Synology DS216se 2-Bay Entry-Level and Cloud NAS Review

Setup – Initialization & Storage

The initialization couldn’t be much simpler than it is with the Synology NAS devices. Just navigate to diskstation:5000 in your favorite browser and get started with just a few steps.

The NAS will automatically download the latest DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system from the internet, but you can also provide one manually if you wish to use something else than the last official version or don’t have an internet connection available where you set the NAS up.

Please keep in mind that all data on the installed HDDs will be wiped during the installation, that is if the drives don’t come from another Synology NAS. When they do, you’ll be provided with an option to migrate the drives to this new NAS instead of the message below.

The installation only takes a few minutes and you can easily go make yourself a fresh cup of coffee or tea while you wait for it.

Now that the DS216se is installed, it is time for the basic setup.

The first things you’ll need to provide is a name for the NAS itself so you can recognize it in your network environment. You can also specify what the admin username should be and set the password. Optionally you can share the network location of your DiskStation with Synology to help you easily reach the DiskStation in the local network via find.synology.com.

Keeping you NAS updated is an important thing and you get several options on how the NAS should handle this and when it should set a schedule to check for new updates.

You can also choose to install the basic Synology Station apps during the initial setup, but you can also skip it and install them later individually.

The QuickConnect is basically a DDNS feature with less hassle and fewer settings for you. Whether you want to use it or not is optional, but it is well worth it and it is free.

And that is all, we’re set and ready to rock on our brand new Synology DS216se.

Welcome

Hitting the Go button on the previous page will take us to the DSM dashboard that first presents us with a little tip guide that shows us where the basic features are located followed by the popup of the built-in help function.

Notifications are located right at the top corner and it’s easy to see when some are available. In this case, it is telling us that the packages that we selected to install during the initialization have been completed and that one of them has an update available. We can also see that the package center and Control panel on the dashboard both got an overlay icon showing us that there is something new or something that we need to take a look at.

The first is for an update to the Cloud Station. You’ll want to keep your personal cloud as safe as possible at all times so I’m gonna go ahead and update that right away.

The second notification on the control panel was telling me that a new version of the DSM operating system is available and it is giving me the option to download and update it right away, which I’m going to do.

The update is done quickly and after a reboot, the NAS is initialized and fully updated. Now it’s time to create a basic setup so we can start using it.

Storage

You can both check on your installed drives’ health and change the disk configuration within the Storage Manager. By default DSM will create an SHR1 setup of the two installed disks when you initialize it, but that might not be the configuration that you had planned to use.

The Disk Group and Volume pages, depending on setup, will show the current setup, how much capacity is used as well as the status of the disk arrays.

You can check on the SMART data and run self-diagnose test on the installed drives too as well as check on their general status, health, and temperature.

Removing a volume will warn you what packages and shared folders will be affected. These will be lost and have to be reinstalled or copied back once you’re done.

You can use the quick method to create a new volume or you can go the custom route with all the available options.

Most people will probably just create a single volume on RAID, but you can create multiple too.

The Disk Group will be automatically created if one doesn’t already exist.

You can naturally select which drives to include in this new disk group, but with a two bay NAS unit such as the DS216se we don’t have much to choose from here.

Available setups include Synology’s own Hybrid RAID (SHR1) setup with data protection as well as RAID 1, RAID 0, and JBOD. When a single disk is selected, the Basic option unlocks for single drive volumes.

You can perform a bad block scan too, which is a recommended option on new drives. Better check them right away instead of being sorry later on.

The last setting in the custom setup is the volume capacity allocation and you’re all set with a new setup.