DS214se slowness

[Aluzcz]

Hi,

I'm long time owner of DS214se with two 4TB IronWolf drives connected to glan, I'm pretty much only using SMB/CIFS with the NAS. However the speed of the NAS is very random, sometimes i get AVG 50 for both read and write, sometimes its only 17 using the same NAS benchmark.

as I said only used the SMB with Windows, but given the recent announcements with Google photos I would like to start backing up the photos from my phone to the NAS, so i have installed the DS Drive and Moments, enabled both - and the NAS got just super low, I still able to access the shares and use the NAS as before BUT when i try to access the DS Drive setup or Moments it starts to load and becomes unresponsive after some time, the page will expire after soon after.

Is the DS214se really capable of running the Drive/Moments?

Will the DSM7 somehow improve the situation? Does it makes sense to wait for the promised DSM7 - Photos to backup multimedia from my phone?

I know the NAS is not the latest and greatest and for me its one of the set and forget devices, works great since i have bought it, however when i would like to use some additional services its just insanely slow, its a feature or a bug?

Currently the NAS sits in old cabinet full of dust, the fan is set to quiet mode.

Does it makes sense to take it out, apart, clean it and maybe replacing the fan for something more powerful yet still quiet? How does this NAS type cope with FAN replacement?

Or all the above effort will just come in vain as this device is just too old and slow and i should really again disable all the services and run only the SMB?

 

[Rusty]

Is the DS214se really capable of running the Drive/Moments?

Considering that you installed it, it means it supports them, but how well it will run is a different matter. You can already attest to how "well" it runs.

Will the DSM7 somehow improve the situation? Does it makes sense to wait for the promised DSM7 - Photos to backup multimedia from my phone?

Atm, the new Photos app is a combo of both Photo Station and Moments, but if you expect it to run better than DSM6 you might be surprised. As much as DSM7 is faster, Photos will still have a requirement on the NAS in terms of detecting photos, indexing etc... This will tax your current model quite a bit.

I know the NAS is not the latest and greatest and for me its one of the set and forget devices, works great since i have bought it, however when i would like to use some additional services its just insanely slow, its a feature or a bug?

It's just slow. With its modest 800MHz single-core CPU and 256MB of RAM, running apps like those (or even more services) will bring it down to its knees.

DSM6 runs really well with 1GB of RAM or more. As soon as you start adding services and apps on it you will need more speed. The CPU/RAM combo is not optimal for multiple demanding services and Moments and Drive both are (just the indexing alone will kill that CPU with no problem).

So in short, no it's not a bug.

Does it makes sense to take it out, apart, clean it and maybe replacing the fan for something more powerful yet still quiet? How does this NAS type cope with FAN replacement?

This will not help you with your current problem but you can replace a fan and clean the NAS a bit to make it "breath" more easily and to cool better.

Or all the above effort will just come in vain as this device is just too old and slow and i should really again disable all the services and run only the SMB?

Yes. If you plan on hitting your NAS with new services and stress it more with day to day tasks, I would recommend getting a new model. Atm, DS720+ would be an ideal choice for your needs and to make more future proof. Also, you can upgrade the RAM on that model at any given time to boost it even more.

Killing Google Photos quota might be a trigger for you today, but tomorrow it might be something else. If you can, invest in a better model.

NOTE: Keep in mind that direct-drive migration from one NAS to the other will be limited in your case. SE models are essentialy "J" models and they DO NOT support NAS to NAS drive migration. Meaning you will have to configure your new NAS from scratch if you plan on using those same drives. This also means that you need to back up the data before you start this process or get a new NAS with new drives and in the end-use 214se as a backup NAS for your new one.

More info here: DiskStation Manager - Knowledge Base | Synology Inc.

 

[Aluzcz]

Thank you very much Rusty!

Great wisdom! I was guying the 214 when i was migrating from one super old Netgear, which just stopped working at on day.

What you have said just confirmed my assumptions that the DS214se just a network drive with some additional services which you can look at but really never use. However i remember when the thing was new, it was quite bit faster and i was running many different services on it, just for the sake of ruining them.

I just see again planned obsolescence here, some of the services were running perfectly when it was new, now after years and years of updates it runs barely. The HW stayed the same, the SW 'evolved'.


The DS720+ looks really, really good, howver in my country is also quite expensive, something around 400USD if I do the quick math in my head. Thats something I rally not willing to invest at the moment in something what dont have the priority for me and something what i just use as a hording storage.


The fastest and cheapest thing i could do is to clean up the NAS so i have took it out from the extremely dusty cabinet and give it some clean, it was completely clogged as last time i remember opening it was about 6 years ago....

after the clean i have realized that the fan should go as well as its just shot and that i need to take it apart anyhow as I need to clean the board. - Funny writing this as this was one of my first jobs in IT when I was about 20 years ago fixing and cleaning PCs.


Anyhow, now after the first clean and switching from quiet mode to perf mode the drive temps went down about 15deg C.

Saying the above, the basic clean allowed the Moments just to 'boot up' into a warning screen when there have notified me that i need to enable the home service, once the homes were enabled Moments just started without any issues.

So for now instad of the 400USD new NAS I think I will just go with the 10 USD option of big can of compressed air and new noctua FAN



btw the migration od data, i would never reuse any system from NAS or PC to another device. In case of NAS as I'm running the mirroring, i would just degrade it to one drive only and use the other drive for the new NAS, once all data transfered to new NAS and DISK1 I would just wipe the DISK2 and add it into the array on the new NAS

 

[Rusty]

In case of NAS as I'm running the mirroring, i would just degrade it to one drive only and use the other drive for the new NAS, once all data transfered to new NAS and DISK1 I would just wipe the DISK2 and add it into the array on the new NAS

That would work as well if a single drive can accommodate all the data.

 

[fredbert]

Something a little cheaper? DS220+ is still a decent NAS.

My DS218+ works well with Moments though I never overly stressed it. The biggest hit is when adding in the initial load of photos and it has to process and tag them.

 

[Aluzcz]

Something a little cheaper? DS220+ is still a decent NAS.

My DS218+ works well with Moments though I never overly stressed it. The biggest hit is when adding in the initial load of photos and it has to process and tag them.

That one is about 300USD here

Well for the time being i managed to setup the Moments and currently I'm uploading all the pictures from my mobile devices and also moving all pictures locally on the NAS to the Moments directory.

So far so good

 

[fredbert]

That one is about 300USD here

Well for the time being i managed to setup the Moments and currently I'm uploading all the pictures from my mobile devices and also moving all pictures locally on the NAS to the Moments directory.

So far so good

You should see UK prices where we have +20% vat (sales tax). It's ~£270 ex-vat and £320 inc-vat.

The 'plus' models really are the ones to get if you plan to use the newer packages, especially like Moments. There's a lot of heavy CPU processing to analyse each photo and when you do the initial transfer of your existing library then you notice it takes most of the NAS resources for a long time.

 

[Aluzcz]

You should see UK prices where we have +20% vat (sales tax). It's ~£270 ex-vat and £320 inc-vat.

The 'plus' models really are the ones to get if you plan to use the newer packages, especially like Moments. There's a lot of heavy CPU processing to analyse each photo and when you do the initial transfer of your existing library then you notice it takes most of the NAS resources for a long time.

Well in UK you are considered as the rich western Europeans but here we can only afford not more than 3.6 roentgen.