Getting my first NAS - Synology DS220+

[MidnightCrashB]

Hi all,

 

Currently looking to implement my first NAS into the home.

It will mainly be used to back-up photos from several users 2 in home (2 outside the home), documents and some movies.

 

I've been looking around and currently my top choice would be the Synology DS220+ with 2 IronWolf 4tb drives.

The ideal set-up would be the drives in a Raid 1 configuration (as i understood this would protect against drive failure) 

Users want to back-up/transfer photos whilst being on the network as well as from a separate location (online access) 

Additionally, users want to set up automated back up of photos on Andriod/IOS devices so that photos taken are automatically backed up. 

 

My main question is do people have experience with Synology DS220+ ? is it a good NAS for back-ups and is it easy to increase storage should the need arise in the future? 

And would there be any difficulties for Mac users compared to Windows?

Also whats the difference between de DSS220J v DS220 + for future proofing might it be more beneficial to start with the +?

 

Thanks!

[NelizMastr]

On 5/17/2021 at 11:34 AM, MidnightCrashB said:

My main question is do people have experience with Synology DS220+ ? is it a good NAS for back-ups and is it easy to increase storage should the need arise in the future? 

For back-ups only, any NAS in the 220 series will do, as I will elaborate on below.

On 5/17/2021 at 11:34 AM, MidnightCrashB said:

And would there be any difficulties for Mac users compared to Windows?

Not at all. Synology's DSM operating system supports NFS, AFP and SMB protocols, which allows

*nix devices, Macs and PC's to all talk to it. Macs prefer the use of SMB these days. I perform the

TimeMachine back-up routine from our most important Macs straight to the NAS.

On 5/17/2021 at 11:34 AM, MidnightCrashB said:

Also whats the difference between de DSS220J v DS220 + for future proofing might it be more beneficial to start with the +?

The DS220j has a slower processor, less memory and is overall less suited to more power user tasks.

It's fine for basic storage use and maybe a VPN server on top, but not much else.

The DS220+ is their high end offering in the 220 series. It may have expandable memory, VM and docker support

and so on. It's the NAS to get if you have some other light services you want to centralize (like a handful of containers

for a Ubiquiti Unifi controller, a PiHole for adblocking, etc.).

It also has an extra LAN port, which you can aggregate for 2Gbps throughput, which is handy if you ever move your

network beyond 1Gbps.