Synology DiskStation DS210j + Disk Station Manager 3.0 beta

Introduction

I know everyone is waiting to get a glimpse of the newly release Disk Station Manager 3 (DSM 3.0) from Synology so keep reading as we go through the nitty gritties of this totally revamped Disk station manager installed in a DiskStation DS210J Budget-friendly 2-bay NAS server for Home and Small Business users.

Featuring a 800Mhz CPU with 128MB RAM the DS210J is ideally suited for SOHO users. The NAS sports 2 drive bays and can hold either 2 x 3.5” hard drives or 2 x 2.5” hard drives with a total hard drive capacity of 2TB each. (4TB in total).

Synology have come a long way since they first introduced their NAS systems into the market. The last review Technoyard did was on their CS407 and it’s certainly impressive the strides they have made since then in giving users the ultimate experience. The DS210J supports the usual bells and whistles Synology’s new NAS boxes support and some eye catching features include:

* RAID Volume Management
* iSCSI Target (Click here for a brief explanation of this feature)
* Server Backup
* USBCopy – You can connect the USB drive into the DS210J and backup data to and fore
* Desktop Backup
* iPhone/Mobile Access – DS audio, DS photo and DS cam are now available on Apple App Store
* iTunes Server
* DLNA Media Server
* Schedule Power On/Off

Full specifications of DS210J

Hardware


  • CPU Frequency: 800MHz
  • Hardware Encryption Engine
  • Memory Bus: 16bit@DDR800
  • Memory: 128MB
  • Internal HDD1: 3.5″ SATA(II) X2 or 2.5″ SATA/SSD X2
    (with the Disk Holder)
  • Max Internal Capacity: 4TB (2x 2TB hard drives)9
    (See All Supported HDD)
  • Size (HxWxD): 161mm X 88mm X 218mm
  • External HDD Interface: USB 2.0 port X3
  • Weight: 0.98kg
  • LAN: Gigabit X1
  • Wireless Support11
  • Fan: X1(70mmX70mm)
  • Noise Level:2 20.8dB(A)
  • Power Recovery
  • AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V
  • Power Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, Single Phase
  • Power Consumption3: 25W(Access); 10W(HDD Hibernation)
  • Operating Temperature: 5°C to 35°C (40°F to 95°F)
  • Storage Temperature: -10°C to 70°C (15°F to 155°F)
  • Relative Humidity: 5% to 95%RH
  • Maximum Operating Altitude: 10,000 feet
  • Certification: FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B

Applications


File Station 3

FTP Server

  • Bandwidth Control
  • Custom FTP Passive Port Range
  • Anonymous FTP
  • Transfer Log

Web Station

  • Virtual Host (up to 30 websites)
  • PHP/MySQL
  • Alternative HTTP Error Page
  • 3rd-Party Applications Support

Surveillance Station 4

Photo Station 4

  • Supported Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f)
  • Supported Video Format5: 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3

Download Station 2

  • Supported Download Protocols: BT/HTTP/FTP/NZB/eMule
  • Custom BitTorrent Port Range
  • BitTorrent / eMule Bandwidth Control

Audio Station 2

  • Supported Audio Format: (USB Mode) AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, WMA VBR; (Streaming Mode) MP3, M4A, M4B
  • Supported Playlist Format: M3U, WPL
  • Internet Radio: SHOUTcast, Radioio

DLNA/UPnP Media Server

  • PS3/Xbox 360 Support
  • Supported Audio Format: AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless
  • Supported Video Format: 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3
  • Supported Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f)
  • Supported Subtitles Format: srt, psb, smi, ass, ssa, sub, idx, ifo

iTunes Server

  • Supported Audio Format6: MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF
  • Supported Video Format: M4V, MOV, MP4
  • Supported Playlist Format: M3U, WPL

Printer Server7

  • Max Printer #: 2
  • Printing Protocols: LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk

Synology Packages

  • SqueezeCenter
  • Mail Station
  • Webalizer
  • phpMyAdmin

iPhone Applications

  • DS photo
  • DS audio
  • DS cam

General Specifications


Networking Protocols

  • CIFS
  • AFP
  • FTP
  • iSCSI
  • Telnet
  • SSH
  • NFS
  • SNMP

File System

  • EXT3
  • FAT32 (External Disk Only)8
  • NTFS (External Disk Only)8

Volume Management

  • Synology Hybrid RAID
  • iSCSI Target (Max size: 16TB):10
  • Volume Type: Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1
  • RAID Migration: from Basic to RAID 1
  • Expand RAID 1 volume with Larger Hard Drives

File Sharing Capability

  • Max User Accounts: 512
  • Max Groups: 128
  • Max Shared Folder: 256
  • Max Concurrent Connections(SAMBA, FTP, AFP): 64

Windows ADS Domain Integration

  • Domain Users login via Samba/AFP/FTP/File Station

Backup Solutions

  • Network Backup
  • Local Backup
  • Desktop Backup (using Synology Data Replicator 3 or Apple Time Machine backup application)
  • USBCopy
  • 3rd-Party Backup Support

Management

  • DSM Upgrade
  • Email Notification
  • SMS Notification
  • Customized User Quota
  • DDNS Support
  • PPPoE
  • Resource Monitor
  • UPS Management
  • Scheduled Power On/Off
  • Custom Management UI HTTP/HTTPS Ports
  • System Temperature Display

Security

  • FTP over SSL/TLS
  • IP Auto-Block
  • Firewall
  • Encrypted Network Backup over Rsync
  • HTTPS Connection

HDD Management

  • HDD Hibernation
  • S.M.A.R.T.
  • Dynamic Bad Sector Mapping

Utilities

  • Synology Assistant
  • Synology Download Redirector
  • Synology Data Replicator 3

Supported Clients

  • Windows 2000 onward
  • Mac OSX 10.3 onward
  • Ubuntu 9.04 onward

Supported Browsers

  • Internet Explorer 7
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Firefox 3
  • Firefox 3.5
  • Safari 3 (Mac)
  • Safari 4 (Mac)

Supported Mobile Devices
(Photo Station, File Station)

  • iPhone OS 2.2.1 onward
  • Windows Mobile (IE Mobile or Opera 9.0 onward)
  • Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd Edition onward

Language

  • Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese European, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish

Environment and Packaging


Environment

  • RoHS Compliant

Package Content

  • DS210J Main Unit
  • Installation CD
  • Assembling Kit
  • Welcome Note
  • AC Power Adapter
  • 2M RJ-45 LAN Cable

Optional Accessories

  • Remote
  • Camera License Pack

___
1. Hard drive not included.
2. Fully loaded with Seagate 1TB ST31000520AS hard drive(s) in operation; Two G.R.A.S. Type 40AE microphones, each set up at 1 meter away from the DiskStation front and rear; Background noise: 17.2 dB(A); Temperature: 23.6?; Humidity: 58.2%; More details about dB(A) value, check
http://www.quietnoise.com/facts.htm
3. Measured with 2 Seagate 750GB ST3750640N hard drive. The figures could vary on different environments.
4. 1 free license to install 1 IP camera. Additional licenses can be purchased to expand the license quota.
5. User can click and download the following video formats: RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3, but not able to play it in Photo Station as compressed Flash video.
6. The music in WAV and AIF format can be streamed, but the metadata (ex: title, album) may not be indexed on the iTunes.
7. For Mac users, DS210J supports PostScript USB printers only.
8. Primary partion only.
9. The actual capacity will differ according to volume types.
11. Wireless dongles not included. Please check http://www.synology.com/ for supported wireless dongles.

Specifications are subject to change without notice.


DS210J in Detail

The DS210J comes in a pretty simple box however it’s still sleek in its own unique way.

Opening up the box you’re offered a well packaged DS210J with all its accessories neatly packed away.

Installing of the DS210J is quite straight forward. Simply slide off one half of the plates away from each other and it’ll reveal the insides of the unit. Here you can see the two halves of the DS210J side by side.

Looking from the rear of the unit you can see the 70x70mm cooling fan and 2x USB ports.

Going to the front of the until you see the front USB port (For USB Copy Feature), Reset switch and power switch. You can also see the SATA ports to which the hard drives slide into at the far end of the picture.


Installation

Installation is a simple and straight forward process; you have to slide the hard drives into the DS210J and make sure they are secured into the SATA ports. Thereafter using the provided screws secure the drives in place as per the picture below.

Now that we have covered the physical aspects of the DS210J, lets see how well the unit performs. But first we will be upgrading the firmwear to the latest DSM 3.0 Beta and doing our tests as we go along taking a first hand glimpse of this new beta release.


DiskStation Manager 3.0 – beta

Okay first up you need to sign up for the beta test program from Synology in order to download the latest beta DSM 3.0 operating system. Ater downloading proceed to the operating system update section in the DiskStation and select the .pim file and sit back and relax until the new operating system is installed. It’s always a good idea to backup your important data before doing any kind of operating system updates just in case something doesn’t go as planned.

Our install went without a hitch and I must admit I was blown away when I first saw the revamped look of DiskStation Manager. Synology have totally revamped the look and feel of their DiskStation Manager and starting from the initial login screen to everything inside has been given a complete make over.

Here’s the new look for the login screen

Once you login you’re offered with a basic layout which will show large icons for “File Browser”, “Control Panael”, “Help” and “Quick start guide”. Clicking on the drop down arrow on the top left corner will bring up the initial menu where you can select the desired function.

Going into the control panel reveals familiar services such as photo station, shared folders, web services etc. With DSM 3.0 Synolgoy has gone for a more visually appealing layout and nicer icons.


Since we installed our DSM 3.0 from scratch you first need to setup your volume(s). Select the quick start icon from the main layout box and it’s a matter of following the guides given. You’re given 4 options when quick start module loads up and since this is the first time we’re using the DS210K we will be installing the 2 x drives in a RAID 1 configuration. Since the DS210J offers only 2 hard drives to be installed you’re kind of limited in your RAID options. If you don’t want redundancy you can always opt for a RAID 0 configuration and get the full storage of your drives. When creating the RAID volumes you are offered with an easy to understand screen and even if you’re a novice user it won’t be hard to understand what to do.

If you’re running some sort of virtualization setup, you could also setup an iSCSI target and make more use of the NAS by having multiple LUNS. (Partitions)

One of the main differences in DSM3.0 in comparison to it’s previous counterparts is that now you can have multi tasking application interface windows open giving you good interactivity with the system. This allows you to perform multiple jobs at the same time which is a great convenience and a huge improvement from the DSM 2.x versions.

There’s a nice resource utility monitor which tells you CPU, Memory and Network usage. Here you see the resource usage of the DS210J performing media photo indexing which FTPing data onto the NAS.

Even though the CPU shows as 100% utilization we don’t really see any performance lag while doing other tasks within the LAN.

Some new features of the DSM 3.0 update includes a firewall and router configiguration. Router config might be a bit confusing for some but it essentially allows you to port forward required ports onto the NAS. For this to work your router needs to be in the current pre-built list of routers already on DSM3.0. The router list isn’t very exhaustive and may not support your router, but Synology have tried to include most common router brands out there. There’s also an update feature which will download more router models as and when Synology developers confirm them working.

Once you setup the router you can create rules to setup custom port forwarding rules on the router through the DSM3.0. This is a really neat feature as you no longer need to worry about configuring two devices on your network.

The built in firewall comes very handy if you want to lock down you DiskStation further. You can decide to go with the easy way and select the type the application/ services you want to block or allow or design your own firewall rules.

One aspect I like is that when you create a shared folder on the NAS, immediately thereafter it’ll bring in the privilege settings screen. Before we did not have this feature and had to manually go into the relevant section to do the changes needed.

In terms of power options you can schedule the power to come on and off at given times.

A new feature which most of us have been waiting for is iPhone integration. Synology have released a DSPhoto app and a DSAudio app giving users the ability to stream music or watch pictures stored on the DS210J. This is quite a unique feature and opens up your iPhone to a whole new world.

Further to this, you can now utilize the full window of the DiskStation web interface and you can simply drag and drop icons onto the Web interface desktop. This makes things a lot easier when you try to find something and kudos on synology for making this integration so smooth.


Some of the Bugs and room for improvement in DSM3.0

One of the first bugs we encountered was that if you download data using download station, it’ll download upto 100%, but the file is lost. It’s no where to be found on the hard drive and you’ll be wasting your bandwitdh. Synology is aware of this and will be releasing and update during their official launch.

It would have also been nice to be able to create shared folders in File Manager itself. It appears that unless you want to create sub folders within the shared folder, you actually need to go to Volume manager to create main shared folders.

Conclusion

Overall the DSM3.0 is remarkably a complete revamp of the former DSM 2.x series and I congratulate on the team for achieving this level of functionality across the board. Just to recap some of the key features of the DSM 3.0 are

1. Multi tasking web interface,
2. Multimedia on iPhone and android.
3. Windows file level priviledge support

We didn’t have any issues during the installation process and I must admit Synology have finally produced a killer of a DiskStation Manager and if your DiskStation supports it, you’ll not want to wait too long to get your hands on this operating system. Once the official release comes out make sure you download the DSM3.0 and give your DiskStation a new life.

Synology DiskStation DS210j

9.6

Build Quality

9.8/10

Performance

9.4/10

Features

9.6/10

Value

9.7/10
Our Score

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