Setting up a Synology DS223 NAS

Hardware failure is only a matter of time

Archival backups are essential for data storage, so it’s essential that you have a reliable and redundant backup like a NAS, especially for photos and videos of memories you can’t recreate.

Isn’t it serendipitous how timing happens? A couple weeks ago, I read a review on PetaPixel for the Synology DS223 NAS. I’d always had my eyes on a Synology NAS, but their enclosures are in the high end of prices compared to their competitors. But for good reason, as they seem to be better performing and better designed.

It’s a splurge, and in the past, I’ve gone for some cheaper quality enclosures, with some amount of uncertainty over their RAID ability, instead opting for dual standalone drives in a 2-bay enclosure and some software solutions to duplicate data at regular intervals. Definitely not a reliable choice, especially on long-term storage. I gambled for a while and just this week, my luck crapped out. I plugged in my dual bay enclosure to access some backups, and nothing. Drives wouldn’t mount! A pit grew in the bottom of my stomach. Oh no!

I plugged the drives enclosure in a different PC. Same thing, wouldn’t mount. Hopefully it’s just the enclosure? I needed to rule out a problem with the drives.

I opened the enclosure and installed 1 drive in a separate single drive enclosure I use for Time Machine backups. Jackpot! It mounted. I still had my data!

The dual-bay enclosure was the culprit. I guarantee if I didn’t read that review for the Synology NAS, my original enclosure would be still purring along fine, but Murphy’s Law has its way of finding the right time to arrive. I guess it’s time for a replacement.

Let’s do some comparison research

I did some further review on Synology NAS setups and looked at the DS220J, DS220+, and the DS223. There were some cheaper options, and I was leaning towards the DS220J as suitable for my needs, but some of the reviews I read mentioned it was underpowered and had minimal RAM at 512MB. I didn’t want to underpurchase and buy a second time, so I spent a little more and ordered the new DS223 from Amazon (this is an affiliate link).

Unboxing

Unboxing the DS223, it’s a sturdy little box, great cover and build. The easy access to drive bays makes them easy to swap if needed. I had my first drive mounted without tools within 2 minutes. Very well designed and easy to get together. I powered it up and after some blinks and beeps, it was on my network.

Setup and Configuration

Launching find.synology.com scanned my home network, located the NAS and then a web interface to walk through the setup. It’s an easy process, about 10 minutes to download and install the latest DiskStation Manager which seems to have installable apps for everything you’d possibly want to do with your data (backup, photos, music, streaming video, calendar, contacts, mail, notes, virtual machines…on and on). I’m going to install the bare minimum for now until I get a benchmark for speeds, rather than overload it with a bunch of processes I won’t ever use.

The drive setup was easy, I started with 1 drive (keeping the data safe on the 2nd drive) as the first drive gets wiped for setup and OS installation. I chose Synology’s SHR (hybrid raid) which allows you to start with 1 drive (no drive redundancy) and expand with a 2nd drive later. I was planning on choosing RAID 1, but after some additional reading on SHR, SHR looks like it has additional benefits and future expansion should I need to move to larger drives (very likely) in the future.

As I write this, my 1st drive is being checked for errors. Once complete, I’ll import data from the 2nd drive (the safe backup) via the USB port on the NAS and copy it to the 1st drive. Once I’ve confirmed everything is intact, the 2nd drive will be added to the NAS in the 2nd drive bay and I’ll have a 1-disk redundancy setup. And some peace of mind that I’ve got a redundant on-site backup archive. Don’t forget about off-site backups (cloud) as well.

I should mention this thing is VERY quiet. I’m surprised. Whenever I did turn on my previous enclosure, I knew it was on and running. Granted, there’s not a lot of drive activity yet, but the fans and cooling are very quiet. I originally contemplated plugging it in somewhere in a closet, but I don’t think it will be required if it stays this quiet.

Click the link to purchase the Synology DS223 from Amazon. (affiliate referral)

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