Got a new box and decided to try out the latest DiskStation Manager (DSM) 7. Being an avid and early adopter of Synology this latest DSM has been long time coming and it is finally here.
Installation
First and foremost head to their website and obtain the latest Synology Assistant to scan for the new box. What is nice about the Synology Assistant app is you can actually do a memory test in case you have added more ram to the box. Otherwise you may start by firing up a browser and entering this url - find.synology.com to locate your NAS.
Upon detecting the new box and connecting to it, I was presented with the EULA page which I believe almost nobody reads just tick the box and continue. We are now greeted with Welcome page that allows us to install the operating system.
Their DSM are .pat files, not to worry if you download the wrong model it would not allow you to install. Idiot proof at least. This will take a moment.
A new Welcome to DSM 7.0 page appears and a list of new features are available at that link.
Now we will create our admin account. Since many attacks have been happening rampantly all administrative users have been disabled i.e (admin & root).
You are now given a choice on how the updates happen. Most of us will just leave the default.
Create a Synology account. This is especially great for users who wishes to connect to this box outside their home. With quick connect feature it makes your connection back to this box effortless. You do not need to muck around with your router or firewall. As for the other tools the were also selected by default, I believe these are new to DSM 7.
Great. We are in. This is a new interface. Looks “prettier” than the previous version.
Now to create storage pools and volumes. I have just inserted a spare ssd to test it out before building the volumes. I skip the drive check and allocate maximum volume for the drive. If you are not aware of what SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid), it is just using the sum of your hard drives minus the largest one for parity if (SHR-1) is chosen or largest two for (SHR-2). This is pretty useful when you have a bunch of different size drives. Select Btrfs to utilise full potential of the system. There is a link that explains about it.
You are done with installation and ready to explore the rich features of the latest DSM 7.0.
Package Center
Let us explore package centre when a bunch of apps which are for the NAS, it is kinda like your Apple Appstore or Google Play store.
You are first presented with the TOS. After accepting, you can see the preinstalled package, all packages and beta packages.
Control Panel
The control panel looks pretty much the same as the older release just some minor rearrangements of menu icons and of course new more polished icons in this new DSM.
Storage Manager
You will get a complete overview of the drives available in your NAS and can configure your Storage pool and volumes.
Support Center
This section of the NAS is actually a hidden gem. When you run into issues with the unit or have some odd issue which you cannot seem to get any help. Login to your Synology Account and create a ticket. Next enable remote access and give them your support identification key, you may set a validation date. What this does is allow their support team to remote into your NAS and troubleshoot without requiring you to fiddle with your router or firewall. This support level is awesome. I have personally tried it many times and they are very professional in my opinion how they handle your support ticket remotely.
File Station
All your share folders and user permission to them are managed here. This is similar to your file explorer or finder in the NAS. Start by creating a share folder and granting the appropriate permissions. Is is also possible to have the folders encrypted too if required.
Security Advisor
It is good practice to check your Security Advisor once awhile or you can set a schedule for it to run automatically. I have set mine for home and personal use, they have set some predefine policies which you can view the checklist. It then presents you will a report and action needed to be taken should some of your test fail the preset criteria. You can then decide should you take any action on it or not.
Active Insight - new
Is a new feature that delivers cloud-hosted automatic and real-time monitoring for all your NAS under your care. It would be particularly useful if you have a fleet of NAS to monitor all under single dashboard.
Secure SignIn - new
This is a new feature that allows you to sign in with your device as your authentication. There are a couple of ways to achieve this by far the easier way is to setup your quickconnect id. Please also make sure you have setup your DDNS.
Once that is done go to Control Panel under Security in the left pane and Account tab. Click on personal at the 2-Factor Authentication. Scroll down to the sign in method and choose Passwordless Sign-In, next click on Approve Sign In.
You now need to key in your account password, It explains how you can log in next and where to download the Secure SignIn app for your mobile.
After you have install the Secure SignIn on your mobile, fire it up and allow your camera permission to scan the qr code. When done it will say your mobile has been added.
Now when ever you are at your login screen, key in your user id, then at the password field click below where is says other sign in methods and choose Synology Secure SignIn app. On your phone a notification will appear for the Secure Sign In app, when you open the app it will asked if you want to approve the sign in request. Click approve and you are logged into the NAS.
This post has been edited by mintgadget: Jun 30 2021, 07:12 PM
Review Synology DiskStation Manager 7.0, NAS operating system