Using a Synology NAS as a Game Server

[Damiangjy]

Hi all,

 

I'm considering a purchase of a Synology NAS to consolidate years' worth of family photos/videos, to share Movies with each other, and as a redundant data hub using RAID. Right now I have the DS418play in my shortlist, but I might upgrade to a DS918+ depending on whether I would be able to host dedicated game servers on it that would run 24/7 along with the NAS even as my computer is shut down (I intend to set up these game servers so that my friends may game even when my computer isn't running).

 

So here's my question:

• Is it possible to run a dedicated game server on either of those NAS's? 
  • The games I intend to run are, in order or priority, The Forest, CSGO, and GTA V
    • The Forest - Dual Core 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM
    • DS418play - Intel Celeron J3355 (Dual Core 2.0GHz, burst to 2.5GHz), 2GB DDR3L RAM upgradable to 6GB
    • DS918+ - Intel Celeron J3455 (Quad Core 1.5GHz, burst to 2.5GHz), 4GB DDR3L RAM upgradable to 8GB
• What do I need to know to set up a dedicated game server?
  • Does the server (NAS in this case) need to have the specs for playing the game on a local machine? Thus, would buying a more powerful NAS lead to better game performance?
  • Will the game be running all the time on the NAS, thus increasing the power consumption?
  • Anything else that might be important?

Thanks!

[fabafaba]

17 minutes ago, Damiangjy said:

Does the server (NAS in this case) need to have the specs for playing the game on a local machine? Thus, would buying a more powerful NAS lead to better game performance?

No, it does not. Game servers have much lower hardware requirements than the machine that runs the actual game. Unless you want to run all three servers at once, the NASes you picked should work fine and reach decent refresh rates on the servers. The game performance on the PC you're playing on won't be affected by the server.

19 minutes ago, Damiangjy said:

Will the game be running all the time on the NAS, thus increasing the power consumption?

You can have the server run all the time, or you turn it on each time you want to play. But as long as the server is not actively used and just idleing, the power consumption will be quite low. You might want to look into building your own NAS, you can get better higher performance hardware and expanding your NAS will be much cheaper because you can just put as many HDDs in your system as you can get to fit, with synology you'd need expansion modules which cost almost as much as the regular NAS systems.

[AMDKilla]

Some games require the same level of CPU resources as the game, but as they don't have to render the gameworld like a client, they don't require the GPU horsepower. It's best to see what the developers state is the recommended hardware for the server.

[DigitalBox]

It’s possible to run a CSGO server on NAS Synology via Docker.

 

So you will have to verify the model you purchase is compatible with Docker.

 

Next step is to use Docker + hazzie/lgsmbase image + follow instructions on LinuxGSM. I’ve put some details on this solution on my blog if interested:)