Synology RS1221+ Upgrade and Migration from DS420+

Today I am upgrading to the Synology RS1221+ NAS from the DS420+ and migrating disk drives.
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IronWolf NAS drives: geni.us/lEUH
NASs Mentioned👈
Synology RS1221+ : geni.us/9tkrx4I
Synology DS220j: geni.us/KaF0
Synology DS420+: geni.us/bGC9bIg
Synology DS1821+: geni.us/fcdRFb
Memory Upgrade for Synology: geni.us/r7YA
My Rack UPS: geni.us/grmlG
My 8U rack: geni.us/JpQuo
16 port switch: geni.us/wW4LVs3
Patch Panel: geni.us/NtEJDLT
EERO: geni.us/YIph
What’s on my desk! 👈
MacBook Pro M1: geni.us/kr6Ados
Samsung UR55 28” display: geni.us/kHh03fX
MountUP Monitor Arm: geni.us/hM35q
Satechi Magnetic Charger 2-in-1: geni.us/BD5Qrna
BenQ ScreenBar: geni.us/PcBJ9a
Kanto Yu2 Speakers Matte Gray: geni.us/Mz6uX2F
CalDigit SOHO: geni.us/fiTIS2p
CalDigit TS3: geni.us/r84kcvC
Apple Magic keyboard: geni.us/QRLHbmX
Apple Magic Trackpad: geni.us/PYddS5o
MX Master 3 Mouse: geni.us/WXRs
Desk Mat Moko PU Leather: geni.us/02uX14F
My Gear
Sony A6400 geni.us/LAPBlhc
Primary Lens Sigma f1.4 16mm: geni.us/2mvBP
Secondary Lens Sony f2.8 16-55MM G geni.us/3GmQoy7
Sennheiser MKH-416 mic: geni.us/H39ei0
Zoom F6 recorder: geni.us/x8mU2v5
Rode VideoMic NTG geni.us/1jlIVv4
iPad Pro 12.9 geni.us/LzaJ99
Used DJI OSMO 3 Gimbal for some shots geni.us/RyAB
Tascam DR-10L Audio Recorder with Lav geni.us/BcWzHh
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the Amazon product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[@CreatedTech]

Interesting, I'm considering upgrading to a rack NAS and didn't realise how simple the migration would be. Great video!

[@JerrySchulze]

Glad it was helpful!

[@JimmyD76]

I love Synology! I use them at work and at home. Glad to see you have as much success with them as I have.

[@JerrySchulze]

Im still pretty new to them but like them a lot. I have been a Sys engineer for a long time and am used to NetApp, Pure, Dell, etc

[@bb55555555]

Thank you. You just confirmed my thoughts about getting the rack mounted version of a synology NAS. If I need a bigger one I’ll stick with the desktop version.

[@MattHalpain]

Awesome upgrade and setup of your NAS.

[@JerrySchulze]

Thanks!

[@dieterjoseph8569]

Love when he’s checking if his folders are still there, his Porn folder is blurred out!!!

[@JerrySchulze]

Haha, been a long time since filmed but most likely my day job stuff.

[@davidheatherly7089]

I've got a DS1812+ that still runs, so yes, you should get several years out it! I "upgraded" to a QNAP TS643, but hate it; it is so loud, that you can hear it in the other rooms with the door closed. It also thrashes the drives (Iron Wolf 8TB) almost constantly. I may get one of these and put the QNAP out of my misery.

[@JerrySchulze]

I almost sold it a few times but I upgraded my network to 10Gb and now love it again.

[@jodajackson4489]

IIRC, Synology recommends installing a single blank HDD in the in the new NAS first so that you can update DSM. Then remove the drive needed for the DSM update and migrate the drives from the old Synology NAS.

[@JerrySchulze]

Interesting. I did not see that in their document. www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Backup/How_to_migrate_between_Synology_NAS_DSM_6_0_and_later

[@kenneth_jensen]

I did the same NAS switch, as I already had a rack. Although I'm using WD hdd's instead of Seagate as I had SO many issues with them. I also installed 32GB Kingston ECC server grade RAM and two Noctua fans in it, as it is loud even in lowest sitting.

[@JerrySchulze]

Awesome, yep, I switched the fans also and made a video about that. No issues with seagate for me so far.

[@kenneth_jensen]

@@JerrySchulze ah cool 👍 Have not seen that video, but great you did that 🙂

[@Reducer]

Did I spot Backblaze in there? If I can do a combination of local NAS + tossing the same data at Backblaze, then that's pretty awesome.

[@JerrySchulze]

Yep! I am using HyperBackup to send my data to BackBlaze B2 storage.

[@mbbrat]

Hi Jerry - liked the video, but you made one statement I might refute a bit. You said that no one should buy a single bay NAS. I'd argue that should be a qualified statement, something along the lines of "If you are going to use only one NAS in your setup for backups, then you should probably buy a multi-bay NAS". I have many single bay NAS's (Synology), but they back up to other onsite multi-bay NAS's and then to offsite NAS's. I think the choices certainly depend on the use cases. Not slamming here, just saying there are different use cases for different people.

[@JerrySchulze]

Interesting. Why do you have multiple singles backing up to a multi? Thats a lot of synology dsm to manage.

[@mbbrat]

@@JerrySchulze Different businesses on each NAS. Easier to Audit them separately for each business. My daily driver is actually a DS720+, then my wife's business is on a DS118 and my daughter's business is on a DS 118. It keeps the power consumption really low and all of those back up to an RS1221+ twice a week and then to an offsite location in case something wipes the primaries out. It's all automated and works well. Sounds like a lot but once it was set up, it kind of runs itself.

[@Rad_Travels]

I really like Synology. They're much better than QNAP. I have both but my next NAS will be Synology.

[@JerrySchulze]

Nice! Its still new to me but I enjoy it. Its nice having an appliance thats not running Windows to act as my backup server and a few other things.

[@Rad_Travels]

@@JerrySchulze Since you used to be an SE, you'll get this 😉I use it with my VMware vSphere env as an iSCSI target storage. I also, have used AWS Glacier service for cloud backup for my photos - I am an enthusiast photographer. Maybe you can have a video about this for your more geeky viewers?

[@JerrySchulze]

Good suggestion. The Glacier support was a bit more of a hassle than I wanted to deal with at home, thats why I am using B2. BTW, I still have a day job managing a team of SEs.

[@Rad_Travels]

@@JerrySchulze Agreed on AWS Glacier. It's more of an Archive than "backup". I never used B2 but I've heard good stuff about it. I should give it a try. Thanks.

[@JerrySchulze]

Obviously it is just AWS but its a much simpler interface for creating and managing buckets. And cheaper.

[@nalinranasinghe2346]

Thanks for your video, is it worth waiting for the new model?

[@MajorBrass]

Are you a drummer? Noticed the zildjian shirt. Love the vid

[@JerrySchulze]

Not any good, but yes.

[@mtiphotography]

This unit does support SSD Cache with the 10GB card expansion PCI-E card

[@gumbo3063]

Hey Jerry thanks for the great channel. I've been using a Synology DS 918+ for past few years mainly as a Plex sever (love it) and general backup, including Time Machine. Back in the day I bought 4 WD Easystore 10TB for about $140 a piece. Turned out they were Reds with white labels. The server's been non-stop all this time except for DSM upgrades. So after a lot wind I have 2 questions: 1. Do you know where we could get reliable NAS drives on the cheap? (WD no longer makes those drives.) - Learned from Bite my Bits channel. 2. All this time I haven't been able to figure out how to trim or defrag the drives. Any thought? TYI Joel

[@JerrySchulze]

Nice get on those drives. As far as issues I assume you are talking about SMR drives that may have performance issues with always constant activity? Seagate has said that their NAS drives do not use SMR so they should be good. For trim, you would need a volume that only contains SSDs and for defrag check this miketabor.com/defrag-synology-btrfs-improve-performance/

[@gumbo3063]

@@JerrySchulze Fantastic! Thanks. So much documentation. Solved my question to a T.

[@JerrySchulze]

Glad to help!

[@kenneth_jensen]

You can still buy Red WDs for NAS 👍🙂

[@soufilms]

Hi great product review, something I'm looking to upgrade from my NAS416play, a question though, is your TP LINK SG1016 does suport link aggregation?

[@JerrySchulze]

It does not but I don’t have anything more than 1gb connections now anyway. This is a dumb switch.

[@soufilms]

@@JerrySchulze Just done a research actually it does support Aggregation Link but only Static one, which is called LAG inside TP-LINK and not LACP (dynamic) so it can be configured via your NAS as XOR balanced static aggregation link. So you can get 2GB bandwidth connection using this method, however I prefer using Dynamic Link Aggregation is it communiciates between each other and better performs in case one of the connection drops or disappears.

[@JerrySchulze]

I may be replacing all my stuff with Ubiquity soon.

[@soufilms]

@@JerrySchulze just placed an order for lots of devices from them can't wait

[@soufilms]

@@JerrySchulze did you manage to implement ssd caching via pcie extension?

[@trance20001]

Hi, for 1221+ did you use rack rails or just the ears are strong enough to be mounted? Some reviewer said the ears are plastic which doesn't make sense.

[@JerrySchulze]

I am using the ears and they are def not plastic. I do have a ups mounted directly below it.

[@trance20001]

@@JerrySchulze Ok, thanks for a quick reply. I have mine coming tomorrow.

[@Rad_Travels]

Can't wait for Synology to use ARM based CPUs instead of X86.

[@JerrySchulze]

They have a couple already. So many people want Intel processors with hardware decoding for Plex, though. Thanks for watching!

[@navossoc]

Do you think I can just move my two drives from a DS216j to a DS224+, like you did in your video?

[@thomas1703]

Nice video, maybey that you can make a video how you can setup a mail server with it. Mailplus do synology have

[@kenneth_jensen]

Why did you choose to use Plex compared to Synology's Video Station? 🙂

[@carpii]

you mention theres no SSD cache option for the 1221+, but you can buy a Synology nvme card, or a combined nvme and 10Gb card

[@JerrySchulze]

oh, thanks!

[@BluBloodDynasty]

How does the rs1221+ handle plex streaming? My lack of knowledge in the area gives me the assumption that one needs a gpu to help with 4k streaming. I'm also wondering if I could ever upgrade the CPU someday. I'd hate to have to buy another rack server just for an upgraded mobo + cpu.

[@JerrySchulze]

It is not a great Plex server. I now have a mini dell PC on the network that does my Plex.

[@jennifermedia6288]

jerry so did you upgrate to 10Gb or bigger network card or and memory?

[@JerrySchulze]

I did. And also added their ssd caches. Did I need it? Nope but I wanted to lol.

[@TonyHoangPodcast]

How’s the Plex streaming?

[@JerrySchulze]

I ended up, moving mine to a Dell mini PC, but using the nas as storage.

[@TonyHoangPodcast]

@@JerrySchulze I'm upgrading from a 2 bay DS220+ that houses mostly Plex movies. I noticed that you said the rs1221+ wasn't great for Plex. just wanted to know if it can still stream Plex or if I should find another rack mounted 8bay unit that has hardware encoding.

[@JerrySchulze]

Yes it streams but don’t expect fast transcoding. I don’t know about other options as my rack is only 19” deep so this was my only rack option.

[@user-lx3xk5sf4t]

Won't the fan noise bother the people?

[@JerrySchulze]

For this rack version, probably. The desktop versions are much quieter and at the end I said most people should look at the desktop versions. Thanks for checking it out!

[@Rad_Travels]

Of course, but Jerry actually addressed this in his video.

[@circuitsandcigars1278]

Asustor anyone?

[@JerrySchulze]

I looked at them. Just didn't feel like it was as developed with as many options as Synology.

[@circuitsandcigars1278]

@@JerrySchulze I agree. Synology has much more polished software

[@---GOD---]

Too bad this thing is ridiculously expensive