Synology 5 bay NAS DiskStation DS1515+ (Diskless)

I first tried this with five random drives of 500GB to 4TB capacity I had lying around and, well, it was ridiculously slow and even failed to setup properly. So I ordered five matching WD Red NAS 3TB drives and set it up in raid 5 - which took less than a minute. (Yay for Amazon same-day prime delivery!) Since this is hard drive industry GiB I ended up with just a little under 11TB usable capacity. The software is intuitive and I like that it explicitly allows creating shared folders (network volumes from the client perspective) with specific access controls and quotas. It makes keeping client backups a snap, and setting sane limits on their sizes. If a Windows Backup incremental for a client with a 500GB SSD fails because a 2TB network volume is full I want to know, because something is wrong and the backup isn't decimating old datasets correctly.Performance is awesome for a home or small office setup. Even while it was doing the initial parity check it was happily sustaining 100MB/s for large file writes on smb mounts. This was limited by the fact that the PC I use it with has only one gbe port. The DS1515+ has four, although it seems to obtain individual DHCP leases on them and won't bond them. Performance for large files on smb mounts is excellent. Unfortunately, performance for afp mounts (OSX) is terrible and rarely more than 10MB/s for large files. I'd recommend using smb mounts with Apples and skip afp as it'll work much better.For linux I wish it had proper rsync support with public key authentication. This can be set up of course, running over ssh, but at that point it's just another linux box with minimal tooling and controls. For example, I wish I could log into it and just click something and have it go out and sync with a linux system using rsync. Or add user public keys through the control panel, or generate new a new NAS specific key pair if it's going to go fetch something. Meddling with the .ssh directory is rather error-prone and fiddly.Speaking of logging in, the web UI is among the best I've seen for any web-managed product, bar none. It's really well made. It should be the gold standard for web management of appliances! A few useful things are missing, and it doesn't appear possible to add my own apps to it. I'd love to set up a git mirror on it and a few other handy things. It does have Docker support but that's pretty heavy-duty for simple problems. One example of what I'd like is the ability to run python-vxi11 scripts on it for data logging - I'm an EE and have about a dozen GPIB and LXI instruments; the former are bridged to VXI11 using a pair of ICS 8065 GPIB-to-Ethernet bridges. Currently the simple collection script runs on a headless Intel NUC and I will manually have to copy the results to the NAS. Instead the scripts could simply run on the NAS instead. Analysis runs on a PC, OSX, or Linux (numpy/scipy). A custom app would have been perfect here.JRiver Media Center indexed my modest collection of about 8000 FLAC/ALAC files (mostly 44.1/16 CD rips) in a few minutes. Scanning for updates after adding another album takes about ten seconds.I bought it with a 4GB Kingston SODIMM since the latter only cost $18. I read instructions and reviews online on how to open the case and install it, some talking about how it's in a difficult position. When I eventually got around to installing the SODIMM I removed the five screws on the back and pulled the cover; imagine my surprise to find a perfectly accessible empty laptop SODIMM socket on the side. Popped in the 4GB SODIMM, screwed the cover back in place, fired it up, and it now had 6GB RAM. Anyone who knows which end of a Phillips screwdriver is the business end and how to insert a stick of memory into a socket can do this in a few minutes.CloudSync syncs up my google drive to a folder. Works great. I use this mainly for storing random datasheets and other things I want access to from a 12" Samsung tablet on my lab bench. Mainly for things like package pinouts without having to move over to my main desktop computer.It's surprisingly quiet with the fans set to silent mode. The WD Reds don't seem to generate a whole lot of heat, nor does the Intel Atom CPU, and looking around a bit while adding the SODIMM didn't see much else in there either to generate heat: a simple SMPS power supply and laptop SODIMM memory. The air coming out the back is room temperature and I'm pretty sure it's all about the drives. The WD Red 3TBs definitely run cool.So what were the cons here? Not much, really. The four ethernet ports made me go buy another NetGear gbe switch since I simply didn't have enough spare ports for it. It didn't work too well in the JBOD hybrid setup, but the raid5 setup positively flies for a small NAS tray at this pricepoint.On the whole couldn't recommend this unit more enthusiastically. With a fresh set of five drives in raid5 it's the proverbial Just Works!

Bought this NAS based on specs, Synology's reputation, and 4-year warranty. I use it for my Home Office. Decent performance, decent OS. I don't even put a heavy load on it.One day 2 years in to the purchase, it died. Flat out died. No lights, sounds, nothing. Probably the power box inside. Nothing else connected to the UPS had any problems. Synology has an "Advanced RMA" process to get an expedited replacement unit. Replacement units are refurbished units, which effectively means you are getting someone else's unit that died during warranty where they fixed the one piece. Not a great situation. Worse, I believe the warranty does not extend but remains the original warranty.Filled out an Advanced RMA, putting down a credit card to get a unit shipped out immediately (to New Jersey). Called back the next day to see if it was shipped out, and they said they will not have any units to ship out until 4 days later, and when it ships out, it will take 7 business days to get here. WHAT? 2 weeks without any of my files? Synology with RAID5 was supposed to ensure high reliability and high availability! 2 weeks out of service is completely unacceptable.I have all my files on this NAS, and since it is encrypted across disks on RAID5, I can't plug them in to my computer to retrieve them. I have to send files to my lawyers. I have to run my home office. I cannot wait 2 weeks.Spoke to Manny in Synology customer service. Then spoke to the boss, Jason. Jason claimed he is the final decision maker, the final arbiter. Neither was sympathetic. Jason flat out did not care. He said 2 weeks is within the normal time frame to turn-around a replacement unit, and he will not make any exceptions to his policy. I suggested he expedite finding a unit to ship out - but Jason said he will not. I suggested he ship out the unit using a quicker delivery mechanism - but Jason said he will not unless I paid for it. Cost? $191. On a $700 device, he wants me to pay $191 on shipping for a replacement.Jason then insisted he is not making a profit on the shipping charges and these extra expenses are reasonable. PROFIT? Is he really worried about making a PROFIT on replacing his defective device? Seriously, who does that? What kind of company allows this?I asked if there was any other way to get my files since I need them ASAP. Jason pointed me to an article on his website that shows how to do it, IF you have a PC (I have a Mac) and IF you have hardware that can read 4-5 HDDs simultaneously (isn't that what the NAS is supposed to do?). Basically, he and I concluded that the only way to make this work is to buy new hardware - hardware Jason / Synology would NOT be willing to paying for.The NAS itself was decent while it worked, but if it just dies unexpectedly, that is a serious problem. Add on the fact it will take you 2 weeks to get a replacement, during which time you will be without ALL your files? That is a big enough problem to avoid this device at all costs. And 2 weeks is a NORMAL timeframe for them. What do you think a delayed delivery would look like? Can your home office or business survive with that type of service? Go with a QNAP. Hopefully their customer service won't be worried about profiting off their customers when their drives die inside of warranty.The call was recorded for quality assurance. However, since Jason insisted he was the top of the food chain, and there is no other avenue of appeal, he is probably the one who QAs the phone calls.