Synology DS218J NAS

Bristolian

Bristolian

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Hi folks,

I was just wondering if anyone is using the above NAS or have any experience of it?

I can get a virtually unused one in pristine condition for around the £80 mark - less drives, of course, but I have two spare 2TB drives that I can use.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one to replace my WD My Cloud Home which, IMHO, is just about the worst device ever made. Please don't ask what's wrong with it because I'm trying not to rant about the POS.
 
Bristolian said:
Hi folks,

I was just wondering if anyone is using the above NAS or have any experience of it?

I can get a virtually unused one in pristine condition for around the £80 mark - less drives, of course, but I have two spare 2TB drives that I can use.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one to replace my WD My Cloud Home which, IMHO, is just about the worst device ever made. Please don't ask what's wrong with it because I'm trying not to rant about the POS.
Click to expand...

I've had a DS214 for around 5 years now. Excellent NAS system with a great Operating System on them.

You won't be disappointed at all, especially for £80.

Dougie.
 
Cheers Dougie. I've only read good things about Synology but figured I'd get a balanced view from actual users :)
 
Another DS214 user here, albeit the play version, not the J.

Admittedly I don't use all the power of the device, I have streamed video and audio from it, but mainly it is just used as a NAS.
it's not put a foot wrong in all the time I've had it (6 years?)
It happily rebuilt the raid1 array when I decided to upgrade from 2x3TB to 2x6TB disks.
Mainly though, it sits there serving files as needed, running the scheduled backups to USB and Amazon Prime overnight.
 
I'm currently populating a new Ds218jJ which I installed yesterday and so far it's been pretty painless. It takes a bit a scratching to start using it due to the lack of instructions but the internet is your friend her. I started uploading around 40k of photos yesterday and it's still chugging away which is to be expected but so far so good. I'd certainly go for an £80 one like a shot.
 
I've been running a DS218j for a couple of years.
I recently upgraded the HDDs from 4tb to 6tb and it rebuilt the RAID without any problems.
One think to note, if you plan on using RAID, keep away for the WD Red HDDs because they use SMR not CMR (this applies to the entire range upto 8gb)
WD kept quiet about this and users experienced issues upgrading WD reds in RAID.
Thankfully my WD Reds are CMR and the Seagate ironwolfs I upgraded to are also CMR.
SMR is fine for desktop computer but not for always on RAID HDDs.
WD have recently announced some new Red HDDs that will be going back to CMR but they've lost me as customer which is a shame as the CMR pair I have have been rock solid.
Have a read about SMR and CMR here: https://www.servethehome.com/wd-red-smr-vs-cmr-tested-avoid-red-smr/
I will be adding a second Synology NAS but still toying between the DS220j and the DS218.
 
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Superb product. I've been using one here for a few years in a RAID1 configuration and would highly recommend it.. I have found Synology to have the most functionality of any home office NAS.
 
Thanks for all the comments folks. My seller has obviously been doing some homework and realised his NAS is worth more than the £80 he initially asked for. We are negotiating :)

@hashcake - Thanks for the heads up re the drives but I wouldn't buy another WD product if they were the only seller on the planet. I'm replacing a WD My Cloud Home device (Note: this is completely different to the My Home device) as it really is nothing more than an external hard drive that just happens to be connected via ethernet rather than USB. There is no functionality built-in and the apps that get installed during the installation process don't even work with the device either. Their community forums are full of dissatisfied punters like me and any time the comments get too bad they lock the thread. Disgraceful lack of customer service.
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks for all the comments folks. My seller has obviously been doing some homework and realised his NAS is worth more than the £80 he initially asked for. We are negotiating :)

@hashcake - Thanks for the heads up re the drives but I wouldn't buy another WD product if they were the only seller on the planet. I'm replacing a WD My Cloud Home device
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You're welcome, a pair of Seagate Ironwolfs will serve you fine.
I would be reluctant to pay too much for a used DS218j when you can get a DS220j for £150 which has a faster CPU and a 2 year warranty.
 
Again, thanks for the heads up. I find the multitude of Synology devices very confusing.

My seller is hanging out for £140 and I'm not prepared to pay more than £100 so I think I'm going to tell him to forget it and buy the DS220j instead.
 
Bristolian said:
Again, thanks for the heads up. I find the multitude of Synology devices very confusing.

My seller is hanging out for £140 and I'm not prepared to pay more than £100 so I think I'm going to tell him to forget it and buy the DS220j instead.
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The 'j' indicates that it's Synology budget range.
The 218 and 218play (play indicates that it's been designed for streaming media but they can all do that) have more memory and the 218+ has an Intel Celeron CPU and 2gb ram.
I wouldn't pay £100 for a NAS that has possibly been running 24/7 for 2 years when the option of a 220j is only £50 more.
 
I've been running Synology NAS for around 10 years now.

Started with Ds410j. But discovered I don't really need that much drives.
Changed to Ds213j, ran that for many years. It's my single point of accessing all my data. (backed up of course)
Upgraded to Ds218+ in 2018. As baby arrives, I figure close family members will access the photos service more often and we'll make use of the photo auto backup of the Moments app.

Looking at the specs, mainly processor, I'd get the 220j if buying budget range today. https://www.synology.com/en-global/...Peripherals/What_kind_of_CPU_does_my_NAS_have
 
Stick to £80. Second hand goods I price at 2/3 of original value if still in warranty, 1/2 or less if not. The Synology 218J is available for around £150. Unless it's just a few months old I'd go elsewhere and buy with a warranty.

I use a 214 Play. Great piece of kit.
 
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JohnX said:
The Synology 218J is available for around £150.
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Not worth it when you can get the 220j for £150 which also has a faster CPU.
 
Bear in mind the accepted best practice is NOT to have a pair of the exact same model of disks.
Because if you do, they are likely to be from the same batch and with the same amount of use, potentially will fail at around the same time.
(When 1 disk fails and you rebuild the raid onto a second new one, you stress the other original disk, making it more likely to fail).
 
LC2 said:
Bear in mind the accepted best practice is NOT to have a pair of the exact same model of disks.
Because if you do, they are likely to be from the same batch and with the same amount of use, potentially will fail at around the same time.
(When 1 disk fails and you rebuild the raid onto a second new one, you stress the other original disk, making it more likely to fail).
Click to expand...

Hi LC2,

Purely by accident the two drives I have are different - both Seagate but not the same model. How did I know that was going to be a good thing? :)
 
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220J here after an upgrade from a 413j which served me well for 7 years without a hitch. 220 is a great bit of kit for the money.
 
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions above, folks. I finally pulled the trigger on a DS220J with a pair of 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drives - should arrive tomorrow sometime.
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions above, folks. I finally pulled the trigger on a DS220J with a pair of 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drives - should arrive tomorrow sometime.
Click to expand...

Good choice and I am glad you avoided the SMR WD Red hard drives.
How will you run the NAS, as a RAID 1? (mirrored).
 
LC2 said:
:runaway:Now what did I say about pairs of identical drives? ;)
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I don't think there's much of issue these days.
My WD reds have been running 24/7 for over 2 years.
There would be lots of bad reviews if there were batch problems.
Not just that, NAS hdds are probably more resilient.
 
hashcake said:
I don't think there's much of issue these days.
My WD reds have been running 24/7 for over 2 years.
There would be lots of bad reviews if there were batch problems.
Not just that, NAS hdds are probably more resilient.
Click to expand...
It's not about (bad) batch issues.
It's that 2 drives from the same batch are likely to have the same lifespan.
If run to that point, when the first fails, the second is likely to be close behind. The additional stress of a RAID rebuild can then cause the good drive to fail too.
Remember, there are only 2 types of harddrive. Those that have failed and those that are going to fail.

Of course... If your raid is just part of your data back-up plan, with additional offline (and offsite) back-ups and also cloud storage, then a raid failure just impacts on your most accessible storage and not the safety of your data.
 
hashcake said:
Good choice and I am glad you avoided the SMR WD Red hard drives.
How will you run the NAS, as a RAID 1? (mirrored).
Click to expand...

It took a while to find a good deal with the Seagate drives but it was worth the wait. Yes, I'm planning to use it in RAID 1.

I had planned to use the drives from my existing NAS and one of my USB drives but the NAS one is a WD SMR drive and the other isn't rated for continual use so opted for two new drives instead.
 
LC2 said:
:runaway:Now what did I say about pairs of identical drives? ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, I know, and I appreciate it's a risk but as I have two other physical and a cloud backup losing the drives won't be a killer - just inconvenient.
 
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Blimey, is it really nearly 3 weeks since my last post in this thread. I thought I ought to complete the circle, so to speak, and give my initial impressions of the Synology DS220j.

Well, compared to the WD My Cloud Home it has replaced it is a Rolls Royce and Ferrari at the same time (the WD is more of a tired Reliant Robin). Set up was relatively simple itself as it came configured for RAID 1 but the user manual leaves a bit to be desired as it uses too much "jargon". The on-line help is ueful though with step by step explanations and screen shots - ideal for a luddite like me. Adding users was simplicity personified and even Mrs Bristolian, who is a registered technophobe, can use it.

Copying my photo collection went very quickly with write speeds of 500-650Mbps from my PC but much slower when copying from the WD - typically 24 - 30 Mbps - which I think is indicative of the poor quality of that device.

I've yet to set up remote access or iTunes server or any of the other included packages but will get around to those soon.

All-in-all I'm a happy bunny :) Thanks for all the advice and comments above.

PS: The drives have quite widely different serial numbers so I'm hoping they won't both fail at the same time when they do eventually give up.
 
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Do you have Amazon Prime?
If so, you can configure the Synology to back up your photos (including raws, but excluding sidecars) to it for free.
It's the "Cloud Sync" application that you use.
You would set up a schedule to run over night when you aren't using the net and just let it back the files up over time.

NB. You can also back up the sidecars, there is 5GB of generic free storage on top of the unlimited photo storage. I have 350mb of sidecars for >2TB of photos.
 
Bristolian said:
Copying my photo collection went very quickly with write speeds of 500-650Mbps from my PC but much slower when copying from the WD - typically 24 - 30 Mbps - which I think is indicative of the poor quality of that device.
Click to expand...

That's because gigabit lan is faster than USB.
I purchased a DS218 around about the time you purchased yours and it's now running nicely next to my DS218j.
As you said, formatting the HDDs and creating a RAID 1 automatically is a nice feature, I don't recall it doing that on my DS218j, I think I did that manually but Synology are forever updating DSM and it's nice to see they still support the DS218j and that's now over 2 years old.
If you ever decide to uprgade the HDDs, as long as they are CMR, you replace one at a time, let it rebuild the RAID onto the first new drive then replace the second one and it will do the same.
Mine took around 20 hours per drive to rebuild the RAID when I upgraded them in the DS218j.
 
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hashcake said:
That's because gigabit lan is faster than USB.
Click to expand...

The WD isn't USB - it's supposed to support Gigabit speeds but it never came even remotely close. The DS220j is connected exactly the same way as the WD was - even using the same Ethernet cable and router port.

I purchased a DS218 around about the time you purchased yours and it's now running nicely next to my DS218j.
As you said, formatting the HDDs and creating a RAID 1 automatically is a nice feature, I don't recall it doing that on my DS218j, I think I did that manually but Synology are forever updating DSM and it's nice to see they still support the DS218j and that's now over 2 years old.
If you ever decide to uprgade the HDDs, as long as they are CMR, you replace one at a time, let it rebuild the RAID onto the first new drive then replace the second one and it will do the same.
Mine took around 20 hours per drive to rebuild the RAID when I upgraded them in the DS218j.
Click to expand...

I really like DSM even though I've yet to venture too deep into it. As I said before I'm not very technical where networking is concerned so I was relieved to see that the NAS basically set itself up and all I needed to do was add myself and SWMBO as users and begin copying files to the DS220j.

Based on the advice I received in this thread I specified Seagate Iron Wolf drives so that swap-outs and rebuilding would be easier. I'll let you know if that was a good choice in due course :)
 
You've made a great choice Steve and should be happy for years to come. Just be wary of opening up external router ports to general internet traffic.

Only external access I allow to my Synology device is to my POE powered IP Cam which utilises the supplied (1 cam license) for surveillance station (ace software).

My diskstation has 500 TB allocated for roughly 2 weeks coverage and recorded stream and 1.5 TB for other storage (after Raid config Obvs).

Cheers,
Dougie.
 
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Bristolian said:
Based on the advice I received in this thread I specified Seagate Iron Wolf drives so that swap-outs and rebuilding would be easier. I'll let you know if that was a good choice in due course :)
Click to expand...

I upgraded from WD reds to Seagate Ironwolf in my DS218j and put the WD reds in my DS218.
As long as the HDDSs are CMR you'll be fine if you decided to upgrade.
It looks like Amazon have the WD red CMR's back in stock but they are £199 for the 6gb whereas the Seasgate ironwolfs are £170.
I don't think it will be too long before I will need to upgrade the DS218 as my 4K movie collection is forever expanding so it will be another pair of Seagates.
 
For those on the upgrade path, a real good bit of price research is needed and think hard about your long term needs.
It's easy to think I need to move from 2 x 6tb to 2 x 8tb drives to give you that extra 2tb of space, but that's going to cost around £400.
Now if you swap the 218J to a 420J that's £271 then use your old 2 x 6tb drive plus buy one more 6tb at £156 you've spent £427 but is you're using SHR you've gained an extra 6tb of storage giving you 12tb for under £600 to get that on your 2 bay will cost £650

I'm in the same boat with my 718+, can't really decide do I buy the expansion box, or new 4 or 5 bay unit.
 
Snapper67 said:
My diskstation has 500 TB allocated for roughly 2 weeks coverage and recorded stream and 1.5 TB for other storage (after Raid config Obvs).

Cheers,
Dougie.
Click to expand...


Are you sure that's right. To get a 500TB on Synology is going to cost £10K+ :)
 
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Not to hijack the thread, but what's this like to setup and use? The reason I ask is.. I have a HP Microserver running FreeNAS and it's way above my ability to keep on top of.. I have issues getting onto shared drives etc.. and I'm thinking I would be better off with a more plug & play NAS drive.. thoughts??

I have 2 x 3TB WD Red NAS HDD's, could I pull these across to a synology or similar??
 
technics100 said:
Not to hijack the thread, but what's this like to setup and use? The reason I ask is.. I have a HP Microserver running FreeNAS and it's way above my ability to keep on top of.. I have issues getting onto shared drives etc.. and I'm thinking I would be better off with a more plug & play NAS drive.. thoughts??

I have 2 x 3TB WD Red NAS HDD's, could I pull these across to a synology or similar??
Click to expand...

Synology's DSM Operating system is as user friendly as you'll get. It has wizards for setting up/ internet security etc which make it quite straightforward for non IT bods.

Both your drives will work fine but will require to be completely flattened to use in the Synology.

Dougie.
 
I too am a technical Luddite when it comes to stuff like this but I found the Synology so easy to set up. As Dougie says above the DSM operating system is very easy to use and their on-line help system actually appears to be written for Dummies.

My previous NAS (a WD My Cloud Home) wouldn't play nicely with other devices on the home network but the Synology just appeared everywhere. Right now I'm listening to music stored on the NAS playing through the TV - that would never work with the WD.

They also have apps for Android and iOS so you can access your files, photos, music, etc, on your devices.
 
Bad news on the Amazon Drive / Photo Storage front...

Amazon are being t**s and preventing the synology apps from connecting from some time in Nov this year.

You can still use the amazon desktop app to upload, but that means it's running on your desktop (or laptop) rather than in the background from your NAS.

A work around suggested is to run a VM on the NAS and use that to run the desktop app. But that functionality needs the 218+ or greater and a Windows license.
Or maybe adding something like this to your network just to run the amazon desktop app

Mini PC,Intel x5-Z8350 HD Graphics Desktop Computer, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, DDR3L 2GB/32GB eMMC, Built-in Dual WiFi 2.4G /5.0G /BT 4.0: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Buy Mini PC, Intel x5-Z8350 HD Graphics Desktop Computer, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, DDR3L 2GB/32GB eMMC, Built-in Dual WiFi 2.4G /5.0G /BT 4.0 at Amazon UK. Free delivery and return on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk

Annoyed...
 
Yes, bloody annoying, as I only found out about this from this thread a few weeks ago!
 
Thank you for informing us.

I use similar Google photos unlimited feature to backup my photos, I also had to use the desktop client because there is no native Synology client.
 
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