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We have looked at the Synology DiskManager Operating System many times in the past, but today we are looking at the latest V4.1 revision which was released recently. It is one of the finest operating systems on the market for a NAS system/server, and doesn’t need a high specification list of hardware to run well either. The multitasking support means that multiple tasks can be handled simultaneously.
It is important to ensure that the newest software package is downloaded directly from the Synology website over here.
We are using the latest DSM_RS3412RPxs_2636.pat
The Synology Assistant is a networking tool which can find all the Synology drives installed on a network. The RS3412RPxs needs to be configured once.
The DSM is next installed to the RS3412RPxs which takes around 5-10 minutes.
When this process is finished you are then presented with the login panel via your browser.
We reused some disk drives from a previous Synology NAS installation and we had a report that the volume had crashed. We included some screenshots as the new operating system revision will highlight any status reports along the right side of the screen. Very easy to find and fantastic for troubleshooting.
There is also a new ‘pop up’ guide which shows a step by step guide on configuring the NAS system. This is an improvement on the older version of the software and can be quickly dismissed by an experienced user.
The control panel interface can be accessed by the top leftmost icon. This is easy to follow and all the icons are clearly labelled to ensure that inexperienced users don’t feel too intimidated.
There are various panels available to allow the user to configure new accounts with access to specific folders and locations on the device. The Resource monitor is a useful tool to judge CPU load and memory usage.
The web services panels can be used to adjust various options, including the set up of a personal website into the ‘www’ folder in the user home directory.
If you don’t like the default colour scheme via your browser software, then you can configure your own scheme.
The control panel allows the Synology server to directly access an NTP server for accurate time reporting. You can override this and use manual settings, along with specific time zones.
External devices can be connected and accessed via this panel. USB printers can also be connected to the DS1512+ NAS.
The DiskManager software offers many applications for media and networking support. Photo station supports 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 image formats and 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 video formats.
The DNLA/UPnP Media Server can support both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless audio formats. 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 and WMA3 video formats. It also can handle 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 ) image formats.
iTunes Server is also supported with MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF audio formats, M4V, MOV and MP4 video formats and M3U, WPL Playlist Format. Two printers can be hooked into the system supporting LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk and Multi Functional Print Server.
If all this isn’t enough it also offers the following iPhone and Android applications.: DS Photo+, DS Audio, DS Cam, DS File (iPhone only) and DS finder (iPhone only).
Survelliance station is a useful feature, especially for a business. Users can hook an IP camera into the unit. We have looked at this in detail before and if you missed it before you can read it here.
