I’ve been a very long time person of Synology NAS merchandise, having first reviewed them on 9to5Mac in 2016. On the finish of the final 12 months upgraded to a 4-bay DS920+. Upgrading from a 2-bay to a 4-bay mannequin has unlocked much more use circumstances for me, however I nonetheless get the impression that to most individuals, a NAS is a scary and uninviting idea.
Hopefully, on this publish, I can spotlight how a NAS can dramatically improve your Apple expertise, and that the entire enterprise is a comparatively simple factor to combine in your life, and get ongoing worth …
What’s a NAS?
A part of the apprehension I see when folks point out these things is that the acronym itself, NAS, instantly makes the know-how sound much more sophisticated than it truly is. NAS stands for network-attached-storage, relationship again to the times when a server mainframe would take up a complete room.
Lately, a client NAS is kind of merely a small PC-like field that integrates drive bays straight into it. So, the Synology DS920+ that I’ve is a compact black field that packs in a low-powered CPU, some RAM, and 4 drive bays for arduous drives to fit into. On the again, you’ve gotten some Ethernet and growth ports.
Once you plug it in, you configure and management it by an online interface that apes a desktop UI. This implies ideally, you retailer the NAS in your house someplace out of the best way, out of sight, and let it do its job all day lengthy with out intervention.
There are plenty of NAS manufacturers on the market. I like Synology as a result of I discover their net UI easy and so they have a big bundle ecosystem that makes many duties actually one-click installs; extra on that later. For a house client function, I believe the principle deciding issue is how a lot storage you will have.
Successfully, this implies choosing between a mannequin with 2- or 4- drive bays.
The utmost accessible dimension for a single NAS drive is about 16 TB, in the meanwhile. However on account of their price, you’ll in all probability need to go for cheaper, smaller capability, drives. I personally purchase 8 or 10 TB NAS drives, as they strike an honest tradeoff between capability and value.
For those who plan on utilizing one of many bays as a secondary backup, utilizing the automated ‘RAID’ performance of a Synology NAS, meaning you’ve gotten ~10 TB of usable storage on a 2-bay NAS, with the second bay hold a 1:1 backup for redundancy. With a 4-bay NAS, you naturally have the flexibility to double efficient usable area, but in addition extra flexibility with regards to redundancy coverage: as an illustration, you may use just one bay for redundancy, and dedicate two of the 4 bays to information that you simply don’t want a second backup of — like re-downloadable, replaceable media.
This latter arrange is definitely an outline of what I exploit, I’ve private recordsdata saved onto one 8 TB quantity, which is then routinely duplicated on one other 8 TB arduous drive located within the second drive bay, in case the primary one ever fails. The opposite two drive bays are full of two extra 8TB drives, however uncovered as one logical quantity, giving me 16 TB of area to fill with stuff.
Please word although, I used a 2-bay NAS very fortunately for a few years. In case you are simply getting began, a less expensive 2-bay Synology is a wonderfully good choice for most individuals. One other issue to contemplate is noise. A 4-bay NAS will undoubtedly run louder than a 2-bay unit, as you’ve gotten the followers of the NAS itself plus the sounds of the spinning disks. I’m lucky in that I’ve energy and Ethernet operating to the loft, so I can depart the NAS up there — out of sight and out of thoughts. Basement and storage are different good candidates. In fact, some house wiring preparations merely aren’t set as much as assist that placement; think about a 2-bay NAS tucked inside a media heart cupboard is an affordable resolution to mitigate the noise downside.
NAS vs Mac mini
So if a NAS is easy a small pc, why not purchase a pc? The pure house server resolution for an Apple-centric family might appear to be a Mac mini, intuitively. And it’s true that Mac minis can do all the things a Synology or different NAS can. However there are a pair components that make it inconvenient. For one, macOS just isn’t primarily designed to be a server: the software program stack just isn’t designed to be operating headless, with no show linked. Synology is prepared out-of-the-box, with all the things configurable by an online browser accessible on any machine within the community. The Synology OS can be designed to run all of the NAS duties you want; from scheduled duties, long-running processes, computerized software program updates and the like. With the Mac mini strategy, you’d be ranging from scratch — and possibly discover it is advisable plug in show/keyboard/mouse each time there’s an issue to debug.
The opposite drawback of a Mac mini is the storage issue. You may’t configure a Mac mini with mass built-in storage. So that you’d want to purchase a USB drive caddy or comparable accent. Then it’s important to work out energy all the things, get these drives to mount routinely at startup, format the drives appropriately, arrange RAID redundancy, etcetera etcetera … the checklist of stuff to just do goes on and on. The Synology is sort of plug-and-play, with all the things in a single built-in enclosure. You may arrange your disks utilizing the Synology Storage Supervisor app in simply a few clicks.
Additionally keep in mind that most Mac software program is anticipating you to make use of a GUI, whereas all the things accessible within the Synology Bundle Heart is aimed on the headless server use case. I’ve owned a Synology for a few years and by no means wanted to resort to a command line. Synology has an enormous repository of easy-to-install packages to allow you to do mainly all the things you’ll be able to suppose you may want, with out problem. It’s identical to an App Retailer for house server stuff, and nearly all the things is free to obtain. The Mac mini resolution invitations a myriad of issues the Synology simply doesn’t have.
When it comes to worth for cash, Synology bins will not be priced inexpensively, however they examine favourably to the price of a Mac mini plus equal drive array accent. If you wish to lower your expenses, you’ll be able to discover alternate options to Synology like FreeNAS operating on a finances Home windows machine, however that’s not a seamless stress-free path by any means.
What can you employ a NAS for, as an Apple person?
Okay, so that you’ve acquired one. What do you do with it?
Keep in mind, A NAS just isn’t magic. Stripped right down to easy phrases it’s a bit of pc with a ton of storage connected. This implies it’s extremely versatile. You should use it run a VPN, file server, locally-hosted cloud Dropbox substitute, CCTV server and a lot extra. The Bundle Heart is admittedly the place to begin; a repository of a lot stuff. Putting in a bundle is rather like putting in an app in your Mac. The packages will run routinely at boot, if acceptable, and you’ll configure the habits by the net UI. You aren’t restricted to simply what’s within the Bundle Heart; you’ll find much more packages on the internet and sideload them. However I discover that’s hardly ever crucial.
Plenty of potential, however let’s come right down to brass tax. I believe there’s three clear motivating causes for getting a NAS to boost your Apple ecosystem expertise. These three issues are definitely what I exploit mine for, extracting significant worth each day.
Media server
An awesome use of a pool of storage is internet hosting and archiving media. Trivially, you may simply replenish a shared folder with motion pictures, music, photographs and recordsdata. That may allow you to entry these recordsdata from any machine on the community. However to raise the expertise, Synology can run media server software program. Synology itself gives a variety of media heart apps, like Video Station and Audio Station, however their consumer apps for iOS and Mac are considerably missing. As an alternative, I’d advocate Plex or Infuse.
Each of those media server apps have wealthy purchasers for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android, and extra. All of it seems like an impressively native expertise. And arrange is a cinch.
With your individual media assortment of TV reveals and flicks organized by folder on a Synology quantity, Plex and Infuse can analyze the filesystem and current the content material as a wealthy library, identical to your individual private streaming service. TV reveals and flicks are matched routinely with album artwork, rankings, trailers and different metadata. These apps even observe your watch queue, identical to your individual private streaming service. By default, you’ll be able to entry this content material inside your private home community. In case you are occurring a visit, use Plex on iOS to obtain content material to observe offline. With a little bit of router fiddling, you’ll be able to even arrange distant entry to stream your library over the net and share it with others.
Utilizing Plex and a HDHomeRun linked to an aerial, I also have a stay TV expertise with an EPG for all the published channels, and the flexibility to schedule recordings like a DVR, with all the things saved on the Synology and accessible to observe from any machine. It’s remarkably cool, and helpful.
Time Machine
Backing up your information is vital. On iOS, iCloud makes this simple. However on the Mac, you’ll be able to’t use iCloud to again up your total machine. Time Machine is Apple’s built-in backup utility, and sometimes it’s meant for use with a secondary arduous drive straight linked to the Mac. However you too can use a community file share because the goal vacation spot. A Synology NAS makes this simple: allow Time Machine in simply a few steps and your Mac will clone its total disk content material to the Synology quantity and routinely again up any new information, on a day by day schedule. For those who get a brand new Mac, you’ll be able to merely restore your Time Machine backup to select up proper the place you left off.
Time Machine retains older variations of recordsdata, so you’ll be able to restore particular person recordsdata and folders if wanted. Use the amount supervisor options in Synology to regulate how giant your Time Machine backup can develop to. It’s usually advisable to allocate twice as a lot storage as the inner disk you’re backing up. So, you probably have a 1 TB Mac, you need to create a devoted 2 TB quantity for Time Machine. Mix this with Synology’s RAID disk replication options, and also you successfully get two native backups arrange with little or no effort.
Homebridge
Clearly, plenty of what a NAS is helpful for is said to the truth that it has terabytes of area accessible for use. However not all the things you do with a NAS must be backed by gigabytes of recordsdata. In addition to the assorted file server duties you may think, you too can reap the benefits of the very fact a Synology NAS can be an always-on pc operating.
One instance of this utility is Homebridge. Homebridge is a third-party plugin ecosystem for HomeKit, significantly extending the utility of the Dwelling app. Homebridge permits many extra varieties of equipment to work with Apple Dwelling (and subsequently be suitable with the Dwelling app and controllable by Siri), in addition to unlock way more refined sorts of good house automations — issues that merely aren’t attainable with what’s formally uncovered.
Once more, I need to impress that this isn’t a scary prospect. You may set up Homebridge very merely on the Synology and most Homebridge plugins have a visual UI management panel to configure them.
I believe most individuals consider Homebridge as a option to get equipment that don’t assist HomeKit in any respect into the Apple ecosystem. However even merchandise that ostensibly assist HomeKit natively could be handed through the use of Homebridge as an alternative.
For instance, I exploit a Tado good heating controller for my house’s boiler and scorching water system. It exposes the radiator thermostats by HomeKit — however not scorching water! Fortunately, Homebridge can fill within the gaps. With an easy-to-install third-party Tado plugin, I now have a scorching water management uncovered as a change within the Dwelling app too. One other utterly totally different instance is utilizing Homebridge to have exterior climate circumstances built-in as sensors in my ‘Backyard’ room, so you’ll be able to arrange HomeKit automations primarily based on the surface air temperature.
The Homebridge neighborhood have additionally developed options to frequent good house characteristic requests that the Dwelling app doesn’t absolutely remedy. As an example, I exploit a plugin referred to as Magic Occupancy to make my kitchen lights intelligently activate and off primarily based on a movement sensor, whereas additionally retaining the flexibility to show them off manually on the mild change. These sort of multi-layered conditional automations are merely not expressible with customary HomeKit, however Homebridge makes it attainable.
Conclusion
In fact, I can’t checklist each attainable nuance and use case however I hope this publish provides you an thought about what’s probably with a Synology NAS, and that it isn’t a scary proposition. Easy iOS-friendly media server, computerized Time Machine backups, and enhanced HomeKit make for trifecta of a proposition, although. And though it would sound daunting, you probably have any familiarity with utilizing computer systems, you’ll be able to handle a NAS. The Synology software program makes all the things actually simple to arrange. And as soon as all the things is put in the best way you prefer it, you normally can depart it unattended for months at a time. It’s arduous to stay with out one, when you’ve taken the plunge.
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