Synology Project Part 3: Setting Up the NAS
Time to set this NAS up! The easy way to do this is to is to go to Synology’s Web Site and download Synology Assistant. Synology searches the network to find the device even if it doesn’t have an IP Address. If the NAS doesn’t have an IP Address then you’ll have to fix your networking issues first but once it has an IP Address you can connect to it and start configuring the device.
Once you have Synology Assistant installed, run it to find your device.
As you can tell Synology Assistant found the unconfigured NAS with a DHCP Address. Double Click on the listing to open the configuration wizard.
On the Welcome Page click “Set Up” to get started.
On the second page of the configuration wizard you’re prompted to update the device. You can either let the NAS connect to the internet and download to update automatically or you can install it manually. To install it manually you have to go to Synology’s site and download the version of DSM you want it install. Then come back to this page and click on manual install. When you do that the configuration wizard opens a prompt to upload the DSM File. I’m not running anything that would tie me to an older version so I let the Synology do the work for me.
Now that DSM is installing it’s hurry up and wait until its done. It doesn’t take that long to process. As you can see Synology says it will take approximately 10 minutes, but most of the time it takes about half the time.
After the update/installation of DSM finishes you’re presented with the first step of configuration. Pick a name for the NAS and the first user account. The user account you specify on this screen is the default Administrator for the NAS. Good security practices should be applied here as well so I’m setting up the admin account to be the “administrator of the device” account then, I’ll create regular end user accounts for my wife and I later. Those end user accounts will not have administrative access.
Click Next to proceed.
On this page you can specify if you want automatic updates or not. I’m trying to automate the maintenance of this so I selected “Install the latest DSM version automatically“. When you select that option it gives you options to scope when it runs. I selected to check for updates on Wednesdays and Sundays and to apply the updates at 2am.
Click Next to proceed.
QuickConnect is Synology’s built in mechanism for allowing remote access to your NAS without having to configure port forwarding, DNS Records, and certificates. The downside is that if you use Quickconnect all the connection properties is under the Synology name. If you’re setting this up in a business environment to be a production FTP Server or be public facing in any way, you can’t use QuickConnect if you want to use your company’s branding.
Right now my wife and I are testing out which features we want to use. So I clicked on Skip this step for now while we determine if I have to open this device up the the internet or not.
Click Next to continue.
This is the Last Page of the the wizard. If you check the box then the Synology will broadcast the name of the device to help users find the device. I didn’t check the box because Synology Assistant will work without the box being checked.
After you click Go you should be redirected to the login page for the NAS go Ahead and log in to the NAS.
Now that we have an updated unit lets configure the networking. This unit has 2 Network Interface ports, so to do it right we’ll have to create a LAG on the switch. Generally, when you configure a LAG, you have a 1 cable connecting the device and the switch. Then configure the LAG identically on both sides and connect the second cable.
If your using a Dell/Cisco Switch then your configuring a port channel/etherchannel. If it’s an HP Aruba switch then you’re configuring a Trunk. I’m using a Dell N2048 right now and using gigabit ports 37 and 38. Here is the configuration on my switch as a starting point for you.
HomeSwitch>enable HomeSwitch#configure t HomeSwitch(config)#interface range gigabitethernet 1/0/37-38 HomeSwitch(config-if)#channel-group 3 mode ? active Force the port to port-channel with LACP. on Force the port to port-channel without LACP. HomeSwitch(config-if)#channel-group 3 mode active HomeSwitch(config-if)#interface port-channel 3 HomeSwitch(config-if-Po3)#switchport mode access HomeSwitch(config-if-Po3)#switchport access vlan 1 HomeSwitch(config-if-Po3)#show interfaces port-channel 3 Channel Ports Ch-Type Hash Type Min-links Local Prf Rx Util Tx Util ------- ----------------------------- -------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- Po3 Active: Gi1/0/37, Gi1/0/38 Dynamic 7 1 Disabled 0 111 Hash Algorithm Type 1 - Source MAC, VLAN, EtherType, source module and port Id 2 - Destination MAC, VLAN, EtherType, source module and port Id 3 - Source IP and source TCP/UDP port 4 - Destination IP and destination TCP/UDP port 5 - Source/Destination MAC, VLAN, EtherType, source MODID/port 6 - Source/Destination IP and source/destination TCP/UDP port 7 - Enhanced hashing mode HomeSwitch(config-if-Po3)#do copy run start
Now lets configure the Synology Side for the LAG
Go to the Control Panel > Network > Interfaces.
Click on Create button, and select Create Bond.
Select the second option – IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation. This the long way of saying LACP. Click Next to continue.
In this case there I only have 2 interfaces on this device. In the higher units there are 4 ports and/or PCI expansion slots were you could add more interfaces. With multiple interfaces you could create multiple Bonds/LAGs for different network types or access roles. Since I only have 2 ports and i’m not using iSCSI I’m going to create one Bond/LAG for everything to run over.
Click Next to Continue
With LACP Bonds you have to use a static IP Address. I have Jumbo frames enabled on the switch so I enabled it on the NAS as well.
Click Apply to submit the changes.
After the configuration gets applied and the second cable gets plugged in between to the NAS and the Switch. You should see a status page similar to this.
In the next section i’ll go through the process of setting up the storage on the device. Once the storage is setup then we can finally get to configuring some of the functionality of the NAS.
-T
Part 1: The Synology Overview and Plan
Part 2: Installing Memory and Hard Drives
Part 5: Configure a File Share
Part 7: Configuring Plex on a Synology NAS
Part 8: Configuring Time Machine Backups
Part 9: Configuring OneDrive Backups
