Info What do you use your NAS for?

[Rusty]

sounds like he is ready for the pandemic AND the zombie apocalypse. ;-)

 

[tekguru]

A NAS newbie here as I've only had my DS918+ for 9 days. So far I'm using it for:

• Backing up the Mac to a share on the NAS (Time Machine)
• Backing up the PC to a share on the NAS (Shadow Copies)
• Backing up folders on the Mac holding important documents to 'Team Drive' (inc Dropbox & Onedrive)
• Backing up the NAS to an External 8Tb Seagate backup drive every hour
• Backing up the NAS to Synology C2 (Plan 2) every hour
• Acting as a repository for my movie collection (DS Video / Infuse 6) for iOS and Apple TV
• File Shares for users

That's it so far. Things I want to consider:

• Trying to work out if Cloud Sync is needful as each family machine has Onedrive & Dropbox running on them
• Trying to justing keeping Download Station active as there is no download Host for RapidRAR (which I use a lot)
• Work out if there is a solution to getting port forwarding working on a British Telecom Home Hub 6 (without using the DMZ) to allow remote connection.

So there you go

 

[Rusty]

Welcome, @tekguru! Seems like you have already put that NAS to work. As a suggestion for backing up your non-Apple PC, you might have a look at Active Backup for Business package. Backup up Mac via that app is also in plan and was announced last year. It should follow DSM7 release at some point, so it might not be a bad idea to start using it. Works great.

 

[fredbert]

Docker: no, except what official Synology packages use it for.

What I do use it for: file sharing and archiving; various media servers; private cloud services (photos and docs); archive mail server (forwarded from a paid Internet service); DNS server; LDAP server for SRM VPN Plus; web server.

Running but not actively used: calendar and contacts, as these are working ok with iCloud.

One year later...

Docker: Yes. Running AirConnect, FreshRSS (with PostreSQL), and an occasional iPerf 3 server. Plus, as of today, Portainer.

Various media servers now includes a Plex with Plex Pass:

• Initially was only to have an audio player app on Apple TV HD/4K linked to the NAS
• Now fully setup (local access only) with multiple libraries, including audiobooks and one for re-listen-worthy podcast files.
• Using Prologue on iOS for streaming Plex audiobooks and Bookplayer if I just want to download via iOS Files and DS file

 

[spir0o]

have a look at Active Backup for Business package

Do you know if it's possible to use that with ext4 volumes ?
Thx

 

[Rusty]

Do you know if it's possible to use that with ext4 volumes ?
Thx

Active Backup can only run with BTRFS volumes

 

[Rusty]

One year later...

Docker: Yes. Running AirConnect, FreshRSS (with PostreSQL), and an occasional iPerf 3 server. Plus, as of today, Portainer.

Various media servers now includes a Plex with Plex Pass:

• Initially was only to have an audio player app on Apple TV HD/4K linked to the NAS
• Now fully setup (local access only) with multiple libraries, including audiobooks and one for re-listen-worthy podcast files.
• Using Prologue on iOS for streaming Plex audiobooks and Bookplayer if I just want to download via iOS Files and DS file

Let's talk again in 6 months . Well done indeed m8. Put those drives to good use.

 

[tekguru]

Welcome, @tekguru! Seems like you have already put that NAS to work. As a suggestion for backing up your non-Apple PC, you might have a look at Active Backup for Business package. Backup up Mac via that app is also in plan and was announced last year. It should follow DSM7 release at some point, so it might not be a bad idea to start using it. Works great.

Thanks for the welcome. The situation there is that it is primarily my wifes work PC and as she gets most work done via remote connection there are very few files that are actually needed on the machine itself and these are generally shared via Dropbox and OneDrive. There are no locally stored files, photos etc to worry about.
So in that situation would Active Backup for Business be that worthwhile? If it would I'm happy to be educated

 

[Rusty]

So in that situation would Active Backup for Business be that worthwhile?

Not really, but if you are looking to use a "backup my pc for a full bare metal restore" scenario, then you can use ABB for that as well (apart from the file backup method).

A while back I wrote a short article for the most common usage of ABB, so if you want, have a read:

3-2-1 > Active Backup

active backup pxe boot bare metal restore nas synology

www.blackvoid.club

 

[Siewert_JR]

Just use my DS218J with two Seagate Ironwolf 4tb for some basic stuff.

• Mapped separate shared folder as extra drive for each computer
• Auto backup all Windows machines
• Instant (live) backup camera/photo folders from Android phone with PhotoSync
• Backing up NAS to external USB harddrive every night
• Backing up most important files like photo's and documents to external cloud (just incase)
• Backing up my home automation (Domoticz) running on a Raspberry Pi every 6hr
• Gave Spotify a shared folder, damm library is getting to big for my Laptop SSD
• And just started a webserver, must say the website loading speed (wordpress - not the package) is bad due to all stories told about the J version is to slow for that kinda stuff

note:
offtopic but also run a 2nd Raspberry Pi3 with Pihole and OpenVPN as the J version can't handle a 1.3mil blocklist and vpn server very well ;-)

 

[tekguru]

Not really, but if you are looking to use a "backup my pc for a full bare metal restore" scenario, then you can use ABB for that as well (apart from the file backup method).

A while back I wrote a short article for the most common usage of ABB, so if you want, have a read:

3-2-1 > Active Backup

active backup pxe boot bare metal restore nas synology

www.blackvoid.club

I've got to say that is a decent bit of writing. As an ex-IT Admin, and ex-blogger is is appreciated. I may well consider implementing ABB to back up certain folders from the workstation. The ability to do a full bare metal restore is pretty damned cool, but to be honest if I can't rebuild it quick enough I need shooting In either case I've bookmarked the article

If the machine fails hardware wise then we'd buy her a Mac as a replacement as I'm moving the family in that direction.

I'd like your opinion though as I was considering installing the Synology Drive application on the PC to back up certain folders. Would that not be a viable system to use? The thinking here that it is already installed to back up folders on the Mac to the NAS and could therefore be used on the PC without installed another package like ABB. Or am I missing something important?

Your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rusty]

If the machine fails hardware wise then we'd buy her a Mac as a replacement as I'm moving the family in that direction.

Smart!

Or am I missing something important?

You are not missing anything. Drive is a perfect solution for backup and Dropbox alternatives. ABB is a free home and enterprise solution that as an all in one offers VM backup from both VMWare and HyperV so it might look like overkill, sure. Still, Drive will serve you well in this case, especially if you are not running multiple win desktop machines that require complete drive backup.

I've got to say that is a decent bit of writing

Thank you, appreciate it.

 

[tekguru]

Smart!

You are not missing anything. Drive is a perfect solution for backup and Dropbox alternatives. ABB is a free home and enterprise solution that as an all in one offers VM backup from both VMWare and HyperV so it might look like overkill, sure. Still, Drive will serve you well in this case, especially if you are not running multiple win desktop machines that require complete drive backup.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Thanks for that - decision made then Drive it is.

Just read your info on DSM 7 and it looks to be impressive. I'm using Synology C2 for NAS backup (as well as the external drive) so the hybrid storage features look like they could be very useful and simply my usage scenarios.

As I'm a NAS newbie I'm hoping that DSM upgrades are painless things!

 

[Rusty]

Thanks for that - decision made then Drive it is.

Just read your info on DSM 7 and it looks to be impressive. I'm using Synology C2 for NAS backup (as well as the external drive) so the hybrid storage features look like they could be very useful and simply my usage scenarios.

As I'm a NAS newbie I'm hoping that DSM upgrades are painless things!

Upgrades are more ok then not but I wouldn’t recommend day1 updates (not even close), especially if this is your only NAS.

Personally I test updates on a separate, non production NAS and in a VM version as well (VDSM) and then I move it to prod setup.

DSM7 will be open as a closed preview erosion as well before the public beta so there will be news on that when it comes available later this year.

 

[tekguru]

I thought as much, yes this is my one and only NAS so will be looking to take very good care of it

 

[Vista]

The main reason I got it was for backups. I'm still using it for that, but i'm also now additionally running:

Plex
DNS
DHCP

Perhaps the only annoying thing is that the DHCP server will sometimes fail to give out an ip address (I have it set to give my laptop the same ip every time). This may be due to still having the DHCP server enabled on my router, and them conflicting with each other (they are both set to give out different ranges within the same subnet), but I don't want to disable it on the router as my dad wouldn't know how to reboot the NAS if it needed it (nor do I really wish to give him access to it).

 

[Rusty]

The main reason I got it was for backups. I'm still using it for that, but i'm also now additionally running:

Plex
DNS
DHCP

Perhaps the only annoying thing is that the DHCP server will sometimes fail to give out an ip address (I have it set to give my laptop the same ip every time). This may be due to still having the DHCP server enabled on my router, and them conflicting with each other (they are both set to give out different ranges within the same subnet), but I don't want to disable it on the router as my dad wouldn't know how to reboot the NAS if it needed it (nor do I really wish to give him access to it).

You could try and use the same dhcp subnet but limit the scope of each so they don't overlap.

 

[Vista]

I probably didn't word it very well, but that's exactly what i've done. The diskstation gives out 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.63 randomly (except for my laptop which has a reserved ip set in DSM), and my router gives out 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253

 

[jeyare]

I use every single my NAS also as great thermal radiator. In my workroom I have always switched off heating, because the high thermal losses, multiplied with all Ubiquiti appliances.

 

[tekguru]

Thoughts on Plex guys.......

I did have Plex running on my Mac, and switched it to the NAS. A friend then recommended that instead of Plex we just use the shares and Infuse Pro to access the films and TV shows. It seems to work okay but I end up with meta data files being left behind by Infuse.

Now the thought is, as I was recommended on the FB Synology group to turn of drive hibernation, which I think Plex also needs, am I better on switching back to using Plex on the NAS?