Chances are if you’re reading this guide, you have a Synology NAS waiting for you to have its OS (operating system) installed and you don’t know what to do next. Here’s a quick guide for you.
Most of the time, Synology bundles a quick start guide in the accessories pack of the NAS for you to start with.
But before that, make sure to install your NAS drives in the bays, hook up the power cable, connect the Ethernet ports to your router or switch, and head to the Synology Web Assistant (or http://diskstation:5000 on your browser) to find the NAS on your network.
Check the screenshots below for your reference:
You’ll be prompted to install DSM (DiskStation Manager), Synology’s web-based OS. After you download the installation file (usually takes around a gigabyte from Synology’s website), installation takes anywhere between 10 minutes and 15 minutes, after which you can get started configuring.
Set up a name for your server and provide a password, and then either create a Synology account or login to configure QuickConnect, a feature by Synology which allows you to connect to your NAS anywhere in the world, once it is plugged in on your network and connected to the internet.
DSM is a Linux-based web OS which is designed to simplify the complicated aspects of setting up a NAS, and in my opinion, it is one of the easiest webOS that I’ve ever used. Indeed, Synology is one of the leading NAS systems provider and their DSM is in a league of its own. If you are familiar with Linux, then using the DSM is really a no-brainer to you.
From setting the drives to creating users and setting their permissions, everything can be set up in less than an hour, depending on the size of your drives. You can even install apps, such as Drive, Download Manager, Plex, and many more – just head on to the ‘Package Center’ and see all available apps.
These apps are custom-made for DSM, and with all the available apps, you can even use it as a surveillance server, mail, web and media server all at once. Web applications such as WordPress, Drupal, and many more are also present.
SEE:Â How a Network Attached Storage (NAS) could revolutionize the way you consume entertainment
The configuration options, you can use link aggregation to bridge the dual Gigabit Ethernet ports (to get faster and better performance). The NAS in particular supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10, and you can always use the custom Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) if you haven’t set up a NAS previously or don’t want to mess up with setting RAID on your own.
In my opinion, SHR is a really great approach to RAID and prevents much wasted space resulting from the use of multiple, different size drives. And with BTRFS protection and AES-NI encryption built-in, your data will be redundant and secured at the same time.
The NAS also integrates seamlessly with public cloud providers, such as OneDrive, Amazon and Google Drive, so you can backup your data off-site. There’s also an Active Backup for Business application, which helps you to backup files on other servers and devices seamlessly.
Synology offers an array of apps for Android and even iOS that let you stream music and videos directly from your NAS anywhere in the world or in your network. Their mobile apps are simple (we’ll talk about it in a bit), but they do the job.
And that’s it. You are now ready to use your Synology NAS and set up volumes, create user and set permissions, and many more.
Check out our review of one of their Network Attached Storage here:
