Use your NAS to its Fullest Potential: Best Add-On Packages for Synology NAS
NAS devices are popular and widely used for a reason. They are versatile, reliable, and convenient. I’ve been including them in my personal and business backup strategies for more than a decade now. Over the years, I’ve tried several approaches to get the most out of my NAS devices. Applying add-on packages turned out to be one of the easiest ways to improve performance, simplify management processes and make the workflow more efficient.
In this post, I want to share what I’ve been using and what I personally found helpful. I like to implement new techniques and discover alternative ways of optimizing work processes. So, if you have in mind some other go-to packages for Synology NAS that aren’t mentioned here, please share your favorites in the comments down below. I am sure it will be helpful for the whole community.
Synology-developed packages
There are several packages created and offered directly by Synology. Most of them are pretty basic. However, some packages cover essentials that make your environment healthy, organized, well-managed, and protected. In addition, they significantly simplify the daily routine. Below you can see my personal favorites:
Storage Analyzer
Having a clear understanding of your storage usage allows you to spread your resources efficiently. Storage Analyzer is a great tool to get a general glance at the usage of your Synology NAS. Of course, it isn’t an advanced monitoring tool, but you can still create and manage a variety of tasks aimed at analyzing your storage spaces. Some businesses or private users might not even require more details and functionality than those that Storage Analyzer offers.
Synology High Availability
If you are using more than one Synology NAS device, Synology High Availability can be really useful as it helps maximize service uptime. How can it guarantee high availability? It works like a cluster. Your active server runs all the services and data to your passive server, which comes into the game when the active server is unavailable.
Virtual Machine Manager
An organized environment simplifies the management process, and as a result, makes the whole workflow more efficient. Virtual Machine Manager is a great option to create, run and supervise virtual machines on Synology NAS. It unifies multiple virtualization solutions in one interface, making maintenance effortless. Synology Virtual Machine Manager provides several perks:
- It gives you flexibility in hardware resource allocation.
- It allows you to create a virtualization environment for enterprise-level deployment and management.
- It eliminates disruptions while migrating your virtual machines between hosts.
- It delivers extended fault tolerance protection.
Synology Drive Server
Synology offers its own drive to store files, manage and share data, and synchronize across different devices. Synology Drive Server is a complete solution equipped with several tools for your data maintenance:
- Synology Drive Admin Console centralizes monitoring and management.
- Synology Drive also allows web portal access.
- Synology Drive ShareSync is aimed at synchronizing multiple devices across Synology NAS.
RADIUS Server
RADIUS stands for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service, which is a network protocol for centralized authorization, authentication, and accounting for both wireless and wired network access. There are multiple sources you can use for Synology RADIUS Server, such as:
- Synology NAS local system
- Active Directory
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server
With RADIUS Server you can use any of the sources mentioned above to access your home wireless network if your router or network switch supports authentication with RADIUS Server. RADIUS is a client/server model protocol running on the application layer. It can use either Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Network access servers control access to a network, and often they include a RADIUS client component to communicate with the RADIUS server. In the meantime, a RADIUS server usually appears as a background process that runs on Microsoft Windows or UNIX.
Synology Office
Synology Office is Synology’s response to Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite. It can barely compete with Microsoft and Google’s comprehensive solutions. However, Synology Office has all the essential tools that can cover the basic needs of businesses or individuals. WithSynology’s suite, you can perform several tasks:
- Create and edit documents, slides, or spreadsheets.
- Share data and collaborate with other members via Synology Chat.
- If you are dealing with sensitive information, you can protect your data by encrypting it and setting passwords for extra privacy.
Synology MailPlus
Synology offers a variety of webmail services. While its Mail Station can be practical and easy to use, it isn’t as powerful and feature-rich as the Synology MailPlus service. With the latter, you can do the following:
- Send and receive messages to and from any mail server.
- Have centralized management for all incoming and outgoing emails.
- There are also several additional small details, such as built-in text tools that help with formatting.
- You get smart search and label functions that simplify email search and overall management.
As for the other mail-related add-on packages Synology offers, you can choose from:
- Synology Mail Server is a tool that turns your Synology NAS device into a mail server.
- Mail Station is a web client for Mail Server that is suitable for many businesses and individuals.
- Synology MailPlus Server is an email solution for enterprises and large organizations that require high-level security and reliable performance. It has a high-availability architecture that provides fault tolerance for maximized service uptime.
Synology Contacts
Synology Contacts is another basic package that can improve your workflow. You can add new contacts or import the old ones from Google and Outlook, as well as synchronize your contacts with iOS or other compatible devices. Additionally, there is an option for migrating contacts from your MailPlus package if you have it configured on your NAS device.
Note Station
Another add-on package that might be of some use is Note Station. With it, you can create and manage text notes around your network. The features I personally like:
- You can add media or any attachment you require to your notes.
- Separate notes can be grouped into notebooks. And the best part is that there is an option for protecting notes with passwords.
- There is the ability to tag notes to organize them easily.
- It is easy to share your notes via social media.
Cloud Sync
Cloud Sync is a package for those who use public clouds. You can seamlessly synchronize your data and share the files stored on NAS devices to the public cloud-based storage. There is support for several file formats.
Tailscale
Tailscale might not be for everyone, but it’s great to know that you have the option of a VPN service for your Synology NAS. It is an approved third-party add-on package that helps connect all the devices you need using WireGuard. The product provides encrypted point-to-point connections with the help of the open-source WireGuard protocol. It allows communication only between the devices on your private network. I like to use this tool for extra security without much effort.
Domotz Network Monitoring
Network monitoring is crucial for pretty much any business to function well. Domotz offers a complete set of features for the management and monitoring of networks and connected devices. This software might be useful for MSPs, business owners, and security teams of a wide range of companies. You can access the solution from any desktop browser, mobile device, or RESTful API. Besides the easy interface, you get the following features:
- Device status monitoring
- Secure remote connections to the IP devices
- Automatic network topology mapping
- Network diagnostics
- Cyber-security perimeter scans
- Speed test monitoring
TeamViewer
Remote access is what everyone needs from time to time for effective centralized management. TeamViewer probably doesn’t require much introduction, but not everyone knows that it can be installed as an add-on package for Synology. Why might you consider deploying it?
- The connection setup between TeamViewer and your Synology NAS device takes only a few minutes because it is available directly from the Synology Package Center, like all of the third-party solutions mentioned in this blog.
- Thanks to the ultra-low latency network, you can establish fast and stable connections.
- The end-to-end 256-bit session encryption keeps your data secure, and there is no VPN required to make it happen.
- Multiple users can access the same Synology NAS device simultaneously yet use separate user instances.
- It is an option for managing all of your devices from a centralized location.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication
We all like the idea of integrating multipurpose solutions that effectively address multiple tasks at a time. That’s why I always create backup appliances with my NAS devices. Over the years, it has proven to be a useful way of optimizing resources. I use NAKIVO Backup & Replication as it offers effortless native installation on Synology NAS. By deploying the product as an add-on package, you get the following benefits:
- Your NAS drive turns into an all-in-one hardware, software, storage, and deduplication device.
- Backup performance improves by up to 2 times.
- You can save backup storage space by up to 10 times.
- You free up the production resources (CPU, RAM, network bandwidth) by creating a Synology-based backup appliance. This way, you will no longer use the IT resources of your production environment for data protection.
- The recovery process is nearly instant with the backups stored separately from the production environment.
Conclusion
I’ve covered only the add-on packages available in the official Synology Package Centre in this blog post. The Centre is the first place to go to find reliable additional tools approved by Synology itself. However, official authorization isn’t an issue for you, you can try to find extra functionalities in the SynoCommunity. I’ve never used it myself, to give you an inside opinion, but I’ve heard some great feedback from my fellows and colleagues. If you ever tried their packages, how was the experience? I would love to read an honest opinion from you.
