The Little NAS That Could

Introduction

Technology, gadgets, gizmos, etc. usually don’t age well. I once had a Rio 600 MP3 player that had a whopping 32MB. However, my Synology 1513+ easily is one of the best investments that I ever made. It’s been running nearly continuously for 7 years.

I bought it with extra memory and no hard drives. I have added various drives along the way and even bought the expansion unit 2 years ago. It’s has been nothing short of rock solid.

Synology has a lot of different software (via packages) that can be hosted by the NAS. Like most things in life, there are things that it does well and others…not so much.

Recommended

Raw Storage

Without a doubt, this is its sweet spot. Choose your raid type. I personally have found the Synology Hybrid Raid is superior. In some ways, it reminds of the days of using Windows Home Server. Back then, you just gave it all of the extra hard drive that you had and it would create some type of RAID with it. SHR is like that but fully realizes the promise. Key features such as snap shots and unbalanced arrays makes it great for the pro-sumer.

One thing that is not entirely clear is that the external USB hard drives have reduced functionality on Synology. They are always simple volumes with limited features.

Complementary, the HyperBackup module is very feature rich. It;s great about deduping copies of files, as well as recognize when files simply move.

VPN Server

The implementation of the Open VPN server is worth its weight for the occasional or everyday user. It just works without having to dedicate another box.

Docker Host

Typically, low power docker host…great for installing PiHole.

Media Streamer

The built it one is ok…Plex will run on it, as well. However, I would recommend it for OTA recording…it would not have enough horse power for the encoding. If you find that is the case with yourself and host the Plex on another machine, the NAS can still be used for the raw storage.

Cloud Sync

Keep local copies of OneDrive, DropBox, etc.

Synology Drive

Definitely, a hidden gen. Think of a OneDrive copycat without the storage limitations.

Not Recommended

Hosting Websites

Of course, you can install WordPress, Drupal, etc. but it is sorely underpowered.

Hosting Email

Again, it technically can but not sure why you would intentionally do this.

Network Appliance

Yes, it can DHCP, DNS, etc. quite well. Just use your router and things will be just fine…unless you are using PiHole.

Conclusion

With most things in life, you need to embrace what it does well.