Synology DS220+ NAS - Initial Thoughts

Like most people that have a homelab setup, I have played with various approaches to network storage.  I have tried things like TrueNAS, a SMB share on my Rasperry Pi 4 and even using the network sharing feature of my GL-iNet router but I also have been looking at consumer NAS devices like Synology.

So why buy a product and not build my own?  I view my home network as supporting two goals: First I have my homelab goals, which has things my Proxmox setup and other stuff that I mess with just for fun.  Second I have the production goals, stuff like family entertainment devices and other things that just need to work.  So I wanted to get a NAS, but I wanted something that worked without constant tinkering so that I could support both production and homelab goals.

I did look at various vendors, but settled on Synology because the software seemed mature compared to other offerings.  Since the NAS would be sort of a starter for learning, I decided to get a 2-bay device and started to look at the various options/models.  Here are some of the variants I looked at:

• The "j" series like the current DS223j, but I decided not to go that route because those have low RAM and seem to be underpowered.
• The non-plus models like the current "DS223" that are better than the "j" series but seem to be lacking some features of the plus model.
• The plus models like the current "DS224+" and "DS225+" that seem to the best of the 2 bay options.

I decided to go with an older plus model, and actually found a really good deal on a DS220+.

Setting up the NAS was pretty simple, and I was up and running very quicky.  After just two days of use, I wanted to share my initial thoughts and some key features/aspects that I have configured.

• Setup SMB shares.  I would say this is the primary use case for any NAS, so it was a given that I would setup/use this first.  It works as expected, which is good.
• Configure "home" drive for users.  The NAS can support multiple users, and creates a "home" drive for user to store their own files/photos.  It was easy to setup, and will likely make future use by family members even easier.
• Setup two internal drives using Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)-1 raid.
• You can actually setup SHR-1 with a single drive (no redundancy) and then add another drive for redundancy (basically equivalent to RAID 1, mirroring) which is what I did in my initial setup.
• One thing to keep in mind, the storage will be limited by the smaller drive so (as an example) if you have a 1TB and 3TB drive then the usable space is only 1TB.
• Setup two external USB drives.  I have a USB 3 dock that allows you to dock two drives (either 2.5" or 3.5") which is a pretty nice way to connect external storage.
• Setup QuickConnect ID.  Basically this is an easy to access your NAS from an external network.  I know most homelab/power users will consider other options (Tailscale or their own VPN setup) but this approach allows an easy option to get up and running and works with various mobile apps.
• Setup Cloud Sync.  I created a specific folder on my Google Drive and OneDrive, and have that folder sync to my NAS so I have an easy way to determine which files I want on my NAS but also mirrored on my cloud storage.  This approach was mainly for testing, 
• Setup "Log Center" to view logs, pretty simple but you can also have other devices send their logs to your NAS which is neat.
• Setup "Synology Drive" basically think something like a Google Drive or OneDrive client for accessing your files.
• Setup "Synology Photos", which is something like Google Photos backup but doesn't seem to have as many features.  It does support some AI features like determining faces which is neat, but I need to keep testing/using the app to better understand the features.
• Setup "USB Copy".
• As a test, I setup some tasks to mirror certain folders to external USB drives and it seems to work fine.
• While I didn't use the feature, the NAS has a hardware "Copy" button on the front.  The idea is that you can insert a USB drive, then hit "copy" to save a copy of everything on the drive to the NAS.  While I don't know if I have a use case for this, it would be an interesting way to keep copies of files from something like a digital camera.
• Setup "Hyper Backup" to testing backing up my NAS information to one of the external USB drives.

Bottom line: I am glad that I decided to grab a Synology DS220+ NAS, and just based on my initial testing I think it will support my goals and still allow for some tinkering.

Synology Page: https://www.synology.com/
Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) info: https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/tutorial/What_is_Synology_Hybrid_RAID_SHR