In the information age of rapid development of the Internet, the demand for large-scale data storage is no longer the patent of large enterprises. Individuals, SOHO families, and small enterprises are also generating a large amount of data every day. When various electronic devices are popularized on a large scale and mobile phones have become daily entertainment terminals and productivity tools, more and more people and enterprises will put forward higher requirements for data storage, backup, synchronization and sharing. Synology launched a new NAS product for geek users and small studios - DS1019+, which has many "weapons" in data backup and sharing. Today we are going to experience it.
Product specifications
Operating system: Synology DSM
Processor: Intel Celeron J3455 (quad core 1.5 burst up to 2.3 GHz)
Memory: 8GB DDR3L
Disk slots: 5
M.2 Hard disk slots: 2 (NVMe)
Compatible disk type: 3.5" SATA HDD, 2.5" SATA HDD, 2.5" SATA SSD, M.2 2280 NVMe SSD
Maximum internal net total storage capacity: 70TB (14TB drive×5) (capacity will vary according to RAID type)
supports RAID disk array type: Synology Hybrid RAID, Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10
interface: RJ-45 1GbE network interface ×2 (supports Link Aggregation/failure transfer), USB 3.0 interface ×2, eSATA interface ×1
System fan: 92mm×92mm×2 pcs
Size: 166mm×230mm×223mm (height×width×deep)
Weight: 2.54kg
Reference price: 6200 yuan
comprehensive performance, strong expansion ability
DS1019+ belongs to Synology Plus series, 5-position design, with Synology NAS's iconic appearance design, and the appearance is simple and stable. Because the consumer group it is positioned has certain requirements for NAS performance, its hardware configuration is not bad. The Intel Apollo Lake platform and the Celeron J3455 with 14nm process are equipped with a 4-core processor with a frequency of 1.5GHz and a turbo frequency of 2.3GHz, and its performance level is guaranteed. In addition, its built-in HD The 500-core graphics card supports hardware decoding of HEVC, H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1, which allows DS1019+ to transcode two 4K videos at the same time, meeting users' application needs for high-definition video streaming. In terms of memory configuration, DS1019+ is not weak, and it forms a dual channel through two 4GB DDR3L, with a total memory capacity of 8GB.
In terms of interface, DS1019+ reduces a little entertainment attribute due to the target audience, and reflects more professional working attributes, so we have not seen the HDMI interface commonly used by home users in it. The dual gigabit network port on the back supports Link Aggregation and fault transfer can not only combine the two network ports together to form a single connection to achieve higher bandwidth data transmission, but also ensure that when the main network port fails, the other network port will automatically switch to continue to work normally. Two USB 3.0 interfaces, one front and one back, plus the eSATA interface, facilitate users to connect various external devices, and realize more extended applications.
▲DS1019+ has two 92mm diameter fans on the back to help internal heat dissipate. The dual 1GbE network interface can support Link Aggregation and fault transfer functions. In addition, the eSATA interface and USB 3.0 interface are convenient for users to connect to more devices.
▲Power switch at the bottom corner of the front, USB above The 3.0 interface is more convenient for users to connect to external devices on a daily basis.
Speaking of expansion, in addition to its own 5-distance, DS1019+ can also be paired with its own DX517 expansion device, expanding it to 10 hard disks, with a maximum capacity of 140TB. At the bottom of its body, there are two M.2 NVMe SSD slot, users can add an additional SSD as cache without having to occupy the hard disk bay to improve the read and write performance of DS1019+.
▲Hard disk bay adopts a screw-free installation design, and fixes the hard disk with both sides of the buckle. However, this installation method is only suitable for 3.5-inch hard disk. If you install a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, you still need to use screws to fix it.
▲DS1019+ provides two M.2 NVMe SSD slots at the bottom of the body, so you can build NVMe without occupying the hard disk bay. SSD cache.
mobile phone makes it easier to use
Before, every time I tried new NAS products, I basically completed it through my PC when I performed various initial installation settings.However, this time on DS1019+ I tried to complete this process with my phone. Install Synology Butler App on your mobile phone, and it will first guide the user through the illustration to complete basic operations such as loading the hard disk into the NAS and connecting the mobile device and the NAS to the same router. After completion, you will find DS1019+ and boot to install the latest version of DSM. The version at the time of evaluation is 6.2-23719. During this process, I noticed that the App did not let the user choose the RAID type, but would prompt it to automatically deploy Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR for short) before installing DSM.
▲Setting up a new NAS through your mobile phone feels more convenient than on your computer
Simply put, SHR will allocate available space and space for data protection based on the number of hard disks installed in the NAS by the user and the hard disk capacity. When a user uses a hard disk of the same capacity, putting one, two, three or even more hard disks into it, it can be considered that it corresponds to Basic, RAID 1 and RAID 5 modes respectively. But if you put a hard drive of different capacity, the advantages of SHR will appear. For example, if you put 2 4TB and 1 2TB hard drive, there are only 4TB of space available in RAID 5 mode, and the other 2TB is used for data protection, and there are still 4TB unused. This is why we generally do not use hard drives of different capacity on NAS.
But under SHR, its available space reaches 6TB, the space used for data protection is 4TB, and there is no unused space. I would recommend that most users use this mode, so that users who are not so familiar with RAID can not worry at all. Secondly, for users with a large number of hard disks with different capacity, the SHR mode can also make full use of these resources and will not be wasted.
After completing the DSM installation through Synology Butler App, in addition to viewing the storage space, user management, setting QuickConnect, and sharing folders, you can also install kits. Common functions have been included. It can also switch desktop mode, and the interface is like a PC at this time, and can achieve more operations and functions. However, due to the proportion of mobile phone screens, the usage experience of this mode is not as good as using on PCs, so it is okay to use it occasionally.
▲The suite center provides a large number of and rich types of kits, divided into Synology and third-party ones, and currently there are more than 150 kits.
▲ enable QuickConnect function, and users can easily access NAS through browsers on the external network.
▲Moments will intelligently recognize faces in AI and automatically classify themes such as locations, food, scenery, etc., which is very convenient.
Regarding some settings and functions of DS1019+ in DSM, I have selected some key points to explain them in combination with pictures. I will not elaborate on them in the main text. Here I will mainly talk about two important functions I have experienced.
▲Install Moments on your phone, and you can set photos to automatically backup to DS1019+.
▲ Through LiveCam, you can set the phone as a camera in a few simple steps and upload the video to the NAS in real time. First, you can use your old phone as a surveillance camera at home to greet the elderly, children or pets. Secondly, you can also use your mobile phone as a tool for recording meetings or training videos when going out for a meeting.
▲In the settings of LiveCam, not only can the resolution, frame rate and video quality be set, but also the advanced functions such as operation detection and seamless recording can be enabled, and the number of days and sizes of video retention can be set.
Drive: Let families and enterprises easily have exclusive private cloud
Since free cloud disk gradually withdrew from our work and life in the past two years, every time I evaluate NAS products, I pay special attention to their performance in data storage, synchronization and sharing among multiple platforms. Because before this, I was very accustomed to using these free cloud disks to handle work anytime and anywhere on my office laptop, home PC, mobile phone, and tablet. I also often share photos and videos with my family and friends through it. After the free cake is gone, I think building a private cloud through NAS is the complete solution to this problem.
On DS1019+, we can achieve this through Synology Drive.Unlike the applications I experienced on many NASs that simply implement private cloud functions, Drive integrates the familiar File Station, Cloud Station, communication suite Chat, online document and table tool Synology Office and other mainstream suites, accurately targeting cloud collaboration and collaborative office applications.
Installing the Synology Drive suite in DSM will have two icons - Drive Management Console and Drive. We can connect to the number and status of clients and accounts in the former, the used storage space, Drive operation logs, team folder settings, etc. When you open Drive, just like when we open Explorer in Windows - the left sidebar is a category, including my files, team folders, files I share with others and the files I share with others, etc. There are various regular operation buttons and search bars on the top to facilitate users to quickly find information. It integrates the related functions in the suite, and click on the upper right corner to see functions such as Chat, Moments, Calendar, etc. After
experience, I feel that Drive can be understood as a web-based office system, which covers many application needs when managing data in our daily work - sharing, classification, collaborative editing, etc. Install Drive software and app on your work computer or mobile phone, and after logging in, it will create a folder. After all the data that users need to store and synchronize on multiple devices are put in, it will be automatically synchronized to the NAS. Whether it is through Drive on the web page or on different devices, various operations on the data are fully synchronized. Users can use tags, asterisks, etc. to pile up information for archives, and quickly retrieve files through the corresponding categories in the left sidebar. For important files, they can also set encryption so that they need a password to access.
▲Drive is like a web version of the explorer, easy to get started.
▲Drive can retain 32 historical versions for each file, and users can easily restore any historical version.
In terms of information sharing, it is mainly divided into public sharing and internal sharing. Click the mouse on the file you need to share to get a file link in the sharing option. At this time, users can select the object to share in their privacy settings, such as public sharing that can be viewed or edited by people with links, internal sharing that must be operated by people with an account, and also choose to only be accessible by invitees. For enterprise users, it is possible to build an internal information sharing platform through it, because internal employees with an account can see all the shared files in "Share with Me" on the left.
▲For file sharing, users can make various settings as needed to meet the sharing needs of different people.
Drive also has strong online editing capabilities for information. Through its integrated Office suite, it provides support for three commonly used file types: Word, Excel, and PPT. If you need to open and edit these files, you can directly call up the editing interface on the web page for processing. The common functions are no different from the Windows Office we use every day. At the same time, Drive can also meet the needs of enterprises in collaboratively editing materials by multiple people. For example, in a department's project schedule, each participating employee can update his or her progress on it, and the person in charge can intuitively see the label of each employee through it.
▲ Through the Office suite in Drive, users can edit Word, Excel, and PPT directly on the web page, and can also realize the function of collaborating with multiple people to edit documents.
I have always been a cloud disk user. Sometimes I can continue to process the work I haven't finished in the office and go home without having to carry my laptop, mobile hard drive and other devices back and forth in the office and home. The app installed on your mobile phone can also view and edit information on the cloud disk at any time when you are on a business trip.After experiencing Drive, it not only can fully meet the needs of individual users like me, but more importantly, it provides small businesses with enterprise-level shared office solutions—including storage, sharing, online editing, especially the ability to edit commonly used files on web pages, or is free. For SOHO users or small businesses, it can greatly save the cost of deploying Windows Office or other related software.
Active Backup for Business: Experience system-level backup
If Drive is essentially a document-level storage backup sharing, then the Active Backup for Business you experience below is a system-level backup suite. It uniformly manages data scattered in physical and virtual environments. It can not only be used for computers, but also for various devices such as physical servers, virtual machines, file servers, etc. When problems arise in these devices, it can be restored quickly. The key is that this feature is not only quite powerful, but also completely free.
I used it to back up the Windows system on my PC, and the whole process was so simple that it exceeded expectations. Install the Active Backup for Business suite on DS1019+, and install the ActiveBackup for Business Agent software on your PC. Enter the IP address of DS1019+ in the latter, and complete the login with the user name and password. There is no need to set too much. The main operation is to complete it on DSM.
▲The ActiveBackup for Business Agent installed on the PC only needs to log in, without too many settings.
Open the Active Backup for Business suite at this time, and you can see that it automatically recognizes the connected client and will automatically create a backup task. It provides a variety of backup methods - bare metal: back up the contents of the entire computer; system disk: backup only the C disk; custom volume: selectively back up any partition. At the same time, the user can also check data compression and data encryption, but it is only about the transmission process and has nothing to do with the final backup. The backup time can be manually or you can set up a plan. There are also segmented settings options for retention of versions. You can set the number of days to retain all versions, or you can set the time to retain the last version of the week or month. After setting it up, it will automatically start backup.
▲On Active Backup for Business, you can complete the system backup of the client connected to it in a few simple steps.
▲You can see protected devices, backup calendars and other information on the main interface. It is not difficult to recover data from
. Active Backup for Business Portal can restore data from any backup point on the timeline. Backup data is the same as the file structure on the hard disk. Unless Windows completely hangs up, files can be recovered through Active Backup for Business Portal. The advantage of using Active Backup for Business Portal is that Windows users need no action and data is automatically restored. The
recovery system is not as simple as recovering files. You need to use a USB flash drive to create a boot disk to restore the system. Synology has provided a PDF user manual for download. Follow the instructions above. It is quite similar to Ghost, so I won't go into details here. Active Backup for Business also allows users to copy backup data to another NAS, providing multiple security guarantees for users' data.
Performance Test
Next, let’s take a look at the performance of DS1019+ in data transmission performance. Use 3 Seagate Cool Wolf 4TB hard drives, and the SHR mode is similar to RAID 5 at this time. I also used two additional M.2 NVMe SSDs as cache for acceleration. Since I don’t have two products with the same brand and capacity, I use two brands, Jianxing T11 256GB and Mingxuan Avengers NM5 M.2 240GB, and RAID 1 SSDs with different capacity, which accelerates the storage space mounted on the PC using iSCSI.
▲After forming an SSD cache, you can view relevant information in the storage space administrator
According to the test results of AS SSD Benchmark, the continuous reading and writing speed of DS1019 is around 110MB/s, which is in a normal manner. Judging from the performance before and after turning on SSD cache, SSD cache has little effect in terms of continuous read and write speed, but under 4K 64 threads, the write speed is significantly improved when SSD cache is accelerated.I have also consulted some other review materials. When adding two identical SSDs as caches, NAS has improved the reading and writing speed of small files and multi-threads. The combination of different SSDs may have some impact on our test results.
▲AS SSD Benchmark test results
Use FastCopy to test DS1019+ actual transmission speed performance. First, we used a single large-capacity high-definition video file of more than 15GB to test the actual read and write performance of the DS1019+. Judging from the results, its average read speed performs better, and the write speed is not inferior, only a little behind, all exceeding 100MB/s. The test was conducted using a folder with a total capacity of nearly 2GB and a folder with 818 photos, and the reading and writing speeds exceeded 50MB/s.
▲AS SSD Benchmark test results are written in the end
at the end
DS1019+ continues the consistent stable design and excellent ease of use of Synology NAS. The two separate M.2 NVMe SSD slots are one of the highlights of its configuration. In addition to the 5 disks, it can easily increase to 10 through expansion cabinets, which also reflects the elastic expansion space of DS1019+. With good comprehensive hardware capabilities, it can meet the changes in today's user needs. What impressed me was the suite in DSM. Drive and Active Backup for Business gave users more possibilities from the document level and the system level respectively.
Personal users can more easily store data from office machines, home computers, mobile phones and other devices in the NAS; small enterprises can use it to build a mature online office system, and the security of data and systems is also fully guaranteed. For geeks, SOHO family and small businesses, Synology DS1019+ will be a recommended choice.
