car that will get you from point A to point B. RS (RackStation): A rackmount design server with drives placed horizontally. Naming Conventions Short vs. Long Names Paths Fully Qualified vs. On a connected computer, download, install, and run. RAID 1 of two hard drives can be quite slow. If you're reading this article you probably want the most straight forward answer so here it is, buy Seagate IronWolf hard drives. Ive always wondered what the model numbers meantand now I know! By the way, make sure you use one of its built-in LAN ports for this part. I have one more question, that may not be related to your post, I have 2 Synology NAS (DS710+ and DS1518+). Cause Video Station seem to be fetching the old info still, resulting to episodes not showing up in Video Station. Any file name that is changed is recorded in the Migration Job Report. Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year. File and Directory Names Once integrated, you can manage NASs resources based on the settings of the domain server. Let's look at an example to try to make things a bit clearer. Or is it something else? In the case of unwanted data alteration, such as after a ransomware attack, you can restore the data to the previous version, either the entire shared folder or by selecting individual files. So, if you get a new server today, you can safely expect it to last a decade. If you are reading this article there is no way you will want to get 1 or 2 drive bays. Here is my question, it seems like the DS220+ would be adequate for what we need. Its just like having multiple unlimited Dropbox accounts for free. Click OK and Video Station will check if the plugin is valid. Do I assume 5 bays at 2TB gives me a total of 10TB of storage with 5TB mirrored? And thanks for sharing your experience. Now I only keep about a couple of dozen from Synology in my fleet. Again, you can stream content when youre in the local network or out and about using QuickConnect. A lot of the new Synology models tout the ability to install M.2 NVMe hard drives as cache drives under the guise that they will make accessing your data faster. This allows sorting alphabetically into chronological order. According to the formula, the best file name is "Avatar 2009.avi". Thanks. It has a fast Ryzen CPU, upgradable ECC RAM, and 8 drive bays. Hi Dong: The price jump from the Plus to the XS+/XS is quite large and anyone reading this article is probably not going to be doing enough heavy work that they need the extra horsepower. Afterward, all data and most settings of the old server will be present in the new one. And even if you do know what those words mean then you probably don't care what is written here because you most likely know more than I do. Each unsupported character is replaced by an underscore. Great to see the concepts, and most of the options and terminology all in one place. One of the best naming conventions I've ever seen involved fictional beverages from TV and film. Of the many Synology NAS servers Ive used, I had issues with just one, the DS1515+, which died after almost four years of non-stop operation. Hey Dong, love your site. Though all that might be cost-prohibitive. Its recommended that you (think of) replacing them every 3 or 5 years, depending on the type you use. If the volume is not (close to) full, chances are you wont lose anything, even when more than one drive fails at the same time. I've updated a show and added the episodes to it since it was empty and some more info so that my Synology Video Station can fetch it. i have this labeling issue with bunch of TV Shows. The price on those drives is in the neighborhood of 2x the equivalent unit by specification, and while the NAS may technically function to create storage, reports are that monitoring features (I consider it critical to know if my drive is healthy) are rendered useless on the unsupported drives. Shows The most common naming scheme for shows is categorizing the files by series and then season. My question is considering the way she uses the NAS, as a daily repository of files she works on both saving new files and accessing ones she stored there should we continue operating the NAS as an SHR volume or use the Cloud Station (or similar type options)? For years, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) a proprietary flexible RAID configuration alone has made Synology servers superior to those from other vendors. The Play has a dedicated transcoding chip as you mentioned, it works with DS Video, but the Plex package does not take advantage of it. Should we use Cloud Station, should we check and replace disks if necessary and build a fresh shr volume? Servers with a 64-bit CPU thats most Plus (+) servers and those released in the past five years can handle 108TB per volume, and most XS and higher-end servers can control 200TB per volume. Imagine always having your data backed up and synced in real-time, no matter where you are, without you having to do anything (other than the initial setup). There are just too many apps. In recent years you have to enable the video info plugin, go to the information provider and register an account, get an API key and then add that key to your MediaStation setup. Click Save to save your settings. From Control Panel, select Network. The last two numbers represent the model range. point 1 and 3) not for other operations such as referencing via command line (point 2) but primarily a structure I know is interpreted well by Synology Videostation. Hi Carsten, Im guessing you mean multi-file movies (e.g. Including a server package and client apps, Synology Drive turns the NAS into a personal cloud server, like Dropbox, but much better. https://www.synology.com/img/products/getting_started/choose_01.jpg. If you have any problems with the API, view this thread here: https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/618ada421cfe3a002a4f89d1#619e4d03310325008f5c5d56. If a drive has a S.M.A.R.T error or bad sectors, its time to replace it. It's a good idea to know what those names mean. Because two DX517 expansion units can be connected to it, each of which have 5 drive bays themselves. On the router, in the LAN > Switch Control, i just enable Bonding/LA. Oh, at one point, I actually ditched the iPhone for a completely different reason, but my NAS server has always been there. (Also, it might be a good opportunity to go through and create a consistent naming schema for everything, which I haven't done so far.). It tends to offer high-end hardware specs and fancy (largely useless) features, but the OS is bloated and convoluted. Those who are confused with the Synology product naming conventions can use this as a guide: "+" series = performance range. This may seem obvious but some people would rather buy four 4TB hard drives rather than two 8TB ones for their 4 bay NAS. Synology also provides full technical support for longer than you'd think. As the Synology Media Server bases its indexing, cover images and descriptions on the filename of your movies and TV shows, its critical to get the format correct. I didnt mean to scare folks from any RAID, just wanted to set the expectations straight. But in this case, the accessories can be pretty expensive. Synology sometimes upgrades a NAS with a faster processor and more RAM, but without changing the model number. just as this one will be. It automatically organizes movies and TV shows and casts them on the DS Video app, which is available on many platforms, including iOS, Android, Roku, Xbox, Fire Stick, etc. 1. Everything from DuffBeer to PanGalacticGargleBlaster was used, including Ambrosa, Shotz, Synthehol, Bootysweat, Butterbeer, Tantrum, and Moloko. NVR (Network Video Recorder): A server designed mostly to work as a video recorder. Go to Settings > Video Info Plugin. As for the RAID, check out this portion of the post. You can see that in the cheapening of the hardware line occurring the past two years. Theres a few Im struggling with, in order here in the importance to me. By the way, if you know what youre doing, they are also excellent for media streaming. This works fine for me have you enabled the video info plugin? The way it works, the NAS server will retain a copy of the data and sync that with the clients. Are there any particular reasons for Synology over QNAP for you? Beyond that are xs and xs+ models. Actually Ive read this post twice and several more of your Synology posts. Sometimes different seasons are set up as separate instances of the show, sometimes even different episodes show up separately. I will note one major change to Synology products that may have taken effect since the original publishing date of this article Synology no longer universally works with all make of drives. Your best bet is to start with the latest model year for the number of drive bays you want and work backwards from there. Personally I recommend a main folder per TV Show, a sub-folder for each season and individual episodes named via the emboldened format below (the login being that this structure can be browsed via a network or a search and still make sense): TV Show Name/Season 1/TV Show Name Episode Title S01E01.avi TV Show Name s01e01.avi TV Show Name s01e01-e02.avi TV Show Name 101.avi TV Show Name Season 1 Episode 1.avi TV Show Name Season 1 E01.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/01.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/s01e01.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/101.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/TV Show Name s01e01.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/TV Show Name 101.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/Episode 1.avi TV Show Name/Season 1/Season 1 Episode 1.avi TV Show Name Season 1/01.avi TV Show Name Season 1/s01e01.avi TV Show Name Season 1/101.avi TV Show Name Season 1/TV Show Name s01e01.avi TV Show Name Season 1/TV Show Name 101.avi TV Show Name Season 1/Episode 1.avi TV Show Name Season 1/Season 1 Episode 1.avi. I totally agree. doing the minimal acceptable to move its products. Thatd take too long, Wee. As for software, NAS servers are generally not for novice users who want something plug-and-play. Great review! The DS15xx would have 5 bays in the unit, with the option to add up to 2 expansion units that each have 5 bays, for a total of 15 bays. Enter your customized port number in the Customized port (HTTP) or Customized port (HTTPS) field. Not sure if the J support it, but generally, using the NAS is a great way to keep your data safe from ransomware/virus via the Backup and Replicator app which shadow-copies your data. Their product support status page has 2015 model year products that still have full technical support. How can it support 18 hard drives then? Maybe you can discern what the first two letters indicate, but the numbers and accompanying symbols or random words are anything but clear. Whether you are an existing Synology NAS drive owner, hoping to migrate from a particularly old system or just keeping an eye on the changing tides of tech at the big brand in network-attached storage, the periodic refresh of the Synology hardware portfolio is generally something that is much anticipated. But if you want to get the most out of network storage, Id recommend Synology. The unofficial Synology forum for NAS owners and enthusiasts. DSM is where the power of Synology NAS servers lies. The number of drive bays spans the entire game of series. That is handy when you need to replace your server due to hardware issues or upgrade to a newer one. Most of the time, the first number denotes how many drive bays are in the NAS. Supports home folders for domain/LDAP users. Backup is different from redundancy. We would use it to backup our MacBook Air. Thanks. Very interested in this topic. Oh you don't like Seagate for some arbitrary reason? On the other hand, the Snapshot portion is a must-use. Please allow ads when visiting Dong Knows Tech!Ads pay for the sites free and No-Nonsense content. The 3 are similar specs-wise, Pete. That was likely caused by your adblocker, Gary. Hey I hope yall are still around monitoring this posts comments. But remember, I mentioned that this is where it gets a bit tricky. Also love the built in NVMe slots. Itd be more sensible of Synology to include the number of default camera licenses according to the number of drive bays a 2-bay server has two, a 4-bay server has four, and so on. An excellent article and well written. The Replication portion works somewhat like the folder sync mentioned above and requires additional volume (or storage devices.) Im having issues with a movie called Doc West, it was released within 1 week of Doc West 2. Ive worked on most Synology home and SMB servers, starting with the first servers released over a decade ago. How much storage could our NAS potentially have? Even if a camera is not on the list, as long as it supports ONVIF, you can configure it to work with the Surveillance Station. You can turn on this feature for all the user accounts on the server, and each account will have its own private sync/backup space. DS923+ migrates to 1GbE LAN, not 10GbE LAN, Probably screwed - lost username and password. The server houses five drives and can host two 5-bay expansion units. The J is entry level, above the first model, will do quite well with most packages (applications) that run on Synology. Raspberry Pi 4 (8GB RAM) manages software RAID 1 of two HGST 6TB drives in JBOD enclosure. The easiest to explain is j. The best thing I can tell you there is to look at the product page for them to see if it supports and expansion unit to find out how many bays it can actually support. Hi Dong, Im very curious why you did not comment on the usefulness of Photo Station / Moments. Don't subscribeAllReplies to my comments Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Over the years I tried various ones and the parser would do a poor job of correctly identifying the episode but my recommendation worked. However, its always worth doing the maths a special offer on a separate hard disk might save you some cash; and fitting a hard disk in a Synology NAS takes no time at all. Big fan of equality, tolerance and co-existence. I'm going to start with four 10TB Seagate IronWolf hard drives in a Synology Hybrid Raid and have the ability to add four more hard drives and evolve into SHR2. In my experience, the new AMD-based servers are much better overall they are great for running virtual machines.