Why is my NAS so slow?

[HomersAss]

I've only had my Synology NAS a few weeks and admittedly it's a lowly spec DS120J but why is it so slow?

I'm not talking about file transfer speeds from the network, i'm talking about using DSM. Every time I click the Package Centre to try and access anything that I've installed, it just hangs on 'loading..' and then hangs on 'updating status..' for each package and that's before I've actually chosen a package to configure! It takes minutes to load any of the packages and changing screen within them frequently takes 30-40 seconds.

I've used Hyper Backup to backup my stuff to a USB drive attached to the NAS and that's been running in the background now for hours doing a 800gb backup and while that's running, the rest of the interface is incredibly sluggish and unresponsive.
I can't help thinking that its not supposed to be like this - my crappy old WD MyCloud was way snappier and far more responsive!

Can anyone please suggest anything to speed things up or is there something wrong with my NAS?

 

[EAZ1964]

You can check what is bottlenecking your system in the resource monitor. Best to check that first.
If nothing particular is slowing down your NAS (like antivirus, disk check or the like), it is part of the deal. The J-series are budget level, low memory, low spec CPU. You get what you pay for.

 

[Jan Janowski]

Your symptoms, and reduction in useable workload from DSM 6.1 to 6.2, is why I gave my 215j away - to my son in law, who would use it for file storage only.
He is still using it, for what it can do.

Prior to giving it away, I had to reduce the SS Camera load from 2x cameras to just one, as the 215j could not support 2 after the upgrade from 6.1 to 6.2.
Drives were 5400rpm WD Reds in SHR.
And even then, with just one camera, it was slow.
Buy the best you can afford, as OS won’t get any smaller, and apps will just get larger!

 

[HomersAss]

Sorry, im not familiar with these terms yet! What is the SS Camera?
Both my CPU and RAM are at zero on the widget and its still like wading through treacle..

 

[EAZ1964]

SS camera: Synology Surveillance Station camera.

My recommendation is to stay clear from J type. Most people get disappointed.

 

[Telos]

If you're running DSM7, your unit has one-half the minimum recommended memory for that OS. For starters, you should remove Active Insight and the antivirus security packages if those are running. Then remove any other packages that you are not intentionally using.

It's sad that Synology offers these units for sale. It's my opinion that all J series as well as single drive NAS should be removed from the Synology product line.

 

[HomersAss]

As I bought this from Amazon, I may be able to return it to them. What would you suggest as a minimum level of hardware? All I need it for is to store my media files, documents etc and play music around the network. The total data size is only around 1.2gb. I don't need multiple drives in RAID because I have the data stored elsewhere too!

 

[EAZ1964]

DS223, DS218
and every + in the same range, but these may be over-specced for you,

 

[Jan Janowski]

Get a + unit. Yes, Overkill for now, but the OS will not shrink, and APPS will grow!
You don’t want to re-visit this in 3 years do you?

 

[HomersAss]

Which packages can I delete? I removed the backup software that I installed and Active Insight. I need some lightweight backup software that will simply copy the files in the chosen directories without compressing / encrypting etc!
There are loads of other packages installed by default but Im a bit scared of removing them in case the thing stops working altogether!

 

[EAZ1964]

It is not about available packages, it is about running packages.
If you do not start them, they will not use cpu if just installed. You can check in the resouce monitor.
Hyper backup should be the 1st choice for copying/backupping data. Do you need to backup multiple version?

 

[HomersAss]

I deleted Hyper backup because it doesn't seem to just copy the data. It seems to store a bunch of files and directories so it can restore things as they were to the NAS. I guess it makes sense but I'd rather just have a copy of the directory that contains all my stuff on the USB drive so I can read it in an emergency from any of the PC's / Macs / iPads that we all have on the network and be forced to restore it first to something and then read off it.

 

[Telos]

Im a bit scared of removing them in case the thing stops working altogether!

Before you can complete removal, you will get a notification if other packages rely on the one being removed.

 

[EAZ1964]

I deleted Hyper backup because it doesn't seem to just copy the data. It seems to store a bunch of files and directories so it can restore things as they were to the NAS. I guess it makes sense but I'd rather just have a copy of the directory that contains all my stuff on the USB drive so I can read it in an emergency from any of the PC's / Macs / iPads that we all have on the network and be forced to restore it first to something and then read off it.

There are many settings in hyper backup. Default is compressed, versioning, incremental etc. But also simple backup is possible.
Reading the manual, help pages and knowledge base helps a lot. Synolog offers many professional features that may be overwhelming at first.

 

[HomersAss]

Thanks so much guys. I don't want to give up on this device just yet - my needs are pretty modest compared most of you, so maybe I can try to get this working without spending a lot of extra cash that I don't really have!