Info Synology's "Incompatibility" List ... Yikes!

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Info Synology's "Incompatibility" List ... Yikes!

Last Open-source storage (OSS) report 2021 explains, why is better to use this way than rigid HW+SW partnership (Syno).
And list of the market players contains:
DDN; iXsystems; MayaData; MinIO; Rancher Labs; Red Hat; SoftIron; SUSE.
iXsystems = TrueNAS.
Syno is pure SoHo player with an unclear game to achieve an intent from investors to sale the company or IPO preparation. Therefore the “enterprise” statements for better initial evaluation.
 
I JUST bought and received a Synology 1821+ and four Toshiba MG08ACA16T (16TB) drives. I unpacked them yesterday and put them in the box.

I haven't even really set anything up; I did the initial install of DSM7, and created the admin account. I've moved ZERO data over there.

Then I found this forum, and reading all this makes me want to send the whole setup straight back to where it all came from. I have 64TB+ of data I need to get organized, and trying to build a TrueNAS setup and THEN get all my data organized? Not a chance I'd complete the task.

Now what? Move forward with drives that get killer great stats on Backblaze, but aren't listed as compatible? Switch out the NAS to QNAP or something that doesn't require the hardware build and knowledge @jeyare has? Give the whole project up and stick with my 20+ old portable hard drives with a foolish level of disorganization?
 
Move forward with drives that get killer great stats on Backblaze, but aren't listed as compatible
This is my vote.

To expand on a previous post...

In Synology terminology, there are 3 classes of drives:
Compatible: Compatible drives have been tested by Synology, and are certified to work without limitation.
Incompatible: Incompatible drives are "blacklisted" by Synology and may not be used (SMR drives are included in this lot).
Unverified: A drive that has not been tested by Synology is defined as an unverified drive. Unverified drives are usable in an unsupported state with the following constraints:

  • An unverified drive’s status may appear as "unverified" in DSM's Storage Manager
  • Warnings will display when selecting unverified drives to create a storage pool
  • Storage pools containing unverified drives may display a danger status
  • DSM may send warning notifications when unverified drives are in use
  • Drive information like allocation status, bad sector count, temperature, serial number, 4K native may not be displayed
  • Synology support will be limited if the support issue can be tied to the unverified drive (the decision to decline support, rests on Synology)
  • Use of unverified drives has no effect on the Synology's hardware warranty
Unfortunately, Synology has been vague about how their drive classification works. For example…
  • Drives approved as "compatible" for one NAS model, may be "unverified" for another model
  • Drives approved as "compatible" may see their classification changed to "incompatible" or "unverified" without notice by Synology
  • Drive compatibility is tied to drive firmware version
  • Testing of newly released drives is often delayed for months
The outfall of these drive classifications is that the purchase of "compatible" drives is often limited to commercially scarce drives, with outdated firmware, which are either unavailable for sale, or in short supply, from unproven suppliers, at noncompetitive costs.

Realistically, NAS/Enterprise-rated SATA drive using CMR technology should be fine.
 
No need to jump from a window.

Synology NAS is not a bad choice. The bad choice is the future of this vendor, based on a set of strange decisions in the past 2y.

TrueNAS is not Xpendology (I don't like the concept). I have seen somewhere such bad kind of comparison.
TrueNAS isn't so easy for newbies. True ;) . What is great for advanced users. Yes. Because single GUI for all is just another fairytale from Synology and similar vendors.
TrueNAS isn't a Holly Grail. But sometimes is healthy to change a car vendor to get more fun, because your expectations are growing.

Re my experiences:
- my first trueNAS Scale is still running from VM. Because I need to wait as (a lot of people) for finishing of the Release (Dec/21). It is safe to test all the features. Btw: from yesterday is available RC1-2.
- my second trueNAS Core is running on 5y old PC is waiting to switch it to the Scale.
What is great, there is direct help from their developers in the official TrueNAS forum. Yes - the unknown attitude from Syno.

As some smart Syno users have already understood. When it is possible, move all systems into independent containers (with common sense principles) and when it is necessary use Synology pckgs. We could say that we are actually using their DSM for our custom plans at cost of their HW -- which is upside down to trend use OSS (Open-source storage) with user-defined HW.


When someone needs NAS just for movie or mp3 storage or torrents target, Synology is the best choice. I don't use my NASes for these areas. When you need more in the virtual areas, performance, ... there is another possible way.

PS ---- Re: SMR HDDs
It is absolutely OK, when you will use it with ext4 for archive purpose = just seq. write and less read (it's about archive), also for JBOD. No worries.
Don't use them with BTRFS in RAID in Synology.
 
😂
I would like to to translate this Synology statement:

Dear customer,
just like every devices vendor ( datacenter storage platforms, NAS, computers, ...) which use storage elements (hdd, ssd), we try to monitor the health status of these elements. Like big players: Pure Storage, NetApp, IBM, HP, Dell, Hitachi, Lenovo or the SME players TrueNas, or the SoHo players Qnap, Asustor, Buffalo ... at every possible OS (servers, desktops).
We use worldwide open source standard for this purpose = smartmontools, just like every single vendor listed above. If you use other elements that are not on our compatibility or unverified list, we will not allow you to see that few health check data provided be us to GUI of DSM.

LOL



or like this:


It’s a shame. Synology treats customers like stupid sheeps. 👏

No one stops you to use the smartctl from CLI or integrated by Telegraf (or diff snmp handler) or another one solution described above. No one! Even for more information that Synology provides by the DSM GUI.

Yeah I don't like this. It's just a money grab. It's really soured me on buying Synology - a company that I was really happy with before. For our generic NAS needs, I'm looking for another supplier. But I spent the last few days evaluating alternatives to Surveillance Station, and for our needs (remote recorders, Active Directory integration, Windows/mobile clients, and on and on), I didn't really find any better. So I'm stuck with trying to find specific drives, or paying 60% more for drives from Synology for that system.
 
true. stick to the list and all will be fine that’s what i’m saying. non rs lineup will not feel this that’s much. plenty of drives on the ok list
This is actually been proven true. As of now (~3 mos or so after this thread started) many more of the drives I have installed in my DS1520+ have been placed on the compatibility list now (Exos). 👏
 
Last edited:
I’ve just Iron-wolf 6TB and Red 4TB CMR’s, so I should be good. I’ve Iron-wolf 128GB M2’s in the 720+, which have yet to complain also.
I did fall for the ‘Ram issue’ on 718+ &720+, so I should not encounter any issues with that, either. Both NAS’s work fine on 6.23…. My old 215J works, slower on 6.24 than it did on 6.23, but works
All 3, unless something occurs to change my mind…. Will remain Where they are!

I also own a RT2600ac. Overall I’ve been quite happy with it.

BUT…
With all the “New Rules” that are being implemented ‘After the fact’……..

I am not at all certain that another Synology product is in my future.

I will continue to monitor “The Situation” to keep abreast of the present status of things……. But the last couple years makes me kinda ‘gunshy’ of any new product or upgrade, seeing that ‘things’ seem to change without any prior warning… and any complaints after the fact seem to be met with “Our Way or the Highway”..

In all honesty: I cannot accept that type of an answer!

In a prior lives, I did beta test work for multiple manufacturing companies and products, for Post Production Companies and Television Networks. I understand beta Software & Hardware. I appreciate company secrets and priority designs. This is none of that. In my conversations with support, I’ve come away multiple times thinking they are as confused with company policy as I was.
 
I'm the owner of a rather small company. Over the years I have used many Synology devices from DS414 to DS2413+. Never had a major problem.

Currently in my main office I have two DS1817+ (each with 10Gbit Intel cards, SSD cache, RAM upgrades). In my stores I use smaller ones (e.g. DS920+). As the DS1817+ became too slow and limited, I planned to upgrade in 2022 to two powerful models, either DS3622xs+ or DS2422+.

As soon as I read about the drive compatibility issue I halted my upgrade plans. No way I will limit myself to smaller drives from Synology that will cost an arm and a leg. Now I am waiting for either Synology to get their act together and remove the new policy or for TrueNAS Scale to become available.
 
TrueNAS Scale to become available.
maybe end of this year - Now officially in RC stage, from my point of view in the early Alpha stage.
Now waiting for the containerd integration, because they will refuse Docker and Swarm. They have a plan for March. But ...
Running on RC1.2 with all the Swarm support. Now it is sleeping mode in my lab.
 

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