Terramaster TOS 5 NAS Software Review – Network Better?

If you are an existing Terramaster NAS owner, or are someone that has been considering their NAS brand for your private server purchase, then you might have heard that they recently released their latest BIG software update. Upgrading from TOS 4 to TOS 5, this new update brings a huge range of improvements in the GUI, available applications, supported services, security and user controls to their NAS systems. Today I want to review this massive software upgrade and help you decide whether you should upgrade, as well as help you decide if a Terramaster NAS is going to be the right choice for you and your storage in 2022/2023. So, get comfortable and let’s break down everything about TOS 5 in today’s review and help you decide if it deserves your data!

Review Chapters (click below to skip ahead)

• What I liked and What I didn’t in TOS 5
• Design & Navigation
• Storage Services
• Network and Security Management
• Backup & Synchronization
• Multimedia Management
• Review Verdict & Conclusion

Disclaimer – It is important to note that even though TOS 5 is now fully released and in its non-beater version, some applications are still in beta within this software platform and although I will touch on them throughout this review, I will make a point of highlighting when some applications in full release or are still in Beta. These include Terra Photos, Terrasync tools, Centralized Backup, elements of Terra Search and Surveillance Manager. Although all of these applications are still available in the app center, the experiences I had with them still demonstrate that they are not in their final form and suffered weak resource sharing with the rest of TOS5. Otherwise, all other elements discussed in this review are in their full release candidate form. Additionally, at the time of writing, TOS5 is not available for ARM processor NAS devices. This review was conducted on an F4-423.

What I liked in TOS 5

• The GUI is considerably clearer and much more vibrant.
• The options and icons in the GUI are much more responsive and clear against other background activities.
• There are considerably more backup and synchronization tools in TOS5.
• There are a vastly improved number of storage configurations and services available at your disposal.
• The mixed drive TRAID Is going to win serious points with ex-synology owners.
• The system includes direct tech support and remote access terminal for official support and difficulties
• The network isolation mode in TOS5 is both unique to the brand and particularly helpful.
• The resource monitor is 10 times better than in previous versions of TOS 5 and genuinely useful. 

What I did not like in TOS 5

• The number of applications that are still in beta at the launch of TOS5 is disappointing.
• The upgrade path between TOS4 and TOS5 is not as smooth as it should be. And will confuse some and concern others.
• Remote access still seems to be a little too easy to do. And not enough warning is provided as to the inherent dangers of a weak remote setup.
• Multimedia tools are a little lacking and although there is a general DLNA media server application and the photo app in beta, there is no dedicated video or music tool available.
• Resource sharing could still be greatly optimized when running multiple apps or services at once.

Terramaster TOS 5 Review – Design and Navigation

Although the general design and layout of TOS 5 have not changed a great deal in its methodology compared with TOS4, it is the responsiveness and intuitive layout of some choices that have been greatly improved in this new version of the Terramaster software. Clear improvements have been made in how the user interface is accessed via most available web browsers and you definitely get more of a localized access field when interacting with the GUI on your Terramaster NAS in TOS5

Equally, there have been changes made to the control panel when navigating settings and configuration options on your TOS5 NAS and some choices have been moved to more appropriate sections, as well as more important areas such as security and file services have been vastly improved and/or moved to their own app portal on the desktop.

From the initial GUI of TOS5, you can also access all of the user settings by clicking the user icon at the top right of the screen. From here you can configure a number of presets for the connected client login and an option to add two-step authentication to your access credentials, now a great deal more accessible here from the desktop. However, I am not a huge fan of the fact that two-step authentication on the Terramaster NAS in TOS5 still seems to require the use of the official Terramaster mobile app and does not seem to support of third-party OTP apps such as Google authenticator, but it is still better to have this extra layer of double authenticated access alongside your password.

Equally from this top right range of contextual options, you are able to quickly access a breakdown of the health, activity of your storage and network on the Terramaster NAS in TOS5. This range of widgets and information can be configured quite quickly and although the TOS 5 system now contains a very robust resource monitor, this is a nice range of options to be accessible directly from the GUI and better presented than what we saw in TOS4.

Customization of user access and GUI in TOS5 is not absolutely huge. You are able to change the wallpaper to a number of preset included wallpapers (as well as upload your own image), but that is about it and there isn’t a huge degree of customization with regards to icons or differentiating one user from another visually. You can however change the initial login screen to display a different range of text or images based on the user and for those of you that want to create guest login portals to the NAS or want to differentiate different departments to have their own stylized login screen, this is indeed possible.

Additionally, creating multiple users with their own tailored levels of access to different directories and NAS services is still very easy in TOS5 and although I was unable to find any means to upload an existing CSV or another database of accounts, creation was still very straightforward. I will highlight that during the upgrade from TOS4 to TOS5, multiple accounts that I had created did not carry over seamlessly in the upgrade and I have raised this with Terramaster and look forward to their reply.

As mentioned, one enormous area of improvement on TOS5 is the considerably more robust and detailed resource monitor. In previous iterations of TOS4, You were GIVEN a great degree of information, but it was displayed in an incredibly unintuitive way and with little to no means to interact with this data. In TOS5, the ability to create historical and analytical reports of data is considerably easier and with each of these parameters digging down quite comprehensively in terms of individual client apps and users, resource consumption and which processes are perhaps getting greedier than others. Though the level of control you have over these services and processes from the new improved resource monitor is a little less impressive, and although it will help you identify which processes are eating up all of your memory, you cannot close these processes as easy as you might in a standard task manager on your operating system.

This isn’t wholly unusual and indeed only QNAP really provides the option to kill processes on your NAS on the fly due to its potential for harming system and storage operations. Still, there were times during the use of TOS5 when I felt that resource management could have been improved upon internally. That said, the system did regularly update me via notifications, email notifications, and in the lock center to tell me when the system was under particular duress or needed my attention. The improved log center did a better job in TOS5 of differentiating the importance of different alerts and although email notification frequency was a pinch high, these could be configured in levels of importance in the log center.

Another area of improvement on TOS5 is the range of available applications that you can choose to install on your Terramaster NAS and run with ease. Although lacking the wider variety of applications in both first and third party that their competitors at Synology and QNAP feature (with 46 apps available and 8-10 of these in Beta), there were still several applications available here that were notably absent in TOS 4. Additionally, these beta applications were very clearly marked as in development and all applications could be installed in a single click, be added to the desktop GUI with a further click, suspended in the event of resource-saving with just another click and finally uninstalled if needed with again, just one click. A lot of the base-level back-end applications that are required to run these apps and services are installed by default on a Terramaster system and therefore adding these final applications is both quick and pretty seamless. Talking of quick and seamless, one thing that I have mixed feelings about (mostly good) is the option for technical support and remote assistance on your Terramaster NAS at the touch of a single button on the GUI.

Available by default and immediately listed on the GUI desktop applications, TOS5 includes the ability to register a technical support ticket directly from your NAS. Of course, you will need to have an internet connection in order for Terramaster to receive your technical inquiry, but this means that important log information, serial numbers and much more analytical details on the nature of your technical difficulty are easier to attach and send off for potential swifter resolution. Equally and perhaps in partnership with this technical support option, there is the facility to allow Terramaster to remotely access your Terramaster NAS from within this desktop to UI app in TOS5. You will need to set up an availability time from within the option and of course enable internet-level access, but I can certainly see a number of users who have difficulties with their Terramaster NAS taking advantage of this first-party remote support. My only concern with this is that this means that there is an access point for Terramaster upon request to be able to access your NAS remotely and although the brand has tightened a number of security settings in TOS5 and provided several security tools and services recommendations that are peppered throughout the software UX, I don’t feel that an option like this should be so readily available to novice users. I can see the benefit, but can also see the dangers of a less experienced user opening doors to a NAS remotely. Of course, this feature likely exists behind the existing security settings and configurations that you set up and therefore still going to need an element of end-user cooperation in order to be used by Terramaster, but still, it does give me a certain pause for thought.

Another element of using TOS5 that I felt could have been done better in terms of design and presentation is the upgrade path for those who are shifting from the TOS4 platform onto TOS5. Unlike other updates to the firmware, which tend to be either automatic or can be actioned from within the TOS control panel with relative ease,  TOS 5 requires the user to restore the system to a factory state and then install TOS5 as the system’s new operating system. It does not dismount your RAID array or delete your data if done properly, but it is still a very clunky method of upgrading and if done wrong does have to potential to format your system. Less experienced users may be a tad too intimidated to click an option marked restore to factory settings without fear of losing their precious data. Terramaster for their part have been clear that the upgrade should not delete your data, but still heavily insist that you have backups in place before upgrading –  which for users housing data in the tens of terabytes is perhaps easier said than done. That is no excuse for not having a solid backup foundation, but realistically there will be users who simply cannot afford to back up the entirety of their existing TOS for storage to make the jump to TOS 5 (choosing instead to only backup mission-critical data).

Ultimately, in terms of design and navigation, I cannot fault TOS 5 as it is clearly a big upgrade on TOS 4 and something Terramaster has clearly been working on to bring their NAS software up to par with their competitors. Things do feel a great deal more responsive and the layout of icons and services has definitely been tweaked for the better. I still feel that some services and tools could still do with tweaking in their presentation, but you do definitely feel the difference in this latest version of Terramaster’s software and if all you have ever used is TOS 4 or TOS 3, this is probably going to blow you away.

Terramaster TOS 5 Review – Storage Services

TOS 5.0 brings a massive range of improved storage services and supported configurations in its latest release, hugely dwarfing those of TOS4. The landscape of modern network-attached storage has changed quite rapidly in the last 5 years and simply providing the means to create a RAID and backup in a rudimentary fashion just isn’t going to cut it in 2022. Therefore, Terramaster seriously needed to improve on the range of storage services and applications that are included in their storage platform, even when they are still largely considered the value tier in the market. Despite this rather more cost-effective reputation, there are a number of services that the brand is offering that ape those of much more expensive alternatives from Synology & QNAP, and in fact even manage to offer a middle ground of services to allow you access to the advantages of either of those top two brands in a less exclusive fashion (eg NVMe SSD Pools, BTRFS, Fluid RAID, etc). There is the inclusion of expected storage services that were available both in TOS4 and on offer from all other NAS brands, such as creating a RAID, supporting a Hot Spare, Data Scrubbing, creating snapshots of your storage and even now including options for SSD caching in TOS5. However, on top of all of these, the brand has provided some quite nifty innovations in the latest release of their software in terms of storage tools. Let’s touch on one of the AAA+features that were highlighted early, TRAID.

Likely the one that got a lot of early people’s attention and a feature that Synology have largely dominated (though Drobo did have the feature too) the market in support of, TOS5 includes a fluid and flexible RAID configuration option in the form of TRAID. In brief, all NAS offer most traditional RAID configurations such as RAID 5 and RAID 6, which provide you with benefits in performance and in redundancy (ie protection from one and/or two drives failing). However, you need to ensure that all drives used in the array are equal in capacity otherwise you will be unable to take advantage of any additional capacity in larger drives (eg all 2TBs, or all 4TBs etc). TRAID allows you to use mixed drives in your RAID and although few people would choose to take advantage of this on day one, years into your system’s life, you may wish to install newer and larger drives gradually into your existing RAID to expand and that is where mixed drive support becomes tremendously beneficial in allowing you to increase your base storage capacity, without having to build a brand new RAID configuration. 

Improvements on storage pool creation are not the only way in which TOS5 improves upon how it manages and contains your storage though and in this new firmware update (alongside traditional easy volume creation that supports both EXT4 and BTRFS choices – the latter providing bit corruption healing during initial write and lower resource impact doing snapshot creation), there is also the support of Write Once Read Many configurations on volumes (WORM). For users that want to create a container for storage that can have data sent to it but that data be unmodifiable for a predetermined range of time, support of WORM is going to be a tremendously useful and welcome addition in TOS5. However, there is also another little addition to TOS5 in its RAID management that existing Synology and ZFS server users will also welcome, FAST-RAID repair.

Although TOS5 features a customizable RAID rebuild priority option, which although welcome is not exactly new in 2022, it does feature an improved RAID rebuild feature that will greatly improve the time it takes for a partially populated RAID storage pool to be rebuilt in the event of a degraded state (i.e when a drive fails). This Fast-RAID repair feature when selected will result in the system only rebuilding the areas on each disk where data would have remained in the original storage pool drive (using available parity data for reference) and the rest of the drive space across the platters is then zeroed out. This means that if you have a RAID storage pool that comprised 20 terabytes, but only 5 terabytes of actual data inside, your RAID, rebuild speed will be considerably faster than in a traditional RAID rebuild scenario where the system would have to build and enter a value for every bit on the disk. RAID-rebuild times are something that only higher-tier business and enterprise users tend to heavily focus on (downtime = lost money) and although there are preventative and preemptive measures that you can adopt to save time such as hot spares, this Fast-RAID rebuild option will reduce downtime and/or lower performance during a RAID resync operation.

TOS 5 also now includes its own dedicated iSCSI manager that makes simple work of creating multiple target paths and hosted areas of LUN storage. Alongside a range of improved network file service protocols in the file services area of the control panel, this much more intuitive means with which to create large block storage (although available in TOS 4) was not presented quite so intuitively. There are additional options built into the storage manager too that allow you to scale the level of compression used with the systems volumes too and it is little innovations like this that are built into the improved storage management of TOS5 that will tempt new business users looking at Terramaster as an affordable alternative to subscription cloud services.

Finally, there are improvements in how you can view and interact with the individual storage media on the Terramaster NAS. For starters, there is now a benchmark tool that you can utilize to analyze the performance of individual hard drives and SSDs inside the NAS. Additionally, there is the continued support of SSD caching in TOS5, however Terramaster has joined the small collection of brands that not only support the use of NVMe SSD storage for caching, but also support the utilization as a storage pool. This will be particularly useful to users who want to take advantage of improved performance available on these m.2 PCIe-based SSDs for booting key applications in the NAS software or VMs.

That said, I encounter a few hiccups when trying to interact with the NVMe SSDs as a storage pool (low benchmarks, pointing services at them) and although Terramaster assure me that this is being worked on, currently using the NVMes as standalone storage is not something I would recommend right now. Aside from this, though, I simply cannot fault the scale of storage improvements that have been afforded to the creation of pools and volumes in TOS5 compared with the previous version and this was a particular standout highlight for me in this software upgrade. But what about file and folder management?

TOS much like many other NAS brands provides a file manager that allows you to access and edit the file/folder structure of the data contained in your volumes, shared folders and connected remote storage easily. This file manager has seen only a few small tweaks in TOS5, however, it did seem more responsive than its previous version and still continues to provide the benefits of shared folder management available in BTRFS.

The ease of sharing files and creating customizable links to share with users with customized access and date policies was still very easy. As well as the ease and speed with which you can create, duplicate, and execute snapshots on shared folders on the fly. All fairly standard but well-executed stuff.

However, I will say that the file manager was not particularly fast in its thumbnail creation when viewing images and the depth of information that could be obtained when looking at the properties of files via the TOS file manager still felt quite rudimentary. It is a minor point and not a great deal of users are going to access files regularly via the web browser in this fashion. However, this does seem like an oddly straightforward feature that is absent or poorly handled in the TOS5 file manager.

Equally, most file types still continue to be unplayable natively in the TOS web browser GUI. Common photo file types could be opened and viewed, some video files and a limited number of supported audio formats too. But due to the lack of tailored multimedia applications available in TOS 5, accessing multimedia on a Terramaster NAS is still infinitely better over DLNA or using third-party tools such as Plex or Emby. Let’s move on to network management and security in TOS 5.

Terramaster TOS 5 Review – Network & Security Management

If there is one area that intimidates NAS buyers early on, it is having to understand and get to grips with network management and security settings of your storage. Unlike many other areas of IT, it is tremendously difficult to dumb down or demystify network and security management without risking undermining the safe access you have to your data. Many NAS brands have tried and failed to make this complex area of NAS ownership as accessible as possible.  TOS 5 does a fair job and certainly improves upon TOS4 in the configuration options and how they are presented to the end-user, but there are still a few areas that could use improvement. We have already touched on the brands, improved integration of OTP (two-step authentication) as well as the admin super user account being disabled by default on the system. There are even improved notifications on the fly when using the system and whilst the system is running in the background, being presented to the user that highlight when your system is being used in a less optimal or less secure way. Terramaster suffered something of a PR bloody-NAS earlier in 2022 when they were targeted by the Deadbolt ransomware group (along with other NAS brands), so network security and the level of protection afforded to users’ data by a Terramaster NAS was brought into question. Needless to say, TOS 5 includes numerous changes and additions to the system software that have focused quite specifically on these areas.

New to TOS 5 is the isolation mode feature that has no doubt been spurred on by numerous reports of ransomware attacks targeting multiple NAS brands. A very unique feature to just Terramaster, the isolation mode is found in the control panel and allows the user at a single touch of a button to suspend all remote internet-based connectivity to the NAS. However, it does not stop there and isolation mode has several other important features when it is triggered. These include suspension of all SSH and telnet services, disabling of all custom, third party (i.e non system signed services) and insecure PHP applications and in order to disable isolation mode, requires a system restart which is a complete manual and authentication required procedure. In short, isolation mode is the One-touch method of suspending all untrusted or uncertain communications with the device and allows the end-user a killswitch that will not lose them their data.

However, isolation mode is the more extreme way in which you can sever all connectivity outside of the network to your NAS and TOS5 does include a bunch of other features that allow you to cherry-pick which services and protocols you are prepared to enable. A number of these standard connections are disabled by default when you set up TOS5 for the very first time and likely this is done to protect somewhat more novice users from accidentally leaving the back door open in error. You can limit connections to the NAS to specific IPs, ports and only secure HTTPS connections if you wish, as well as disable any kind of TOS5 GUI access outside of trusted clients/paths. Additionally, UpUp has been disabled by default (remote and network) and DOS protection is enabled on day one.

Alongside the means to create multiple user accounts and groups that will have their own login credentials and levels of access to the Terramaster NAS system services, the software also allows you to create a custom auto block and frequency of failed login attempts protocol to your own specific needs. This can be as heavy-handed or as lucy-goosy as you wish. Again, not ground-breaking, but the default system setting are a few notches higher in this latest Terramaster NAS software revision.

Accessing your Terramaster NAS outside of your local network is possible by utilizing the inbuilt TNAS online service that allows you to connect remotely via the internet with your NAS via the Terramaster authentication server. This service is disabled by default and you will need to create an account with Terramaster to register your device to begin remote access in this method. This is a free service that is included with your NAS and is not in any way subscription-based, however performance will be a fraction more limited (i.e slower) than via more custom and direct access setups, though considerably easier to set up.

There are numerous additional security precautions you can take that range from adding certificates, randomizing your default ports and utilizing a VPN pass-through, however do not forget that this more convenient remote access feature will never be truly a safe as your own customized and thoroughly unique remote access method.

Another of the more understated but useful additions to TOS5 is the security advisor tool that is installed and available immediately from the desktop GUI. Comparable to similar security advisors and scanners from Synology and QNAP, the TOS5 security advisor scans your entire Terramaster NAS setup in order to highlight any weaknesses in security or data safety. Although the security advisor is by no means a comprehensive and enterprise tool, it is certainly going to be of use to less experienced storage and network users who appreciate a helping hand and regular reminders of keeping their NAS as closed as possible.

However, the hand holding that Terramaster provides to the end-user when crafting a more secure network environment could certainly be improved upon to benefit novice and amateur users. I cannot fault the range of services and tools for network configuration that are available in TOS5 that are included in the price of the NAS, but the level of tips, hints and guidance that the system provides is virtually non-existent. When looking at these more complex and intimidating areas for new NAS buyers, It is quite easy for me to regularly state online that users should have a bulletproof firewall set up, but with little to no guidance in the firewall area of TOS5 as to what certain settings can result in (for good or bad), I can imagine this is perhaps a pinch to challenging for some novice users.

VPN service, in stark contrast to when you look at how firewall management in TOS5 is conducted, is much better and has its own dedicated application and settings in the TOS5 control panel.  TOS 5 supports several different existing VPN providers that allow fast and easy implementation of your account credentials and adding the NAS to your current subscription either as a VPN server or just generally. It seems a little sparse when compared to the presentation of VPN settings by their competitors, but it does get the job done.

Overall, Terramaster has certainly improved network management and security tools in TOS5 a great deal over their previous firmware release. There are a bunch of new tools, a few system unique options like isolation mode and arguably there is very little available from other NAS brands that are not currently available here in TOS 5. The presentation is a little underwhelming and those of a less technical stance may hit a few barriers along the line, but I do think Terramaster have clearly upped their game with regards to how network and storage security is handled in their software. Let’s discuss backup and synchronization in TOS 5.

Terramaster TOS 5 Review – Backups and Synchronization

On the subject of backups, TOS5 has clearly put a bigger emphasis on consolidating the supported range of services and tools that were already available, rather than introducing many new applications in this area. That isn’t to say that Terramaster has not bolstered the available range of services. TOS 5 introduces new client-supported backup services such as Centralized Backup for Windows, Linux server and VM systems to give just one example. But for the most part, what TOS5 has provided over its predecessor is to make things a great deal more intuitive on how these different tools work together for an improved 3-2-1 backup strategy. There are also small improvements to the synchronization tools thatarrive in TOS, allowing you to bolt-on storage from remote spaces and this too is presented notably better in this latest revision on Terramaster’s NAS platform. This extends right the way down to creating a backup of your system configuration, or importing an existing Terramaster configuration, there is definitely a more refined and intuitive approach to back up and synchronization on TOS5.

The majority of the backup and synchronization tools that TOS5 arrives with can be created, modified and actioned from within the backup one access portal and from here you can manage the bulk of backup operations on your NAS. It is still a little bare-bones when compared to other NAS brands out there and lacks a few guidance points for those less experienced in remote backup processes, but having the bulk of these important backup tools on your NAS in a single place makes considerable sense.

Although a myriad of different connection protocols for remote storage services are supported (such as WebDAV, FTP and SMB), the most user-friendly and easy means with which to connect to storage services together for backup paths over the network is going to be Rsync. This allows a one or two-way synchronization to be created between your Terramaster NAS and another storage area. TOS 5 supports the usual variations of Rsync setup here and although it’s all useful, there isn’t a tremendous amount of change in the latest update here from TOS 4 to TOS 5.

Likewise, USB backups, although amply covered in their own dedicated tool (supporting file transmission in either direction, as well as supporting full synchronization and differential backups) are not hugely changed they were in TOS 4 in terms of how they are conducted.

TOS5 also supports a dedicated folder-to-folder backup and synchronization tool that is predominantly targeted at creating backup targets from within your NAS storage volumes. Although on the face of it, this seems a somewhat unnecessary requirement when duplicating data inside a system only leading to continuing to put all your eggs in one basket, many users will appreciate the ability to have an in-system and in-volume (or pool-to-pool) backup routine as well as for synchronization. It is a rather niche-supported service but there is an audience for it.

Centralized backup is one of the newer services to Terramaster NAS software and allows you to create system-wide backups on your Microsoft computers, third-party Linux servers and virtual machines via VMware and hyper-V images. Of course, much like the bigger and bolder Synology Active Backup Suite (of which Centralized Backup is clearly designed to emulate at a more affordable level), it requires the installation of a desktop client application to be downloaded and installed on your local machine, which can then establish a connection with the NAS with TOS5 and conduct one or scheduled backups that are far more OS friendly to reinstate than typical file folder backups. The application and service are still in beta and although I appreciate what they are trying to do with this, it did feel a little unfinished during my review. We will return to this application with a dedicated video when the service is fully released.

Moving slightly away from traditional backups and synchronization with remote servers, we can discuss cloud synchronization. Much like TOS4, the latest version of Terramaster’s software supports connection and synchronization with a number of third-party cloud services. Although the list of supported cloud providers is not quite as exhaustive as it is from Synology and QNAP, popular entries such as Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox are immediately available and connection with your NAS can be made in minutes. Once connected, you are able to create a customized synchronization routine between the TOS5 NAS and your cloud provider that allows you to change synchronization schedules, file date inclusions, strict exclusions, file size limits and more. Once connected, this synchronized cloud space and its existing file folder structure will appear in the file manager on TOS5 desktop in the browser interface. It is a simple but reliable tool and I was able to connect several different cloud providers in less than 5 minutes each with bespoke settings. Although little has changed in the transition from TOS4 to TOS5, there were a few extra options in the config menu that I appreciated and it did seem to run better.

Overall, although the range of backup and synchronization tools available in the TOS 5 platform is not exactly going to blow you away, it isn’t really supposed to. There is pretty much every common means of backing up the content of your NAS and client devices you are going to need on day-1. TOS5 has simply taken all of these services that existed in TOS4 (for the most part), improved their presentation and added further features. Add to that the new promising-looking Centralized Backup tool and although TOS5 is not exactly going to blow your socks off in this department, you cannot say that a Terramaster NAS in 2022 does not give you sufficient options to back up your data.

Terramaster TOS 5  Review – Multimedia Management

Unfortunately, multimedia management is one of the weaker areas of both Terramaster NAS and in TOS5. The standard services that one would expect when utilizing a network-attached storage device as a multimedia server are certainly present here. Support of UPNP, as well as accessing your media over DLNA, is easily possible in TOS5 and we will of course touch on the AI photo recognition application (Terra Photos) currently in development from the brand that is available in beta alongside TOS 5s launch. However, after this, there is precious little else that is multimedia targeted and what there is just a little basic. Heading into the file services area of TOS5 shows that you can set up the standard multimedia indexing locations that ensure that the system understands where different types of media reside inside the NAS. You can adapt existing values or add multiple different targeted locations with ease. Again, nothing really exciting but at least it’s there.

Even setting up your NAS as a multimedia server in TOS5 is by no means difficult and there is a dedicated multimedia server application for handling things such as thumbnail generation and transcoding configs there, plus options on different audio format support and several other different media tools that you would expect when streaming photos, music and video from your NAS over the network. It was all so very…safe and proficient.

It might also seem a little old-fashioned in 2022, but there is also a dedicated iTunes server application to allow your Apple devices and iTunes media services to connect with the media on your NAS in a tailored and dedicated way. These are useful applications and definitely something that will be useful when streaming your multimedia from the NAS, but the problem is that that is about all the applications you have available. There is no dedicated audio application outside of the iTunes tool and zero first-party video application. So when playing video media on the NAS, You want heavily reliant on third-party applications to get the job done. Which might not sound so bad (so, SO many people use PLEX) but you cannot use hardware transcoding on your NAS without a Plex Pass account, so you have a catch-22 situation where TM doesn’t provide a video app with easy transcoding, but the inclusive multimedia app Plex will charge you – bummer!

Now, the TOS5 terra photos application is still in beta and despite there being a number of polished apps in TOS5, this AI-powered photo tool is not one of them. The logic is certainly there and it is able to crawl your photo albums to generate lists of recognized faces into collections that you can name and catalogue – however, the application is still quite a long way from being completed, featuring poor resource management in this beta version and lacking a number of album and folder management tools that would be expected when complete. Likewise, despite the application crawling existing albums, it was always slow in its response time and thumbnail generation, as well as the AI photo recognition being nowhere near popular alternatives from Synology Photos and QNAP QuMagie. The tool definitely shows promise and perhaps towards the end of 2022 we will see a big leap in its development and speed of use, but right now I find it hard to recommend Terra Photos in it’s beta state.

Ultimately when it comes to hosting multimedia on a Terramaster NAS, TOS 5 features a base level of polished enough media tools to support your collection and I would still heartily recommend utilizing your Terramaster NAS with third-party tools such as plex media server and Emby. Both of these services are available for free download in the TOS5 app center via the web browser, are installed in less than three clicks and you can have your fully featured and highly polished multimedia server up and running exceedingly quickly.

It’s just a bit of a shame that TOS 5 for all of its benefits, simply does not feature any key multimedia application that challenges these two third-party alternatives right now. Given the more affordable-minded (e.g cost-effective) buyer that the Terramaster brand has cultivated who has a big, big focus on multimedia streaming, this gap in their platform is certainly surprising.

Terramaster TOS 5  Review – Conclusion and Verdict

Overall, TOS5 is definitely a big and impressive upgrade over TOS4 in terms of design, features, speed and responsiveness. It would have been great if killer apps such as the Surveillance Manager and Terra Photos were completed and out of beta when this big software update finally arrived, but even without them, you can’t fault the scope of improvements that have been included in this latest update to the Terramaster NAS software. With numerous improvements in its security setup, as well as disabling some of the more vulnerable settings of TOS4, upgrading to TOS5 will only provide you with a better day-to-day Terramaster NAS experience.

However, it has to be highlighted that the upgrade path for existing Terramaster NAS users is still a pinch, more complicated and certainly less fluid than people might expect and runs the risk of intimidating some users enough that they will simply not update their firmware, risking potential vulnerabilities to be exposed down the line. As we move into the newer generation of Terramaster hardware arriving in the market, no doubt these newer late 2022 generation devices will arrive with TOS5 by default and largely closed this issue for new users. Bottom line, TOS 5 is DEFINITELY a big step up in the brand’s software, but might still need a little more time in the oven.

TOS 5 – What I LIKED

TOS 5 – What I DIDN’T Like

The GUI is considerably clearer and much more vibrant. The options and icons in the GUI are much more responsive and clear against other background activities. There are considerably more backup and synchronization tools in TOS5. There are a vastly improved number of storage configurations and services available at your disposal. The mixed drive TRAID Is going to win serious points with ex-synology owners. The system includes direct tech support and remote access terminal for official support and difficulties The network isolation mode in TOS5 is both unique to the brand and particularly helpful. The resource monitor is 10 times better than in previous versions of TOS 5 and genuinely useful.

The number of applications that are still in beta at the launch of TOS5 is disappointing. The upgrade path between TOS4 and TOS5 is not as smooth as it should be. And will confuse some and concern others. Remote access still seems to be a little too easy to do. And not enough warning is provided as to the inherent dangers of a weak remote setup. Multimedia tools are a little lacking and although there is a general DLNA media server application and the photo app in beta, there is no dedicated video or music tool available. Resource sharing could still be greatly optimized when running multiple apps or services at once.

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New Synology FS3410 Flashstation NAS Revealed

Synology has really been on a roll recently with revealing their 2022/2023 solutions, with 7-8 different solutions being unveiled and (for the most part) released in the last 3 months or so. The Synology RS3410 NAS that today’s article covers is the latest addition to the brand’s quiet but steadily growing Flashstation server series. Started more than four years ago, Synology has gradually added several desktop and rackmount solutions to this area of their portfolio and the FS3410 is the SECOND entry into this product family this year (the other being the FS2500 affordable 1U rackmount released much earlier in 2022). Although very similar to the rest of the enterprise solutions from Synology in terms of software (all arriving with DSM 7.1 and supporting the full range of features and services), the flashstation series is specifically aimed at SSD populate, flash storage practical applications and has a few NAND durability considerations thrown in for this more high performing but endurance aware media. This new flashstation server is designed to sit in the middle of the existing pack of FS systems (so, FS2500 > FS3410 > FS3600 > FS6400 Flashstation, scaling upwards) and arrives with support of SATA SSD media in the Synology SAT5200 and SAT5210 media range. Let’s discuss the hardware, compatibility, availability and pricing we will expect from the new Synology FS3410 Flash Rackmount server.

What are the Hardware Specifications of the Synology FS3410 Rackmount NAS

The specifications of the Synology FS3410 Flashstation NAS are (somewhat unsurprisingly) quite beefy, arriving with an EIGHT CORE Xeon processor, 16-128GB of DDR4 ECC RDIMM memory, dual 10GbE onboard and the option to add two high-performance PCIe cards (that can be scaled up to dual-port 25GbE fiber cards). Flash media servers NEED to have high-end surrounding components as the media inside (particularly when you factor RAID) can reach some truly astonishing performance levels – so it is imperative that you remove any potential bottlenecks that may impede that tremendous throughout. The CPU inside IS rated at over 10K on CPUBenchmark, can hit 2.7Ghz per core when needed in burst and is a 16-thread processor – meaning plenty of vCPUs in virtualization when needed. It is highlighting however that this processor isn’t the newest and was first launched back in 2016. This is not too unusual, as server processors do tend to be revealed and released to distribution a long time before they are fully utilized in mainstream server systems. Still, that is still quite an older CPU than some of the embedded Ryzen or Intel Xeon Silvers that Synology has been using lately. Nevertheless, this CPU will be highly proficient at pushing those 24 bays of SATA SSD storage to their high-performance potential.

In terms of the connectivity and scalability of the Synology FS3410 NAS, the rest of the specifications are quite solid. Those PCIe upgrade options (both PCIe Gen 3 x8), the two copper 10GbE ports (10GBASE-T) and four ethernet ports provide a great range of connectivity available on this device and mean that, when fully populated, it allows you to hit a reported 356,500/129,400 iSCSI 4K random read/write IOPS and 6,970/3,536 Sequential Read/Write (RAID F1, Synology SAT5200-960G SATA SSD installed in all bays).

Click to view slideshow.

Here is how the rest of the specifications of the Synology FS3410 pan out. It’s quite a solid build, 2U in height, Redundant PSU equipped and full depth.

processor	Processor model	Intel Xeon D-1541
	Number of CPUs	1
	processor architecture	64-bit
	processor clock	8-core 2.1 (base frequency) / 2.7 (max overclock) GHz
	Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI)	YES
Memory	system memory	16 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMMs
	Pre-installed memory modules	16 GB (16 GB x 1)
	Total number of memory slots	4
	Maximum memory capacity	128GB (32GB x 4)
storage device	number of disk slots	twenty four
	Compatible Disk Types* (See All Supported Disks)	2.5″ SATA SSD
	Disk hot-plug support	YES
	Remark	Synology only guarantees the full functionality, reliability, and performance of Synology hard drives listed in the compatibility list . The use of unauthenticated components may limit certain functions and result in data loss and system instability. Compatible disk type refers to the type of hard disk that is confirmed to be compatible with the product after actual measurement, not the maximum speed limit of the hard disk slot.
External port	RJ-45 1GbE port*	4 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)
	RJ-45 10GbE port	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)
	management port	1
	Maximum number of LAN ports	15
	USB 3.2 Gen 1 port*	2
PCIe	PCIe expansion	2 x Gen3 x8 slots (x8 link)
file system	internal disk	btrfs EXT4
	external disk	btrfs EXT4 EXT3 FAT NTFS HFS+ exFAT
	Remark	You can install the exFAT Access package for free from DSM 7.0’s Package Center. If you use DSM 6.2 or earlier, you need to purchase exFAT Access in Package Center.
Exterior	Dimensions (rack unit)	2U
	Size (HXWXD)	88mm x 482mm x 724mm
	weight	15.0 kg
	Rack Mount Support*	Four Post 19″ (Synology Rack Kit – RKS-02 )
	Remark	Rack kit sold separately
other projects	system fan	80mm x 80mm x 4pcs
	fan mode	full speed mode low temperature mode silent mode
	Replaceable system fan	YES
	Power auto-recovery	YES
	Noise value*	46.1 dB(A)
	Timer switch	YES
	wake on lan	YES
	Power Supply / Transformer	550W
	Dual power supply	YES

One last thing to note about the FS3410 Flashstation is that, much like many of the recent Synology enterprise and hyper-scale solutions released/planned by the brand in 2022/2023, the compatibility of drive SSD media is listed on the official pages as Synology SAT5200/SAT5210 SSDs only. That means that using non-Synology branded media in this system will place you in a position where the brand might not be able/willing to assist you with support. The Synology SAT5200/5210 series of SSDs ARE high in durability, though their performance is a little under alternatives from WD, Western Digital Ultrastar and Seagate – so some users might be less keen on this.

HOWEVER! It is also worth noting that solutions like the Synology FS3410 are intended for a very high-end class of business user and typically those users prefer a single provider/all-in-one solution and THOSE users are going to be more than happy with Synology providing a range of their own storage media in conjunction with this device, as well as prefer it all to be an in-house solution (warranty, support, replacement, on-site tech help, etc). Therefore the stricter compatibility on this server is less of a barrier than normal. Let’s discuss where this system sits in the Synology Flashstation portfolio.

How Does the Synology FS3410 NAS Compare with the FS2500, FS3600 and FS6400 Flashstation?

As mentioned, the Synology FS3410 Rackmount is the latest addition to the Flashstation portfolio. Over the years, we have seen some hugely impressive servers join this product family and having a much more fleshed-out range of solutions so that businesses can cater their budgets towards the area that they need it most, is always going to be appreciated. The FS3410 sits between the FS2500 and FS3600 solution in terms of power, features, hardware and pricing (and quite far behind the FS6400 MONSTER Flashstation server).

Here is how the four Flashstation servers compare in terms of their hardware. The hardware scales i na numebr of different directions (capacity, CPU power, eternal connecctivity, scalabilty and more) and therefore allows the end user to pour their budget towards the areas of flash storage that their business solution is needed for.

	FS2500	FS3410	FS3600	FS6400
Hardware
processor
Processor model	AMD Ryzen V1780B	Intel Xeon D-1541	Intel Xeon D-1567	Intel Xeon Silver 4110
Number of CPUs	1	1	1	2
processor architecture	64-bit	64-bit	64-bit	64-bit
processor clock	4-core 3.35 (base frequency) / 3.6 (max overclock) GHz	8-core 2.1 (base frequency) / 2.7 (max overclock) GHz	12-core 2.1 (base frequency) / 2.7 (max overclock) GHz	8-core 2.1 (base frequency) / 3.0 (max overclock) GHz
Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI)
Memory
system memory	8 GB DDR4 ECC UDIMMs	16 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMMs	16 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMMs	32GB DDR4 ECC RDIMMs
Pre-installed memory modules	8 GB (8 GB x 1)	16 GB (16 GB x 1)	16 GB (16 GB x 1)	32GB (16GB x 2)
Total number of memory slots	2	4	4	16
Maximum memory capacity	32GB (16GB x 2)	128GB (32GB x 4)	128GB (32GB x 4)	512GB (32GB x 16)
number of disk slots	12	twenty four	twenty four	twenty four
Maximum number of disk slots to install expansion units			48 (RX1217sas x 2) / 72 (FX2421* x 2)	48 (RX1217sas x 2) / 72 (FX2421* x 2)
Compatible Disk Types* (See All Supported Disks)	2.5″ SATA SSD	2.5″ SATA SSD	2.5″ SAS HDD* 2.5″ SAS SSD* 2.5″ SATA SSD	2.5″ SAS HDDs 2.5″ SAS SSD 2.5″ SATA SSD
RJ-45 1GbE port			4 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)
RJ-45 1GbE port*	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)	4 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)
RJ-45 10GbE port	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover)
management port		1
Maximum number of LAN ports		15
USB 3.2 Gen 1 port*	2	2	2	2
expansion port			1	1
Remark	This product’s 1GbE port MTU value is limited to 1500. In 2019, USB-IF rebranded the standard formerly known as USB 3.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 1.	This product’s 1GbE port MTU value is limited to 1500. In 2019, USB-IF rebranded the standard formerly known as USB 3.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 1.	In 2019, USB-IF rebranded the standard formerly known as USB 3.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 1.	In 2019, USB-IF rebranded the standard formerly known as USB 3.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 1.
PCIe
PCIe expansion	1 x Gen3 x8 slot (x4 link)	2 x Gen3 x8 slots (x8 link)	1 x Gen3 x8 slot (x8 link)	2 x Gen3 x8 slots (x8 link)
Dimensions (rack unit)	1U	2U	2U	2U
Size (HXWXD)	44mm x 481.9mm x 555.9mm	88mm x 482mm x 724mm	88mm x 482mm x 724mm	88mm x 482mm x 724mm
weight	8.3 kg	15.0 kg	14.9 kg	17.26 kg
Rack Mount Support*	Four Post 19″ (Synology Rack Kit – RKS-01 )	Four Post 19″ (Synology Rack Kit – RKS-02 )	Four Post 19″ (Synology Rack Kit – RKS-02 )	Four Post 19″ (Synology Rack Kit – RKS-02 )
Remark	Rack kit sold separately	Rack kit sold separately	Rack kit sold separately	Rack kit sold separately
Power Supply / Transformer	350W	550W	500W	800W
Recommended number of virtual machines	8 (see more)	16 (see more)	24 (see more)	32 (see more)
Recommended number of Virtual DSMs (license required)	8 (including 1 set of free licenses)	16 (including 1 free license)	24 (including 1 free license)	32 (with 1 set of free licenses)

When will the Synology FS3410 Flashstation NAS Be Released and How much will it cost?

The Synology FS3410 Flashstation NAS is already appearing on the official Synology Taiwan pages and will likely appear on the global (i.e U.S, Europe, etc) within the next few weeks. Regarding pricing, this IS an enterprise product and will be priced as such. The flashstation series has always had a price tag that is considerably HIGHER than the rest of the Synology portfolio, but considerably LOWER than most other flash server solutions in the enterprise sector (HP, EMC, Netapp, blah, blah). Given the Synology FS2500 has a $3500 price tag, the FS3600 has a $6500 price tag and the top dog FS6400 has a $12000 price tag, I think we can see the Synology FS3410 Flashstation arriving around the $4500-5000 mark (tax and your local region making all the difference). I look forward to sharing more on the FS3410 Flashstation and other units in this product series later in 2022/2023.

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NAS Brands in 2022 – Get it Right, FIRST TIME!

If you have been looking to purchase your first NAS drive, or are looking at upgrading the system that you have been using in your home/office for the last few years, then it is understandable that it is ALOT of get to grips with. Network Attached Storage has evolved incredibly over the last few years and has gone from a rather niche area of the I.T industry into something that pretty much all users can benefit from in their daily lives. With the monthly/annual subscription costs of cloud storage providers (such as Google Cloud, AWS, DropBox and Microsoft OneDrive) getting higher, as well as the size of our daily data skyrocketing, making the switch from rented 3rd party cloud space to your very own NAS server in-house makes ALOT of sense. It becomes even more compelling when you add in the full range of software, services and features that modern NAS includes (Plex, AI Photo Recognition, Surveillance, VMs, Hybrid backup-n-sync and more), but like any area of technology – NAS can become a complicated and confusing subject. Every year for the last 5 years I have produced a guide on modern NAS brands, the best solutions you can get right now, who the brands have improved/declined and ultimately created an idiots guide to choosing the right NAS solution for your needs right FIRST TIME. In this, the 2022/2023 edition, we have seen a huge increase in 2.5GbE network solutions, improvements in M.2 NVMe technology and all of the popular NAS brands introducing improvements in their server software. So, what are you waiting for? Here is my guide to Network Attached Storage in 2022. Use the chapters below to skip ahead and I hope this helps you choose the right solution for your needs.

Want to Skip Ahead to a Specific NAS Brand or Subject? Click Below:

• What is a NAS Drive?
• What can ALL NAS Drives do?
• Why Choose NAS over Google, DropBox or Microsoft Cloud?
• Why Choose Synology NAS?
• Why Choose QNAP NAS?
• Why Choose Asustor NAS?
• Why Choose WD NAS?
• Why Choose Terramaster NAS?
• Why Choose Buffalo NAS?
• What About Zyxel or D-Link NAS?

Is a NAS and a Server the Same Thing?

You will often hear people use the word NAS and the word Server differently. Both are exceedingly similar and often interchanged, but there are some teeny tiny historical differences between them. The word server can sometimes bring out a cold sweat in the less technically minded or IT experienced, but in reality, it is a pretty harmless term. A server is a piece of hardware (like a computer) or software (so a program that runs on a computer) that manages, shares and controls data (pictures, videos, word documents, PDFs etc) to a number of people who wish to access them (these are called ‘clients’). That is it. Sure, there are much more complex and expensive servers that are designed to communicate with other servers or computers without human intervention – but in essence, they are all the same thing. Now where a regular server will give access to your users/clients via your internal network (router or switch) a NAS Server is the same, but it opens up a whole area of accessing it over the internet too. Different NAS servers provide different results and speeds and typically are designed with individual purposes in mind (i.e some are designed with media playing in mind, some with faster backing up and others with Surveillance recordings with CCTV IP Cameras). So first and foremost you have to make sure that the NAS you buy is designed for the tasks you have in mind. A fork and a Spoon are both cutlery, but you wouldn’t eat soup with a fork (maybe a spork). Traditional bare-metal servers have the option of remote internet access, but nowhere near as intuitively and with a focus on user-friendliness that NAS systems provide.

What is NAS Drive?

Network Attached Storage, with the exception of casual 3rd party cloud use, is currently the most popular means to store, access, share and distribute data across your home, your city and the rest of the world. It provides you with the means to:

• Access your Multimedia on Network devices over DLNA
• Backup all your devices easily and at a time of your choosing, wire-free
• Stream Media over the internet, anywhere in the world
• Share files securely and with full control of how and when they are accessible
• Centralize the storage of your data in one location
• Create Bespoke tiered backup solutions that fit your own needs

Choosing between Synology, QNAP, WD, Drobo, Netgear, Thecus and Asustor NAS

Let’s get our hands dirty and start working out what is the best NAS for you. All the brands have a different target audience in mind and each has its own Pros and Cons. However, all of them support a number of similar abilities, software and network basic functionality. So before we talk about what is better or worse about each NAS brand, let’s look at what they all have in common:

Applicable to all

• All are compatible with Mac, Windows, Android and Linux
• All arrive with a selection of included applications and services for tailored data access
• All can be purchased Worldwide and feature regular security updates and firmware improvements regularly
• All can be accessed via Mobile apps available via Google Play and iTunes, though there are more on some other brands than others
• All can be accessed via your web browser – like Chrome, Opera, Safari, and…sigh… Windows Explorer
• All use SATA HDD and SSD, with some having SAS enterprise options too
• All work via the network and can be accessed worldwide over the internet
• 3^rd Party applications like PLEX, KODI and APPLE TIME MACHINE are supported
• All arrive DLNA certified, so they will be accessed by your PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Smart TV or Sonos system to play media
• All are either WiFi-enabled or can have a WiFi dongle attached – though your speeds will suffer
• All when purchased NEW arrive with a warranty of at least 2 years and in many cases more

Why Not Use Cloud Services like Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox instead of a NAS?

Do not think that 3rd party cloud services are bad, they really aren’t! In fact, you should always consider adding a 2nd or 3rd tier into your backup strategy at home/work, and synchronization of files/folders on your NAS with the cloud is a good means to ensure you have another backup in place. Additionally, most NAS feature a variety of 256bit encryption options, password protection, 2 step verification and more to allow secure access is ensured to the NAS and the content, even via the cloud. Additionally, bg NAS brands like Synology and QNAP have been supporting Hybrid Cloud services that not only allow cloud storage to be bolted onto your NAS storage for shared usage and access, but also both brand support backup and synchronization with cloud collaborate services, such as Google’s G Suite and Microsoft’s Office 365. So there is DEFINITELY still a valid and useful place for 3rd party cloud services in 2022, however, I rarely advocate the use of these cloud services as a PRIMARY storage location. They ARE convenient and you can get a limited amount of space included for free, but I generally have three core reasons that I do not recommend cloud as a first-tier storage.

COST – The cost of most 2 year subscriptions costs about the same as if you just purchased even a small scale NAS on day 1. It might seem like just 5 or 10 bucks a month, but over 2 or 3 years, it all adds up and moreover, after that time you either need to keep on paying every month or still buy a NAS or DAS system for the data to live on. Might as well buy the NAS sooner rather than later as it will be inevitable eventually.

ACCESS – NAS provides more apps, file-level tailored use and can be better adapted into popular 3^rd Party applications like PLEX, KODI, APPLE TIME MACHINE and DLNA supported devices. A cloud provider severely limits the kind of access you have on a regular basis.

PRIVACY – NAS provides full individual user control and access, as well as admin controls. Plus the NAS can be fully disconnected from the Internet/Network at your discretion. A cloud provider has a relative pre-set safety protocol that, when cracked on one or two occasions, opens up mass hacking

This is not to say that data on your NAS is completely inaccessible. Any NAS brand can only really stay 1 step ahead of the hackers, patching exploits as they are found (no different than any online service really), but a NAS is a means to create a secure, customizable and ultimately bespoke data storage solution.

Why Choose Synology NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

Likely one of the two NAS brands you have heard of, Synology NAS is the company that invests HEAVILY in its software – and it shows. It may seem one of the most expensive, but with it, you get some genuine boundary-breaking software with your purchase.  You still get a great level of hardware in the majority of Synology NAS solutions, but the real draw of Synology is that software. Not only does it support your own hardware environment of PCs, Macs, entertainment devices and mobiles in their own respective software, but DSM also includes MANY applications designed around keeping all your data IN-HOUSE. So, replace Skype/Whatsapp with Synology Chat, Replace Google Docs and Office365 with Synology Office. Use Synology Drive to make your storage visible and accessible the way YOU want it, and export your entire cloud/data network over to a Synology NAS and remove all the external access as and when you need! They aren’t the cheapest and they want you to do it ‘there way’, but it’s a pretty decent way. Additionally, their recent DSM 7.0 software has left many users impressed, with enhanced support of those 3rd party cloud storage and business services, AI photo recognition, their surveillance platform continuing to win awards and even an in-house cloud service in Synology C2. Stylizing themselves very much as the ‘Apple’ of this industry, they really do focus on keeping things straightforward and intuitive.

PROS of Synology NAS

• Easily the most intuitive and Usage browser-based GUI (award-winning DSM 6.2/7.0/7.1) – FULL Review HERE
• One of the best Surveillance NAS software solutions
• Most popular vendor for Mac users for it’s UI
• Incredibly feature-rich NVR software included, in Surveillance Station
• Includes Active Backup Suite – Enterprise level and fully featured Backup Co-ordination software
• Lowest Power Consumption vs other brands
• A large # of their systems arrive with m.2 NVMe SSD caching upgrade bays
• Quiet chassis compared with other brands
• Task specialised Ranges like ‘PLAY’, ‘PLUS’ and ‘J’ make buying easier
• The best range of first-party software, with Synology Office, Chat, Mail, Drive and more
• SHR and SHR-2 – also BTRFS available in most solutions
• Cloud Services available in Synology C2
• Desktop and Rack-mount options are available
• Best software for Home and SMB

CONS of Synology NAS

• Often the most expensive
• Recent Enterprise NAS Hardware has changed Compatibility in favour of Synology HDDs and SSDs
• Generally, Synology NAS has the lowest hardware power in their systems
• NVMe SSD Bays are for caching ONLY, they cannot be used for super-fast storage pools
• More technically minded folk will need to dig a little to get to the nitty-gritty
• SHR is not available on Enterprise NAS Systems
• Network ONLY – no HDMI, Audio in/out, Thunderbolt, etc

Synology DS220J NAS – $180 4-Core ARM 64bit CPU – 512MB Memory – 1GbE – 2-Bay	RECOMMENDED – Synology DS920+ – $535 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/8GB Memory – 1GbE – 4-Bay –  NVMe	Synology DS1621XS+ NAS – $1899 4-Core Intel Xeon 64bit CPU – 8/16GB Memory – 10GbE – 6-Bay –  NVMe
Best Budget NAS Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Mid-Range Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Business Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock

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Why Choose QNAP NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

Often considered the choice for the more hardware-aware buyer, if you are looking for a much more traditionally computer associated hardware – QNAP NAS is certainly the one that springs to mind. Generally considered the ‘innovators’ of the NAS industry, they have the largest range of solutions available Notwithstanding the fact that their hardware is by FAR the most evolved platform in NAS (thunderbolt 3, multiple HDMI, 10Gbe standard solutions, Silent NAS, AI solutions and advanced SSD caching), the platform is fantastically diverse, providing great NAS options alongside network switches, network adapters and generally reshaping your hardware environment for the better. The software has also evolved dramatically into its own beast, moving away from trying to imitate and carving its own path. It is a little more technically (and I really do mean a little) but it is far more rewarding for it. They do not feature some popular items on their portfolio, such as BTRFS or a fluid RAID system like SHR/BeyondRAID, but make up for this with their own range of alternatives and in most cases succeed. Get your reading glasses on though, as their range is quite vast and might overwhelm you a tad. In recent years the brand has shifted focus a great deal more towards software in efforts to meet the gap with their rival Synology to pretty good success. This is often achieved by releasing software that does the previously impossible before anyone else, but lacking a little of the polish of their biggest rival. Recent achievements with HybridMount, vJBOD, HyperVisor Protector, QuMagie and Multimedia Console have been received remarkably well, arriving onto the scene 1-2 years before anyone else. Alongside this, QNAP still has easily the best virtual machine and backup software for home and SMB in Virtualization Station and Hybrid Backup Sync.

PROS of QNAP NAS

• Best Solutions for Plex Media Server in NAS
• Enterprise/Business Solutions feature ZFS
• 2.5Gbe, 5Gbe and 10Gbe Options
• Best Virtual Machine and Container Solutions in NAS
• NVMe SSD Bays can be used for Caching, Storage Pools or Tiered Storage Configurations
• Almost all range is metal in design, or a plastic but unique chassis
• HDMI and remote control included in most Media NAS devices
• Thunderbolt NAS options covering TB2, TB3 and even TB4 (TS-464)
• Two Surveillance Solutions (with 4/8 Camera Licenses included)
• The Best Backup/Synchronization solution in ‘Hybrid Backup Sync 3’
• Technical information far more readily available
• Lower price compared with Synology in terms of hardware
• Regularly updated software and Detailed GUI/APPs – FULL Review HERE
• Desktop and Rackmount options are available
• Much better business options and definitely the best for virtual machines

CONS of QNAP NAS

• A more android feel towards apps and stability means some users will be put off
• Lacking the BTRFS and SHR support of Synology
• Higher typical Power consumption
• Often a fraction noisier due to chiefly metal chassis
• Much larger range of devices can lead to confusion
• Most units arrive with 2-3 Years warranty, but longer will cost you more
• Have been targetted by Ransomware attacks in the last 2 years

QNAP TS-233 NAS – $205 4-Core ARM 64bit CPU – 2GB Memory – 1GbE – 2-Bay	RECOMMENDED – QNAP TS-464 – $599 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/16GB Memory – 1GbE – 4-Bay	QNAP TVS-872XT NAS – $2200 4/6-Core Intel Core 64bit CPU – 8/64GB Memory – 10GbE – 8-Bay
Best Budget NAS Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Mid-Range Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Business Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock

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Why Choose Asustor NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

Another brand that was once a little on the fringe until around 2018, Asustor NAS has really upped their game in recent years, arriving with some impressively affordable 10Gbe solutions with the AS40 series, followed with the very well received Nimbustor 2 & 4 devices, and is now absolutely killing it with the Lockstor series. Certainly, a brand that wants to carve its place in the industry, the ASUS connected brand currently offers software features and functionality of Synology (BTRFS and Realtek integrated Processors) along with QNAP challenging hardware in HDMI 2.0a and 2.5Gbe default network ports (which they introduced first). This combined with a much cleaner and significantly improved software GUI in ADM, they have moved much beyond the slightly scrappy outsider vibe they had years ago. Recent additions to the range, such as the LockerStor have even included NVMe SSD bays and Xeon powered hardware, so the evolution clearly continues. The software does feel like a good middle ground between Synology and QNAP, even if missing the killer apps and hardware that gave them their market share (Thunderbolt3, SHR, Collaboration Suite, etc) and with a number of their newer releases arriving at a good chunk of $£ lower in price than comparative NAS from others (often more than 10-15% lower in fact).

PROS of Asustor NAS

• Great Price vs Hardware – Often one of the lowest Prices Hardware solutions available
• Recent Lockerstor Gen 2 Releases are Incredible Value for the Hardware
• BTRFS Support
• First Brand to Adopt 2.5Gbe Commercially
• Nice software and still supports Kodi (unofficially), something slowly being pulled from other NAS Software stores – FULL REVIEW HERE
• Good selection of Home and Business NAS devices
• Early Adopter of HDMI 2.0a – so 4K at 60FPS and have their own HDMI GUI in Asustor Portal
• VM deployment and Container Support not dissimilar from QNAP, only not quite as flash
• Noise is pretty low on most home devices like the Nimbustor 2/4
• More Apps are available on the NAS app store, more than QNAP and Synology
• Product Naming is easier to follow than most brands

CONS of Asustor NAS

• Mobile Apps are very functional but appear a little sparse
• Many HDMI apps seem to be simplified web portals, rather than standalone applications
• Browser-based GUI does not feel quite as smooth as Synology DSM, but on par with others
• The Surveillance Center application feels very dated and less intuitive than most
• Have been targetted by Ransomware attacks in the last 2 years

Asustor Drivestor 2 NAS – $165 4-Core ARM 64bit CPU – 1GB Memory – 2.5GbE – 2-Bay	RECOMMENDED – Asustor LockerStor4 G.2 – $550 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/16GB Memory – 2.5GbE – NVMe – 4-Bay	Asustor LockerStor 10 Pro NAS – $1299 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 8/32GB Memory – 10G+2.5G – NVMe -10-Bay
Best Budget NAS Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Mid-Range Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Business Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock

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Why Choose WD NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

Although they have been a little quiet in terms of their hardware output recently, WD NAS is a brand that has been around for years (though most know them as a hard drive brand) and Western Digital NAS drives are a firm favourite among students and low-level storage solutions. They have a number of solutions in their WD My Cloud range that supports lite home users all the way to industry-level business users who want robust storage. The software may seem a little sparse and a far cry from Synology and QNAP, but they provide straight forward and clear setup. They WILL seem limited to anyone familiar with Synology/QNAP, but they certainly have a place in the industry. With user-friendly support of Apple Time Machine, Plex and DLNA – They are a great starter NAS with pre-populated options to make them extra affordable.

PROS of WD NAS

• Popular HDD Vendor too, with expertise on their side
• Often pre-populated so all warranty is covering Drives+NAS
• Pre-populated NAS options result in better price for storage overall
• Very fast set-up and can be deployed to deploy within 30 mins
• Small+compact – featuring some of the lowest noise and power consumption of all
• 3-year warranty on most units
• Some units have 2 x PSU ports for Redundancy

CONS of WD NAS

• EXT4 only
• Have been VERY Quiet in NAS hardware in the last 12-18 Months
• barely any mobile apps and relies on 3^rd party mobile apps to connect over IP/Network settings
• Smaller App selection in-app store
• Limited User Interface
• No HDMI, 10GBe, only USB 3.0 and 1GBe RJ45
• Often much lower specs than Synology and QNAP
• VERY small range
• Desktop Only – No rackmount or Larger options

WD MyCloud EX2 NAS – $159 2-Core ARM 32bit CPU – 512MB Memory – 1GbE – 2-Bay – Inc Drives	RECOMMENDED – WD MyCloud Pro – $450 4-Core Pentium CPU – 4/8GB Memory – 1GbE – 4-Bay – Inc Drives	WD MyCloud EX4100 NAS – $349 4-Core ARM 32bit CPU – 2GB Memory – 1GbE – 4-Bay – Inc Drives
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Why Choose TerraMaster NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

One brand that I have always had a personal love for is TerraMaster. This is purely subjective and should be taken with a pinch of salt, but for a brand that no one really knows about, they give ALOT of the key features that other bigger brand advertise alot. BTRFS support is available on pretty much ALL the Intel-based devices, they feature one of the ONLY 4 LAN 2-Bay NAS’, along with an Intel N5105 based 10Gbe 2, 4 5 and 8-Bay solution and a particularly unique 2 HDD 10GbE system. Arriving with a thunderbolt DAS range too, Terramaster is a NAS brand that has evolved comparatively quickly and although for the most part, they are only available via Amazon, this has still allowed them to be a recognizable brand. Typically in a like for like hardware comparison with them and companies like Synology/QNAP, you will find them better value for money, and the software (though less diverse or slick than those two big brands) is still pretty smooth and intuative. The chassis design is a little underwhelming, but even that has improved in recent revisions. All in all, they are the best budget NAS solution out there in 2022 and a good entry point into NAS.

PROS of TerraMaster NAS

• Great Price vs Hardware
• VERY Fast Brand Evolution
• TOS 5 Software introducing Surveillance, FluidRAID, AI-Powered photo Recognition and Isolation Mode
• Added a LARGE 2.5GbE selection of NAS in their portfolio
• Hugely Improved GUI and Client apps
• BTRFS available as file system choice
• Desktop and Rackmount options
• Similar Hardware to QNAP and Asustor, but at a Lower Price
• Straight forward range and classification
• Very Straight Fordwared Setup

CONS of TerraMaster NAS

• Very Few Mobile Apps
• Not quite as polished or fully featured as Synology/QNAP
• Despite Business targeting, very poor support of 10GBe till recently in the F2-423
• A little dated design
• Arrives with Warranty, but the turnaround is slower than many
• Have been targetted by Ransomware attacks in the last 2 years

Terramaster F2-423 NAS – $289 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/32GB Memory – 2.5GbE – 2-Bay	RECOMMENDED – Terramaster F5-422 – $599 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/16GB Memory – 10GbE – 5-Bay	Terramaster T12-423 12-Bay NAS – $1399 4-Core Intel 64bit CPU – 4/32GB Memory – 2.5GbE – NVMe – 12-Bay
Best Budget NAS Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Mid-Range Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock	Best Business Solution Check Amazon Below for Current Prices/Stock

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Why Choose Buffalo NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

One brand that has danced with the home NAS industry, but pretty much now exclusively business in Buffalo. This brand is one that provides a number of key elements that businesses love. Robust and Rugged hardware design, Empty or Pre-Populated NAS solutions, Customizable Warranty options, Windows Server Pre-Installed Solutions, 10Gbe at an affordable Price and just generally being an enterprise/Business solution through and through. They lack the sexy/indie vibe of other brands, but that is not their target demographic – they want the user who wants storage that is simple, reliable and ‘setup and forget’. This means that on the face of it, they will seem quite pricey, but that is because you have to factor in the inclusion of hard drives, the service+support and the industrial level construction.

PROS of Buffalo NAS

• Great Price vs Hardware for Business Users
• Fantastically Rugged Construction
• Lowest Priced 10Gbe Solutions
• Can be purchased pre-populated, so warranties are all covering
• Desktop and Rackmount options
• Similar Hardware to Netgear, but at a Lower Price
• Straight forward range and classification
• EXCELLENT Windows Storage Server NAS devices, with inbuilt Windows Server 2016 for FAST deployment
• Better Standard Warranty Length and more bespoke Recovery/Destroy options available
• Easier and more customizable Warranty Extension options

CONS of Buffalo NAS

• Very Few Mobile Apps
• Availability outside of U.S and Japan is low
• More focused on Business Users
• Poor power consumption and dated design
• Weak CPU choices on the whole
• Lacks some more modern NAS innovations introduced by QNAP, Synology and more

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Why Choose Netgear NAS? Advantages and Disadvantages

One brand that has probably the longest history in network solutions is Netgear – pretty much ANYONE has heard of them, whether it was because your first switch/router came from them, or because they have such a squeaky clean reputation. The NAS solutions, much like Buffalo, are very industry-focused, but arriving with a few more features in the GUI department than them. Also arriving with pre-populated options and a diverse warranty structure, they do give alot to business users. They may seem a little ‘blah’, but what they lack in sizzle, they make up for in sausage.

PROS of Netgear NAS

• Huge Mac and Windows Support
• Fantastic Network configuration options
• rugged and sturdy metal design
• Often longer warranties than other brands like-for-like
• Can be purchased pre-populated, so warranties are all covering
• Supports usual RAID levels, as well as X-RAID and X-RAID 2 – Expandable RAID volumes not unlike SHR
• Desktop and Rackmount options

CONS of Netgear NAS

• High price Tag
• Releases are very few and far between
• Despite Business targeting, very poor support of 10GBe
• Small App selection
• Limited User Interface
• REALLY confusing range
• Not designed for a newbie – and larger units may need a dedicated IT guy
• High power consumption and not the quietest

Should you buy Budget NAS brands like D-Link or Zyxel?

It should be highlighted that there are more NAS brands available than the ones discussed today. with each passing year more and more brands release their own NAS server for home and business use. However, in many cases, they are either too unreliable, too low on support and features, too technical for anyone with below-bill-gates depth of knowledge and most importantly most all, arrive from a brand without an established reputation. When it comes to buying the right network-attached storage device, you need to know what your buying works, as well as knowing that the manufacturer will be there in the event of a problem. likewise, you are trusting you’re are most likely trusting this brand with your most precious data (some photos and videos are irreplaceable) and from data loss to data theft, choosing the right NAS brand is essential.

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Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Go Big or Go Home?

I think it would be safe to say that Synology sells quite a lot of NAS. The brand has always had a strong focus on software and providing ‘solutions’, as opposed to ‘flogging hardware’, but ultimately the outcome is that Synology continues to be the top brand in network-attached storage worldwide. One of the biggest reasons for this of course is Diskstation Manager (DSM, currently in version 7.1), the fully-featured network software that is easily comparable in design, utility and quality to many top tier operating systems. DSM 7 is included with all Synology NAS systems to largely the same degree, but when it comes to hardware, their portfolio has tended to spread itself a little more in order to cater for those looking for value, power, features or scale – giving the end-user an opportunity to spend their budget on the areas of NAS that matter most to their network environment. The 2021/2022 released Synology DS2422+ NAS in today’s review is an interesting example of these lines being blurred by the brand and in doing so, trying to provide a little bit of everything. Arriving as the follow up to the DS2419+, this new massive 12-Bay SMB (small/medium business) solution has tweaked a few things it’s architecture, as well as including some of the opinion dividing changes to DSM 7 that have been rolled out in the last 12 months. The DS2422+ arrives with the now well established Ryzen embedded processor series, the opportunity for lots of memory, huge storage scalability, network upgradability and arrives as a solution that hopes to be the center of your home/business storage for many years (evolving over time). So today I want to review the Synology DS2422+ NAS and help you decide if it deserves your data.

Review Chapters – Skip Ahead

• Unboxing & Accessories
• Design
• Ports & Connections
• Internal Hardware
• Software & Services
• Verdict & Conclusion

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

When Synology launched the DS2422+ and DS3622xs+ NAS at the same time, despite them both being upgradable 12-Bays, the DS2422+ was a little in the shade of the bright, shiny and powerful DS3622xs+. It is understandable, while the DS2422+ arrives with a familiar embedded Ryzen CPU and supersized version of the architecture already present in the DS1621+ and DS1821+, the DS3622xs+ was a Xeon and 10GbE monster! But people tend to forget the price difference of well over $1000 between them and for may – THAT is going to be a HUGE dealbreaker. If you are already convinced by the Synology software eco-system and are concerned with how much capacity you are going to need in future, the DS2422+ is easily the best value for money that the brand provides right now. Aside from the upgradability of the system’s network connectivity down the line, memory upgrades when the time comes and storage expansions that effectively double your storage potential waiting for you – there is the simple advantage that the DS2422+ does NOT need to be fully populated on day 1. Thanks to Synology’s continuing support of SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) on this NAS, it means that you can leverage your budget on this box to partially populate the NAS with storage media and then the rest of your budget on the rest of your network hardware or scaling the power of the device up considerable (as opposed to the ‘upfront’ nature of purchasing the DS3622xs+ hardware). Synology continued stance on 1st party HDD and SSD media is still continuing to ruffle feathers and the inclusion of this policy DS2422+ seems a pinch overkill, but now DSM 7.1 is being a touch less OTT about 3rd party media, this is less of a barrier that it once was. Once again, it comes down to how much you want to engage with the Synology ecosystem, its services, its business focus and ultimately how much the DS2422+ will be doing in your own network hardware environment. In conclusion, the DS2422+ IS a good NAS and if CAPACITY is more important to you than POWER, then the DS2422+ is by far the best Synology NAS for you in 2022.

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Packaging

The retail packaging for the Synology DS2422+ is fairly standard stuff. This is hardly a solution that you are going to pick up on the shelf of your local I.T shop, so priorities in the packaging are going to be massively in favour of protection in transit more than looking nice. The NAS arrives in 2 layers of cardboard box packaging and the NAS itself is held in a hard foam framework.

Synology has never really cut corners on protecting its solutions in transit and the DS2422+ NAS is no exception. The NAS arrives unpopulated, but even if it was fully populated with HDDs, this system will be well insulated from shock/motion damage (both of which can be silent killers of this kind of tech down the line.

Laying out the contents of the DS2422+ package shows us a small batch of accessories. These include details on the first time setup, information on the included 3yr warranty (can be extended to 5yr), RJ45 LAN cables (Cat 5e), screws for 2.5/3.5″ media, keys for the bays and an external mains power cable. All fairly standard stuff and you don’t even really need the 3.5″ screws in most setups as the bays are click-n-load.

Occasionally, I might have a moan about a NAS brand including Cat 5e RJ45 cables with a solution instead of Cat 6/7, however as the DS2422+ arrives with 1GbE, this is by no means an issue. Equally, I would highlight that the setup manual/paperwork is pretty redundant and SIGNIFICANTLY better setup guides are available online, but it’s better to include this than not at all.

The retail packaging of this business-focused NAS is unsurprisingly rather plain. This is hardly a crime and the Synology DS2422+ puts more stock in its design and deployment than it does in looking good in its box! Let’s take a close look at the design of the DS2422+ NAS

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Design

The design of the DS2422+ NAS Chassis is very familiar and is one that (although tweaked in small places over time) has remained largely the same over years throughout other releases in the 12-bay Diskstation NAS series. It has always provided a good balance of storage, versus efficient airflow and heat dissipation.

The DS2422+ chassis is almost entirely metal, with the only notable exception being the front panel of the desktop casing and the trays. This larger metal chassis, in conjunction with the 12 bays of SATA storage and twin rear fans results in a NAS that is most certainly going to make some noise. Although not reaching the “aeroplane take-off’ levels of noise that a rackmount like the RS1221+ reaches, the DS2422+ is still a NAS that you do not want to be in close proximity with when in full operation. the official Synology pages highlight that the noise level is a reported 25 dB(A), however, this is based on the use of 2TB Seagate Ironwolf HDDs (which do not feature on the compatibility list I might add) and not the enterprise build HAT5300 Hard drives that this system is designed to be used with, which are a noticeable degree noisier due to their high performance, workload and durability design. Below is a quick vid on their noise level:

The front of the Synology DS2422+ has no LCD/Display panel, but rather it has numerous LEDs for displaying system, activity and access. These can all be adjusted in brightness and activity in the DSM 7 control panel, with eat pertaining to different areas of the system hardware – Hard drives, network status, network connectivity and system health.

The 12 bays of storage featured on the DS2422+ are all well ventilated around the front oF the chassis and between each bay to allow passive airflow to flow as heat is dissipated inside. As mentioned earlier, the DS2422+ can run fully or partially populated, as well as be run on a single SATA HDD/SSD if need be (which would be rather daft). The system utilizes traditional RAID configurations to allow the end-user(s) to create a good balance of performance and redundancy in their storage over multiple drives. Additionally, the storage can be increased by adding further drives in available bays, an expansion chassis (the DX1222) the DS2422+ or via the popular Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) configuration. Now, this is not a new thing and the PLUS series of Synology NAS has always allowed this configuration in a way that the larger and more powerful DS3622xs+ did not (for reasons of overall performance dip compared with traditional RAID levels i.e. RAID 1,5,6,10, etc). The benefits of SHR in terms of scalability and adding larger capacity drives to your storage array years down the line (as larger capacities HDDs arrive and/or prices decrease per TB) have always been a compelling part of buyers who purchased the PLUS series and always a bit of a puzzler why it is not available here on an XS series solution. SHR on the DS3622xs+ is not impossible if you are migrating from an older NAS as shown here in this video, but it is still a shame it remains absent on the DS3622xs+ as a day 1 choice. For many, this might be a deciding factor when choosing between the DS2422+ and DS3622xs+.

Each bay utilized a spring-loaded tray design that ensures that a drive will not be installed unless in full alignment with the internal SATA port inside. Additionally, each bay of the DS2422+ features a locking mechanism (with 2 keys included with your accessories pack) that ensures that accidental removal of an HDD/SSD in your NAS is not possible – this is especially useful as the DS2422+ does not support re-silvering and accidental removal of a drive for even just a single second can lead to hours upon hours or degraded RAID rebuilding.

The trays themselves are plastic in design, but the days of this being a negative are largely gone now and although early versions of NAS servers have cheaper and less robust plastic trays, this new generation Synology NAS has exceptionally well made plastic trays that are sturdy enough for even excessing storage use. Each tray also takes advantage of a click n load design that allows 3.5″ media to be installed without screws/screwdriver. Alternatively, there are screws and screw-holes for the installation of 2.5″ SATA SSD media for faster storage pools and/or caching storage. However, on the subject of storage media on the DS2422+, we should probably address the hard drive shaped elephant in the room.

The DS2422+ NAS is another release in the Synology High-end/enterprise series that has opted for a much more streamlined compatibility list. This results in this NAS only being fully 100% supported and compatible for use with Synology hard drives and SSDs. These include the HAT5300 and SAT5200 (along with a few others with upgrade options). Although there are a few exceptions to this, the compatibility list over on Synology.com is pretty clear on this:

Synology’s decision to only fully allow the storage capabilities of their systems with their own branded storage media on enterprise-level solutions was met with a mixed reception when it was rolled out in late 2021. On the one hand, the HAT5300 series of drives ARE good drives, arriving at a price point similar to the likes of Seagate Ironwolf Pro and WD Red Pro Pro-class Drives BUT featuring the architecture, performance and durability of Enterprise-class drives (such as Seagate EXOs and WD Gold) – it is a pretty good deal. Likewise, those looking for a full ‘one party’ solution will be pleased as it allows simple installation, deployment and management (with firmware updates and drive warranties being considerably easier to manage). However, with only four capacities of HAT5300 (4TB, 8, 12 and 16TB) at the moment, as well as a relatively sudden pull on the support of other hard drive brands on this system, it has left quite a few users unhappy. It is worth highlighting that using 3rd party hard drives on the DS2422+ in the latest release of DSM 7.1 is not blocked. You can go ahead and install and use the likes of WD Red, Ultrastar and Seagate Ironwolf HDDs in the DS2422+ for Storage Pools, volumes etc, as well as using drive health management tools such as S.M.A.R.T. However their use will lead to the system displaying an amber Warning message (formally showing ‘critical’, till Synology changed their position a little upon feedback from users) and drives will be listed as not on the official compatibility list. Not the end of the world, but for users who are installing the DS2422+ NAS solution professionally for 3rd parties, this might be jarring for the intended end-users.

Nevertheless, the HAT5300 and SAT5200 series are still very good drives for this system and its AMD embedded Ryzen CPU and 4GB memory to sink its teeth into and when fully populated and equipped with 2x10GbE connections banded together (via the installation of the network expansion card 10GBASE-T on the E10G18-G2) has been reported to reach 2,202MB/s Sequential Read and over a quarter of a 128,000+ 4K random Read IOPS.

Removing all the trays shows that all 12x SATA connectors are all combined data/power as you would expect. I did wonder, given the launch of Synology HAS5300 SAS Hard drives two months or so ago, that the next generation of this enterprise 12-Bay would factor in combined SATA/SAS connectors, but I guess then it would tread on the toes of the DS3622xs+ and rackmount solutions somewhat.

The DS2422+ NAS also features the neat and well-branded Synology ventilated/mesh logos on either side. Speaking as someone who has deployed a few Synology NAS solutions personally and professionally over the years, I can say these vents capture a lot more dust than you might expect and definitely help to assist passive airflow internally and assist dissipation. it is one of those slick design points that Synology are fond of,

The physical design of the DS2422+ is largely unchanged since the DS2415+ and DS2419+ that came before it, but that is no bad thing. It manages to balance large storage potential vs compact deployment, as well as maintaining that Synology branded modern design. The lack of a front-mounted USB is a bit odd, given the numerous convenient advantage this would provide, but it’s a minor gripe and given that this NAS is designed with remote/out-of-office deployment in mind, it’s not a big loss. Let’s talk about the connectivity and accessibility of the DS2422+ NAS and how it will provide physical access to your data.

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Ports and Connections

The connectivity that is featured on the DS2422+ NAS has changed very little since the DS2419+ that came before it, but still arrives with plenty of network connections, storage options and the previously mentioned PCIe upgradability. When Synology first revealed the DS2422+ 12-Bay, many were quick to highlight that Synology still continues to resist the change from gigabit ethernet towards 2.5GbE on this system. This and the fact that DS3622xs+ arrives with 2x 10GbE is another example of how the DS2422+ at launch was a little in the shade comparatively in its contents. The rear of the chassis is largely dominated by the twin fans.

These two fans are 120mm in size each and are held in a large cooling module that can be removed as needed for cleaning and general maintenance. The sheer scale of the DS2422+ in storage and the amount of heat that is going to be generated by the system in operation means that active cooling and the effectiveness of these efficient components are going to be quite a high priority. By default, these fans will be set to automatic (adjusting their RPM as the system’s internal NAS temp dictates) and can be set to manual – but I definitely would not recommend it! The only real reason a user would want to manually control the operation of fans on a NAS would be for reasons of ambient noise and, to be frank, with this system fully populated with 12x HAT5300 NAS HDDs – the noise of the fans is going to be the leat of your ear troubles!

The DS2422+ features an internal 550W PSU which is surprisingly beefy for this NAS. Yes, those 12-bays of storage are going to need a decent amount of power to keep going, but aside from the PCIe slot needing power, there is no support for graphics cards or even the PSU featuring an additional power 4/6/8 connector for a grander PCIe card (there ARE ports for cable available in the PSU block, but no signs of Synology opening access to this for a PCIe upgrade). To put it into perspective, the DS1621+ and DS1821+ both arrive with a 250W PSU (so, less than half) and those two systems also features M.2 NVMe SSD slots (something not present on the DS2422+).

As mentioned, the Synology DS2422+ is another entry into the Diskstation Plus series that arrives with 4x 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports and that is somewhat underwhelming in 2022 – especially when most other NAS providers have immediately skipped to 10GbE at this tier or swapped 1GbE out in favour of 2.5GbE at the same price as 1G. The system DOES have four of these ports (supporting LAG/Trunking and therefore hitting 4Gbe with a smart switch setup) which is going to be tremendously useful.

As discussed several times here at NASCompares, 2.5GbE might not be dominating the marketplace compared with existing 1GbE utilization and not have the 1,000MB/s+ bandwidth possible in 10GbE, BUT it does seem strange that Synology has still not engaged with 2.5GbE on their NAS solutions (though admittedly featuring it on their RT6600ax Router). Although the argument against its inclusion is compelling (i.e still hardly mainstream), users looking at the DS2422+ will be hoping to get at least 3-5yrs of service out of this 24×7 hardware (likely more) and who’s to say where 1G/2.5G/10G will be at in that time with client hardware in your network environment. With many brands offering 2.5G solutions at the same price as 1G – this results in Synology’s steadfast refusal to include 2.5GbE in 2022 rather stubborn.

Nevertheless, if you already have a 1GbE network, or were going to opt for a 2x Port 10GbE upgrade card for around $200-250 for this system (rather than spend $1000+ more on the DS3622xs+) then you are not going to be hugely concerned one way or the other over the appearance of 1GGbE on the DS2422+. Much like other Synology NAS systems, the DS2422+ also arrives with USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb/s) Type-A ports that allow you to connect a small range of hardware. The hardware that is supported has been pared back somewhat in recent years (devices such as Printers, scanners, Bluetooth and WiFi dongles were removed from the compatibility/supported lists in DSM 7 – possibly down to the way DSM 7 is built. Additionally, the USB on Synology NAS drives CAN NOT be used to interface with the NAS, as the NAS is the ‘host’ in this connection, not the PC/Mac etc. The USB ports CAN be used for external storage though and there is a wide range of applications in DSM that support connectivity of storage to these ports (USB Copy, Hyper Backup, File Station, Virtual Machine Manager and more).

There is an external mini SAS shaped port on the DS2422+ NAS that allows you to connect one of the DX1222 expansion chassis’ and add an additional 12 storage media drives to your available storage. If you are running an SHR setup, it is very easy to expand your existing Storage Pool and Volumes (if provisioned correctly) to spread across both the DS2422+ and expansion – though Synology does not recommend this (risk of accidental disconnection).

The PCIe slot that the DS2422+ features is a PCIe Gen 3×8 slot that allows you to install one of several Synology branded PCIe upgrade cards. Synology does support a few 3rd party PCIe cards from Intel (among others) but I have yet to test if cards not listed on the compatibility list display a similar warning to when you install 3rd party storage media or memory upgrades. Card installation is quite straight forward and although it will require the removal of the top plate of the system’s external casing, it is a simple click and load installation – no power cables needed.

Synology’s available range of PCIe cards has grown little by little in the last couple of years and now supports 10G and 25GbE, across multiple ports and in fiber and copper forms. In most desktop NAS systems in the Diskstaiton portfolio, I would call the E25G21-F2 with its two 25G ports a little overkill – but in the case of the 12-Bay DS2422+ and potential for another 12 bays in the DX1222 – That card might be just the thing to make the most of this systems throughput potential! Additionally, despite the DS2422+ not featuring the 2x m.2 NVMe slots of the other 2/4/6/8-Bay diskstation NAS, you can add this with the E10M20T1 Cobo card of M2D20 dedicated caching card (at an additional cost – grumble, grumble).

Overall, the default network connectivity is one of the weaker areas of the Synology DS2422+ NAS and although there is clearly a few areas of upgradability available to those that want them, what you have here is not a massive leap up from the previous 2 generations of SMB 12-Bay. Let’s get the external panels removed on the DS2422+ and discuss its internal hardware.

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Internal Hardware

Accessing the internal hardware of the Synology DS2422+ NAS is considerably more convenient than smaller and more compact diskstation devices, with the external chassis of the server arriving in three individual panels that are secured by 2 screws each. Two of these panels are necessary for removal to allow access to ways in which you can upgrade the NAS hardware in its lifespan. Removing the panels shows us that the compact chassis design of the DS2422+ results in 50% of that internal space being given to the main storage backplane/board. This board has 12 SATA data+power connectors and is connected to the main system board via a PCIe slot at an angle.

That main storage board is remarkably clear internally, features vent holes above each drive bay and even the power cabling being fed into the board is discreet and understated at the base. The result is a huge area of clear space for ventilation running through both the media bays AND over the large CPU heatsink. Unlike the top and left side panel of the DS2422+, this side of the chassis will not really need to be accessed for any reason other than troubleshooting, but it’s reassuring to see that the internal components are very well spaced out, despite the compact nature of this 12-bay chassis.

The right-hand panel of the DS2422+ covers the two SODIMM memory slots featured on this NAS. Now I was very pleasantly surprised to not that the memory included with the DS2422+ is rated at 3200Mhz frequency. Now, the memory featured on the SMB/Center-Business solutions from Synology in the last few years have all featured an ECC (Error Code Correction / Error Correcting Code) component, to ensure that micro errors and inconsistencies in data as they are passed through the system memory are spotted and corrected. Indeed, this has always been a big hardware factor in the buying decision of IT Admins that like to dig deep into the specs sheets. But till this 2022 series, Synology has always opted for 2400Mhz memory ECC (whilst providing fractionally faster 2666Mhz non-ECC in their Home/Prosumer devices) – so this is a nice upgrade that (correct me if I am wrong) Synology has not raised anywhere online. I respect that.

The fact this system has 4GB of memory is a little underwhelming for businesses and most businesses are going to need to upgrade that memory quite early into it’s deployment. However, it is worth remembering that much like Synology and their position on drive media or PCIe upgrades, they have a very strict officially supported compatibility list and using non-Synology branded memory. As this is largely a business targetted solution, many of those buyers will be happy to purchase first-party accessories with a solution to guarantee that they stay within the warranty, ensure the system works to the standard and heights promised by the manufacturer, etc. However, not everyone feels that way and even if you factor in that the branded memory in the DS2422+ is ECC and 3200Mhz, the cost of Synology memory modules online is noticeably higher than the likes of Kingston, Crucial or Transcend. Once again, it is only going to be a barrier if you do not want to commit to the Synology eco-system completely.

The CPU featured inside the DS2422+ NAS is the AMD embedded Ryzen V1500B and this is now the 2nd generation of devices to arrive with this efficient but very capable processor. Arriving in a 4 Core, 8 Thread architecture, it features a 2.2Ghz clock speed per core. Synology has largely ignored embedded graphics CPUs in their business/enterprise systems (the last 12-Bay example was the DS3612xs+ with an Intel Core i3 a decade ago) and the V1500B is continuing that position. As proficient as this processor is for large file transfers, running all those first-party Synology applications and dynamically shifting it’s resources to where they are needed nice and quick, this processor still lives a little in the shadow again of the CPU in the DS3622xs+ (a quad-core Xeon) and once again is a clear cut example of how the DS2422+ chooses ‘Storage Capacity’ over ‘Power in it’s design. The Processor still does a fantastic job of running the full Synology collaboration suite, Surveillance Station, Multi-client backups and Cloud synchronization tools, all at the same time though, which ultimately means that you have a solid hardware base to wrap your business data around. The Synology DS2422+ is clearly trying to be a local desktop PaaS and SaaS solution in one, with the kind of storage capacity options that most cloud providers are simply never going to be able to offer at the same price.

When it comes to running Virtual Machine environments on the DS2422+ NAS, things are a little more mixed. The NAS arrives with the Synology Virtual Machine Manager, so you can create multiple brand new virtual machines quickly, as well as insert virtual installation/boot media and run very bespoke VM setups (licence free). There are also many ways to import existing ISO VM, Virtual Hard drive or 3rd party VM images (Hyper X, VMware, etc) onto the Synology VMM tool, as well as significant cross over with other Synology applications such as Active Backup Suite to host VMs in a failover routine. All this is managed by the CPU very well, despite not having embedded graphics, and the processor’s multiple threads also mean that VM deployment is a little more flexible with the use of dynamic resource sharing and vCPUs supported. However, I would not really pursue VMs on the DS2422+ NAS without upgrading that memory on day 1.

External performance of this 12-Bay and that CPU in the default setup is immediately going to saturate those 4x 1GbEs with ease. Aside from the general starting internal architecture being more than enough anyway, we are talking about up to a 12 HDDs and/or SSDs – that can easily it the 1000’s of megabytes of throughput anyway. So, it’s only by more enterprising setups involving SSDs and 10GbE that we can get a more realistic picture of what this system can output. Below is the sequential R/W performance and 4K Ransom IOPs of the DS2422+ with SSDs in a RAID 5, 2x 10GbE (Link Aggregated) and how it compares with three other Plus series 12/16-Bay’s in Synology’s portfolio (RS2821RP+, RS2421+ and the DS2419+ Predecessor). The DS2422+ hit 2,202MB/s Seq Read and 1,457MB/s Seq Write throughput externally – a big jump on the DS2419+ predecessor, but the tiniest fraction behind the rackstation solutions (hardly noticeable in fact). However, in 4K random IOPS, it was the leader of the pack, at 128,406 Read IOPS and 65,098 Write IOPS. Again, exceedingly close to the similarly built rackmounts, but a big jump up on the older 2019 gen 12-Bay plus series model.

Overall, the hardware that the DS2422+ features internally is very competent, more than proficient but will not exactly blow your socks off. You have a great base of hardware to handle standard business data management and with several options to scale up the hardware on offer, is a decent upgrade on its predecessor and what you have by default is more than enough to handle those 12 bays of storage. The lack of onboard NVMe SSD slots is still rather surprising, given Synology’s big push on this feature in the majority of their NAS systems and the default 4GB of memory seems a little small when you factor in what this system will be purchased for, but overall I think this is still a good balance of hardware for this scale of storage and cost when put into perspective with the rest of Synologys portfolio. Let’s discuss Synology NAS software, DSM, and how it makes up the lion’s share of the DS2422+’ price tag.

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Software and Services

Now, to cover the WHOLE Synology software and services that are included with the DS2422+ NAS would result in a review that is twice as long as this review so far! Synology’s Diskstation Manager software that comes with this device (either DSM 7, DSM 7.1 or DSM 6.2 depending on your preference) provides a massive arrangement of services, applications (first and third party supported) and a huge number of client applications for desktop, mobile, windows, Mac and Linux (as well as a bunch of other more home-based tools). These allow management and access to the data on the DS2422+ in very tailored ways, as well as the web browser-based access that has the appearance, intuitive design and responsiveness of a local operating system. The DSM interface can be accessed by hundreds of users at the same time (with each user having tailored access, rights and privileges). DSM is available with ALL Synology NAS and the depth and abilities of DSM on any NAS are dependent on the hardware architecture of the NAS itself. In the case of the Synology DS2422+, it supports practically EVERYTHING (with the exception of SHR, as previously mentioned). If you want to learn about the latest version of DSM 7 and the software and services that are included with the DS2422+ NAS, watch my FULL review below (alternatively, you can read the DSM 7 Full Review HERE):

As mentioned, the DS2422+ supports pretty much the entirety of the DSM 7 and DSM 6.2 applications and services. If you are an existing user of SaaS and PaaS (Software as a service and Platform as a service) from the likes of Google Workspace and Office 365, knowing that you can synchronize these systems or choose to export away from them onto the Synology services is going to be very appealing. Key business applications that are included with your NAS are:

Synology DS2422+ NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict

When Synology launched the DS2422+ and DS3622xs+ NAS at the same time, despite them both being upgradable 12-Bays, the DS2422+ was a little in the shade of the bright, shiny and powerful DS3622xs+. It is understandable, while the DS2422+ arrives with a familiar embedded Ryzen CPU and supersized version of the architecture already present in the DS1621+ and DS1821+, the DS3622xs+ was a Xeon and 10GbE monster! But people tend to forget the price difference of well over $1000 between them and for may – THAT is going to be a HUGE dealbreaker. If you are already convinced by the Synology software eco-system and are concerned with how much capacity you are going to need in future, the DS2422+ is easily the best value for money that the brand provides right now. Aside from the upgradability of the system’s network connectivity down the line, memory upgrades when the time comes and storage expansions that effectively double your storage potential waiting for you – there is the simple advantage that the DS2422+ does NOT need to be fully populated on day 1.

Thanks to Synology’s continuing support of SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) on this NAS, it means that you can leverage your budget on this box to partially populate the NAS with storage media and then the rest of your budget on the rest of your network hardware or scaling the power of the device up considerable (as opposed to the ‘upfront’ nature of purchasing the DS3622xs+ hardware). Synology continued stance on 1st party HDD and SSD media is still continuing to ruffle feathers and the inclusion of this policy DS2422+ seems a pinch overkill, but now DSM 7.1 is being a touch less OTT about 3rd party media, this is less of a barrier that it once was. Once again, it comes down to how much you want to engage with the Synology ecosystem, its services, its business focus and ultimately how much the DS2422+ will be doing in your own network hardware environment. In conclusion, the DS2422+ IS a good NAS and if CAPACITY is more important to you than POWER, then the DS2422+ is by far the best Synology NAS for you in 2022.

 

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Comparing the Synology DS1520+ vs DS1522+ NAS – Which Should You Buy?

Let’s be honest. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is much the same as any other kind of consumer-available technology, in that every few years a brand will release the latest hardware in its portfolio and buyers will IMMEDIATELY start comparing it versus its predecessor. New vs Old, Launch Price vs Discount Deals, Cutting Edge vs Well Established – regardless of your own motivation, then are a whole bunch of reasons why someone will be comparing the Synology DS1522+ for 2022 versus the 2020 released DS1520+ NAS. Today I want to take a closer look at these two NAS systems from the big brand in NAS drives and compare their strengths, their weaknesses and ultimately help you decide which one deserves your data right now. Let’s begin.

Note – Depending on when you are reading this, the availability of the DS1522+ or DS1520+ will be different. So, regardless of which one of these two NAS systems best sounds like it suits your needs, it is paramount that you remember that your data should be backed up at all times. So do not just leave your data in an insecure or unsafe state in favour of waiting for either of these NAS to arrive. Unless your data is in at least 2 separate copies (NAS, close, USB, etc), it is NOT backed up! If you need help, you can use the free NAS advice section HERE.

Comparing the hardware of the Synology DS1522+ and DS1520+ NAS

The 5-Bay Diskstation releases from Synology have always been one of the most interesting tiers of the brand’s desktop solutions. The reason for this is that all too often this scale of system serves as a bridging point between Prosumer & SOHO systems and the small/medium business hardware in their portfolio. This is demonstrated first in the scale of the available RAID 5/6 storage, but then more so in the scalability and upgradability of the 5-Bay system, allowing two expansions, greater network connectivity and better internal hardware than the more domestic targetted solutions – often with the internal hardware differing considerably between each periodic 2-3yr refresh by the brand. Let’s first look at the internal hardware of these two NAS’ to see how much they differ. The DS1520+ NAS first arrived on the scene with some great hardware advantages over the (then 2 months sooner released) DS920+, arriving with a 4 Core Intel Celeron Processor that featured integrated graphics, 8GB of DDR4 2666Mhz memory and NVMe SSD upgrade slots. In the two years since its release though, Synology clearly decided to make some big changes in the DS1522+ to make it considerably more scalable and general business/file-ops focused. The newer DS1522+ features a dual-core AMD Ryzen embedded R1600 that, although arriving with half the cores of the Celeron in the DS1520+, has a higher CPU frequency and total achievable frequency in turbo/burst when needed. That said, users will be surprised to learn that this CPU also does not feature embedded graphics, so therefore the DS1522+ will be less CPU efficient at handling multimedia or VM deployment than the DS1520+.

Though both systems feature 8GB of DDR4 memory, the 1522+ has much higher pedigree and wins here thanks to its use of much more impressive ECC (error code correction) memory to identify and repair any bit level write errors and can also be scaled to a considerably higher 32GB of memory (with the DS1520+ maxing out at 8GB).

NAS Model	DS1520+	DS1522+
CPU Model	Intel Celeron J4125	AMD Ryzen R1600
CPU Quantity	1	Embedded Ryzen
CPU Architecture	64-bit	64-bit
CPU Frequency	4-core 2.0 – 2.7 GHz	2-core 2.6 – 3.1 GHz
Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI)	Yes	Yes
Integrated Graphics	Yes	No
CPU Cache	4 MB cache	1 MB L2 cache, 4 MB L3 cache
Memory
System Memory	8GB DDR4 non-ECC SODIMM	8GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM
Memory Module Pre-installed	8GB (4GB On-board + 4 GB via a 2666Mhz Module)	8 GB (8GB x 1)
TDP	10W	25W
Total Memory Slots	1	2
Maximum Memory Capacity	8GB	32 GB (16 GB x 2)
System Fan	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs
Power Supply Unit / Adapter	120W External	120W External

Next up, let us discuss storage on the DS1522+ and DS1520+M, as these two systems are near enough identical on that one. Both arrive with 5x SATA storage bays, though you can deploy either NAS with as little as a single rive if you want. From there you can go ahead and install enough drives to accommodate a RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 or Synology’s own flexible RAID configuration, SHR. Both systems can be initialized to operate with either a BTRFS or EXT4 file system, as well as supporting the wide range of services and features of the Synology Storage Manager. Finally, as mentioned, both systems feature M.2 NVMe SSD bays and both only allow these to be used for caching with DSM and its services/storage. Even in terms of expandability, these systems are largely identical. with both supporting the connection of two DX517 expansion chassis and reaching a total potential 15 bays of storage. As both systems support the latest version of Synology DSM, that maximum volume, simultaneous volumes, active storage shares and hybrid storage support are largely identical. The only area where things might differ significantly between the DS1520+ and DS1522+ is regarding Hard Drive compatibility. Synology changed its position a bit on compatibility in a few of the 2022 series hardware releases (beginning with the RS3622xs+, DS3622xs+ and DS2422+ at the start of the year) with them stating that they fully support the use of their own HDDs and SSDs in these systems, but not in third party drives from the likes of WD and Seagate. These drives will still be usable in their systems, but the user will be greeted by a warning message regarding compatibility. Now, this is not a factor of the DS1520+ compatibility, however, we are still (at the time of writing) awaiting confirmation of the HDD compatibility list of the DS1522+ NAS, so although it is NOT CONFIRMED RIGHT NOW it is possible that your choice of supported HDDs might impact which NAS is better for your storage.

Model	DS1520+	DS1522+
Size (Height x Width x Depth)	166 mm x 230 mm x 223 mm	166 mm x 230 mm x 223 mm
Drive Bays & Storage	5x SATA	5x SATA
Maximum Drive Bays with Expansion Unit	15 (DX517 x 2)	15 (DX517 x 2)
M.2 Drive Slots	2 (NVMe) for Read/Write Caching	2 (NVMe) for Read/Write Caching
Hot Swappable Drive	Yes	Yes
RAID Support	JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, SHR	JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, SHR

Now in terms of the external connectivity and how it can be upgraded, this is another big area of difference between the DS1520+ and DS1522+ NAS. Both systems arrive with 4 1GbE RJ45 LAN ports, which can be combined via link aggregation/Port Trunking to allow up to 4Gb/s bandwidth between the system and a supported smart switch. However, the big difference in bandwidth potential between these two NAS centres around the DS1522+ features the option to upgrade it’s network connectivity to 10GbE by installing an E20G22-T1-mini 10G network upgrade in the available proprietary slot. Now, this is not a connection that is available in the default DS1522+ and is an optional upgrade, but still it is good to know that the option of adding 1,000MB/s bandwidth is available down the road. The DS1520+ does not include an option to increase the network connectivity in this way (though unofficial and not officially supported USB-to2.5GbE and 5GbE connectivity via 3rd party adapters are possible (but I wouldn’t trust their long term stability really) and for many, this will be a deal-breaker between these systems in the same way the CPU differences between these two NAS’ does. Both systems see the same sized chassis and the 10GbE upgradable slot on the DS1522+ using a smaller M.2 sized connector rather than the PCIe 3×8 slot of other Synology NAS, so it does not impact the size of the chassis.

Model	DS1520+	DS1522+
RJ-45 1GbE LAN	4 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support)	4 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support)
2.5GbE LAN	No	No
10GbE LAN	No	Optional
USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb/s)	2	2
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s)	No	No
eSATA Port	2	2
PCIe Expansion	No	Yes (currently supports E10G22-T1-mini Adapter)
Supported File System	Btrfs EXT4	Btrfs EXT4
Size	166 mm x 230 mm x 223 mm	166 mm x 282 mm x 243 mm
Weight	2.62 kg	5.1 kg

Overall, I think the differences between the DS1520+ and DS1522+ are some of the most notable that the brand has ever delivered between two NAS just two years apart in the same series! The option of 10GbE later in the system’s lifespan, along with a huge 32GB of ECC memory on the DS1522+ I think narrowly put that NAS ahead, but it is by no means an unquestionable victory, as not only are those advantages of the DS1522+ more centred around additional purchases, but also the DS1520+ features that quad-core graphics embedded CPU – which means that a number of common Synology NAS desktop uses for entertainment such as Plex Media Server and Video Station are going to run much more efficiently on the older system. Then you have to also factor in that the DS1520+ is going to be available at a more affordable price thanks to its longer time at retail (with the DS1522+ almost certainly remaining close to its RRP for the bulk of 2022. I still think the DS1522+ is the better business and mission-critical performance choice overall, but the DS1520+ is going to be better suited to home and prosumer users overall.

Expected Performance of the Synology DS1522+ vs DS1520+ NAS Compared

The performance of Synology DSM services and supported 3rd party connected appliances is going to be very similar on both the DS1520+ and DS1522+ NAS when it comes to utilizing the respective systems in low volume/frequency client tasks. By that, I mean that the scale of the operations that you need the NAS to action (from simple file sharing and downloading, to more intensive multi-site backups, file streaming, databases and surveillance for example) will largely dictate which NAS will perform better for you. As mentioned, the DS1520+ and its embedded graphics supported CPU will use fewer resources to perform graphically focused tasks such as transcoding, as well as running applications that have a high volume of visual data such as live camera feeds in Surveillance Station 9. Whereas the file handling and general transfer performance of traditional data exchanges are going to use fewer resources on the DS1522+ embedded Ryzen processor, as well as have a much, MUCH higher ceiling for total processes thanks to that larger memory scalability already discussed. Below is a breakdown of the most popular applications and services that are included with either the Synology DS1520+ or DS1522+ NAS:

Synology Office – Create documents, spreadsheets, and slides in a multi-user environment. Real-time synchronization and saving make collaboration a breeze.

Synology Chat – Aimed at businesses, Synology Chat is an IM service that transforms the way users collaborate and communicate.

Synology Drive – Host your own private cloud behind the safety of your NAS with 100% data ownership and no subscription fees.

Synology Moments – Manage your photos and videos with deep-learning algorithms that automatically group photos with similar faces, subjects, and places.

Synology Calendar – Stay on track, share calendars, and schedule meetings, while ensuring sensitive information remains safely stored on company premises.

Synology Active Backup for Business (ABB) – Consolidate backup tasks for virtualized environments, physical servers, and personal computers, and rapidly restore files, entire machines, or VMs – license free.

Synology Hyper Backup – backup you NAS safely and efficiently to multiple destinations with deduplication, integrity checks, compression, and versioning.

Synology Surveillance Station – Safeguard your business, home, and other valuable assets with reliable video surveillance tools.

Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) – An intuitive hypervisor that supports Windows, Linux, and Virtual DSM virtual machines. Its powerful disaster recovery tools help users achieve maximum service uptime.

Synology High Availability – Synology High Availability (SHA) combines two Synology NAS servers into one active-passive high-availability cluster, alleviating service disruptions while mirroring data.

Synology Central Management System (CMS) – Synology CMS allows you to manage multiple Synology NAS servers quickly and conveniently from a single location.

Synology Video Station – Manage all your movies, TV shows, and home videos. Stream them to multiple devices or share them with friends and family.

Synology Photo Station – Built to help photographers manage their photos and share them with clients for feedback or business development.

Synology Audio Station – Manage your music collection, create personal playlists, stream them to your own devices, or share with family or friends.

Synology File Station – Manage your Synology NAS files remotely through web browsers or mobile devices

However, the extent to which you can use all these applications at any single time (both as multiple clients using the same software or multiple applications running in parallel on the same NAS system) is going to be better on the Synology DS1522+ in the grand scheme of things, thanks to that potential 32GB of memory available to scale up down the line. Here is how these two Synology NAS drives compare in volume and features in those 1st party services:

Model	DS1520+	DS1522+
Max Single Volume	108TB	108TB
SAN Manager	128 ISCSI Targets and 256 LUNS	128 ISCSI Targets and 256 LUNS
Surveillance Station	40 Cameras Max, 2 Licenses	40 Cameras Max, 2 Licenses
Collaboration Suite	ALL Tools	ALL Tools
Synology Drive	350 Connections , 5,000,000 Files	350 Connections , 5,000,000 Files
Active Backup	FULL Support (Google, 365, VM,  local)	FULL Support (Google, 365, VM, local)
Synology Photos	All Features	All features
Hybrid Share	Full Support of 10x syncs	Full Support of 10x syncs
Accounts	2048 Users, 256 Groups, 512 S.Folders	2048 Users, 256 Groups, 512 S.Folders
SHA	Yes	Yes
VMM	Yes, 4 Recommended Max	Yes, 8 Recommended Max
Hardware Transcoding	Yes	No
MailPlus	100 concurrent users, 5 Licences	100 concurrent users, 5 Licences
SHR Support	Yes	Yes
Snapshots	65,536 Max	65,536 Max
Web Hosting	Upto 30x	Upto 30x
Hyper Backup	Yes, all features and clients	Yes, all features and clients
Max Tested R/W Speed	451.28MB/s – 451.18MB/s	736MBs – 796MB/s

Once again, very similar and indeed, both systems largely provide the building blocks to use each application to the highest extent allowed/recommended by Synology in DSM. Despite these NAS’ having very different CPUs, they still ultimately support the same volume of services (at maximum) in DSM. But the DS1522+ clearly has more recourse scaling possible and that will hopefully mean that you will be able to push several applications in higher frequencies each more on the newer system than the old one. Just don;t overlook how useful that Intel Celeron CPU would be to multimedia tasks.

Synology DS1520+ vs DS1522+ NAS – Conclusion and Verdict

Synology has clearly taken a rather different tactic in the release of their newest 5-Bay system, making changes to the expected hardware configuration and architecture that set it on a very different path than its predecessor. Those with longer memories will know that the Diskstation 5 Drive portfolio used to be very much this kind of design (i.e a file transfer focused CPU, more memory scaling, optional 10GbE, etc) and rather than building off the design of the 4-Bay (as the DS1520+ did against the DS920+), the DS1522+ seems to scale itself against the DS1621+ in it’s shape and abilities. If you were already looking at Synology NAS systems that being heavy emphasis on scaling their architecture notably down the line in efforts to remain future proof, the DS1522+ is going to tick ALOT of boxes for you. Whereas if you were looking at a Synology NAS for home use, a Plex Media server, low client/user use and generally as more of a setup-and-forget solution, then the DS1520+ will likely suit your needs better and will have the added benefit of a more palatable price point in 2022. How far Synology will extend the build logic of the DS1522+ towards other solutions in the diskstation/rackstation portfolio still remains to be seen. Most business users will want to opt for the DS1522+ though. Cheers for reading!

NAS MODEL ID	Synology DS1520+ NAS	Synology DS1522+ NAS
Where to Buy:

 

Need More Help Choosing the right NAS?

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Review of the Terramaster F4-423 NAS Drive

The Network Attached Storage industry (NAS) unlike many areas of the tech world is actually surprisingly small in terms of the companies that fight for market dominance. With less than 10 big players and less than 5 of those being real marketing recognized, choosing a NAS solution is actually quite restricted. In that small paddock of NAS brands, the one that is by FAR the best hardware value (as in, getting the most for your money in terms of hardware) is Terramaster. A brand that has evolved incredibly rapidly in the personal home/office server market in the last 7-8 years. Although not as well established as bigger brands with decades in the server industry (such as Synology and QNAP), in the short time they have been in the NAS market, they have produced a range of solutions that sneak up remarkably close in hardware/software to those bigger brands, whilst sometimes arriving close to half the price for the same architecture. Their latest series is the x23 series (arriving in 2, 4, 9 and 12-Bay desktop solutions so far, at the time of writing) and today I want to review their F4-423 4-Bay NAS. Going up against the likes of the Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 and QNAP TS-464 NAS (released around a month on either side of the F4-423), as well as competing with Synology’s DS920+ right now, the F4-423 has some steep competition.  Nevertheless, with its pricetag already £100-180 less (depending on where you shop) the F4-423 already seemingly has the high ground in terms of affordability, but what about software, quality and overall performance? Let’s review this new Terramaster NAS and see if it deserves your data.

Terramaster F4-423 Review Chapters

• Unboxing and Presentation
• Design
• Ports & Connections
• Internal Hardware
• Software
• Conclusion & Verdict

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

Terramaster still continues to be the most affordable fully-featured provider of the whole NAS market and although a number of their solutions have always felt a little rough around the edges, you always got the impression that you were getting a good deal for the hardware that was available from QNAP and Synology. Now in 2022/2023, the same continues to be true but in the F4-423 NAS’ case, you are actually getting some pretty top tier (for the Home/Prosumer) market at a price tag that is really tough to argue with. Terramaster has clearly been watching their bigger competitors and cherry-picked the features that people have been asking for (2.5GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, M.2 NVMe SSD bays, etc) for this new generation. In terms of software, things are a little less convincing and although TOS 5 (currently in Beta at the time of writing) still continues to evolve into something genuinely fully featured and impressive, TOS 4 that the F4-423 includes at launch is usable (if unexciting) platform that provides the base level services that a new NAS user would want, but lacks killer apps that their competitors are offering right now (File Streaming, AI photo recognition, Surveillance, etc). Most of these ARE included in TOS5, but until it arrives much later in 2022 in a full release, the F4-423 feels like a powerful NAS that doesn’t have the software to show off its strengths yet. If you are reading this later in 2022 or 2023, this might well be irrelevant though, as the brand rolls out their bit firmware update to ALL Terramster NAS devices. Overall, I definitely CAN recommend the F4-423 NAS for its hardware, for Plex Media server or as an affordable multi-tier backup solution, but if you are looking for a NAS for more tailored data access or in a much more fully-featured package – hold out a little longer till TOS 5 gets released first.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Unboxing, Packaging & Presentation

The initial impressions of the presentation Terramaster F4-423 NAS were a little meh! As this is a more affordable solution, it is understandable that some areas of the retail package are going to be a little understated. Additionally, NAS systems like the F4-423 NAS are going to 99% of the time be purchased online (not in your local I.T shop or generally in line of sight at the point of sale), so the need for flashy packaging is less important. That said, many brands still put a little effort into this and present their solutions as a means to promote a brand, lifestyle or general vibe or excellence in their product (i.e. “the first bite is with the eye” etc). The Terramaster F4-423 arrives in a very plain brown box and just has the model ID with a sticker and the brand logos.

Remarks of presentation aside, the packaging of the Terramaster F4-423 is pretty good in terms of protection. The unit is well held in foam (a little softer in density than I would like maybe) and the accessories are neatly and securely contained. There is practically no room for the system to move in transit and ultimately, that is all that matters (silent shock/motion damage to the components).

The accessories box contains lots of accessories and although most are pretty standard (setup instructions, power supplier, warranty information, screws, etc), there are a couple of unusual additional that I have never received in other brand’s products, namely the inclusion of additional HDD tray clip/screw washers and additional rubber feet for the NAS. This isn’t really a good/bad thing and for those that need them, it’s a handy addition. Just seemed an unusual addition.

One small but positive area of note is the LAN cable included. As mentioned earlier, in more affordable NAS solutions (like more tech), the way savings can be made is by cutting corners. Therefore I was surprised that the Terramaster F4-423 arrived with a surprisingly high-quality LAN cable. Thick, Cat 6 and very high quality at the connector. Again, this si a small point, but companies such as QNAP and Terramaster HAVE provided Cat 5e cables of a shorter length, thinner material and nowhere near the quality of this one with their 1/2.5GbE solutions. It’s a VERY minor point, but this is the sort of area I would have assumed Terramster would have saved a few £/$ on and I am impressed.

The Terramaster F4-423 arrives with an external PSU (quite standard in 4-bay desktop systems) and it’s quite non-descript and not too much to write home about. It’s a 2-pin connector 90W PSU.

Overall, there is quite a good range of accessories included with the Terramaster F4-423. Nothing spectacular, but pretty much everything you are going to need (aside from storage media) to set up your NAS quickly and easily. Let’s discuss the design of the F4-423.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Design

Terrasmaster NAS drives are pretty distinctive. The brand has been using largely the same chassis in its 2 and 4 Bay systems for about 5 years. There HAVE been improvements (port placement, removal of the odd handle on the top and the tray quality is massively improved) but in the desktop 2/4-Bay systems, things have changed very little. The design is looking a little dated now in 2022, but it is still very functional and whereas brand like QNAP have 8-10 different design chassis in their portfolio, it is nice that Terramster have at least kept a consistent look/shape to the solutions in their portfolio for brand recognition.

The Terramaster F4-423 NAS chassis is a combination of Metal and plastic (with the front, rear and media trays all arriving in plastic, but the 1 piece surrounding the middle area is metal). Indeed, at a glance you might assume the whole thing is metal, with the brushed silver colour scheme, but no. The system’s passive cooling (vents) are located between each of the media bays, and at the base of the machine. The system seemingly takes advantage of horizontal airflow through the chassis (with the rear fans facilitating this) and the metal middle section providing dissipation for the internal mechanisms getting warm.

The ventilation on the base of the Terramaster F4-423 is pretty much the entire system and the rubber feet of this NAS are noticeably taller than other NAS 4-Bay systems. Although these are chiefly under the drive media bays, they are pretty much over the entire controller board too, to create an angled air circulation through the bays/board and via the fans on the rear.

The Terramaster F4-423 chassis lacks any LCD panel (these days only QNAP and Asustor seemingly include these on a few of their systems) and system information is provided by multiple LEDs on the front. These cover the activity, status and health of the media bays, the network connection and the power of the system.

The main storage bays of the Terramaster F4-423 NAS are SATA connected plastic trays that support 2.5″ and 3.5″ media (i.e HDDs and SSDs). The system can operate with a single drive if you choose, allowing you to gradually add more storage over time. However, the Terramaster F4-423 (like most NAS) works at it’s best with multiple drives in a RAID configuration for the safety net of redundancy and/or a performance increase of multiple drives being read/written to at the same time.

The trays inside the Terramaster F4-423 support the toolless installation of 3.5″ HDDs (i.e no screwdriver needed and drives click in securely) and 2.5″ SSD/HDDs need the included screws. The SATA connections inside are combined data/power, so no loose cables or tricksy installation. Lastly, the Terramaster F4-423supports hot swapping, so drives can be inserted/removed without powering down the system, just BE AWARE that removing a drive that is in a RAID is not recommended (by ANY NAS brand).

And that is about it for the design of the Terramaster F4-423 chassis. They have used this same design in the bulk of the desktop 2/4 systems, so there are few surprises here. But nonetheless, it seemingly does the job and aside from the design perhaps looking a little old these days compared with Synology’s more expensive Diskstation series, it’s a solid enough build. Let’s discuss the ports and connections of the F4-423 NAS.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Ports and Connections

The connections available on the Terramaster F4-423 NAS, although few in number, are all pretty good for what the devices are costing right now. Only three connections to discuss (and one of them is a bit negligible) but given the device’s price point, the available external bandwidth here is impressive. The rear chunky fan module that is located on the rear of the F4-423 (much like previous Terramaster NAS systems) is a little unsightly, but as it is on the rear of the unit, you are never going to see it much.

The twin fans are thicker than many other fans in the market and although that results in a greater draw of air into the system when it is operational, it does also mean that when in operation, the Terramaster F4-423 is a pinch louder. These fans can be adjusted in rotations per minute (RPM) in the TOS software of course, but it is not recommended and it’s best to leave the system fans on automatic so they can dynamically adjust to the internal temperature for efficiency.

Of course, the first big improvement of the Terramaster F4-423 over its predecessors (F4-422 and F4-421) is the inclusion of 2.5-gigabit ethernet (2.5GbE). The NAS arrives with two ethernet ports that can provide around 250-279MB/s throughout each, as well as allowing link aggregation (aka Port Trunking) to combine their bandwidth and provide 5GbE (around 500-550MB/s throughput) with the use of a smart switch. In the last few years, we have seen several brands provide 2.5GbE connections at the same cost as 1GbE ports and with internet service providers and affordable switch manufacturers providing 2.5GbE solutions, it was only natural that NAS brands would make the jump towards it. Hypothetically, if you had a faster than Gb internet connection (fiber etc) and a google drive account, that means that you would be able to connect with your cloud drive FASTER than a NAS system in your home if you only have 1GbE. This is why NAS systems need to arrive with 2.5/5/10GbE in 2022, for the sake of futureproofing and to keep up with the growing demands for data access. Additionally, 4 SATA storage bays (as well as the use of those internal SSD bays that I will touch on later) will easily saturate a 2.5GbE and even LAG supported 5GbE connection, so these ports allow you to maximize your storage potential and share that bandwidth with multiple connected users.

One slight letdown is that the Terramaster F4-423arrives with an HDMI port BUT they do not have any kind of HDMI/Visual GUI that can be accessed (unlike QNAP’s HD Station and Asustor’s Portal applications) The HDMI out DOES allow you to access SSH/Telnet level/stylized backend controls with a USB keyboard, but with this CPU and hardware architecture supporting embedded graphics, 4K media and multimedia services, it is a real shame that you cannot do anything more home/SMB friendly than command line. Maybe one-day Terramaster will update TOS to take advantage of this feature in a more graphical/KVM way, but it has been 2 years of these systems having HDMI and we have yet to see any change on this.

The USB ports of the Terramaster F4-423 are a subtle upgrade over previous/older NAS systems from the brand, with this NAS featuring 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports. These allow connections of up to 10Gb/s (1,000MB/s – double that of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 5Gb/s in older systems) and that means much, MUCH faster local backups to external storage drives, as well as the support of USB JBOD storage expansions. The real benefits of USB 3.2 Gen 2 in expansions are only really felt when using larger SSD arrays or 5-8 bay expansions. Nevertheless, these ports are a nice extra for the system. Additionally, Terramaster recently released an affordable USB-to-2.5GbE adapter for £25+ that allows you to connect ANOTHER 2.5GbE port on this system. Add a 2-4Bay storage expansion to the other USB port and you have a great deal of storage and network bandwidth for this system to graduate towards, all thanks to those newer gen USB ports.

The ports and connections of the Terramaster F4-423 are few in number but still nonetheless good upgrades over it’s predecessor. Terramaster could have EASILY cut a few corners here (i.e USB 3.2 Gen 1 or just a single 2.5GbE port) and most users would not have batted an eye (as it is noticeably lower in price than the similar USB 3.2/2.5G QNAP TS-464). Let’s get our screwdriver and take a look inside this NAS to see how Terramster have approached the internal specifications of the F4-423.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Internal Hardware

The internal hardware of the Terramaster F4-423 NAS is a mix of current generation hardware choices and quirky application. The internal boards comprise two PCBs (one for the SATA storage nad another for… well… everything else). In most cases, a user will almost never completely dismantle a NAS drive in its lifespan. However, in the case of the F4-423, you are going to need to take it apart quite considerably in order to access a number of the upgrade options. In order to access these, you will need to remove the six rear screws of the chassis and then remove the rear panel. This rear panel contains the active cooling fans and either awkwardly hangs from the chassis or you will need to disconnect the fan (something only fractionally less ideal). From here you will need to slide the entire internal framework out and that allows you to access/upgrade a couple of the internal hardware components as needed.

Once the full internal board is disconnected, you are able to see a wide variety of heatsinks, ports and modules. This is a slightly unconventional means of accessing these bits but something that most PC builders will be ok with. The board is double-sided with the m.2 SSD slots and a single SODIMM memory slot on one side, and the Internal CPU and another populated SODIMM slot on the other side – which is significantly harder to access and requires removal of even more of the internal framework to access.

The CPU featured in the Terramaster F4-423 NAS is a quad-core Intel Celeron N5105 CPU, a processor that has been very much the ‘CPU of choice’ among the 2022/2023 generation of NAS hardware from most of the brands (except Synology). This is a quad-core x86 64bit processor that is 2.0Ghz in clock speed, that can be burst up to 2.9Ghz when needed. It features an onboard AES-NI encryption engine, as well as Intel embedded graphics for visual data tasks such as native multimedia playback, transcoding, photo management and improved services in TOS 5 (still in beta) towards AI photo recognition and surveillance with IP Cameras. As mentioned, although this is never going to challenge the likes of an Intel Pentium or Intel Core in 2022, it is still a very good CPU and in the context of NAS and this price point, very competent indeed.

Alongside that CPU, the Terramaster F4-423 NAS also arrives with 4GB of DDR4 Memory. However, closer inspection of the F4-423 architecture does raise a couple of small questions. Firstly, the 4GB of memory the system arrives with is a single 2133Mhz SODIMM module. Most other NAS systems with this architecture arrive with 2400-2666Mhz memory. It’s a small point, but this is the first NAS I have seen with DDR4 memory at 2133Mhz. Additionally, the 4GB module is located in an incredibly difficult place under the main cage array, so installing larger/faster memory is not going to be possible without much more dismantling. Talking of ‘adding more memory’, Terramaster state that the F4-423 NAS supports up to 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory across its two slots. However, Intel state that this CPU only supports a maximum 16GB across two channels – so although I am sure the system would definitely see 32GB of memory if you have 2x 16GB installed, I do wonder if you will definitely be able to actually USE all 32 correctly.

The Terramaster F4-423 also features two M.2 NVMe SSD bays that allow you to install significantly faster SSDs into the system alongside SATA HDDs, meaning that you have another option for your storage. Now, there is good and bad news here regarding these ports. On the plus side, they can be used for either caching alongside the larger HDD RAID configuration (to allow read/write caching and significantly improve their performance in key areas) or as it’s own storage pool. This is something that popular NAS competitor Synology has never implemented to their NVMe bays, despite it being a highly requested feature. On a slight downside, as the Intel N5105 CPU inside the Terramaster F4-423 is already being stretched a little thing in it’s architecture, these M.2 NVMe SSD bays are PCIe Gen 3 x1 speed. This means that NVMe SSDs such as the Seagate Ironwolf 510/525 or WD Red SN700 at PCIe Gen 3/4 x4 will be limited down to a maximum 1,000MB/s per bay. This is still something you can incorporate into a solid RAID for improved performance and its better to have them, than not at all though.

The internal hardware inside the Terramaster F4-423 is still good for the money and certainly gives you a solid base level of hardware to work with. The means to access and upgrade the system hardware is less smooth than most/all other commercial NAS brands, but once you have jumped these odd hurdles, you have some great kit here to use in conjunction with 1st and 3rd party applications. So, let’s move into the subject of software and TOS on the F4-423.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Software

VERY IMPORTANT – At the time of writing this review, the Terramaster F4-423 NAS arrives with the 4th generation of their software platform TOS. Why is this important? Well, because right now there is a beta in progress for TOS 5 and it is a SIGNIFICANT step from the current generation of TOS that is included with the F4-423 at launch. So, if you are considering the F4-423 NAS later in 2022/2023, then there is every chance that TOS 5 has been released and you can download it (free etc) onto the device. We will be reviewing TOS 5 fully when the final version is released, but for now, I wanted to highlight a number of hte key features that will be added to TOS later this year, as well as the current range of services that are included in TOS 4 right now. (important, we originally previewed a VERY earlier build of Terramaster TOS 5 Alpha in the video HERE on the NASCompares YouTube channel which will give you an idea of how TOS5 looks/feels, but many new features have been added in the months since the beta was rolled out). LOADS more features have been added since this original alpha preview and we will soon be deep-diving into this newer Beta release very soon. Below is what Terramaster say is included in the new TOS ver.5 Beta.

New Features & Improvements in Existing Services

In TOS 5, not only have the storage structure and data interaction mode been reconstructed but also, compared with the previous generation, it adds more than 50 features and 600 improvements. The new features meet more business requirements, as well as significantly improve response speed, security, and ease of use.

Browser Access to TOS is Now 3x Times Faster

TOS 5 adopts progressive JavaScript language and a lightweight framework with a faster loading speed. TOS 5 features bidirectional data binding, easier data manipulation, and automatic synchronous response to data changes in the page; UI, data, and structure separation make it easier to change data without the need to modify logic codes. Using progressive JavaScript language, TOS 5 has a more lightweight framework. In addition, through two-way binding of data, the view, data and structure are separated. When the page is operated, it automatically responds to changes in data, which makes the system “lighter” and achieves a faster loading speed.

New caching technology avoids network round trips between the server and the database, bypasses the calculation that occupies resources, saves server resources, and improves response time and waiting time, so TOS 5 has the fastest response time in the current TOS family. Compared with the last generation, the TOS 5 response speed has increased by 300%! Use WASM to optimize the calculation method and execute the back-end complex calculations on the front-end, thereby reducing the calculation pressure on the server. In addition, TOS 5 uses the most popular back-end language at the moment, which can support high concurrent requests. Compared with traditional interpreted languages, the compilation speed is faster.

Improved Resource Monitor in TOS 5

The new iconic resource monitor board allows you to grasp the operating status of your TNAS comprehensively and intuitively in real-time; at-a-glance visibility of system load, CPU and memory usage, network traffic, disk I/O, device temperature, storage, processes, online users, listening ports, and system resource occupancy. Historical records of up to 30 days can be easily traced back.

Full One Button System Isolation Mode Available in TOS 5

TerraMaster’s unique security isolation mode completely isolates your TNAS device from the external network through network isolation, digital signature, and file format restriction, providing a safer operating environment and effective protection against virus and ransomware attacks.

Support of the WORM File System in TOS5

Data can be written at one time within the customized protection period and cannot be deleted or modified. This effectively protects your data from malicious damage, deletion, or tampering and provides data protection for up to 70 years; essential for the financial, judicial, medical, and scientific research sectors, as well as other business users.

Improved Storage, Backup & Sync Features in Terramaster TOS 5

TOS 5 features optimized storage architecture to reduce the system space occupation. The file deduplication system, file system compression, TRAID elastic array, and other functions also save you up to 40% of storage space

Single Portal Folder Level Backup for Home and SMB Users

Reduce complexity and embrace simplicity. All backup needs can be completed through a single portal, providing one-stop backup solutions including Central Backup, TerraSync, Duple Backup, Snapshot, USB Copy, CloudSync, and other comprehensive backup tools. This meets your clients’ disaster recovery and restoration requirements, as well as backup policies and destinations.

Business Focused ProActive Backups for Larger Business

To improve management efficiency, medium and larger-sized businesses need a centralized and active backup solution for multiple users, PCs, and servers. Centralized Backup is a business-oriented backup solution that supports backup and restoration for multiple device types. You can centrally backup data of dozens or even hundreds of PCs, servers, or virtual machines with only one TNAS.

New Flexible RAID Support in TRAID in TOS 5

By optimizing the traditional RAID mode, TerraMaster RAID (TRAID) gives you flexible disk array configuration, flexible online migration, capacity expansion, and redundancy policies. As well as improving disk space utilization, it also provides solutions and security protection for storage space changes caused by new business requirements. Much like Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) in that you can mix drive capacities for improved storage after the RAID redundancy calculation. I reached out to Terramaster directly on this and they confirm that this function is supported in TOS 5.

Multiple Client Sync with TerraSync in TOS 5

TerraSync, a TerraMaster self-developed synchronization tool, realizes data synchronization between multiple users and multiple devices. It efficiently implements data sharing among branch offices and data synchronization between individuals on multiple devices and platforms, which assists employees in collaborative work and improves work efficiency.

New CloudSync Application for Bare Metal-to-Cloud Live Sync in TOS 5

The new CloudSync app integrates multiple cloud drives and syncs them into one application, including Google Drive, One Drive, Amazon S3, Backblaze, Box, Dropbox, Koofr, OpenDrive, pCloud, Yandex disk, and Aliyun. This allows users to centralize the management of multiple synchronization tasks and add a variety of cloud disk synchronization options including Aliyun and Rackspace. A more flexible, stable, and efficient solution for data synchronization between your TNAS and cloud drives is facilitated by your choice of customized synchronization strategies, such as traffic control, scheduled tasks, and encryption.

CCTV Surveillance in Terramaster TOS 5

TNAS is an ideal video recording storage device. The new Surveillance Manager makes full use of TNAS storage resources to realize camera management, real-time monitoring, video storage, playback, query, event and activity monitoring and recording, providing you with economic and flexible video monitoring management tools to safeguard your personal and property safety.

AI Photo Recognition Now Available in TOS 5 with Terra Photo

Terra Photos is TerraMaster’s brand-new AI photo management application that provides smart solutions for your photo management and sharing; it uses intelligent AI algorithms to identify and classify faces, pets, locations, and other objects in your photos.

Docker Added to Existing Container Tools in TOS 5

Combined with docker-compose and portainer, the new Docker Manager features an optimized operation interface, with multiple new features which provide visual management that meets all your requirements for container customization and flexible configuration.

New Update to Terramaster’s Mobile App, TNAS Mobile 5

To adapt to TOS 5, TNAS mobile has also ushered in a comprehensive update, TNAS mobile 5. Featuring an optimized user interface and interaction, it has also added mobile phone backup, photo management, personal folders, team folders, data safebox, TerraSync, remote administrator, and other functions, which provide more convenience for remote access, mobile office, and remote management of your TNAS.

TOS 4 on the Terramaster F4-423 NAS

Once again, I need to highlight that the F4-423 NAS needs to be viewed with its price tag always in mind. With software and hardware that is available on other NAS brand devices, it is easy to imagine that this device is a much, more affordable alternative to QNAP or Synology NAS. However, you should always remember that this device is still aimed at those looking for a first dip into NAS and if should be compared with WD NAS and D-Link when making your choice of NAS. it is DEFINITELY better than those and arrives at a better price, but it may still be a year or more before the Terramaster TOS Software platform can compete with DSM and QTS. That said, the Beta is really showing that TOS is going to evolve even further and for more information about the TerraMaster TOS operating System, I recommend visiting my software review here from a couple of years ago.

Key Software and NAS tasks that are supported are:

• RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, JBOD
• Apple Time Machine Backup
• Cloud Migration and Synchronization
• NAS to NAS Rsync Support
• Plex Media Server
• Docker

• Mail Server
• Web Server
• DLNA Media Server
• WordPress Server
• Download Server
• Snapshot Support

With a good range of applications to choose from, as well as the support of modern NAS applications in the mix, the TerraMaster F4-423 does give you a good base with which to start your NAS journey, though it may feel a little streamlined for those with greater NAS experience.

Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review – Conclusion

Terramaster still continues to be the most affordable fully-featured provider of the whole NAS market and although a number of their solutions have always felt a little rough around the edges, you always got the impression that you were getting a good deal for the hardware that was available from QNAP and Synology. Now in 2022/2023, the same continues to be true but in the F4-423 NAS’ case, you are actually getting some pretty top tier (for the Home/Prosumer) market at a price tag that is really tough to argue with. Terramaster has clearly been watching their bigger competitors and cherry-picked the features that people have been asking for (2.5GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, M.2 NVMe SSD bays, etc) for this new generation. In terms of software, things are a little less convincing and although TOS 5 (currently in Beta at the time of writing) still continues to evolve into something genuinely fully featured and impressive, TOS 4 that the F4-423 includes at launch is usable (if unexciting) platform that provides the base level services that a new NAS user would want, but lacks killer apps that their competitors are offering right now (File Streaming, AI photo recognition, Surveillance, etc). Most of these ARE included in TOS5, but until it arrives much later in 2022 in a full release, the F4-423 feels like a powerful NAS that doesn’t have the software to show off its strengths yet. If you are reading this later in 2022 or 2023, this might well be irrelevant though, as the brand rolls out their bit firmware update to ALL Terramster NAS devices. Overall, I definitely CAN recommend the F4-423 NAS for its hardware, for Plex Media server or as an affordable multi-tier backup solution, but if you are looking for a NAS for more tailored data access or in a much more fully-featured package – hold out a little longer till TOS 5 gets released first.

PROS of the Terramaster F4-423	CONS of the Terramaster F4-423
2.5GbE at the Price of 1GbE Good CPU for the Price Point USB 3.2 Gen 2 is very forward-thinking for local backups Great RAID Options Snapshot Replication BTRFS Support if preferred Supports Plex and all 1080p Transcoding 4K Video transcoding natively A large amount of maximum memory supported (16-32GB – TBC) Includes two M.2 NVMe SSD Bays that can be used for storage or caching	Default 4GB memory is 2133Mhz HDMI Currently Unsupported Until TOS5 is Fully Released, TOS Software feels a little empty of Killer-Apps (AI photo recognition, Surveillance, etc)

Click the link below to take you to your local Amazon store and where to buy the terramaster F4-423 NAS.

 

 

Terramaster NAS Introduce a Flexible RAID System into TOS 5

With several NAS brands in the market, it can often be the small features that one brand offers over another than can be the deciding factor for many in choosing the right solution for their needs. One feature that current NAS favourite Synology have offered on their solutions in the last few years was SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) and this was a feature that many people desired enough to choose their premium platform over others. This is about to change however with the news that TOS 5 from Terramaster (the software that is included with their NAS systems) features a new fluid/flexible RAID system too, known as TRAID. This is a very appealing feature for many that are already looking at Terramaster NAS’ affordability. TOS has revealed several new features (isolation mode, Surveillance Camera software, AI Photo recognition and more) and the TRAID configuration to allow flexible and fluid RAID storage is going to be very popular indeed.

Why Are Flexible/Fluid RAID Configurations Popular?

RAID flexibility in configurations such as TRAID and SHR have always been appealing to home/SMB users, as it allows the end-user to fully or partially populate their NAS systems with mixed capacity HDD/SSDs. Few people will want to do this on day 1, but years into their NAS drive’s life, when they want to add newer, bigger hard drives (as the cost of HDDs per Terabyte drops over time) and this is where mixing drive capacities and still getting the benefits of larger available capacities becomes increasingly desirable. Traditional RAID (RAID 1, 5, 6, etc) will measure each drive in an array by the smallest available drive. Therefore, for example, if you have 7x 10TB Hard drives and 1x 10TB in a RAID 5 carry, traditional RAID systems will class all eight of those drives as 1TB each. Fluid RAID’s allow the system to only be concerned with ensuring 1 drive’s worth of redundancy (i.e 1x of the biggest drive available) and then presents the whole of the rest of the storage to the end user. In short, by optimizing the traditional RAID mode, TerraMaster RAID (TRAID) gives you flexible disk array configuration, flexible online migration, capacity expansion, and redundancy policies. As well as improving disk space utilization, it also provides solutions and security protection for storage space changes caused by new business requirements.

What is Terramaster TRAID?

TRAID is the abbreviation of TerraMaster RAID. TRAID is a flexible disk array management tool developed by TerraMaster. It has features such as the automatic combination of disk space, hard disk failure redundancy protection, and automatic capacity expansion. All these features do not require manual configuration by the user, and the system will automatically complete the configuration according to the properties of the hard disk. TRAID provides users with an optimized, flexible and elastic disk array management solution, especially suitable for new users who are not proficient in how to configure a disk array.

Note – Once you have selected TRAID as your array type, you cannot convert TRAID to a traditional array type unless you delete and recreate the array. If you want to manage the array type manually, it is recommended that you use the traditional type when building your array, such as Single, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, etc.

Higher disk space utilization options for TRAID

In the digital age, the amount of our data is increasing rapidly, and the capacity of hard disks is also increasing rapidly at a rate of almost doubling every 3 years. When we purchase larger capacity hard drives, we also hope that the old hard drives can continue to play a role, but the traditional array mode cannot meet this demand. TerraMaster TRAID array solves this problem very well. With TRAID flexible management strategy, you can continuously add hard disks to your array to expand the storage capacity, even if the hard disk capacity is quite different. For examples. Let’s say, you want to combine 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 10TB 5 hard drives with different capacities to form a disk array with redundancy protection. In traditional RAID mode (RAID 5), you only get 5TB of usable space. To give that a little perspective, here is how the traditional RAID works

How TRAID works versus RAID 5

With TRAID’s elastic strategy, you can get 23TB of usable space. TerraMaster uses the Linux disk management tool to subtly divide the hard disk space of different capacities into smaller partitions, and then combine the redundancy strategy to recombine the partitions. Once the TRAID is formed, users can still replace larger capacity hard disks or add more hard disks to expand the storage space of the array according to their needs. Compared with traditional arrays, in addition to redundancy protection, TRAID can significantly improve the utilization efficiency of disk space. At the same time, compared with traditional arrays, TRAID arrays have higher efficiency when expanding capacity. Here is the same HDD setup you saw previously in the RAID 5 diagram and how it would result in TRAID

How to expand the storage space of TRAID?

After the TRAID is formed, you can expand the storage space through the following 2 methods.

1. Replace the hard drive with a larger capacity
Note: Replace only one hard drive at a time, and make sure that the newly added hard drive meets the requirements.
Operation method: Keep the TNAS powered on, remove one of the drives, and insert a larger capacity drive, go to Control Panel > Storage Management > Storage Pool > Edit, and select “Repair”. After the array is repaired, use the same method to replace other hard drives.

2. Increase the number of hard drives
Operation method: Keep the TNAS powered on, insert a new hard drive, go to Control Panel > Storage Management > Storage Pool > Edit, and select “Expand”. Make sure that the newly added hard drive meets the requirements and you have enough spare disks slots.

Hard disk failure redundancy protection
TRAID can provide you with redundant protection against a hard disk failure, allowing a maximum of one hard disk to fail. Ensure your data is not lost in the event of a hard drive failure in the array.
Note: You only need one hard disk to create a TRAID array, but TRAID of one hard disk cannot provide redundancy protection. If redundancy protection is required, you need at least 2 hard disks.

TRAID+ with redundant protection of 2 hard drives
If you wish to provide 2 hard disk failure redundancy for the array, a maximum of 2 hard disk failures are allowed. Please choose a higher level TRAID: TRAID+. Note: At least 4 hard disks are required to form a TRAID +.

How to migrate TRAID to TRAID+?
You can migrate TRAID to TRAID+ by adding the number of hard drives.
Note: TRAID can be migrated to TRAID+ only when there are 3 or more hard drives.
How to do it: Keep the TNAS powered on, insert a new hard drive, go to Control Panel > Storage Management > Storage Pools > Edit, and select “Migrate”. Make sure that the newly added hard drive meets the requirements.

Want to see a demonstration of how TRAID works using different Hard Drive capacities? I made a full demonstration using TRAID and 4 mixed drives, as well as the advantages/disadvantages of the configuration in the video below:

Find out more about the planned updates and improvements to TOS for Terramaster NAS in the Beta update below:

Terramaster NAS TOS 5 Beta Now Available – Learn More Below

 

 

 

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Synology HD6500 60-Bay Rackmount NAS Released Synology announces the availability of the HD6500, the first of the HD series, designed for super-sized storage needs. The 4U, 60-bay HD6500 streamlines petabyte-level storage with support for up to 960 TB per chassis and can be easily paired with up to 4 additional RX6022sas 60 bay expansion units […]

Terramaster TOS 5 Software Update RELEASED!

According to Terramaster the new TOS 5 release has been in development for one and half years, includes more than 50 new features, 600 enhancements, comprises 300,000 lines of new code and now, the long-awaited TOS 5.0 is officially released today! Although there are a huge number of improvements under the bonnet, there is also a whole bunch of improvements on the surface too, ranging from improvements in the GUI and responsiveness to new fully featured applications. Here is what you need to know.

TOS 5 Now has a Secure HyperLock-WORM file system Option

Data is a precious asset of the vast majority of users, and data security is very important! Some data storage and custody are even regulated by law, such as court cases, medical cases, financial securities, company financial data, etc. These important data can only be read but not written within a specified time period according to the law. Therefore, such data needs to be protected against tampering. The WORM (Write Once Read Many) features provide a write-once-read-many technology, which is a commonly used method for data security access and archiving in the storage industry. The WORM feature means that after the file is written, it can enter the read-only state by removing the write permission of the file. In this state, the file can only be read and cannot be deleted, modified, or renamed. By configuring the WORM feature to protect the stored data, it can be prevented from accidental manipulation.

TerraMaster HyperLock-WORM file system is a storage system with WORM characteristics. Through the write-once-read-many technology, the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of the original data in the storage medium are guaranteed to satisfy the sensitive requirements of enterprises. Data security storage and legal supervision needs. The characteristic of the TerraMaster HyperLock-WORM file system is that its WORM feature is developed based on the file system and is not limited by the file service type. It is suitable for most common file services, but can only be set by the administrator. Administrators can flexibly assign read and write permissions to users and set a protection period. During the protection period, the data uploaded to the device can only be read and cannot be deleted, modified, or renamed. The protection period can be set up to 70 years! In order to improve security, once the protection period is set, it can only be extended but not shortened.

Compared with other storage solutions with WORM features, the TerraMaster HyperLock-WORM file system has higher security. Once the TerraMaster HyperLock-WORM file system is created, even the administrator cannot delete or modify the storage partition from the menu page or the system background. As long as the storage device is safely placed in an isolated environment, anyone without access to the NAS hardware devices, even employees with administrator privileges or hackers, cannot pose a threat to the data. TerraMaster HyperLock-WORM file system is an innovation in data security management, which can provide more secure protection for customers’ important digital assets, and is suitable for industries with important data such as government, public health, law, finance, and enterprises.

New Storage Utilities in TOS 5

The core function of a TNAS is data storage and backup. TOS 5 has fully optimized storage management and added more utilities to facilitate users to monitor the health status of storage space and increase storage space utilization.

• Hard disk Benchmark
  Through the hard disk benchmark test, you can better understand your hard disk’s read/write, latency, and throughput performance. The hard disk benchmark can also reflect the health of the hard disks
• Hard Disk Secure Erase
  Secure Erase can completely erase the data on the disk by randomly writing 0 or 1 to the disk. Securely erased hard drive data can no longer be recovered, suitable for users who store sensitive data.
• SMART Long Test
  SMART is an important indicator of hard drive reliability. SMART Quick Test and SMART Long Test options have been added to TOS 5. You can get more accurate hard drive health indicators with the SMART long test, but the advanced long will take more time.
• Hard Disk Bad Block Warning
  Enable monitoring of the bad blocks of the hard disk. Once the number of bad blocks increases, a notification and warning will be sent to the administrator.
• SSD TRIM
  By periodically TRIMing the SSD, the storage sectors are pre-initialized to maintain the excellent read and write performance of the SSD.
• Hard disk Operation Log
  Record all operations of the system or the user to the hard disk.
• Array Synchronization Settings
  Device performance is affected during array synchronization. The new system allows users to customize the synchronization speed of the array according to their needs.
• Data Scrubbing
  Data scrubbing is the process of modifying or removing incomplete, incorrect, inaccurately formatted, or duplicated data in a database. Data scrubbing improves data consistency, accuracy,and reliability.
• File System Defragmentation
  File system defragmentation can reorder, optimize and organize scattered data fragments, thereby improving the efficiency of disk data reading and writing.
• File System Compression
  Once file system compression is enabled, data stored to TNAS will be automatically compressed to save storage space. Users can customize the compression level. The higher the compression level, the higher the compression rate and the more space saved, but the slower the writing speed.
• SSD Cache Array
  Failure of an SSD serving as a cache will risk data loss. Users of TOS 5 can set up an array for multiple SSD caches, such as RAID 1 for 2 SSDs, even if one SSD fails, it will not affect the normal operation of the cache, thereby reducing the risk of data loss.

• 

New Photo Management Tool with AI-Powered Cataloging and Identification – (Still in Beta at time of writing)

Terra Photos is a smart photo management application. Through the AI ​​algorithm, Terra Photos can recognize and classify the faces, pets, things, and scenes of the photos in the specified directory, which is convenient for you to sort, classify and share the photos through the graphical interface. Terra Photos is the ideal photo management tool for home users, photographers, and creative agencies.

• AI face recognition
  Terra Photos has a built-in AI algorithm that can automatically recognize and classify faces with an accuracy rate of up to 80%. For wrongly recognized faces, Terra Photos also provides manual correction methods to provide greater convenience for photo management.
• Broader AI applications
  Not only face recognition, Terra Photos can also automatically identify dozens of categories such as pets, objects, landscapes, sports, vehicles, and flowers by enhancing AI operations. Terra Photos provides users with smarter management tools, greatly increasing the usefulness of photo management.
• Geographical Classification
  By integrating the GPS location information of photos through map resources, Terra Photos can also automatically categorize your photos by geographic location, making it easier for you to quickly query your photos.
• Take into account personal privacy and sharing
  Terra Photos adopts a separate storage strategy for personal photos and shared photos of family members. The two kinds of photos are stored in directories with different access rights, which helps to protect personal privacy and facilitates the sharing of photos between family members or business customers. share with each other.
• Flat UI
  Terra Photos uses a flat user interface to flatly display the user’s commonly used categories in the first-level directory, such as photos, albums, videos, people, pets, objects, locations, recently added, and favorites, which is more conducive to users to quickly browse and find target photo.
• More flexible management strategies
  Terra Photos’ flexible query filtering strategy can begin to help you filter out the photos you want by combining the name and time of the photo, with the combination of the year, month, day, and ascending and descending order.
• Share happiness and creativity
  Terra Photos provides users with sharing tools, you can choose to create photos or share albums and flexibly formulate sharing strategies, sub-defining sharing titles, sharing links, effective time, access passwords, download permissions, etc. Terra Photos provides an easier way for home-sharing or business client sharing.

Surveillance Manager for Adding and Monitoring Multiple IP Cameras on a Live feed on Your  Terramaster NAS

Surveillance Manager is a video surveillance management tool. Through Surveillance Manager, you can build a video surveillance system with multiple IP cameras and TNAS, connect your cameras through ONVIF protocol, manage cameras, view real-time recordings, view historical recordings, and store the recordings of network cameras directly in TNAS to specify storage location.

• Simple to Use
  Surveillance Manager uses web browsers for configuration and management. The recording device does not need to be connected to a monitor, and any computer in the network can log in to the system to view the recording.
• Good Compatibility
  The surveillance Manager adopts the general ONVIF protocol and can adapt to most general-purpose cameras. It supports the automatic camera search, which simplifies the connection configuration of the cameras
• Suitable for Medium-sized Users
  The surveillance Manager can connect dozens of cameras at the same time and support multi-channel recording. Suitable for families and small and medium-sized business users.
• Multi-channel Real-time Monitoring
  The surveillance Manager supports multi-channel real-time monitoring. The screen display layout of monitoring can be customized, and the screens can be switched with one click.
• Timeline Rollback
  Roll back the recorded video by dragging the timeline or customizing the time period, making it easier to view historical events.
• Recording Schedule
  The surveillance Manager supports custom recording schedules and activity-triggered recordings to increase storage space utilization.
• Form Recording Storage
  The recorded video is classified and stored according to the camera and time, which is convenient for quick query and download

• 

New iSCSI Manager Application to Manager Larger Storage on your Terramaster NAS

Terramaser NAS is widely used as a storage device for virtualized computing. With TerraMaster iSCSI Manager, you can create multiple iSCSI targets and LUNs on your TNAS, and customize the capacity, permissions, and connections through a graphical interface to meet your storage space requirements in different virtualization environments.

• Custom ISCSI Target IQN
  Using iSCSI Manager, create multiple iSCSI targets on your TNAS and customize IQNs to help you easily identify. You can also choose to enable authentication or mutual authentication for the iSCSI Target to increase access security.
• Customize network management policies
  To improve network utilization efficiency, you can designate a dedicated network interface and channel for the iSCSI Target to separate the iSCSI Target’s network from the networks of other services. To optimize the transfer efficiency of the iSCSI Target, you can also limit the maximum fragment size in bytes transmitted and received.
• Multiple session connections
  In order to adapt to complex virtualization application scenarios, iSCSI Manager allows users to enable multiple session connections from one or more initiators for iSCSI Target. Note: Multiple session connections provide flexible connection methods for initiators, but improper settings may put your data at risk! Make sure you use multiple session connections in a cluster-aware file system.
• Balance performance and flexibility
  You can create multiple LUNs and mount them to the iSCSI Target you specify. iSCSI Manager provides Thick provisioning and Thin provisioning configuration strategies for LUN storage space. Thick provisioning can provide better storage performance, in contrast, thin provisioning can provide more flexible storage space utilization.
• Safer protection
  Combined with the Snapshot technology, you can take snapshots of LUNs to prevent data loss caused by misoperations or accidents. Note: Snapshots are not supported for LUNs under the Thick provisioning configuration.
• Initiator access control
  By default, all connected initiators in iSCSI Manager have read and write permissions to LUNs. You can also customize access permissions for each initiator to meet the needs of various occasions.
• Low-capacity write protection
  When the storage space of the LUN is about to be exhausted, if the initiator continues to write data to the LUN, the LUN may be destroyed. For this reason, iSCSI Manager has specially designed the low-capacity write protection function. When the LUN is in low capacity, it will prevent the initiator from continuing to write data for protection.

New CloudSync Tool for connecting your 3rd Party Cloud Services and Remote Servers in TOS 5

CloudSync is a cloud drive synchronization application for fast and secure data synchronization between your TNAS and cloud drives. It is a very practical and efficient one-stop cloud drive disaster recovery solution. Different from previous versions, in TOS 5, we have integrated the synchronization of various cloud drives into one application, which is more convenient for users to use. At the same time, we have also redesigned the application layout, added some features, and optimized the user experience.

• Support multiple cloud drives
  CloudSync integrates a variety of mainstream cloud drive synchronization functions in one application, including Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, etc. It only needs to manage one application to meet different cloud drive synchronization management.
• Multiple synchronization strategies
  CloudSync provides users with two-way and one-way synchronization strategies. Two-way synchronization can meet the flexible needs of data utilization, and one-way synchronization can meet the focus of data protection and increase data security.
• Data leakage prevention strategy
  In order to improve the protection of sensitive data, CloudSync supports data encryption. You can encrypt the data before synchronizing it to the cloud drive, and then decrypt the data after synchronizing it back to TNAS to prevent data leakage on the cloud drive.
• Scheduled Tasks
  According to usage scenarios and business requirements, users can set the execution time of synchronization tasks by themselves to avoid the busy time of business operation.
• more flexible configuration
  In order to meet more customer needs, CloudSync also supports various flexible configurations such as synchronization bandwidth limit, file size limit, synchronization file type limit, synchronization frequency, etc.
• In full control
  CloudSync not only provides users with a detailed synchronization task configuration history, but also provides a list of millions of file backups and transfers, allowing you to monitor the backup progress and various exceptions throughout the process.

Terramaster Duple Backup Deduplication Management Tool in TOS 5

Duple Backup has not been released an official version before TOS 5 and has been developing and testing it. In TOS 5, we have redesigned Duple Backup. The new Duple Backup has optimized the user interface, added some features, and improved the user experience. Duple Backup has powerful backup and restore functions, and is a disaster recovery tool designed to strengthen the data security of TNAS devices. To prevent data loss due to TNAS device hardware failure or system failure, through Duple Backup’s intuitive user menu, you can back up important folders or iSCSI LUNs in TNAS to multiple destinations (such as remote TNAS devices, file servers, or cloud disks) ), and supports multiple backup strategies of incremental backup and multi-version backup. The backup and restore process is very simple and intuitive, and can quickly restore lost data in the event of a device failure.

• Various backup objects
  The backup object of Duple Backup can be the shared folder in TNAS or the specified file directory. Not only that, it can also back up the iSCSI LUN and the configuration of the iSCSI LUN in the TNAS device to meet the needs of backing up the data in the TNAS.
• Multiple destinations
  According to business needs, you can choose up to 4 different backup destinations for the data in TNAS, such as: another TNAS device, file server, WebDAV server, various mainstream cloud disks. With the Duple Backup Vault client, using two TNAS devices for mutual backup can greatly simplify the backup configuration process.
• Multiple backup strategies
  According to business requirements and storage resource configuration, you can select incremental backup or multi-version backup strategies for backup tasks to improve storage space utilization.
• Secure data transfer
  Taking data security into full consideration, Duple Backup uses SSL certificate encryption throughout the backup task to ensure the security of data transmission.
• Efficient transmission
  In order to improve backup efficiency, before performing backup tasks, data is compressed and then transmitted, and the maximum compression rate can be as high as 30%, which not only reduces the user’s network bandwidth usage, but also saves storage space and reduces customers’ IT investment costs
• Restoration is easy
  Through an intuitive graphical interface, Duple Backup provides suitable restoration methods for different destinations. When an accident occurs, users can use Duple Backup’s restoration tool to restore data in a very short period of time to reduce losses caused by disasters.
• 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
  In order to prevent data loss in the event of an accident, the 3-2-1 backup strategy is widely adopted by many users, that is, to keep at least 3 backups of data, 2 of which are stored on different devices, and at least 1 is stored in a different place. Duple Backup, as a backup tool specially designed for TNAS, is ideal for a 3-2-1 backup strategy.
• In full control
  Duple Backup not only provides users with a detailed backup and restore task configuration history, but also provides a list of millions of file backups and transfers, allowing you to monitor the backup progress and various exceptions throughout the process.
• Suitable for a variety of applications
  Duple Backup is not only suitable for home users, but also for business users with multiple offices or branch offices. With local backup and off-site backup of branch offices, it can provide reliable security for data.

• 

Improved Snapshot Management and Services Added in TOS 5

TerraMaster Snapshot is a disaster recovery tool developed based on the BTRFS file system. Take snapshots of shared folders or iSCSI LUNs and quickly restore data after a disaster by taking advantage of file system features. In TOS 5, Snapshot has been redesigned to add more features and improve the user experience.

• Filesystem level snapshots
  TerraMaster Snapshot is a snapshot tool based on the BTRFS file system. The Btrfs file system introduces advanced storage technology and snapshot technology to provide flexible and efficient data protection and recovery tools while improving high data integrity.
• Save your time and space
  The TerraMaster Snapshot snapshot function is based on COW (copy-on-write), so snapshots can be created almost instantaneously, and they take up almost no space when they are first created, greatly increasing the utilization of space and time. It can be said to be a perfect snapshot solution.
• Virtualization disaster recovery
  TerraMaster Snapshot can provide a good disaster recovery solution for virtualized storage space by taking snapshots of shared folders or iSCSI LUNs, whether it is virtualized storage through NFS or iSCSI.
• Higher snapshot performance
  TerraMaster Snapshot can create up to 1,024 snapshots for each shared folder and up to 65,536 snapshots for the entire system, providing you with adjustable, storage-saving data protection capabilities to meet stringent snapshot performance requirements.
• Efficient snapshot rollback
  The snapshot file resides in the same storage space as the subvolume, and you can browse it like a normal directory and restore a copy of the file as it was when the snapshot was taken. TerraMaster Snapshot arranges snapshots through a timeline, combined with an intuitive graphical interface, when you need to restore a snapshot file, you only need a few mouse clicks to roll back the snapshot to the version you need.
• Remote incremental backup
  Generating snapshots on the same storage space as the snapshot subvolume is not an ideal backup strategy, and if the hard disk fails, the snapshot will be lost. TerraMaster Snapshot can send snapshot copies as incremental backups to an external hard drive or to a remote storage system via SSH (the backup destination also needs to use the BTRFS file system) for increased data security

Complete Remote System Access Tool in TOS 5 – Security Isolation Mode

For users who pay great attention to data security but do not need to use external network resources, TerraMaster has added a new security tool in TOS 5 — Security Isolation Mode. At present, hackers and ransomware are raging around the world, and a large number of customers’ precious digital assets are under unprecedented threat. TOS 5’s unique Security Isolation Mode can provide users with a safe and reliable operating environment, isolate external risks, and protect digital assets from infringement.

• Kernel security level
  Through the digital signature based on the kernel level, once the security isolation mode is enabled, any programs that have not been signed by the system will be blocked from running, effectively preventing viruses or malicious code from running.
• Self-isolation
  The Security Isolation Mode can effectively prevent illegal in-stack and out-stack access to the external network through the self-established isolation barrier, only allow legal access in the local network, and protect the system from external malicious attacks.
• Secondary advanced protection
  In order to prevent security barriers and system protection measures from being attacked and tampered with, the Security Isolation Mode adopts secondary password verification protection. Deleting or modifying all configuration information related to security protection measures requires password verification again, effectively preventing hackers from damaging the barrier.
• Strong blocking
  Any code based on Java, php, or Python will be blocked from execution, effectively preventing the system from being injected with malicious code to threaten data security.
• Scenes to be used
  . Enterprises or organizations that are extremely sensitive to data security;
  . External network services that need to be closed and isolated, do not need to access the external network or provide remote access;
  . Only use TNAS to provide file storage, no need to run web pages, databases, mail services, virtual machines, and other applications;
  . Applicable industries: military, judicial, electric power, scientific research, medicine, and other industries

New Terramaster Flexible RAID System – TRAID

TRAID is the abbreviation of TerraMaster RAID. TRAID is a flexible disk array management tool developed by TerraMaster. It has features such as the automatic combination of disk space, hard disk failure redundancy protection, and automatic capacity expansion. All these features do not require manual configuration by the user, and the system will automatically complete the configuration according to the properties of the hard disk. TRAID provides users with an optimized, flexible and elastic disk array management solution, especially suitable for new users who are not proficient in how to configure a disk array. Once you have selected TRAID as your array type, you cannot convert TRAID to a traditional array type unless you delete and recreate the array. If you want to manage the array type manually, it is recommended that you use the traditional type when building your array, such as Single, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, etc. Below is our description of how TRAID works and a demonstration of me mixing a bunch of drives in a single RAID, one by one.

Improved Backup Management Tool in TOS 5 – Centralized Backup

Centralized Backup has not released an official version before TOS 5, and has been developing and testing it. In TOS 5, we have redesigned the Centralized Backup. The new Centralized Backup has re-optimized the user interface, added some functions, and improved the user experience. Centralized Backup is a professional disaster recovery tool specially developed for business users. By using Centralized Backup, company IT managers can use TNAS as the central backup server, without having to configure each host separately, and use TNAS as the initiator to centrally back up the storage space of internal employee computers, workstations, servers, virtual machines, or even is the system partition.

• Developed for business users
  For business users, data security is extremely important, and for IT administrators, it is a huge challenge to make timely backups of various servers and be able to manage the personal computer data of multiple employees. Centralized Backup combines the needs of business users to provide a centralized active-backup solution.
• Multi-purpose machine
  By running Centralized Backup on a TNAS device, only one TNAS device can be used to meet the backup requirements of the enterprise for employees’ computers, servers, file servers, virtual machines, and workstations, greatly reducing the enterprise’s IT investment costs.
• Employee computer backup
  Different from general backup tools, Centralized Backup does not require employees to participate in the backup process. IT administrators can initiate backup requests from the server through Centralized Backup’s PC backup module, and can actively back up folders on hundreds of employees’ computers. , disk partition, or system partition. Centralized Backup can greatly protect digital assets scattered on employees’ computers, and can greatly reduce the workload of IT administrators.
• Server backup
  The server is the central nervous system of an enterprise’s digital information. The server not only runs a variety of application environments such as OA, CRM, and ERP that support business operations, but also stores important business data. Through the server backup function of Centralized Backup, IT administrators can simultaneously backup systems and data of multiple servers to TNAS. When an accident occurs, the abnormal host can be quickly restored, greatly reducing the impact of equipment failure on the business.
• File server backup
  The file server is the storage center of enterprise digital assets. Disasters such as unexpected power outages, equipment failures, and system failures may lead to the loss of precious digital assets. Through the file server backup function of Centralized Backup, IT administrators can back up the file directories of multiple file servers to TNAS, reducing the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster.
• Virtual machine storage backup
  Centralized Backup supports storage backup of VMware Vshpere and Windows Hyper-V virtual machines. Through the virtual machine backup function of Centralized Backup, the backup of multiple virtual machine clients can be initiated from TNAS.
• Multi-version restore
  Centralized Backup provides the backup target multi-version management function. When a disaster occurs, IT administrators can roll back the time of the repository to find the correct backup version to restore to the specified destination host.
• In full control
  Centralized Backup not only provides users with detailed backup and restore task configuration history, but also provides millions of logs, allowing you to monitor the backup progress and various exceptions throughout the process. By enabling the notification function, administrators can keep track of the progress status of backup and restoration in a timely manner.

TFM Backup for Internal Backup and Folder Synchronization

TFM Backup is the abbreviation of TerraMaster Folder Mirror backup. TFM Backup is a dedicated backup tool for TNAS shared folders developed by TerraMaster. Through TFM Backup, you can easily backup the shared folders in TNAS to other local folders. Storage location or a remotely mounted folder. TFM Backup has mirror backup and differential backup to choose from, and users can realize automatic scheduled backup by configuring backup schedule tasks. TFM Backup provides users with a simple and flexible backup solution for backing up data in TNAS.

• Improve disk space utilization
  Traditional RAID 1 disk arrays use redundancy to mirror the data of one disk to another disk, which can effectively avoid the risk of data loss due to disk failure. But a RAID 1 disk array requires at least 2 disks, that is, in a RAID 1 disk array, at most 50% of the effective disk storage space is available. For some users, not all data is important data, and it may not be necessary to mirror the entire disk data. Before TerraMaster launched TFM Backup, RAID 1 array seemed to be the only choice when users made mirror backups of data on disks. Now, users can choose to use TFM Backup to selectively do mirror backup, which can increase the utilization of disk space while ensuring data security.
• Flexible backup strategy
  TFM Backup has two backup strategies: mirror backup and differential backup. In the mirror backup mode, the backup source data is always consistent with the destination data, which can reduce the work of data management; in the differential backup mode, the newly added or modified data is backed up, even if the source data is deleted, the destination The data always retains the last backup version, which can effectively avoid the loss caused by misoperation.
• Custom backup plan
  TFM Backup provides a customizable backup plan, and you can customize the backup time, period, and frequency. You can perform backups during less busy periods according to business needs to avoid disruption to normal business.
• Multiple backup tasks
  TFM Backup supports multiple backup tasks. You can use TFM Backup to create multiple backup tasks for multiple folders with different backup policies and destinations, and configure different task schedules for each task to meet the backup needs of different file types in various application scenarios.
• Flexible backup destination
  The backup destination of TFM Backup can be in a different storage pool, a different volume, or a different device (using a remotely mounted folder). To avoid data loss caused by disk hardware failure, it is recommended to set the backup destination to a volume in a different storage pool.

Improved System Storage Searches with Terra Search

For some medium or large institutions, finding the required information from the vast amount of stored literature can be a big challenge. Terra Search’s file content search capabilities can help you overcome this challenge. Terra Search can quickly find all kinds of mainstream documents containing search keywords by establishing a database and search engine, which greatly improves the work efficiency of employees.

• Customized for industry applications
  Terra Search is specially developed and customized for business users, and has the characteristics of flexibility, speed, practicability and wide application. Terra Search is suitable for institutions and enterprises that need to manage a large number of documents, such as libraries, judiciary, hospitals, scientific research, military, government, etc.
• Powerful search engine
  Terra Search has a built-in powerful search engine, combined with a large database, it can easily handle millions of document management and content search, and can search hundreds of target files per second (related to the hardware performance of the TNAS device).
• Applicable to a variety of documents
  It is widely compatible with documents in various mainstream formats, such as office documents, text files, pdf, photos, music, e-books, web files, program codes, etc., to meet more than 90% of business users’ common file search needs.
• Image text content recognition
  Terra Search has a built-in automatic recognition function of image text content, which can quickly identify text in multiple languages ​​in images. The supported image formats include jpg, gif, jpeg, png, tiff, tif, etc.
• Custom search criteria
  In order to increase search efficiency, Terra Search also provides user-defined search conditions. Users can add search conditions such as file name, extension, title, owner, creation time, etc. according to their needs.
• Custom search directory
  By setting specific search directories and file types, users can limit the scope of the search, and improve search flexibility and search efficiency.
• Search result preview
  Terra Search provides a preview function of search results. Even for pictures, you can view the search results of pictures and texts through the preview window, and quickly screen accurate search results.
• Category display
  Through the flattened category display of the search page, users can screen documents, pictures, applications, and videos from the search results, making the search results clear at a glance.

Improved VPN Service Support with VPN Server in TOS 5

VPN Server provides you with an easy-to-use VPN solution, which can set up a TNAS device as a VPN server to allow other devices to remotely connect to TNAS through a private channel to ensure data communication security. Multiple devices connected to the VPN Server can form an interconnected network through private channels.

• Supports multiple VPN protocols – TerraMaster VPN Server supports PPTP, OpneVPN and L2TP/IPSec protocols, which can adapt to different network environments and meet your different business needs.
• Multiple authentication methods – VPN Server supports PAM and LDAP authentication, can connect with local users and domain users, and supports PAP, MS-CHAP, MD5, SHA, RSA and other authentication methods to ensure the privacy of private channel connections.
• Real-time network I/O monitoring – VPN Server uses graphs to monitor the network I/O of each VPN connection in real-time, allowing you to know the status of online devices and the I/O load of the network in time.
• Simple operation interface – VPN Server uses a flat menu, each VPN connection is managed separately, and the advanced setting items use the default options to avoid troubles for users due to complicated configuration options. It is simple, intuitive, and very suitable for home users and small and medium-sized buisness users.
• Log tracking – VPN Server provides a complete operation log and execution log, which is convenient for you to understand the operation history and the connection status of the VPN service, which can help you to quickly troubleshoot the fault.

How to Upgrade to Terramaster TOS 5 from TOS 4 – What You Need To Know?

Upgrading to TOS 5 is not as straightforward as other firmware updates and there is an element of complexity that, if done wrong, might result in re-initialising your system and formatting your storage/data, so follow the steps below VERY carefully! Please follow the guide below to install the new TOS 5.0 system

Must read before installation!

1.Since the root file system, storage path, application installation location, and startup method of TOS 5.0 are different from those of the previous version, you cannot directly update to TOS 5.0 from the current version, but need to reinstall the system.

Reinstalling the system will theoretically not delete the data on your hard drive, but for safety consideration, please back up your data in advance.

1. The new TOS 5.0 system is only applicable to the x.86 series of TNAS models (220 series, 221 series, 420 series, 421 series, 422 series, 423 series);

2. Your current TOS version need to be 4.2.32 or above;

3. TNAS PC needs to be 5.0.19 or above, otherwise, it may not work properly;

4. TNAS Mobile needs to be 5.0.1 or above, otherwise, it may not work properly. Note: Currently, TNAS Mobile is only available for iOS, and the Android version will be released soon, please pay attention to our update news.

How to install TOS 5.0?  

1. Download the TOS 5.0 installation package;

2. Log in to your TOS, go to Control Panel > General Settings > Factory Default, tick “Reset to Factory default” and click “Apply” to clear your system;

3. Your TNAS will automatically restart and enter the initialization guide page; if you cannot enter the initialization page, please use the TNAS PC to search for your TNAS again, and enter the IP address of your TNAS in the browser address bar;

4. Select the “Custom” mode during the initialization process, upload the TOS 5.0 installation package, and wait for the installation to complete;

5. After the system installation is completed, the system will automatically restart; Then, follow the instructions on the page to complete the administrator settings;

6. After the system is installed, you need to clear the browser cache, otherwise some system pages may not be displayed correctly.

Installation packages download link:

1. TOS 5.0：https://download2.terra-master.com/TOS_X642.0_5.0.120_00154_2206121730.ins

2. TNAS PC for Windows OS：https://download2.terra-master.com/TerraMaster_TNASPC_for_win_V5.0.22.zip

3. TNAS PC for macOS：https://download2.terra-master.com/TerraMaster_TNASPC_for_mac_V5.0.22.dmg

4. TNAS Mobile for iOS：It will be published later.

 

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

The Synology DVA1622 Deep Video Analysis 2-Bay NAS Released

Synology today announced the launch of the Deep Learning NVR DVA1622 as it expands its successful line of deep learning network video recorders with a solution for smaller deployments. Synology previously launched the four-bay DVA3221 to put AI-powered surveillance in the hands of small and medium-sized businesses. The new two-bay DVA1622 for the first time brings AI-powered analytics, such as face recognition, within reach of small businesses and households.

Synology and surveillance

Synology develops innovative solutions in storage, surveillance, and networking. Since the launch of its signature Surveillance Station video management system, more than 2 million IP cameras have been activated in more than 60 markets worldwide. With over half a million deployments currently active, Surveillance Station has become a household name in video surveillance. In 2022, Synology released Surveillance Station 9.0, consolidating advances while further pushing the envelope in ease of deployment, management, and operation.

A tailored solution for local use

The DVA1622 allows home users, shop owners, and others to profit from up to two simultaneous smart analytics tasks while monitoring up to 16 cameras in the smallest possible footprint. But that is not all. Unlike its larger brother, the DVA1622 supports HDMI output for up to 16 streams on one screen and local controls via two USB ports, eliminating the need for a PC to monitor and manage your deployment.

“We designed the DVA1622 specifically with the needs of small and home users in mind,” said Tony Lin, product manager for surveillance at Synology Inc. “That doesn’t just mean right-sizing its capacity, but also adding additional features to make sure that it can be used with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard as an all-in-one, standalone surveillance solution.” 

More than just threat identification

Deep learning video analytics (DVA) tasks can help enhance security by actively identifying specific threats as configured. They can also reduce the effort of securing premises by providing more accurate and filtered alerts, for instance, by only notifying users of movement by people or cars. Deep learning analytics can help automate aspects of site management, such as by identifying authorized persons or calculating occupancy. And, finally, they can help generate statistics and other useful information.  

Enhancing home security

Timely alerts are crucial to prevent break-ins. With one or two DVA tasks, home owners can transform their home surveillance from simple CCTV recording to an active threat detection system that warns when suspicious activities are detected. 

Many homes have lightly fenced gardens, driveways, sheds, and ground floor rooftops from which thieves can force themselves in. However, setting up motion detection for open areas can lead to many false notifications as animals, deliverers, and other inputs trigger alarms. 

The DVA1622 supports Intrusion Detection, which can correctly identify when humans or vehicles cross preset boundaries, such as fence tops, and in which direction. People and Vehicle Detection scans feeds for humans or cars and sends alerts when these enter or linger in an area for a certain amount of time.

Small retail and hospitality

Surveillance not only helps keep businesses safe, but helps manage premises more efficiently. Identifying persons barred from the property, making sure only personnel enter restricted areas, guarding limits on occupancy, and keeping the private parking lots free of non-authorized vehicles can be automatized with DVA features.

Facial Recognition lets businesses build a database of visitors and employees, and automatically identify visitors who require special attention or non-staff entering restricted areas. People Counting can be used to calculate visitor numbers, as well as total building occupancy. When too many people congregate in a defined area, Congestion Alerts can set off alerts to workers on site. And with License Plate Recognition, the DVA1622 can tip off owners when vehicles that do not belong to members or employees enter a parking lot.

Secure surveillance ecosystem

The DVA1622 comes out of the box with the Surveillance Station 9.0 video management system, offering the latest and greatest in surveillance. With support for over 8,300 new and older camera models, and even more models through ONVIF conformance, migrating from other solutions is a breeze. Easy setup wizards automate configuration to get you up and running in no time. Surveillance Station further offers integration with I/O modules, audio systems, door controllers, and other surveillance devices, to make security systems truly interactive, and with other Synology systems.

CPU
CPU Model	DVA1622: Intel Celeron J4125 DVA3221: Intel Atom C3538
CPU Architecture	DVA1622: 64-bit DVA3221: 64-bit
CPU Frequency	DVA1622: 4-core 2.0 burt up to 2.7 GHz DVA3221: Quad Core 2.1 GHz
Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI)	DVA1622: Yes DVA3221: Yes
GPU
GPU Model	DVA1622: Intel UHD Graphics 600 DVA3221: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Video Output
Video Output	DVA1622: HDMI X 1
Supported Video Resolution	DVA1622: 1080p 60Hz
Memory
System Memory	DVA1622: 6 GB DDR4 non-ECC DVA3221: 8 GB DDR4
Memory Module Pre-installed	DVA1622: 6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB) DVA3221: 8 GB (4 GB x 2)
Total Memory Slots	DVA3221: 2
Maximum Memory Capacity	DVA3221: 32 GB (16 GB x 2)
Notes	DVA1622: Synology reserves the right to replace memory modules with the same or higher frequency based on supplier’s product life cycle status. Rest assured that the compatibility and stability have been strictly verified with the same benchmark to ensure identical performance. DVA3221: Synology reserves the right to replace memory modules with the same or higher frequency based on supplier’s product life cycle status. Rest assured that the compatibility and stability have been strictly verified with the same benchmark to ensure identical performance. Please select Synology memory modules for optimum compatibility and reliability. Synology will not provide complete product warranty or technical support if non-Synology memory modules are used for memory expansion.
Storage
Drive Bays	DVA1622: 2 DVA3221: 4
Maximum Drive Bays with Expansion Unit	DVA3221: 14 (DX517 x 2)
Compatible Drive Type	DVA1622: 3.5″ SATA HDD DVA3221: 3.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA SSD
Hot Swappable Drive	DVA1622: Yes DVA3221: Yes
Notes	DVA1622: “Compatible drive type” indicates drives that have been tested to be compatible with Synology products. This term does not indicate the maximum connection speed of each drive bay. DVA3221: “Compatible drive type” indicates drives that have been tested to be compatible with Synology products. This term does not indicate the maximum connection speed of each drive bay.
External Ports
RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port	DVA1622: 1 DVA3221: 4 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support)
USB 3.0 Port	DVA1622: 2 DVA3221: 3
eSATA Port	DVA3221: 2
Appearance
Size (Height x Width x Depth)	DVA1622: 166 mm x 106 mm x 223 mm DVA3221: 166 mm x 250 mm x 237 mm
Weight	DVA1622: 1.51 kg DVA3221: 4.92 kg
Others
Wake on LAN / WAN	DVA1622: Yes DVA3221: Yes
System Fan	DVA1622: 92 mm x 92 mm x 1 pcs DVA3221: 120 mm x 120 mm x 1 pcs
Fan Speed Mode	DVA1622: Cool Mode Quiet Mode Full-Speed Mode   DVA3221: Cool Mode Quiet Mode Full-Speed Mode
Power Recovery	DVA1622: Yes DVA3221: Yes
Noise Level*	DVA1622: 18.4 dB(A) DVA3221: 28.3 dB(A)
Scheduled Power On / Off	DVA1622: Yes DVA3221: Yes
Power Supply Unit / Adapter	DVA1622: 60 W DVA3221: 250 W
AC Input Power Voltage	DVA1622: 100 V to 240 V AC DVA3221: 100 V to 240 V AC
Power Frequency	DVA1622: 50/60 Hz, Single Phase DVA3221: 50/60 Hz, Single Phase
Power Consumption*	DVA1622: 19.93 W (Access) 4.02 W (HDD Hibernation)DVA3221: 43.92 W (Access) 28.43 W (HDD Hibernation)

Surveillance data can be kept safe in case of disaster with automated backups to Synology NAS and by dual recording, from IP cameras to a second device or to the cloud with C2 Surveillance. Protecting video recordings against theft, intrusion, or unauthorized use is easy with footage and device encryption, HTTPS and SRTP support, live watermarking, and integrity authentication tools.

Need the DVA1622 as part of a larger deployment? With Surveillance Station Centralized Management System (CMS), several to hundreds of Synology DVA, NVR, and NAS devices can be managed, operated, updated, and protected from a central management server. Process video at the edge while keeping central control and maintain your servers remotely from a single, powerful console.

Availability

The DVA1622 is available now through Synology resellers and partners.

If you want to check the price and availability of this new NAS in your region, you can visit one of the retailers listed below. Clicking these links will result in a small % of whatever you spend going back to NASCompares, which will allow us to keep making great content. Thank you

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

Synology RS822+ and RS822RP+ Rackstation NAS Unveiled

If you have been keenly following Synology hardware and software releases so far in 2022, then I think it would be fair to say that they have been rather business-focused. With many of us anticipating the reveal of a new plus series 22′ 2/4 Bay in their lineup, we have all rather been caught off guard with the number of Small/Medium-Business to Enterprise solutions revealed so far. And today we want to discuss another entry into that tier of the brand’s portfolio, with the Synology RS822+/RS822RP+ Rackstation NAS – a follow up to the RS820+/RS820RP+ NAS revealed back in 2019, that is going to arrive with a familiar range of hardware choices from Synology, but in this tight 1U expandable server. Arriving on the scene oddly close to the similar RS422+ NAS, the new RS822+ and RS822RP+ (same NAS, but redundant secondary PSU on board) is a much more expandable and upgradable solution in a number of ways and follows on from previous entries by Synology in this product line. Let’s take a closer look at the hardware on offer, how it will impact on DSM 7.1 performance and whether this system will deserve your data in 2022.

Hardware Specifications of the Synology RS822+ and RS822RP+ Rackmount NAS

Much like a number of PLUS series in the Synology portfolio that are geared toward small-medium business (SMB) users, the 4 Bay RS822+/RS822RP+ arrives with the AMD Embedded Ryzen V1500B quad-core processor that first debuted on the DS1621+ and DS1821+, so Synology has had plenty of time with this CPU to get the most out of it for DSM. Whereas the RS422+ NAS first revealed here 2 months ago which arrived with the AMD Ryzen R1600, so it will be interesting to see how these two processors will compare later down the line when they are both on the market. The system also arrives with a slightly underwhelming 2GB of memory, but this can be upgraded to an impressive 32GB of memory. Additionally, this memory is ECC (error-correcting code), so high volume and frequency transfers will have that additional checksum in the background to check data write as it passes through and repair the files that aren’t up to snuff! Oddly, this is another system that does not arrive with M.2 NVMe SSD bays, despite Synology highlighting the importance of caching on business transfers – especially odd when the 6/8 Bay systems with the same CPU/Memory architecture arrive with the 2 slots by default. You can add this, as well as network upgrades, via the available PCIe Gen 3 x8 upgrade slot on the rear though, so it is not the end of the world. Finally, we can see that the RS822+/RS822RP+ arrives with 4 LAN/Ethernet ports which are 1GbE each. Despite the advantages of this system supporting LAG/Port trunking to maximize that bandwidth, it is still slightly puzzling that Synology continues with implementing gigabit ethernet on their solutions in 2022. 2.5GbE and 10GbE are hardly mainstream (and the latter clearly would incur additional cost), but with most looking at a system like this to last them a good 3-5 years at least, that would have been a nice bit of future-proofing in terms of base-level connectivity and not partially limited behind an upgrade hurdle. Overall, the hardware here still results in a solid 4 Bay 1U NAS, but not a huge jump up from the RS820+/RS820RP+ outside of that CPU. Below are further specifications:

CPU model	AMD Ryzen V1500B
CPU quantity	1
CPU architecture	64-bit
CPU frequency	4-core 2.2 GHz
Hardware encryption engine (AES-NI)	Yes
System memory	2 GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM
Pre-installed memory modules	2 GB (2 GB x 1)
Number of memory slots	2
Maximum memory capacity	32 GB (16 GB x 2)
Memo	Choose Synology Memory Module for best compatibility and reliability. Synology will not provide warranty or technical support if you extend your memory with non-Synology memory. For more information on recommended memory configurations, please refer to your Synology product hardware installation guide . Synology reserves the right to replace with higher frequency memory modules depending on the supplier’s product life cycle. Rest assured that the same benchmark will be rigorously tested for compatibility and stability to avoid performance differences.
Drive bay	Four
Maximum number of bays when using expansion unit	8 (RX418 x 1)
Compatible drive types * (Click here for all supported drives)	3.5 “SATA HDD 2.5 “SATA SSD
Hot swappable drive	Yes
RJ-45 1GbE LAN port *	4 (Link Aggregation / failover support)
USB 3.2 Gen 1 port *	2
eSATA port	1
Memo	The maximum transmission unit (MTU) for a 1GbE LAN port on this device is 1,500 bytes. The USB 3.0 Standard has been renamed to USB 3.2 Gen 1 by the 2019 USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF).
PCIe expansion	1 x Gen3 x8 slot (x4 link)
Internal drive	Btrfs EXT4
External drive	Btrfs EXT4 EXT3 FAT NTFS HFS + exFAT
Form factor (RU)	1U
External dimensions (height x width x depth)	RS822 +:44 mm x 480 mm x 492.6 mm RS822RP +:44 mm x 480 mm x 518.6 mm
weight	RS822 +:6.4 kg RS822RP +:8.0 kg
Rack installation support *	4 pillars 19 inch rack (Synology Rail Kit –RKM114 / RKS-02 )
Memo	Rail kit sold separately
System fan	RS822 +:40 mm x 40 mm x 3 pcs RS822RP +:40 mm x 40 mm x 2 pcs
Fan speed mode	Maximum speed mode Cooling mode Low noise mode
Power recovery	Yes
Noise level *	RS822 +:27.4 dB (A) RS822RP +:38.8 dB (A)
Reserve power on / off	Yes
Wake on LAN / WAN	Yes
Power supply unit / adapter	150 W
Redundant power supply	RS822 +:―――― RS822RP +:
AC input power supply voltage	100 V to 240 V AC
Power frequency	50/60 Hz, single phase
power consumption*	47.69 W (access) 16.7 W (HDD hibernation)
British thermal unit	162.83 BTU / hr (access) 57.02 BTU / hr (HDD hibernation)
Memo	Click here for details on how to measure power consumption . The noise test was performed on an idle Synology system with all Synology SATA HDDs mounted. We installed two GRAS Type 40AE microphones 1 meter away from the front and back of the device. Background noise: 16.49-17.51 ​​dB (A), temperature: 24.25-25.75˚C, humidity: 58.2-61.8%
Operating temperature	From 0 ° C to 35 ° C (32 ° F to 95 ° F)
Storage temperature	-20 ° C to 60 ° C (-5 ° F to 140 ° F)
Relative humidity	5% to 95% RH

How does the Synology RS822+/RS822RP+ Compare with the Synology RS820+/RS822RP+ NAS?

Perhaps you have been considering the Synology RS820+/RS820RP+ already, considering upgrading from it or had already been holding out to see if the brand would introduce a follow-up in 2022? Whatever your reason, comparing the Synology RS820+ and RS822+ Rackstation NAS is not taxing. The new Ryzen V1500B CPU in the RS822+/RS822RP+ NAS being with it a much more proficient and capable system overall. Along with this, it allows the newer 2022 unit to support more memory (thanks to the system having 2 slots, not 1), ECC Memory included, faster overall transfers and ultimately means that you are going to get a  great deal more efficiency out of DSM’s day to day operations. So, if you want more hardware available for larger ranges of connected users and tasks, the RS822+/RS822RP+ has this advantage straight off the bat. After that, things are quite similar – both have a PCIe 3×8 slot, both support the RX418 expansion, both have 4x 1GbE LAN and USB 3.2 Gen 1 and both have a redundant PSU version available. Still, that greater performing CPU is going to seal the deal for many. Below is how they compare on the specifications table:

Hard Drive & SSD Compatibility on the Synology RS822+/RS822RP+ NAS?

It’s an important question for many users! Since Synology changed their support and compatibility position on a number of high-end business solutions in 2022 to change their supported HDD/SSD to feature only their own media, many have been concerned that this was a trend that would continue in other releases. I am pleased to confirm that this is not the case with the RS822+/RS822RP+ and this new 1U 4-Bay Rackmount NAS has a considerable number of 3rd party HDD vendors listed on the compatibility pages. It is still not exactly exhaustive and the available list of drives is not as wide in brand and capacity as we have seen on older Synology NAS releases, but it good to see that this system is not going to have the tighter compatibility on media that the likes of the DS3622xs+ and DS2422+ NAS arrived with at launch.

Software Specifications of the Synology RS822+/RS822RP+ NAS?

As the RS822+/RS822RP+ NAS system arrives with a familiar Ryzen V1500B and DDR4 ECC Memory architecture that was seen on the DS1821+ and DS1621+, we can already ascertain that its performance with DSM 7.0/7.1 is going to be very good. This is not a hardware architecture that is going to lend itself very well to high graphically demanding tasks (so 4K Multimedia is off the table) but these specifications will still run the entirety of the Synology first-party applications available for business (backups, the collaboration suite, VMs, Surveillance, cloud synchronization, etc). Here is a breakdown of what the RS822+/RS822RP+ Rackstation supports and to what extent:

DSM Product Specifications
Storage space management
Maximum single storage space capacity*	108TB
Maximum storage space	64
SSD Read/Write Cache (White Paper)	Yes
SSD TRIM	Yes
Supported RAID disk array types	Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10
RAID configuration migration	Basic to RAID 1 Basic to RAID 5 RAID 1 to RAID 5 RAID 5 to RAID 6
Expandable storage space with larger hard drive	Synology Hybrid RAID RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10
Add hard disk to expand storage space	Synology Hybrid RAID JBOD RAID 5
Global Hot Spare supports RAID types	Synology Hybrid RAID RAID 1 RAID 5
Remark	The actual maximum storage pool and volume size depends on the hard disk capacity used, the number of available disk slots and the RAID type. Maximum single storage space is not directly equivalent to maximum net total storage capacity. (see more) The available capacity of each storage space is lower than the size of the maximum storage space, which actually depends on the file system and the amount of system metadata stored.
file service
archival agreement	SMB/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV
Maximum number of simultaneous SMB/AFP/FTP connections	500
Windows Access Control List (ACL) integration	Yes
NFS Kerberos authentication	Yes
Remark	The test standard is based on the maximum number of simultaneous connections supported by this model. During the test, 25% of the connections were simultaneously transferring files. The transfer process only ensures that the connection is not interrupted, and the minimum transfer speed cannot be guaranteed.
Accounts and Shared Folders
Maximum number of local user accounts	2,048
Maximum number of local groups	256
Maximum number of shared folders	512
Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks	8
Hybrid Share
Maximum number of Hybrid Share folders	10
Remark	For more details on the maximum number of folders for Hybrid Share, see this article .
high availability
Synology High Availability	Yes
log center
Logs received per second	800
General Specifications
Internet Protocol	SMB1 (CIFS), SMB2, SMB3, NFSv3, NFSv4, NFSv4.1, NFS Kerberized sessions, iSCSI, HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, SNMP, LDAP, CalDAV
Supported Browsers	Google Chrome Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari
supported languages	English, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Español, Dansk, Norsk, Svenska, Nederlands, Русский, Polski, Magyar, Português do Brasil, Português Europeu, Türkçe, Český, ภาษาไทย, Japanese, 한국어, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese
Remark	For details on supported browser versions, please refer to the DSM Specifications .
Add-on Packages View Full Package List
Antivirus by McAfee (Trial)
Yes
Central Management System
Yes
Synology Chat
Maximum number of people online at the same time	100
Remark	Simulation of user environments, measured with an average of 20,000 messages, emojis, or stickers per user, requires less than ten seconds of server response time. Where applicable, the system is tested with maximum memory installed and set to allow the maximum number of simultaneous connections.
Document Viewer
Yes
Download Station
Maximum number of download tasks	80
SAN Manager
Maximum number of iSCSI Targets	128
Maximum number of LUNs	256
LUN Clone/Snapshot, Windows Offload Data Transfer (ODX)	Yes
Media Server
DLNA Compatible	Yes
Synology Photos
face recognition	Yes
Snapshot Replication
The maximum number of snapshots supported by a single shared folder	1,024
The maximum number of system snapshots	65,536
Surveillance Station
Maximum number of camera support channels (requires installation of camera authorization)	40 (with 2 free licenses) (check compatible IP cameras)
Frames per second (FPS) (H.264)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 800 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 350 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 280 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 170 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Frames per second (FPS) (H.265)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 600 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 480 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Remark	The maximum number of IP cameras and FPS figures are obtained when the test rig is continuously recording with a full hard drive. Actual system capabilities will vary based on system configuration, hard drive performance, number of features enabled, and presence of other workloads.
Synology Drive
Recommended number of clients that can be synchronized at the same time	350 (The number of devices that can be connected at the same time when the recommended number of files is stored)
Recommended number of files to store	5,000,000 (applicable to index or files belonging to Synology Drive , files accessed through other protocols, please refer to the file service in the above field)
Remark	Exceeding the recommended quantities above will not cause the kit to stop functioning, only longer response times. Using SSD cache can significantly improve performance. The Btrfs file system and unencrypted shared folders were used in the above tests.
Synology Office
maximum number of users	200
Remark	Test opening multiple files, each edited by 30 users simultaneously. Client performance may affect the maximum number of simultaneous editing users. Client Test PC Specifications: Intel Core i3-3220 / 8GB RAM
Video Station
Yes
VPN Server
Maximum number of connections	40

Any Confirmation on the Price and Release of the Synology RS822+ and RS822RP+ NAS?

Right now we are still awaiting confirmation on the pricing and release date on the RS822+/RS822RP+ Rackstation NAS to be confirmed by Synology. However, it has already appeared online in the east of the globe and that likely means that we will see it’s release before the end of July at the latest. Add to this that the model name has ’22 in it and that means that Synology will likely want this model released before August (typically the tipping point for when model IDs change to the follow-up year, 22 > 23). Pricing will almost certainly be near enough identical to the price of the RS820+/RS820RP, at around the £800-900 – $900-950 o- €850-950 mark (your region and local TAX depending) but that is still unconfirmed. Stay tuned for more updates on this NAS by following me and Eddie on NASCompares.

You can check the availability and pricing of the RS822+ NAS via the links below:

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

TrueNAS Core Software Review – Part II, Managing Accounts, Alerts & Business Support

If you are considering managing your own private server, want to build it yourself (investing your budget primarily into the hardware) and want to take advantage of free to download open source software, then there is a huge chance that you are aware of TrueNAS. In part two of my full review of the TrueNAS Core software, I will be looking at how business users are going to find the account management of TrueNAS, how those accounts can be adapted/changed on the fly, what authentication methods are on offer to those accounts, how detailed the alerts are, in what ways can those concerned by notified as quickly as possible and just what options are available to business users who like the flexibility of TrueNAS but want commercial-grade support. We have a lot to cover, so I won’t waste much of your time, but I should add that today’s review was made possible with help from iXsystems providing a Mini X+ TrueNAS system. iXsystems is the business arm of the open-source TrueNAS platform and they provide the means for users who like the FreeBSD platform to have more of a turnkey ‘off the shelf’ solution at their disposal. If you want to read the FULL review, you can read the (LONG) FULL Review of TrueNAS is available HERE.

Part I of the TrueNAS Review Can be found HERE

Part III of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (25/03)

Review of TrueNAS – Accounts Creation, Control & Management

Given the rather technical, bespoke and detailed nature of TrueNAS, it is easy to understand why the solution is aimed at business users who want things set up in a ‘certain way’. Although turnkey solutions are easier to deploy and are generally more user-friendly, they are more often than not too rigid and inflexible for businesses to use in their larger business models. In most cases, a TrueNAS custom-built (or iXsystem) will be deployed in the center of a business and accessible from many, many company staff for backups, email, document archives, hybrid sync storage and more. Therefore it is important to review how TrueNAS handles multiple accounts, how security is afforded to these accounts and how privileges and access to more mission-critical or confidential data are managed. TrueNAS features a quick and easy means to create multiple users and/or groups for the host user network (as well as connecting these with remote access as required). Let me talk you through what stood out for me in TrueNAS when it comes to account management.

Significant Range of Security and Account Configuration Options

Creating a user account in TrueNAS is incredibly straightforward, as well as making each account as secure as possible. Each account has the standard username and password settings you would expect, but then they delve quite a bit deeper into how you want these users to access the system, their subgroups (which then allows you to create bulk protocols/privileges for all users in that group quickly) and the nature of their account. Options such as which file directories this user can interact with can be set to rear only, write or full access are fairly standard, but I like the options for locking some user accounts easily, creating unique SSH keys, creating temporary admin powers and rotational/changeable passwords are a nice extra touch. As the system is predominantly designed to be remotely accessed via 3rd party client OS’ and 3rd party client software, the more customizable user account features of user images and bespoke desktop GUI found on NAS systems such as Synology and QNAP are absent, but this is still a very easy and detailed user creation element to TrueNAS.

Good Support of Microsoft Account Authorization

It’s a relatively small extra detail, but user account security in TrueNAS also includes an option to integrate the use of Microsoft account security when accessing the storage on the server. This is applicable to any system running Windows 8 or higher (including Windows 11) and allows the authentication methods that are used in the Windows operations system to be used to further verify the identity of a connected user. This user service is not exclusive to TrueNAS of course, but it is another neat piece of third party crossover support that the software includes in its open-source architecture.

Impressively Configurable 2-Step Authentication

The fact that TrueNAS features the support of 2 step authentication (also known as 2FA – 2 Factor authentication) is not going to be a huge surprise for many, given its ubiquitous appearance on pretty much all software clients in the last few years. For those that arent aware, in brief, two-step authentication allows you to have a 2nd degree of user authentication when logging into a service/software alongside your password, as your phone will need to provide a randomly generated code every time when you log in. You need to use one of the many authentication client tools available online (with Google Authenticator being one of the most used for mobiles), but it is surprisingly easy to set up. Where 2-Step authentication in TrueNAS differs from most is the level of configuration that is on offer within the 2FA settings.

Most systems will provide you with the option to simply synchronize with the authentication tool you are using (3D generated barcode or long passkey as best suited to the end-user). TrueNAS on the other hand allows you to change the authentication interval that the randomly generated code changes (usually 30 seconds) to longer for those that need it for accessibility support, as well as change the validity period/number of attempts before a potential lockout. Then you have the option to customize the length of the one-time password (OTP) to greater than the usual default 6 digits (something I have not seen offered by any other NAS brands in 2022). Finally, there is the choice to integrate the requirements for 2-step authentication into SSH logins (command line access with an SSH client window tool such as Putty), which given the huge degree of SSH access built into the typical TrueNAS use scenario, it definitely beneficial.

No Bulk Group or User Creation Options

One small but present absence that I noted in TrueNAS was the lack of an option to create bulk users at once or to import an existing CSV or .xlsx file. This is a very minor detail of course and only applicable to users who have larger volumes of users they wish to move over to a new server from an existing setup, but I am still surprised that it is absent in TrueNAS Core. I have contacted iXsystems to enquire about this and apparently it IS an option that is available in TrueNAS Scale, but nevertheless, I am disappointed that it is not available across the whole platform.

Review of TrueNAS – Alerts & Notifications

Most users who are looking at getting a private server, although initially heavily invested in tinkering and playing with the device, will eventually want the system to just sit in the corner, be quiet and do it’s job! It’s understandable, as interesting as the software and services are, ultimately a NAS (TrueNAS or otherwise) is a tool and as soon as you have set the device up to do the thing you specifically need it to, you want to go back to doing other things and whilst your NAS carries on. However, whilst that is true, in the event something is wrong or out of the ordinary system processes are noticed internally, you want the TrueNAS to tell you ASAP! Most NAS systems have inbuilt notifications and alerts that can be pushed to select/all end users that can be tailored to preferred client devices and methods. In the case of TrueNAS there are (as you might expect) a wide, WIDE variety of settings and choices for delivering those all-important notifications and although in the case of many apps being 3rd party (therefore having their own notification and alert schemes in place as appropriate), the greater storage system, network/internet connections and user behaviour alerts are still pretty extensive in their alert options. Here is what stood out in TrueNAS for me in this area.

VERY Customizable Alerts and Notification Customization

I really cannot stress enough how diverse the range of alert configuration options that TrueNAS allows you to adapt. The window above is just a small example of the many, many windows available although it is a long, long list of options, you cannot really suggest that TrueNAS didn’t cover all the scenarios. There are even slightly more customizable ones that you can add too. The delivery of these alerts is a little less straightforward than those found in Synology/QNAP (which have proprietary client apps for mobile and desktop that allow faster alert methods) but a large number of platforms are supported in TrueNAS for notifications that include email, Slack, AWS, InfluxDB, Mattermost, Pager Duty, SNMP Trap and more. Alongside incredibly concisely built alert parameters, each one can be scaled in priority and in turn, its urgency adjusted.

TrueNAS uses a 7 tier alert priority scale and you can adjust each alert & notification variable in the wide-ranging list to your own requirements. For example, if you were running a shared storage area with a team of 10 users and 8/10 of those users were accessing the system at once (potentially bottlenecking the network in a 1GbE network, depending on the file volume/frequency), you might want the system admin/IT to know this. It isn’t a high-level alert, more of a case of being aware of the additional network load. In that case you can setup an alert of bandwidth/zdev access above a certain level/% and suitable admin to receive a level 2 notification (NOTICE) so they are aware. Alternatively, example 2, there have been several failed login attempts under a specific user account, but eventually that user has logged in successfully. This might be a cause of concern as repeated password attempts could so easily be an unauthorized individual connecting to the greater system. You can set the # of failed login attempts before an automatic lockout OR set an alert of level 3 ‘WARNING’ to alert a system admin to look into this account behaviour to access the situation. Alerts and notifications become significantly more intricate (breaking down into encryption certificates, hardware health, critical system failure, SSH/Telnet logins. etc) and this easy 7 tier alert system can be applied to all instances.

Build In Support Lines, Business Support tiers, Direct System Messaging System and Issue Reporting Mechanism in the TrueNAS GUI

As TrueNAS is an opensource and community-driven NAS platform, you would be forgiven for wondering just how much this all means when you hit a technical wall, encounter system roadblocks, need advice on a setup or just generally looking for guidance. One of the main appeals of an off the shelf/turn-key solution from brands such as Synology and QNAP is that as a paid hardwware+software solution, you feel that there will be technical support lines via live chat, email and even phone in some cases (depending on the level of solution of course) that a homebrew/DiY solution will not be able to supply. However, the support on a TrueNAS system is a little more diverse than that. If you build your own NAS system from scratch and install TrueNAS Core onto your system, you will not have access to premium/commercial level support, but you do have links in the TrueNAS GUI to community support, details online guides and access to the Jira support system that allows your query for assistance to be submitted to the community pool. There are also provisions there to check if your issue has already been documented and resolved elsewhere. These links are immediately available from within the GUI in multiple areas.

But if you are a business user, despite the TrueNAS open-source/freely available status, you may well have opted for it for it’s customization and flexibility compared with off the shelf NAS solutions. Therefore you might still want paid/commercial/enterrpise grade support. This is where the distinction between going TrueNAS DiY and pre-built TrueNAS from iXsystems becomes a little clearer, as iXsystems are the official pre-build provider of TrueNAS and with their solutions, they offer a scaled range of support options that include numerous contact methods. In addition to all the TrueNAS CORE support options that are still available, TrueNAS Enterprise customers who purchase hardware from iXsystems can receive assistance from iXsystems if an issue occurs with the system. Silver and Gold level Support customers can also enable Proactive Support on their hardware to automatically notify iXsystems if an issue occurs. Here is how those support options scale and which systems support each tier:

The level of support afforded to each tier of the iXsystem hardware portfolio is not quite as straightforward, however, as smaller-scale systems only support upto a bronze tier. Therefore on closer examination, you can only access the highest/most-involved customer support tier when you are looking at the enterprise tier hardware systems. Now, on the face of it, that makes sense in terms of priority as it is those highest volume use systems that are going to want the fastest and most responsive support. Equally, the most modest systems will be used by smaller-scale users and have smaller scale utilities in mind. Still, I know more than enough NAS users who choose more modest NAS systems from Synology and QNAP, BUT will push for extended warranties, 5year warranty enterprise storage media, choosing to allocate their storage server budget towards lengthy support periods for peace of mind/insurance. Here is how the commercial support options spread across iXsystem hardware options:

Overall, I think TrueNAS (and iXsystems) have balanced the level of support and assistance options that are available to most kinds of NAS user. It makes sense that a free-to-download software platform would not be able to provide a commercial/enterprise-grade support level without having to financially support this behind a subscription service. And they do not leverage this against the community support, opening encouraging this as an option and facilitating multiple methods of looking up similarly submitted and solved issues, streamline the community support process as much as possible and still presenting the choice to go down the paid-support route when needed. The face this support is not available in non-iXsystem TrueNAS setup’s might be a bit of a downer for some, but as mentioned multiple times in this review, the money that some users are saving in a custom/DiY solution in TrueNAS vs a turnkey/off-the-shelf solution from Synology/QNAP needs to be paid in learning how it all works. I think TrueNAS and iXsystems found the best middle ground possible here.

Larger Range of Configuration Options Can be Overwhelming and Lacks Convenient Preset Options

When I said that there are a lot of alert and notification choices built into TrueNAS, I was not kidding. Even at a casual glance, they are in the triple figures, and that is jsut on the outset. It IS true that the bulk of them are automatically set to one of the 7 pre-set alert levels by default, but if you have a slightly more secure/closed setup in mind for your system notifications, you are going to be spending hours, not minutes adjusting them all to your unique needs. The same goes if you want to run a more open setup for testing, as the TrueNAS default settings are a pinch higher than I would class as ‘casual’ in scaled alerts (better safe than sorry). Now, other turnkey solutions on the market combat this by providing various alert/notification switches BUT also arriving with security councillors/preset configuration dropdowns. In brief, I wish TrueNAS had a range of preset notification levels, perhaps set as ‘low-medium-high-business-enterprise’ that changed these settings in bulk and THEN you can go in manually where needed and change a few, allowing you to create a custom profile which you can then save as ‘CUSTOM’. Similar tiered/scaled choices exist in other areas of TrueNAS for other services that change bulk options on the fly, as well as ‘advanced’ tabs in places when you want to get your hands a little dirtier and play with options at a deeper level in the GUI. Overall though, I prefer to have too many alert/notification options that are not enough though!

In the third and final part of my review of TrueNAS coming later this week, you can find out what I thought about Security, Network Management, how the platform handles applications & Addons and my overall verdict of TrueNAS Core 12.

Part I of the TrueNAS Review Can be found HERE

Part III of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (25/03)

Alternatively, you can read the (LONG) FULL Review of TrueNAS is available HERE.

 

 

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

 

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Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

TrueNAS Core Software Review – Part I, Design, the Interface & Storage Management

Have you been considering a NAS for a few years, but looked at the price tag that off the shelf featured solutions from Synology or QNAP and thought “wow, that seems rather expensive for THAT hardware”? Or are you someone that wants a NAS, but also has an old PC system or components around that could go towards building one? Or perhaps you are a user who wants a NAS, but HAS the budget, HAS the hardware, but also HAS the technical knowledge to understand EXACTLY the system setup, services and storage configuration you need? If you fall into one of those three categories, then there is a good chance that you have considered TrueNAS (formally FreeNAS). The community supported and highly customizable ZFS storage platform that is available for free and along with regular updates has adapted over recent years towards diversifying different kinds of users, their setup’s and their requirements of TrueNAS. Today I want to review the TrueNAS software. In order to do this, I have been supplied with a Mini X+ 5 HDD/2 SSD Desktop system (hardware review on that soon) by iXsystems, a company with established ties with TrueNAS and the platform’s official enterprise hardware solution partner. This review is going to be conducted a little different than my normal NAS server reviews. Unlike a review of a new piece of NAS hardware, TrueNAS is a software platform that is significantly more flexible in it’s installation (ultimately available in one form or another on a custom PC build or even much smaller shuttle case builds). Equally, unlike many who have reviewed TrueNAS and it’s previous versions or recent splinters (e.g. FreeNAS, Core, Scale, Enterprise, etc), today’s review is going to be a fresh look at this platform, what it does better than Linux NAS systems like Synology or QNAP, what is does worse and ultimately help users who are thinking of moving towards the steeper learning curve of custom-built TrueNAS. What TrueNAS lacks in the ease and simplicity of traditional NAS drives, it can more than makeup for it in its sheer scope and potential to be more powerful, efficient and flexible overall. So, let me guide you through my highlights of 30 aggregate hours of use with TrueNAS.

Part II of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (23/03)

Part III of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (25/03)

Alternatively, you can read the (LONG) FULL Review of TrueNAS is available HERE.

TrueNAS Review Disclaimer – As mentioned in my introduction, my review of TrueNAS today was made on an iXsystem Mini X+, an 8-Core Intel-based system that featured 32GB of DDR4 memory, as well as arriving with 2x 10GbE ports, PCIe Upgradability and mixed storage media support. The system arrived with 5x WD Red Drives and 2x 2.5″ SSDs. This hardware does not impact the bulk of this review as TrueNAS is available as an open-source download that can be installed onto a custom PC, flashed server etc. However, the iXsystem Mini X+ arrives with TrueNAS Core and a few smaller extra bits that are exclusive to this more complete hardware+software package. Where appropriate, I will highlight it, however, the bulk of the features, settings and stand out areas of attention below can be applied to the free, standalone version of this platform. Additionally, there are references to enterprise features and TrueNAS Command (a wider remote deployment monitoring and management portal tool) that may be exclusive to that platform. Finally, my personal background is largely focused on traditional turn-key NAS solutions and therefore I decided to present this review on how things are done differently to NAS brands such as Synology and QNAP. You can find iXsystems Pre-built TrueNAS solutions over on Amazon here.

Review of TrueNAS – GUI & Deployment

First-time deployment of TrueNAS (after the initial installation of the software on the hardware system which will vary based on whether you have opted for an iXsystem solution or a custom build) is very straightforward. Once the system is booted, connected to your network and initialized, finding the device is possible via truenas.local. or obtaining it’s address from your switch or using an IP Scanner.

So, the first thing that I want to discuss about TrueNAS is the design. Finding a very interesting middle ground between providing all the configuration options in a single screen, whilst still not overwhelming the end-user, getting it pretty close to nailing it.

Alot More Hints and Tips than I was Expecting!

The first thing I was very surprised by in the design and deployment of the TrueNAS GUI was the sheer number of hints and information ‘i’s around every single screen. As TrueNAS and FreeNAS before it are built on FreeBSD, although there I expected a GUI, I did think it would still be rather command-line heavy still. However, not only are the controls of TrueNAS almost all displayed in a clearly visible GUI, but also I struggled to find a single option or choice that didn’t have a tip or guidance suggestion. This was a particular surprise as one of the biggest hurdles for most users considering moving from a turn-key NAS solution towards TrueNAS (custom or an iXsystem) is that intimidating climb up the steeper learning curve. It was a genuine and extremely welcome surprise to see how much guidance was available to even small and insignificant choices in the storage system setup where available.

Presentation of Storage and Resource Use is VERY Clear

Another thing that I fully expected to be present, but not to this level, was how the information on your storage areas (Pools, data sets, individual drives, etc) and the monitoring of your resources were displayed both analytically AND clearly. Of course, I expected TrueNAS to have the means to assess the system hardware health and status, but like most of my early personal experience with FreeNAS, UnRAID and FreeBSD years before, I thought this information would be available less in the GUI and more in command retrieval. However, the resource monitor and storage status (both, when delving into the system deeper and just via the initial splash screen of the GUI) provide an excellent level of information and in the case of the former, can be broken into a report form. Getting the presentation of storage on a GUI that can suit both the novice and the veteran techie is a tremendously tough line to balance and although there are a few areas where TrueNAS tends to ‘info-dump’ you a little, this area was no one of them.

Sharing Tab and its Breadcrumbs (WebDav, iSCSI, SMB, etc) Are More Intuative than Most

Another part of the TrueNAS graphical user interface that sets it apart a little from off the shelf NAS hardware+software is how the menu bar is displayed. With most NAS brands having their GUI comparable to popular operating system desktops (primarily Windows, MacOS or Android for the most part), TrueNAS’ GUI is a little bit more comparable to WordPress for the most part. The bulk of the config and service options are all located on the left-hand side of the screen and although there is only a handful at first glance, each one breaks down into subcategories quite quickly. The responsiveness of this menu system is particularly impressive and it’s easy to forget that you are accessing a remote system. Although the bulk of the tabs and options are where you would hope, one particular stand out example of things being done in a different and better way than most brands in the sharing tab/menu. Although most NAS brand software and GUI have tabs dedicated to sharing files (as well as contextual menus on files and folders), once you start breaking down into different sharing protocols, things get a little distance out and you end up having to keep multiple windows open to create and manage your cross-platform sharing environment. TrueNAS on the other hand has bulked these all together into the single tab and allows navigation through and between considerably more intuitive. Equally, the customization and configuration of shares and you delve deeper (although increasing the learning curve) are significantly more diverse to allow tweaking and improvements based on your setup.

Live Reports of System & Processes are Very Detailed and Quick to Navigate

Much like the Storage Presentation and Resource Use, getting reports of historical system information and active processes are much more detailed on the TrueNAS platform than I have seen from many NAS brands. TrueNAS uses Graphite for metric gathering and visualizations. Some general settings can be found in System > Reporting. Once again, it’s a fine line to have information regarding the server be presented in a fashion that is digestible to less storage-experienced users without potentially dumbing things down a little. Luckily these do still seem to present all the information that either tier of user is going to need and is done so by the information being broken down into sections that in turn can be delved deeper into by degrees. The UX of TrueNAS has clearly been thought about a lot and although many FreeNAS veterans might have disliked the changes in some areas towards making it simplified in places, there are still options for drilling down into system heath and history quite significantly.

Lots of Theme Customizations and a Theme Maker

A very surprisingly detail of TrueNAS is how much the GUI can be customized. Most NAS brands and their software allow the end-user (i.e that current user of many that have access credentials) to change minor details. The Wallpaper, their login icon and time/date display and pretty much the full range of choices. Given the fact most off-the-shelf NAS solutions are designed with being more user-friendly and attempting to de-mystified network storage for average users, I was VERY surprised that it was TrueNAS that had a greater degree of customization available in how the GUI is displayed. Colour schemes, logo changes, scaling, icon replacements, fonts, accents and changes to the top bar. There is a comparatively large amount of choice and customization compared with turn-key NAS solutions from Synology and QNAP and leans very well into the already established idea that TrueNAS is designed around custom builds.

Click to view slideshow.

No Avoiding That it is Still Very Stat and Tech Heavy some less experienced Users

As much as I like the GUI fo TrueNAS and how it has melded the controls very well to remain accessible to the experienced and inexperienced user, it has to be said that this is not done 50/50 and although there are hints, guides and recommendations by the system through all choices, it is still a very tech-heavy product and although the basic/top-layer decisions are user friendly, it isn’t going to be long before the full pages fo customization and configuration choices presented in the TrueNAS GUI are going to be a little overwhelming for those that are more used to these tougher decisions being hidden behind presets or set up behind a scaled option of security. In a few other areas of TrueNAS, this is addressed with an ‘advanced’ tab or mode option that until pressed will hide these tougher elements of the setup unless needed. Sadly this is not a system-wide design choice in the GUI and the TrueNAS UX is something that can demand accelerated learning. Alot of this might be solved with ‘easy’ ‘intermediate’ or ‘expert’ table opens on the bulk of pages, but as it stands it can sometimes be a bit of a ‘cannot see the wood because of all the trees’ situation when looking for a specific option in a menu, as there are 10-15 choices/boxes on the screen. The TrueNAS UI in the latest version IS very good and considerably more user-friendly than I thought it would be, but I would still be reluctant to call it novice-friendly.

No Search Functionality at the Home Screen

This was something that, despite the arguably higher skill level that TrueNAS commands in it’s user base, I was still surprised was absent – A search feature from the main GUI. It would not be a commonly used feature, however, I have met plenty of less experienced users or those in a rush looking for a specific option/service/setting that would appreciate a search functionality to be available. There ARE a few services and options in the menus that feature search functionality, but they are generally always limited to that specific function and not system-wide.

Review of TrueNAS – Storage

Realistically, THIS is the thing that is going to be paramount to most users of TrueNAS, Storage! But simply storing data is not enough, it is about how well it stores it, how customizable it is to different user environments, how secure it is in terms of backups and redundancy, how robust it is and the maintenance of that storage moving forward. TrueNAS arrives with ZFS (zettabyte File System), an enterprise-ready open source file system, RAID controller, and volume manager with unprecedented flexibility and an uncompromising commitment to data integrity. It eliminates most, if not all of the shortcomings that veteran storage professionals claim are apparent in ‘EXT4’ or the much newer ‘BTRFS’ file systems from brands such as Synology and QNAP NAS devices. Alongside the widest support of ZFS currently available in the market, TrueNAS also is one of the most scalable solutions available in the world (in part thanks to that freedom in building the hardware architecture being available and the open-source design of the platform allowing migration being considerably more seamless as you change out hardware over time. ZFS also brings big advantages in deduplication and compression techniques that improve how much data is being written to the system, whilst simultaneously simplifying the internal pathways of the system to larger bulks of users. In recent years, turnkey solutions from Synology and QNAP (as well as more affordable brands such as Asustorand Terraamster) have provided a degree of duplication on their platforms (QNAP seemingly extending this more than most) but ZFS has most of the architecture for these processes natively built into it and although you WILL need to bulk up on your hardware (16GB memory recommended in most cases if you want both for example), it still allows TrueNAS to stand out. Here are the elements of TrueNAS storage that stood out for me.

Exceptionally High Level of Access Control Options and Configuration of Data Sets

If there are two areas of consistency throughout TrueNAS storage that need to be highlighted above all others, it would be control and security. At practically every tier of the system’s internal storage management, you are able to apply numerous measures of bespoke user choice protection. More than the fact that standard elements of encryption, ACL and storage segmentation are available here, but more the sheer depth of it. You are able to assign extremely rigid access controls to your storage pools, zDevs, zVols and data sets from the ground up, as well as the branch these security measures into select user and group access (which can be changed by a superuser on the fly with ease). Along with that, ACL support is extremely wide-ranging, giving you the means to create areas of storage that are completely inaccessible (in either direction) by the greater system that ensure that storage can be created quickly, but without opening doors to your mission-critical storage. This bespoke control extends quite heavily to the configuration of Access Control Levels, as access Control List (ACL) is a set of account permissions associated with a dataset and applied to directories or files within that dataset. ACLs are typically used to manage user interactions with shared datasets and are created when a dataset is added to a pool. TrueNAS seemingly allows a create degree of control on this than most NAS systems on the market right now.

Excellent level of support of SED Media and Encryption levels in General

Then with Security, TrueNAS covers this in a few key areas. First off, several methods/protocols of encryption are supported by the system (giving the end-user a choice at the setup level) and generally ‘choosing’ your encryption method is not something offered by most brands to this extent (or at all in many cases). Next, there is the fact that encryption can be applied at every level of thes storage is required. When we look at some other NAS brands that included encryption, they tend to include encryption at the shard folder or volume level (pool level is supported with the use of encrypted drive media). TrueNAS is one of the very few several software on the market that provides native and configurable encryption at every level (storage pool, volumes, data sets, etc) and along with support of key management, there are additional failsafe options available that also passphrase support too. Finally, you have the support of self-encrypted drives (SEDs) in the system that can be fully utilized and that additional encryption be afforded to the greater storage system with the others. In short, you can create a fantastically encrypted storage system to an unparalleled degree in trueNAS. Again, not too shabby for an open-source bit of software!

Unrecommended Storage Configuration Choices Need to be ‘Forced’ to be actioned

One issue that will inevitably come to providing software that is highly customizable is giving the end-user too much rope to hang themselves with! Once you make your way past the rudimentary aspects of storage, the end-user can start putting together the building blocks of their storage inefficiently (or worse still dangerously) and run the risk of creating a basis for their storage for years to come that is inherently flawed. Balancing that line of allowing complete control and customization, whilst stopping a user from doing the wrong thing is a tough line to tread (QNAP have been walking this one as best they can for years too). TrueNAS has addressed this with a (very) soft lock system. When building your storage, if you are configuring the resources in a less than optimal/safe way, the system will give you a warning on the screen that details the potential downside/detrimental effect of your action. This warning can then be closed/dismissed and in order to continue, the ‘continue’ option will be joined with a button ‘force’. This is TrueNAS’ middle ground to allow creative freedom, whilst letting the end-user know that the action they are performing has a layer of risk attacked. For example, you are configuring a RAIDZ2 (think RAID 6) and you are using 8 disks that are not all uniform in capacity, but you do not care/want to proceed anyway. This is where the system would present you with a warning to ‘force’ through. The same thing when you build pools without redundancy or use differing media interface types outside of a fusion pool or cache setup. It is by no means a perfect solution, but at least TrueNAS have clearly understood that they need to steer things a bit at times.

Copy on Write Architecture is an additional Layer of File Level Error Recovery

An interesting architectural advantage of TrueNAS utilizing ZFS is the support of CoW (Copy on Write). This is a system of checksum built data health that involves a brief period of two actions of write occurring on any data being sent to the TrueNAS serve, which are then compared for consistency and then a single final, verified version of that data resides. ZFS does not change the location of data until a write is completed and verified. This ensures that your data isn’t lost during an interrupted task such as a power outage. ZFS uses a 256-bit hash of the data in a file system block, known as a checksum. This checksum ensures data integrity during writes. The way it handles and tests writes means that each write is tested, eliminating storage degradation such as bitrot. It also eliminates the write hole which allows for silent data corruption within RAID. Similar methods of data health and verification are utilized in other storage technology (such as ECC memory and in the write actions of BTRFS) but not to this extent and in such a widespread way. Writes do not overwrite data in place; instead, a modified copy of the block is written to a new location, and metadata is updated to point at the new location.

Support of RAIDZ Means that Initial Building is Faster and Recovery More Precise

One of the long understood advantages of ZFS that TrueNAS provides immediately (perhaps to the jealousy of EXT4 and BRTFS system users) is the utility of RAIDZ. RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is the ability to combine multiple media drives into a single storage pool that provides some/all of the benefits of increased storage performance, storage performance and redundancy (eg a safety net to still access/recover your data in the event of a drive failure). RAID and RAIDZ are similar on the face of it (with support of striping and mirroring), but it is a lot of difference in the larger arrays in terms of building, writing and recovery. RAIDZ has some interesting benefits, the first and most obvious is that a RAIDZ compared with a RAID5 takes minutes, not hours to build! Additionally, RAIDZ has a better understanding of empty blocks and that becomes beneficial in the event of a RAID rebuild, as in the event a drive fails and you introduce a new HDD/SSD, RAIDZ will ONLY need to rebuild the areas onto the replacement disk that data original resided on (using parity data from the other present disks) and then just zero’ing the rest of the disk. Similar systems like this have arrived from Synology on their platform for after RAID recovery (still using TBRFS) but still not as fluid and native as in ZFS. Striped VDEV’s, Mirrored VDEV’s and Striped Mirrored VDEV’s are essentially the same as RAID0, RAID1 and RAID10 accordingly with one difference; automatic checksumming prevents silent data corruption that might be undetected by most hardware RAID cards. ZFS uses the additional checksum level to detect silent data corruption when the data block is damaged, but the hard drive does not flag it as bad.

• RAIDZ (sometimes explicitly specified as RAIDZ1) is approximately the same as RAID5 (single parity)
• RAIDZ2 is approximately the same as RAID6 (dual parity)

RAID5 example of parity
Disk 1	Disk 2	Disk 3	Disk 4
1	2	3	P
5	6	P	4
9	P	7	8
P	10	11	12

RAID5 places blocks in a regular pattern. You only need to know the block number (address) to determine which disk stores the block, at what address, and where the corresponding parity block is. Also, with N disks, exactly one parity block is stored for every N-1 data blocks.

In RAIDZ, ZFS first compresses each recordsize block of data. Then, it distributes compressed data across the disks, along with a parity block. So, one needs to consult filesystem metadata for each file to determine where the file records are and where the corresponding parities are. For example, if data compresses to only one sector, ZFS will store one sector of data along with one sector of parity. Therefore, there is no fixed proportion of parity to the data. Moreover, sometimes padding is inserted to better align blocks on disks (denoted by X in the above example), which may increase overhead. However, we have still not touched on two more core advantages of ZFS and it’s RAID management…

3 Disk Redundancy is Available and Should Get More Kudos!

TRIPLE DISK PARITY! Now, if you don’t know what that is, then you can be forgiven for wondering why I have put that in capital letters. However, those that know, love it. In short, RAIDZ3 is the 3 disk fault-tolerance storage pool configuration that is largely unavailable conventionally in any other RAID configuration, requiring at least 5 disks (again, HDD or SSD) it means that you can withstand 3 drives failing. Now, if that sounds like tremendous overkill, then let me share a fun fact with you! Most drive failures that I have witnessed (and I welcome commentors to contribute on this) do NOT stem from poor treatment of a single drive, dropping an enclosure or poor individual handling. No, the bulk of drive failures I have witnessed have stemmed from three causes (looking at logs and SMART info):

• Inherent fault at the point of manufacture or in the logistics chain that has developed over time
• Overworked system hitting RAID arrays harder than intended 24×7 etc, or just designed drive workloads being exceeded in general
• Critical larger system failure in the middle of a widespread write action (eg power failure as all drives are engaged for writing)

Now, in THOSE three examples, the key factor to keep in mind is that in none of them is an HDD or SSD on its own. At manufacture in bulk, in transit in crates of 20x at a time or in larger setup RAID array – the things that harm the storage media is hitting several at once. Even if you ignore the degenerative factors of exceeding workloads and system critical failure damage, there is no avoiding that when you buy multiple HDD/SSD from a single e-retailer (eTailer?), they do NOT provide you with multiple drive with each drive from a different crate/carton. No, that would be spectacularly inefficient for any retailer. No, you have to accept that there is a % chance that as soon as 1 drive fails that (without identifying to cause) that another drive in the array could fail for the same reason soon. So a double disk redundancy such as RAIDZ2 or RAID 6 would give you extra time – but how much time? Who known. But if your data is mission-critical and you weigh up the cost of another HDD in a custom build design such as TrueNAS, a triple parity RAID system starts to make a lot of sense.

ZFS ReSilvering Often Overlooked Safety Net

Another wildly overlooked and misunderstood advantage of ZFS and TrueNAS’ utility of it is in the support of Re-silvering. For those unaware, resilvering is when a drive that WAS part of the RAID array is disconnected and reconnected in a brief window that allows the system to identify that the drive belongs in the original pool and re-embraces it quickly. In practical terms, imagine your system suffers a very brief SATA/Controller board malfunction and a drive is dismounted (software level). Alternatively (and something surprisingly more command than you might think) an HDD in a tray/bay of the NAS might be accidentally physically ejected. Resilvering would allow the system to KNOW that the drive is part of the set and reintroduce it. In EXT4 or BTRFS, that brief disconnection would result in the RAID pool changing to a degraded status and the end-user would be forced to 1) endure a slower system as data is being exchanged with the pool in this parity-reading state as 2) the system wipes the former HDD/SSD to re-write all the data it had already and 3) unnecessary stress is placed on the system resources throughout. In ZFS and TrueNAS, the system would SEE that the recently ejected/dismounted drive is part fo the pool, verify that it has the data in place and then re-introduce the drive. the time this takes is largely based on how long the drive was disconnected (and data written in the interim) but it can genuinely take seconds or minutes – unlike the hours to days that a RAID recovery from a degraded state would take.

USB Storage Media is Visible and Managed in the Storage Manager

It is a very small detail but one I think is worth highlighting. Namely that USB storage media in TrueNAS is handled much differently than in other turnkey NAS solutions from Synology and QNAP. In those latter examples, USB storage is treated at arms length, visible in the file manager in the GUI of course, but then only really visible for use in the backup tools (which is still great). In TrueNAS however, USB storage media is visible, configurable and manageable directly from the storage manager. Now, obviously spreading a RAID over SATA storage media and a USB drive would be ridiculously dangerous for storage, however, there are still plenty of benefits and management advantages to having external storage visible alongside the management of the rest of the storage – aside from backup management and configuring the access privileges of the drive media, it also allows the USB drive to be managed for scheduled tasks and processes alongside the rest of the system and integrated into the reports and monitoring of the TrueNAS system. It is a small detail, but one that really stood out for me when comparing TrueNAS against Synology DSM and QNAP QTS USB media management overall.

Fusion Pools of Mixed Storage Media is Great and Rarer Than You Might Think

Another (relatively) recent addition to TrueNAS and its use of ZFS is the option to create fusion pools. A comparatively streamlined process, when you think about how technical and advanced the average options of TrueNAS can be to the end-user, fusion pools allow you to introduce mixed tiers of storage of different performance and combine them into a single visible pool, but in the background the system is sending data to the drive media that is best suited to supply it – so metadata on the SSD media, larger bulkier sequential data on the HDDs etc. ZFS sends writes to individual physical disks rather than just a RAID volume. This allows for stripe writes across RAID volumes and can perform synchronous writes to speed up performance. This model also ensures there are no long waits for file system checks. ZFS incorporates algorithms to make sure your Most Recently Used (MRU) and Most Frequently Used (MSU) data are stored in your fastest system storage media. Utilizing MRU & MSU combined with flash/NVDIMM ZILs/SLOGs and ARC/L2ARC devices, you can speed up your performance astronomically. Similar systems to this exist in QNAP’s EXT4 service ‘tiered storage’ and both they and Synology offer NVMe SSD caching services in conjunction with an existing pool/volume, but again this is done to a considerably higher and more customizable degree in TrueNAS. It just takes more time and knowhow to set up though.

Smart/Intuitive Option to Define Drive Media Use

Then there is an interesting storage setup choice that TrueNAS offers that is actually quite a bit of fresh air versus the more complex elements of it’s configuration. Namey that the system also includes an option to specifically designate a soon to be created area of storage to a task/use. So, if you have introduced one or more drives to your custom build server, you can choose whether you want this to be an independent new pool as a hot spare, to factor as additional storage redundancy, dedicated deduplication storage, designate the space for metadata (SSD recommended of course) and more. It is a surprisingly user-friendly option amidst all the complexity and a welcome addition to save time and headaches!

No Native Browser GUI Based File Manager

One missing feature of TrueNAS that really surprised me was the absence of a browser-based file manager. Now, on the face of it, many will argue that the GUI of your storage system should be reserved for system management, configuration and for troubleshooting (some even erring away from browser GUIs entirely in favour of SSHing etc directly into the system as a superuser for these tasks for pace). Equally, once you have correctly created and configured your storage (along with creating shared paths and enabling the right file access protocol in TrueNAS) you will be able to mount and access your storage in a drive, folder and file level in your native OS (arguable BETTER). However, the ease and added benefits of ALSO being able to access your system storage from time to time in even a simple file/folder level in the GUI cannot be overstated. Sure, you CAN create a very based root directly breadcrumb style breakdown in a browser tab – but with most NAS brands offering the same OS-level native file/folder access AND offering a web browser GUI file management option (with copy, paste, archive, thumbnails, sharing, editing) AND mobile applications to do the same. It is really odd that this is not a native option in TrueNAS. You COULD use 3rd party tools of course to do this, but that would be a credit to those and not TrueNAS.

RAIDZ Still Takes Longer than Traditional RAID in ReBuilding Fuller Arrays

This is a small negative in the grand scheme of things and hardly something that leaves TrueNAS/ZFS reflected too badly against EXT4 and BTRFS setups, but although ZFS Raid rebuilding IS much faster if your actual capacity used is smaller (only building the data/space used and hashing/zeroing the rest), that advantage does not help in the event of your storage pool being much fuller and in testing a RAIDZ at 90% full vs a near-identical RAID5 on 4x4TB actually took a pinch longer on the ZFS pool. Again, the difference was small and largely down to the additional checksums and verification of ZFS, but still, something to note.

Potential Defragmentation in Copy On Write Methodology

Earlier, we discussed that ZFS utilizes copy on write (CoW) in order to create a 2nd copy of the data for ensuring the integrity of the write action. Unfortunately, this can mean that TrueNAS can suffer from data fragmentation as time wears on. There are direct performance implications that stem from that fact. This can be avoided with scheduled/periodic de-fragmentation, but this can be time and resource-consuming depending on the volume of your storage. So potentially, the fuller your storage pool is with actual data, the slower it will ultimately get. Write speeds in ZFS are directly tied to the amount of adjacent free blocks there are to write to in order to maintain the CoW process. As your pool fills up, and as data fragments, there are fewer and fewer blocks that are directly adjacent to one another. A single large file may span blocks scattered all over the surface of your hard drive. Even though you would expect that file to be a sequential write, it no longer can be if your drive is full. This can be an often overlooked and direct reason for long term performance drops in some systems over time if left unchecked. I have personally not experienced this, but it has been discussed online (forums, reddit, etc) and therefore I still thought I should address this.

Still Not Especially Novice or even soft IT knowledge Friendly User

Despite the big efforts by TrueNAS to demystify the complexity of storage management in several areas of its storage area (fusion pools being partially automated mixed media pools, the suggested vDev drive drop-down, USB management in that same area and ‘force’ warning options to name but a few), there is still no avoiding that TrueNAS is CONSIDERABLY more complicated to setup your storage and is a large jump from the frank simplicity of Synology and QNAP. Some would argue that the simplicity offered by turnkey/off-the-shelf NAS solutions are incredibly restrictive and inherently limiting, but there is still a substantial learning curve to setting up your storage in TrueNAS that needs to be appreciated and understood at the outset.

In the next part of this review of TrueNAS later this week we will be looking at Account Management, as well as how Business Users who are considering TrueNAS for their enterprise storage can get support and how far that support extends.

Part II of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (23/03)

Part III of the TrueNAS Review is HERE (25/03)

Alternatively, you can read the (LONG) FULL Review of TrueNAS is available HERE.

 

 

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TerraMaster Introduces 12-Bay T12-423 High-Performance NAS

Terramaster continues to roll out their new ‘423’ series of devices and for those that thought the recent 9-Bay solution that was revealed was intriguing will be pleased to hear that Terramaster have doubled down o this and crafted a new 12-Bay NAS solution in the T12-423. The Terramaster T12-423 NAS is their first 12-Bay NAS drive (indeed, I can only think of around 3-4 other12-Bay NAS systems ever released and they were HDD/SSD combos, such as the QNAP TVS-1288X or TVS-1282) and building on the architecture of what we have seen from the brand until now, this new system arrives with a current-gen server-grade Intel CPU, improved network connections and a tower-style of desktop chassis. Let’s take a look at everything we know about the T12-423 NAS Drive coming soon.

T12-423 FRONT	T12-423 BACK/PORTS

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS – Performance & Connectivity

The Terramaster T12-423 arrives with similar connectivity to a number of their older Fx-422 and Fx-421 NAS systems, however, there have been improvements in a number of key areas and if this is an idea of what the rest of the Tx-423 NAS range will be featuring in 2022, it is a solid start. The external network connectivity of the T12-423 features two 2.5GbE network ports, that allow upto 5GbE via link-aggregation/port-trunking with a supported network switch (as well as being backwards compatible with 1GbE networks of course). Until now Terramaster has only supplied Desktop 1GbE solutions (along with a couple of 10GbE servers too), so it is nice to see the brand embracing the emerging deployment and utility amount network client hardware to include 2.5GbE at the same price as 1GbE. Alongside this, there are USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports that support external storage, but also Terramaster is one of the last brands in the market with comparatively large USB accessories support vs the likes of Synology and QNAP. These being 5Gb ports and not 10Gb USB ports is a bit of a shame (especially for those who are considering USB local backups to this TWELVE bay system) but the wider USB support is still very welcome. Finally, there is the HDMI output on the rear. Sadly, Terramaster have still to develop any visual/GUI putout for this port and it is reserved for direct, command-level access with security credentials -in other words, maintenance at best. The 2.5GbE ports are the show stealer here though and I hope this is a trend we are going to see from the brand in their 2-Bay, 4-Bay and 5-Bay systems in 2022/2023.

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS – Internal Hardware

The internal hardware of the T12-423 NAS is an interesting mix and alongside the use of the current SMB/Prosumer grade favourite CPU (the Intel Celeron N5105 or N5095 – an Intel CPU Refresh amidst the pandemic means that there are several runs on similar CPUs right now that would have been scheduled in other circumstances), the system arrives with an impressive 8GB of memory by default. I am particularly impressed by the 1x 8GB DDR4 Memory module as standard in the T12-423, as most systems that have arrived in the last 3 months with this CPU (about 3 NAS’) have all featured 2GB or 4GB, so this is a welcome increase for day 1 users. The CPU itself is certainly worthy of note and serves as a notable upgrade over the J4355 in the 2020/2021 generation Terramster systems:

Another couple of areas of note are to do with how Terramaster have stretched the chipset and CPU lanes available in the T12-423. Firstly, the memory maximum of the T12-423 is 32GB. Most systems with this architecture arrive with a 16GB maximum, largely because Intel rate this CPU with that maximum. Therefore it is unusual that Terramaster rate this at 32GB maximum (2 slots, 16GB per slot). Additionally, the system features an additional M.2 NVMe SSD slot (PCIe Gen 3 x2 = 2,000MB/s throughput) but I am still seeking clarification if this can be used for BOTH caching and general storage, or just caching. Most systems would arrive with two M.2 slots (to allow the possibility of Read/Write caching), but I imagine the 12 bays of storage ticked over into the chipset/PCI lanes are enough to prevent this. Still, having the option of installing even a single m.2 SSD is better than ot having it at all, Below is a breakdown of the rest of the hardware specifications:

Processor
Processor Model	Intel® Celeron® N5105
Processor Architecture	X.86 64-bit
Processor Frequency	Quad Core 2.0 GHz (Max burst up to 2.9 GHz)
Hardware Encryption Engine	√
Hardware Transcoding Engine	H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-2, VC-1; maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); maximum frame rate per second (FPS): 60
Memory
System Memory	8GB
Pre-installed Memory module	1
Total Memory Slot Number	2 (SO-DIMM)
Maximum Supported Memory	32 GB (16 GB + 16 GB)
Note	TerraMaster reserves the right to replace memory modules with the same or higher frequency based on supplier’s product life cycle status. Rest assured that the compatibility and stability have been strictly verified with the same benchmark to ensure identical performance.
Storage
Disk Slot Number	12
Compatible Drive types	3.5″ SATA HDD
	2.5″ SATA HDD
	2.5″ SATA SSD
Maximum Internal Raw Storage Capacity	240TB (20TB x 12) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)
Max Single Volume	108TB
Drive Hot Swap	√
Note	. Hard drive vendors will release their latest models of hard drives, and Maximum internal raw storage capacity may be adjusted accordingly.
	. The maximum single volume size is not directly related to the maximum raw capacity.
File System
Internal Drive	EXT4,BTRFS
External Drive	EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+
External Ports
RJ-45 2.5GbE Network Jack	2
USB 3.1 Port	2 (Type-A USB 3.1 Gen2)
HDMI	1
M.2 2280 NVMe Slot	1 (PCIe3.0 x2)
Appearance
Size	mm
Packaging Size	mm
Weight	Net Weight:  Kg   Gross Weight:  Kg
Others
System Fan	80 mm x 80 mm x25mm 3 pcs
Fan Mode	Smart, High speed, Middle speed, Low speed
Noise Level	dB(A) (Fully loaded Seagate 4TB ST4000VN008 hard drive(s) in idle state)
Power Supply	500W
AC Input Voltage	100V – 240V AC
Current Frequency	50/60 Hz, single frequency
Power Consumption	W (Fully loaded Seagate 4TB ST4000VN008 hard drive(s) in read/write state)
	W (Fully loaded Seagate 4TB ST4000VN008 hard drive(s) in hibernation)
Limited warranty	2 years
Certificate	FCC, CE, CCC, KC
Environment	RoHS, WEEE
Temperature
Working Temperature	0°C  ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F)
Storage Temperature	-20°C ~ 60°C (-5°F ~ 140°F)
Relative Humidity	5% ~ 95% RH
Package Contents
	Host unit (x1)
	Power cord (x1)
	RJ-45 network cable (x1)
	Quick Installation Guide (x1)
	Limited Warranty Note(x1)
	Screws(a few)

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS – Size, Noise & Impact

Now, let’s discuss the remarkably tall elephant in the room! The T12-423 12-Bay NAS is desktop chassis that is vertically stacked. Much closer in appearance to a desktop PC that you might find under your desk, the SATA HDD bays are a 4×3 configuration, Looking much more in initial appearance to a compact rackmount NAS chassis, this is quite a unique choice of design. The size of the chassis in its narrow form is much taller deployment might out some users off, in more compact server rooms this would be quite appealing. As this is a 12-Bay chassis, with an internal 500W PSU and 3 rear active fans, the ambient noise level (even with modest Hard Drives) will be quite noticeable. However, this is to be expected once you hit this kind of storage capacity. Overall, although the initial design of the Terramaster T12-423 is unusual, I think there IS a method to the madness and I quite like it!

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS – Applications

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS (much like the rest of the Pro/SMB servers in their portfolio) arrives with the TOS software and services. We have reviewed this NAS GUI and platform back in 2019 in Version TOS 4 HERE, but the brand is currently working on TOS version 5.0, with promised improvements in the user interface, security, applications and responsiveness. We were lucky enough to get access to an early build of Terramaster TOS 5.0 and you can find out more in the video below.

The Terramaster T12-423 NAS – Price & Release Date

The release of the Terramaster T12-423 12-Bay NAS looks like it will be relatively soon, as the official product page for this NAS has been made public on the official brand pages. Terramaster says that the T12-423 will be available at approx $1399 and further pricing worldwide will be available soon.

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