My New NAS: Synology DS220+

As someone who relies heavily on technology in both my personal and professional life, I was long overdue for an upgrade to my aging NAS system.

In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever to have a reliable and secure place to store your important files & media. Whether it’s photos, documents, music, or movies, having a central location for all of your data can make it easier to access and organize. This is a where a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device comes in.

One of the main benefits of having a NAS is that it allows you to centralize your data storage in your own house. Rather than keeping files on multiple devices (like your computer, phone, or external hard drives), you can store everything in one place that’s accessible from all your devices. This can make it easier to manage your files, free up space on your devices, and keep your data backed up. Another benefit is that this is accessible by the rest of your family if you should to do so.

Yes, I’m fully aware that we have the “cloud” as an option, but you know that the “cloud” is actually someone else’s computer right? I’m not saying that I don’t any services like OneDrive or Dropbox, but I love to have everything in my own house and control.

I’m sure that as some point in your life, you have experienced some issues with the hard drives failing. They can fail and if they’re beyond repair, well, then you have lost your files as well. This was the case for my good ‘ol Iomega StorCenter NAS. The HDD started to give me signals that the end was coming. So I had to react and the first act was to create a backup!

Since my NAS was very old, purchased somewhere in 2008, it was now running very slow, it’s latest firmware and software update was from 2018-ish, and it didn’t really offer a lot of features for today’s standards. So my first thoughts of simply replacing the broken disk, become a “serious” update.

Choosing a new NAS:

As soon as I had my thought straight and decided to get a new NAS, I needed to sort out which one I would need and would like to go for. There are many factors to consider; the amount of bay’s, the processor and RAM specs, specific software features, it’s user community and support, capabilities and vendors. At my previous job we had some QNAP’s which I had set-up so I was familiar with it already. I looked at what they had to offer, but I also checked the options from Asus.

Synology DS220+

After spending some time reading the reviews I became pretty clear that Synology offers some very good NAS as well. And as it seems a lot of users loved their:

• DiskStation Manager (DSM) which is super user-friendly and feature-rich OS.
• File Station: A built-in file management tool that allows you to easily upload, download, and share files with others.
• Surveillance Station: A powerful video management system that lets you monitor and manage your IP cameras and recording devices with 2 licenses! Nice!
• Package Center: A central location where you can easily install and manage various applications, like a media server, VPN server, or a mail server.
• Virtualization: The ability to run dockers on your Synology NAS! Enabling you to run multiple operating systems on your NAS.
• The ability to expand the standard 2GB RAM memory to 6GB in case you would need to do so.

Having read al of the different reviews together with my experiences with QNAP I decided to give Synology a chance and went for a two drive bay DS220+ with 2x 8TB Seagate IronWolf disks in SHR.

SHR stands for Synology Hybrid Raid and is basically a RAID 1 system, meaning that all data are mirrored across two hard disks. So if one disk fails, the other drive can take over and maintain fully functional. However SHR is more flexible and offer faster rebuild times in case of drive failure. This is actually the case since one of the new drives failed and died in 10 days! 🙁

One thing which DS220+ also offers and that I’m using is that it comes with 2 network ports which you can bond into 1. So basically you can get 1x 2,5Gb connection out of it. In order to use it, you also need to have a managed switch, which I luckily have. Yes, that an overkill for home usage, but who cares! 😉

Setting up Synology DS220+

Setting up the DS220+ was extremely easy to do:

• Unbox and connect the DS220+ to your network and power supply.
• Locate the DS220+ on your network (You can also use Synology Assistant, but I know my way around networks… ;))
• Follow the prompts to set up your DSM operating system, create user accounts, and configure your storage settings.

The set-up was very easy. Although I didn’t clock it, I think it took me about 30 to 40 minutes to setup the NAS including: Creating storage pool & volume, users, user permissions, different shares, adding mailing options, creating different tasks for SMART checks, static IP’s etc.

After the set-up it was time to transfer data from my old Iomega to the new NAS. I still have a huge DVD/Bluray, CD collection as well as a very large photo album, so this would cost a lot of time to transfer. This took at least, 12 to 14 hours but in the end all data was transferred safely and without any issues.

Synology DS220+ in use

After the transfer I started looking into different options and it’s features and I must say I love it. Other than the disk failure, which was not even related to Synology DS220+, it’s running very smoothly. I have a couple of dockers running on it and I’m in love with Synology Photos.

After the transfer I started looking into different options and it’s features and I must say I love it. Other than the disk failure, which was not even related to Synology DS220+, it’s running very smoothly. I have a couple of dockers running on it and I’m in love with Synology Photos.

Overall, I’m very happy with my decision to upgrade to the Synology DS220+ and would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a reliable and user-friendly NAS solution.

I’m looking forward to exploring more of its capabilities in the future, and sharing my experiences with you through upcoming blog posts. Stay tuned!