Synology DS923 vs. FreeBSD with ZFS | Hacker News Reader

Synology DS923 vs. FreeBSD with ZFS

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18 pointsjmmv11 comments

I currently use TrueNAS Core on a (very) old 8-bay Dell Poweredge system, which I have been trying to find a replacement for. Suitable server hardware seems surprisingly expensive. Is there anything like the Synology that is just a bare-bones system I can run my own OS on? Since TrueNAS abandoned BSD, I've been wanting to switch to a plain FreeBSD system.

I have a DS923+.

The first thing I did was install more RAM. Then everything I run is via Container Manager (their Docker version, which is a bit behind).

It is a great little machine. I use it for OneDrive and Google Drive backup. I use it for Office 365 and Google Workspace backups. And because it is always-on, I use it as the exit node for my Tailnet.

If you want to run an up-to-date version of Docker, look into https://github.com/telnetdoogie/synology-docker/. It is a script that will back up the existing docker binaries and replace them with the latest. (Note the "First Time" upgrade information of switching to the "local" logger from "db").

I have forgotten why I originally wanted to update but I have had no issues with the updated system.

Thanks. All my containers are running OK but I will check this out.

I was hoping for more of a discussion on the data integrity side of things. One of the biggest reasons I run ZFS is to help ward off bitrot. My understanding with most if not all COTS NAS devices is they lack any scrubbing or data integrity tracking, much less ECC.

Synology does data scrubbing

Well then I learned something new today. Time to take a look at their offerings I guess :)

The Synology DS923+ uses ECC RAM. That's why I bought it.

Most NAS devices come with raid, scheduled data scrubbing, integrity checks, some with ECC.

I have a different Synology model (added extra RAM because it serves as an *arr server at the same time), and while I'm a big proponent of FOSS I must say that the 'peace of mind' section in this article really hits the mark. Hacking things together yourself is great, but when it comes to 20+ years of your digital data, I'd rather be safe. Also, encryption on and Synology QuickConnect (or whatever its Tailscale variant is called) off as a default.

These things are expensive... I ended up going with a DAS, a Terramaster D6-320. It was less than half the price (270€), suits my context (network-access isn't a must; the DAS is small enough to fit behind my TV), it doesn't "force" me to upgrade my network to 10gbps (expensive!) to get reasonable performance (it's USB 3.2 gen2 - 10gbps), and I can always make a DIY NAS out of it if one day I need to.

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