{"id":21146,"date":"2014-02-10T08:13:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T08:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/?p=21146"},"modified":"2020-05-10T13:33:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T12:33:22","slug":"our-new-home-server-isnt-a-server-the-synology-1813-nas-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/reviews\/our-new-home-server-isnt-a-server-the-synology-1813-nas-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Our New Home Server Isn’t a Server – The Synology 1813+ NAS Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like most of you, our storage requirements have been growing over the years. \u00a0Our first Jukebox server<\/a> was built in 2005, mainly to store music files. \u00a0Then in 2009\u00a0Jukebox MkII<\/a> was born and with it a reduction in power consumption along with a major leap in performance and capacity to cope with high definition video and a RAW photo archive.<\/p>\n

\"Windows<\/a>

The Old Girl Retires<\/p><\/div>\n

That Windows Home Server is still running perfectly today and building it with quality components really paid off. WHS v1 has some quirks, including the annoying habit of rebooting itself automatically when it receives Windows Updates, even if something is running on the machine. \u00a0However the main reason for retiring the MkII is that it’s stuck with some hardware and software legacy issues meaning it can’t use drives above 2TB.<\/p>\n

So it seems to be a four-and-a-half-year itch as after the same period has elapsed the time has come once more to move to a new storage solution in the Automated Home.<\/p>\n

Why a NAS?<\/h2>\n

We decided a while back our next server wouldn’t be a server, it would be a big hairy NAS. \u00a0After many weeks of research we ordered up a\u00a0Synology DiskStation\u00a01813+<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our pimped out Mac mini runs 24\/7 and has lots of spare overhead despite being our main Plex client feeding the AV system, our\u00a0Plex Server<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Indigo Home Automation Controller<\/a>. \u00a0So we\u00a0don’t need another computer running as our server. The Synology sports a Dual Core Intel Atom D2700\u00a0CPU meaning it can take on the role of Plex server with an approved package but our i7 mini is unbeatable in that role already, super fast at transcoding videos for streaming or syncing to our mobile devices.<\/p>\n

Moving to the 1813+ means reducing our running costs again.\u00a0Synology quote a power consumption of 75.19W during disk access falling to\u00a034.12W during Hibernation. \u00a0Their tests were carried out with the unit filled with 8 x\u00a0Western Digital 3TB drives (WD30EZRS). \u00a0Even taking the top figure of 75 Watts, that’s a reduction of over 20% on the old servers 95 Watts which equates to a saving of around \u00a325 per year.<\/p>\n

No products found.<\/p><\/p>\n

Hardware<\/h2>\n

The 1813+ is dwarfed beside our old Windows Home Server 4U case. \u00a0The unit is about as small as you’d imagine you could possibly fit a motherboard, backplane, PSU, I\/O and space for all those hard drives (157 mm X 340 mm X 233 mm ~5 kgs empty).<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The 8 vertical hot swap bays support 3.5″ and\u00a02.5″ SATA II \/ III disks including SSDs (the\u00a0DiskStation 1515+<\/a> is available with the same hardware but with 5 bays instead of 8 for around \u00a3130 less). \u00a0You can fit solid state drives to act as a cache to speed up the system too.\u00a0Each bay has a status light above it and a\u00a0locking mechanism to protect your full bays from being accidentally ejected. \u00a0The power button is mounted along the top centre with the 4 LAN activity lights to the right of it and the Status and Alert lights to the left.<\/p>\n

Round the back is the standard IEC power socket (the PSU is built-in so no power brick cluttering the floor). \u00a0The two\u00a0fans that take up most of the rear real estate are large enough to allow for a\u00a0slow speed for less noise (120mm x 120mm). If one fan fails the other speeds up to compensate and they are easily removed for cleaning and replacement. \u00a0The CPU employs passive cooling (a heat-sink) to help maintain the overall low noise levels too. \u00a0So far the 1813+ has been quiet (and small) enough to remain in the study, rather than make its way out to a shelf in the rack in\u00a0Node 0<\/a>. \u00a0While we’re on that subject there’s no official rack mount kit for the unit, although you can order a custom 19″ Rack shelf and front panel for it (details here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

The unit ships with 2GB of RAM and we ordered this Synology\u00a02GB DDR3 RAM Upgrade Module<\/a>\u00a0and fitted it in the remaining empty slot for the recommended 4GB maximum (we’ve read of users fitting up to 8GB but this seems to result in run away CPU processes and long boot times). Note there’s no mention of the 1813+ anywhere on this module but it is the correct one – click the picture below for bigger version.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

There are\u00a04 x USB 2.0 sockets and\u00a02 x USB 3.0 on the rear of the DiskStation and these can be used to connect a\u00a0bluetooth dongle for example to stream music or a Wi-Fi dongle to create a hotspot or a 3G\/4G dongle for cellular access.<\/p>\n

The unit even supports some USB TV Tuner adaptors that can record to the units hard drive and stream the video around your LAN.\u00a0But the most common use for the USB’s will be to attach drives for file transfer or backups and the system\u00a0supports external drives using EXT4,\u00a0EXT3,\u00a0FAT,\u00a0NTFS and\u00a0HFS+ filesystems.<\/p>\n

There are 4 x Gigabit Ethernet ports and these can be employed in a variety of ways. The unit supports link aggregation (if your switch is on the supported list and features 802.3ad). With it enabled the 4 LAN ports merge into one super-fast link with a quoted average read speed of 352.39 MB\/sec and an average write 211.88 MB\/sec (tested in RAID 5 configuration with Windows). \u00a0We’ll definitely be enabling this in the future when we upgrade our switch. \u00a0For now the speed is around\u00a0105MB\/sec\u00a0and we can stream multiple HD videos simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Expansion<\/h2>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally on the rear are\u00a02 x eSATA ports. \u00a0On its own the Synology’s 8 bays bring a potential\u00a032TB of unformatted capacity, but those eSATA ports allow some serious expansion and can keep your DiskStation growing with your needs for years to come. \u00a0The ports can be used with regular eSATA drives or with Synology\u2019s own DX513 expansion bays. \u00a0You can attach 2 of these enclosures, each one holding a further 5 drives. \u00a0That’s a potential of 8+5+5=18 drives giving 72TB total with todays 4TB drives, ignoring the inevitability of bigger drives in the future too.<\/p>\n

The Synology Wiki has information on 3rd party bays and towers that have been tested with the system also. The recommendation for external bays seems to be to create new volumes, rather than expand existing ones as a disconnected eSATA cable could lead to a potentially disastrous loss of the entire system.<\/p>\n

Setting It All Up<\/h2>\n

The DiskStation uses the\u00a0EXT4 filesystem and\u00a0supports RAID 0,\u00a0RAID 1,\u00a0RAID 5,\u00a0RAID 6,\u00a0RAID 10,\u00a0JBOD,\u00a0and SHR. With RAID 5 your data is protected from a single drive failure. It requires 3 or more disks all the same size, or if you mix drives you’ll get a multiple of the smallest drive only –\u00a0(number of hard disks \u2013 1) x (smallest hard disk size). \u00a0RAID 6 has the extra redundancy to allow for 2 drives failing and is calculated as (number of hard disks \u2013 2) x (smallest hard disk size).<\/p>\n

SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) is a Drobo-esque alternative that allows you to mix and match drives of different sizes and minimise wasted space whilst retaining the redundant protection of RAID and the advantages of a large single volume. \u00a0You can choose an SHR setup with either single or dual drive failure protection.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also have a mixture of RAID types across your NAS. \u00a0For example you might have 3 physical disks merged into a single RAID 5 volume with maybe 2 more disks grouped together to form a second volume in RAID 0. \u00a0You can also have a global ‘hot spare’ drive with some RAID setups, in a spare slot ready to take over if a disk fails in any of your volumes.<\/p>\n

While you can start off with a single (unprotected) hard drive and expand from there, there are some things you need to know. Only certain RAID types are expandable. \u00a0With SHR, storage\u00a0can be expanded either by adding more drives in empty bays, or by replacing drives for bigger ones. With the caveat that a new drive must be as big or bigger than the largest drive in your array. \u00a0As Synology puts it…<\/p>\n

If a volume consists of three hard disks that are 4 TB, 3 TB, and 2 TB respectively, then your new, replacement hard disks should be at least 4 TB<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you add a new disk to your array it may take many hours for the system to do its thing. \u00a0During this time the units performance is reduced and it may slow by as much as two thirds its normal speed during some operations.<\/p>\n

Unlike with Drobo where bare drives are slotted straight into the NAS, Synology requires that drives be put into its (plastic) trays first. \u00a0However it is a tool-less operation using little snap in rails that insert pins where the screws normally go. \u00a0The trays also mean you can use 2.5″ drives \/ SSDs (with supplied screws) in the Synology, unlike our Drobo FS. \u00a0Between the two most popular choices, RAID5 and SHR, it generally it seems RAID 5 will give slightly better performance. \u00a0However the extra capacity of the mixed drive setup in SHR meant we chose it for our system merging all 8 drives into a single volume.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

Luckily all the drives we had in the WHS box were on the Drive Compatibility List<\/a> for the Synology. \u00a0We chose 6 of the largest ones and added a couple of new WD 4TB RED drives. \u00a0Designed specifically for use in a NAS, the RED’s aren’t much more that the Greens we used in the WHS box and have the added advantage of even lower power consumption and a 3 year warranty rather than 2. \u00a0We’ve read that more than 5 Western Digital RED NAS drives in a single enclosure is a bad idea, something to do with vibration sensors? However plenty of vendors offer the 1813+ pre-populated with 8 of the drives. \u00a0For now ours is configured with the following mix…<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

Have a play with the\u00a0Synology RAID calculator<\/a>\u00a0here<\/p>\n

We started to copy the data off the WHS box about a week before the NAS arrived. \u00a0This took several days<\/em> and employed every spare bare drive we could stick in our USB 3.0 Dock<\/a> plus all the external USB drives and local disks around our home network.<\/p>\n

We removed our old\u00a0APC CS 350 UPS<\/a>\u00a0from the WHS box (the best \u00a360 we ever spent and part of the reason the WHS box has run trouble-free for so many years since our home server died<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

Once connected between the mains and the Synology NAS we plugged the interface cable into one of the USB 2 ports on the NAS. It was picked up instantly by the system, the model recognised and showed an estimated 36 minutes of runtime. It will shut the NAS down automatically before the battery runs out.<\/p>\n

Software<\/h2>\n

Whilst we’ve moved from a ‘proper computer’ to a NAS, this is far from a dumb box.\u00a0One of the things that sets the Synology apart from the competition is its\u00a0Disk Station Manager. \u00a0DSM is a\u00a0desktop-like user interface to the system that runs in a browser window and provides a class-leading user experience. \u00a0Windows, Mac and Linux users will all be familiar with the UI which makes managing the NAS a trivial task.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

Another great plus point is its Synology’s Apps store called ‘Package Center<\/a>‘,\u00a0which includes one click installs of many useful add-ons like an Anti-Virus Scanner, Plex , Mail, Print, DHCP, DNS, VPN and iTunes \/ Audio \/ Video \/ Media Servers too. You can access your DiskStation remotely, even if you have a dynamic IP (IPv6 supported), without any port forwarding using Synology’s ‘QuickConnect’ service. \u00a0The system provides you with a unique reference number and you can customise your ID to something like “BobsNAS” to make it easier to remember.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

The ‘Cloud Station’ package is another useful add-on that creates your own DropBox-like private cloud for syncing files and folders to your computers and devices.\u00a0You’ll need to\u00a0forward port 6690 for this one (here’s a useful\u00a0list of all the ports<\/a>\u00a0used by the Synology).\u00a0There’s also a uPnP setup to help get through your firewall \/ router although we chose to forward ports manually instead.<\/p>\n

Surveillance Station is an excellent CCTV Server addon that supports many different IP camera models. \u00a0With a few clicks you can add your camera’s url, username \/ password and have your NAS record based on movement etc.\u00a0\u00a0The downside is the system ships with just one included license for a single camera and every camera after that (to a maximum of 20) requires an additional license costing around \u00a350.<\/p>\n

Another great feature is the ability to setup a recycle bin for each share and restrict its access to the administrator. \u00a0This was an issue with the old Windows Home Server where files accidental deleted were gone for good.<\/p>\n

There are so many other features we’ve not even got into here and there are more TLA’s than you can shake a stick at – FTP,\u00a0SMB \/ CIFS,\u00a0AFP,\u00a0NFS.<\/p>\n

\"Synology<\/a><\/p>\n

In the enterprise\u00a0world the 1813+ supports LDAP,\u00a0iSCSI LUNs,\u00a0VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V and can provide an\u00a0alternative to a SAN.\u00a0It can also be used as a High Availability Cluster with a pair of units working together in failover mode.<\/p>\n

There’s a range of free mobile apps for iOS iPhone \/ iPad, Android and Windows Phone including mobile versions of DS Cloud,DS Download, DS File and DS Cam. \u00a0Used along with the previously mentioned quick connect service you can monitor and manage your DiskStation remotely from your phone.<\/p>\n

On top of all this a major update to DSM is waiting in the wings and is currently in open beta. v5.0 will bring a raft of further enhancements including a touch-friendly UI (administer your NAS from your iPad\u00a0anyone?), 4K ready desktop and support for streaming audio and video to Google’s Chromecast.<\/p>\n

Backup There A Minute<\/h2>\n

It’s been said before, but it’s worth reiterating, \u00a0a NAS is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a backup. \u00a0While we (unfortunately) don’t have a second 1813+ to use, we are taking nightly backups to our old Drobo. It has enough capacity to hold all our important stuff and media can be re-ripped if there’s ever a total loss of data. \u00a0If the worst does come to the worst and your DiskStation fails\u00a0you’ll need to attach all the drives from your array to a PC and follow\u00a0these instructions<\/a>\u00a0to retrieve your data.\u00a0Mac users can create a Time Machine account complete with a quota to stop the Apple backup system taking over the entire volume.\u00a0We do some extra\u00a0off-site backups<\/a>\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

Final Words<\/h2>\n

This new setup has given us the capacity to store disk images of all our machines as well as providing off site backups for a few family members too. \u00a0We’re doing this manually for now, however with a bit of Telnet \/ SSH command line it looks like\u00a0you can install a headless version of CrashPlan too.<\/p>\n

The more appliance like nature of the Synology means less time messing around maintaining an OS and more time enjoying our media. \u00a0This section of the Home Server Show sums up our situation well as one of the hosts makes exactly the same move from WHS to the Synology…<\/p>\n