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Review Synology DiskStation Manager 7.0, NAS operating system

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TSmintgadget
post Jun 29 2021, 10:17 PM, updated 3y ago

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A new Welcome to DSM 7.0 page appears and a list of new features are available at that link.

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Now we will create our admin account. Since many attacks have been happening rampantly all administrative users have been disabled i.e (admin & root).

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You are now given a choice on how the updates happen. Most of us will just leave the default.

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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.

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Great. We are in. This is a new interface. Looks “prettier” than the previous version.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Storage Manager

You will get a complete overview of the drives available in your NAS and can configure your Storage pool and volumes.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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This post has been edited by mintgadget: Jun 30 2021, 07:12 PM
TSmintgadget
post Jun 29 2021, 10:18 PM

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Synology Photos

After many years of using Synology Photo station to do my phone backups and to be honest I did not use Moments because my main reason is to backup all the phones photos. This new Synology Photos combine the best of both Photo station and Moments. With better file management and timeline we can easily access our photo albums with the ability to apply search filters to find a particular photo i.e a picture based on location or time of year and so on.

I believe majority people are backing up their photos to Google photos today because they have given unlimited storage all this time but that has change in mid 2021 where is based on your account allocation. So no more unlimited moving forward which is a bummer hence Synology Photos is a great option today.

Firstly is getting your photos into the NAS. This is particularly easy with the Synology Photos app on both IOS and android. Once you have setup the connection to the NAS from the phone it will automatically export the photos to your NAS based on your setup. You can also upload your photos from the Photos app on the NAS too.

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You can see the login page to the Synology photos, once you have supplied your credentials you are in. You then able to see Photos, Albums & Sharing below similar to the NAS when you have logged into the Synology Photos on the NAS. As you can see it is backing up the photos from the phone to the NAS. As for the photo backup you could set it to only upload new photos/videos when you are on WiFI to conserve your mobile data usage. It can also choose to upload photos only without videos even free up the space on your phone once it has uploaded the photos. It is also intelligent to skip duplicate photos or rename them.

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Upon firing up Synology Photos on your NAS you are presented with a clean look. There is a timeline bar on the right of the window when you hover your mouse pointer here. A cool feature is to enable People album in the settings and let it perform facial recognition of all your photos. Bear in mind this make take awhile and you can merge those duplicate person or hide those unwanted people or wrongly picked up photos. You would then now see an additional people album tab at the main page.

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Let us take a photo for example, here you are able to see reach metadata such as geolocations, device the photo was taken on and so forth. By adding tags to the photos allow you to create filter search in future. And when you decide to share the photo or an album of photos, immediately it will create a share link and of course you can set the permissions and password protection if required. As for the invitee list, this section is for collaboration of an album where you can assign users to view or download even add photos to the library.

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As we go to the sharing tab, under sharing with others you can see the photo or album you have shared. When you share that link with the user or group and when they clicked on that link, they will be automatically see those photo or album in their browser.

In summary Synology photos has came a long way and I believe more will come to enjoy using it as local backups of our photos are precious and what more we have already a NAS with storage to accommodate this.


This post has been edited by mintgadget: Jul 2 2021, 08:10 PM
fireballs
post Jun 29 2021, 10:27 PM

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well written!
can help to review the photos/moment portion?
does it work as well as google photo?
TSmintgadget
post Jul 2 2021, 08:14 PM

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QUOTE(fireballs @ Jun 29 2021, 10:27 PM)
well written!
can help to review the photos/moment portion?
does it work as well as google photo?
*
Thank you. I have just updated the review for Synology Photos, am trying to add as I try the new features in DSM 7. I do not really use google photos so I cannot really comment much except I was told they took off unlimited storage as of 1st June or July 2021. What you have uploaded is ok is only new pictures and videos moving forward which counts towards your quota.

This post has been edited by mintgadget: Jul 2 2021, 08:17 PM
fireballs
post Jul 2 2021, 10:58 PM

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QUOTE(mintgadget @ Jul 2 2021, 08:14 PM)
Thank you. I have just updated the review for Synology Photos, am trying to add as I try the new features in DSM 7. I do not really use google photos so I cannot really comment much except I was told they took off unlimited storage as of 1st June or July 2021. What you have uploaded is ok is only new pictures and videos moving forward which counts towards your quota.
*
thanks
does it work with image search? face search?
TSmintgadget
post Jul 3 2021, 07:35 AM

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yes it does, it can rely on tags or after facial recognition when you have organise them as in merge duplicates and remove unwanted faces, they are searchable. i believe it should be similar to google photos.
xxboxx
post Jul 3 2021, 01:49 PM

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So fast have update rclxms.gif
Probably going to update mine today.

Using Safari browser in your Mac, can you play HEVC video in Photos web?
On PC with Chrome, it say HEVC playback is unsupported. With Moments still can playback HEVC.
McDullDull
post Jul 3 2021, 02:05 PM

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I read that "USB devices (Wi-Fi dongle, Bluetooth dongle, 3G/4G dongle, USB DAC/speaker, and DTV dongle) are no longer supported. If your Synology NAS is currently connected via a wireless dongle, it will be disconnected after the update."

I currently have a 2 disk HDD toaster connected to my NAS via USB. Does this mean i might have problems using this after the upgrade?
TSmintgadget
post Jul 3 2021, 04:28 PM

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QUOTE(xxboxx @ Jul 3 2021, 01:49 PM)
So fast have update rclxms.gif
Probably going to update mine today.

Using Safari browser in your Mac, can you play HEVC video in Photos web?
On PC with Chrome, it say HEVC playback is unsupported. With Moments still can playback HEVC.
*
seems to playback ok on both safari and chrome, haven't tried on windows. i must warn you before you update to DSM 7 make sure if you are running the box as a Plex Media server and it is not on docker best you read the horror stories in the other forums first. It is a nightmare. i am also holding back upgrading my other box because of this.

QUOTE(McDullDull @ Jul 3 2021, 02:05 PM)
I read that "USB devices (Wi-Fi dongle, Bluetooth dongle, 3G/4G dongle, USB DAC/speaker, and DTV dongle) are no longer supported. If your Synology NAS is currently connected via a wireless dongle, it will be disconnected after the update."

I currently have a 2 disk HDD toaster connected to my NAS via USB. Does this mean i might have problems using this after the upgrade?
*
I tested a WiFi dongle but I do not think mine it is supported but does show up on the info centre. As for the toaster, I too have it and it works fine as it should be because it works well with a USB UPS.



This post has been edited by mintgadget: Jul 3 2021, 04:31 PM
xxboxx
post Jul 3 2021, 09:35 PM

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QUOTE(mintgadget @ Jul 3 2021, 04:28 PM)
seems to playback ok on both safari and chrome, haven't tried on windows. i must warn you before you update to DSM 7 make sure if you are running the box as a Plex Media server and it is not on docker best you read the horror stories in the other forums first. It is a nightmare. i am also holding back upgrading my other box because of this.
*
I have use DSM 7 on VM, and Photos won't play HEVC video when use PC with Chrome. I'm not using Plex so that is not an issue for me. But I am using both Drive and Moments to access my files and photos that are put together, so it's a concern how I should arrange my stuff now that Drive and Photos are completely separated.

This post has been edited by xxboxx: Jul 3 2021, 09:36 PM
mygarage88
post Sep 15 2021, 05:42 PM

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QUOTE(mintgadget @ Jun 29 2021, 10:18 PM)
Synology Photos

After many years of using Synology Photo station to do my phone backups and to be honest I did not use Moments because my main reason is to backup all the phones photos. This new Synology Photos combine the best of both Photo station and Moments. With better file management and timeline we can easily access our photo albums with the ability to apply search filters to find a particular photo i.e a picture based on location or time of year and so on.

I believe majority people are backing up their photos to Google photos today because they have given unlimited storage all this time but that has change in mid 2021 where is based on your account allocation. So no more unlimited moving forward which is a bummer hence Synology Photos is a great option today.

Firstly is getting your photos into the NAS. This is particularly easy with the Synology Photos app on both IOS and android. Once you have setup the connection to the NAS from the phone it will automatically export the photos to your NAS based on your setup. You can also upload your photos from the Photos app on the NAS too.

.......
Hi, I'm having a big concern on backup my photo from my iPhone to Synology. It cant run the backup in the background, you need to on your phone screen in order it execute the backup. I have search answer around the web, and it says is IOS issue as it blocks the app run at the background when screen off. But it works well using Google photo. I think it just excuse from Synology.

Do you face the same issue ?

Really desperate to resolve this. Appreciate if you can shed me some light.. sad.gif

Thanks.


This post has been edited by mygarage88: Sep 15 2021, 05:48 PM
TSmintgadget
post Sep 15 2021, 05:59 PM

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QUOTE(mygarage88 @ Sep 15 2021, 05:42 PM)
Hi, I'm having a big concern on backup my photo from my iPhone to Synology. It cant run the backup in the background, you need to on your phone screen in order it execute the backup. I have search answer around the web, and it says is IOS issue as it blocks the app run at the background when screen off. But it works well using Google photo. I think it just excuse from Synology.

Do you face the same issue ?

Really desperate to resolve this. Appreciate if you can shed me some light.. sad.gif

Thanks.
*
Unfortunately this is a known issue on IOS, many of us using this are facing the same problem. I reckon they have to update the app to fix this problem coz it did work fine on DS Photo. But on Android it seems to work fine.
mygarage88
post Sep 15 2021, 09:53 PM

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Thanks mintgadget, I’m facing the same issue even with Ds photo earlier.. anyway, don’t think is IOS issue as google drive works well in background …

So sad, pay so much money for crappy app。
kertaznet
post Sep 29 2021, 12:12 AM

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I update the old ds213j series which was so laggy on DSM 6 to the v7. Amazingly, become very useable now.
TSmintgadget
post Sep 29 2021, 07:07 AM

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Do check point no 7 in the release notes. I believe 213j is only 512MB hence the lag. Perhaps time for an upgrade smile.gif

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This post has been edited by mintgadget: Sep 29 2021, 07:09 AM

 

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