How I use my Synology NAS (settings, apps, backups, and more)

Great insight thank you

What did you put on your VPS?

Great video – always interesting to see how others use there Synology NAS's. I have a slight question on your backup strategy that I did not quite understand – you are using Active B4B to backup your windows machines to the NAS. Are you then backing up those Active Backup for Business backups using Hyperbackup? Or if not, is there a better way to get the backup of the windows machines into 3rd location or cloud storage without taking a backup of a backup?
Good work with the channel pal – it's come a long way and been a big help and resource for me many times. Cheers

I have a DS-918+ that runs all of my synology based services and docker containers. Just added a DS-1522+ that is used exclusively as a backup nas. The 1522+ handles time machine backups from local macs. It also handles ABB backups from local macs and PCs. Additionally, the 1522+ backs up the DS-918+ using ABB. I also use Hyper Backup to send important files to Backblaze B2. Is there a reason why you are not using ABB for your DSM backups? I've just recently added the 1522+ but so far, all appears to be working fine.

I’d be really interested in a deeper explanation of why you use NFS instead of SMB for your backup volume connections. It sounded like it makes permissions easier? That sounds off to me, like I missed something or there’s extra nuance or something.

Isn’t NFS ancient at this point? I know that SMB is still evolving, moving forward, and so seems like the more modern approach. What am I missing?

Frank, great video! I'm a big fan. I'm also a synology owner, I'd love to hear about your overall storage (tb's) and how much is used (tb's). A more specific overall have & used space. I'm running a DS1621 with 2x4tb and 4x14tb, lots of video/media, big family so lots of phone photos and other archived digital photos. And I seem to run out of space. I have another 1621 with identical HDDs as a backup (nas to nas) but seems like my snapshots + HB clone seems to be HUGE.

Hi Frank , do you plan to use Raid6 or SHR2 on your next 6-8 bays ? Do you plan to migrate your current NAS or your 5 bays will be use as local backup ? Buying new HDD is a big investment too. What’s your experience on migrating versus starting from scratch when you need more space with a new unit.

Which Synology NAS do you have? You need to use data checksum integrity with data scrubbing and schedule it to run regularly to avoid your files getting corrupted. Unfortunately you said you are using SHR and this option is only available for raid 5, 6, and F1 in a Synology NAS. Have you tried Syncthing also? I feel it's the best app for syncing files securely locally and remotely. Anyway pretty nice set up you got there! 👍

Here's an idea for you. I have 3 NAS's – 2 QNAP's and 1 Synology. I do the following on one of my QNAP's but would work just as well on the Synology.

I have 6 Reolink security cameras around my house. Those cameras feed into my old QNAP to store the photo's and video ( jpg's and mp4's). I can view the live feeds on my home computers too and with the Reolink Windows desktop app. I use QNAP cloud sync app to upload just the jpg files to Google Drive so that I can make sure everything is ok at home while I'm away travelling. ( The mp4 files would overwhelm the free Google Drive account capacity very quickly.) Everything is extremely reliable and is easy to setup.

A while ago, I decided that it would be nice to be able to see a live feed while I was away from home; either still in my home town or away travelling. Creating a purpose built web site to host it was just a bit over the top. I think it can be done via Youtube but that was too complicated and I wanted everything under my control. And, I did not want a subscription service with never ending monthly / annual payments. I decided to check out the various home automation apps. My thinking was that if I could just find one that would accept a camera feed, that would be a good start. I had no intention of using it to automate any of my house functions like lights, heat, etc. I found that Home Assistant did exactly what I wanted and it is open source and free. I installed Home Assistant on my newer QNAP ( I could have done this on the Synology ) as a virtual machine; you can install it on Docker as well apparently. Home Assistant does not store any of the jpg or mp4 files from that cameras; that is still being done on the old QNAP. I can run Home Assistant on my Windows Desktop at home and view all of the cameras' live feed.

The next thing I did was to download the Home Assistant phone app ( also free ) and found that I could view my cameras' live feeds on my phone. But, this only worked when I am connected to my home network. But, it was one more link in the chain.

I have been running Tailscale VPN for a year or so to access my Synology while away from home and it too is mostly trouble free. It turns out that Home Assistant has a built in mechanism to install Tailscale to manage it while you are away from home so with a few clicks, I had Tailscale installed on Home Assistant.

So, now while I am away from home, I activate Tailscale on my phone, open my Home Assistant app and am able to view a live stream of my home security cameras. All with at no cost beyond my NAS and camera purchases.

This was such a win, win, win solution for me because it just works and it works well and reliably.

Más?