text
stringlengths
9
408
[1487.38 --> 1492.98] And I assume this is because they're installing the DSM OS onto that first drive.
[1492.98 --> 1501.72] Now, I don't know what that means for the long-term reliability of a spinning drive in that first slot, but it's something I can report back on in a few months' time.
[1502.12 --> 1502.52] Yeah.
[1502.98 --> 1507.14] And it could just be that maybe it just doesn't proceed because what's the point of a NAS with no disk?
[1508.10 --> 1513.04] Well, you say that, but these things have full-on app stores these days, and they can run Docker as well.
[1513.18 --> 1521.30] So, you know, you could conceivably buy a Synology unit and not put any drives in it and still run some services if you liked.
[1521.30 --> 1523.16] I don't know why you would, but you could.
[1523.90 --> 1525.80] It is easy to deploy applications on, I suppose.
[1525.96 --> 1527.06] So that's a good point.
[1527.48 --> 1531.20] I'm curious about just physical size and noise and those kinds of things.
[1531.26 --> 1531.88] How is all that?
[1532.12 --> 1532.62] And how big?
[1532.74 --> 1534.76] Like, give me an idea of, like, how much space this thing takes up.
[1535.06 --> 1535.78] Noise is great.
[1536.38 --> 1539.02] The fans that are included in the unit are very, very quiet.
[1539.52 --> 1546.20] I've actually had it in a closet right just off my office, you know, a few feet from where we're sat right now.
[1546.92 --> 1549.16] And I close that door and I can't hear it.
[1549.16 --> 1551.28] It's just, oh, it's pretty quiet.
[1551.36 --> 1559.06] You'll hear if it's on the desk next to you, but that's more a result of the fact of having mechanical hard drives than it is fan noise right next to you.
[1559.78 --> 1567.00] In terms of the size of the thing, it's, I think, it's about five kilos, give or take.
[1567.54 --> 1571.20] I don't know, the footprint's about the size of a 16-inch laptop, maybe a little bit less.
[1571.20 --> 1575.12] And then, I don't know, nine inches tall or so.
[1575.88 --> 1580.78] Basically, think of six hard drives lying on their side with a couple of inches either side.
[1581.12 --> 1581.92] That absolutely makes sense.
[1582.00 --> 1585.62] And now, also, I think that means you're a ButterFS user, which I think is fantastic.
[1586.06 --> 1588.00] Well, it would if I'd chosen ButterFS.
[1588.34 --> 1588.94] Oh, you sure.
[1588.94 --> 1589.76] Which I did, I did.
[1589.88 --> 1590.34] I'm such a tease.
[1590.36 --> 1590.74] Oh, okay.
[1591.48 --> 1592.92] Hello, welcome to the club.
[1593.30 --> 1595.34] You and I are now running ButterFS at home.
[1595.34 --> 1600.66] But the reason I picked ButterFS is because it enables compression and snapshots.
[1601.28 --> 1608.58] And that's an option that's exposed to the users at the time of creating the array or the volume of storage in the DSM software.
[1608.92 --> 1610.56] So, let's talk about software for a little bit.
[1610.62 --> 1616.88] So, this thing does run the DSM, which is their OS, and it has a nice interface on it, which has an app store.
[1617.64 --> 1620.50] But you are, you know, you're a long-termer.
[1620.62 --> 1624.72] You don't necessarily always like the graphical environments on top of stuff in the management tool.
[1624.72 --> 1626.20] So, how did you handle all of that?
[1626.26 --> 1627.06] How did you react to it?
[1627.10 --> 1627.70] What were your thoughts?
[1628.12 --> 1630.98] So, I'll tell you who I think this system is actually perfect for.
[1632.04 --> 1638.42] It's those people just getting started in self-hosting who want their hand-holding a little bit,
[1638.66 --> 1645.30] but are also comfortable with the idea that they have to learn some stuff to, you know, run these services.
[1645.96 --> 1650.28] And through the UI, you are guided through the process of setting up Docker containers,
[1650.28 --> 1656.82] of sharing folders, of doing file service sharing, like Samba, and all the rest of it, you know,
[1656.86 --> 1660.82] like time machine backups and all that kind of stuff, creating users.
[1661.24 --> 1667.16] A lot of times, people ask me when they read the perfect media server, what's the best GUI?
[1667.38 --> 1668.74] And I'm like, well, it's the command line.
[1669.00 --> 1669.22] Silly.
[1669.66 --> 1671.44] But actually, I think it's something like this.
[1671.44 --> 1677.62] I don't think a really good GUI for server management on Linux truly exists.
[1677.72 --> 1684.10] I know you like cockpit, but I don't think there's anything quite on this scale for vanilla Linux.
[1684.86 --> 1684.88] Right.
[1684.98 --> 1685.94] Nothing this straightforward.
[1686.16 --> 1688.38] Nothing this straightforward and nothing this comprehensive.
[1688.80 --> 1688.98] Yeah.
[1689.14 --> 1690.70] This does a lot more than cockpit.
[1690.90 --> 1691.88] Yeah, it absolutely does.
[1692.52 --> 1695.68] And sometimes that can be to its detriment because you think, right,
[1695.68 --> 1700.60] I just want to have a compose file and paste it in and create these five containers like this, please.
[1701.16 --> 1701.56] Right.
[1701.78 --> 1707.26] Whereas with the UI that Synology has, you have to click through a few things and create volumes.
[1707.50 --> 1712.18] And all the knobs and switches are labeled all the same as they would be in a compose file.
[1712.38 --> 1714.28] But you just have to go through and click them.
[1714.72 --> 1718.36] Which, you know, if I'm trying to explain this to my mother over the phone, for example,
[1719.12 --> 1724.08] and she's actually had a Synology unit in her house now for, I want to say, five years.
[1724.08 --> 1727.74] And I've not really had to touch it or think about it.
[1727.82 --> 1730.56] I mean, it just keeps on working, this thing.
[1730.88 --> 1736.96] And I think the long-term outlook for this Synology unit, for me, is going to be,
[1737.42 --> 1738.70] it's going to end up at a parent's house.
[1739.04 --> 1740.88] Which is no bad thing, in my opinion.
[1741.00 --> 1746.24] I think it's a sign of, you know, I said this a few episodes ago.
[1746.32 --> 1750.54] I bought a Raspberry Pi for eight gig and an external USB hard drive.
[1750.54 --> 1757.90] And I've been having the most difficult time trying to get that thing to USB boot with my sister's fiancé,
[1758.02 --> 1763.24] trying to talk him through how to set the Raspberry Pi up with USB boot and then flash it remotely.
[1763.64 --> 1765.54] And, oh, what a pain.
[1765.80 --> 1770.22] And I'm thinking to myself, well, if I just had this Synology, I could just send it to them.
[1770.28 --> 1771.66] And it looks nice.
[1771.72 --> 1772.70] It's nice and quiet.
[1772.88 --> 1777.00] There's no cables to be unplugged by the cat, you know.
[1777.00 --> 1783.12] I think Angela's been running one at her house for probably seven to eight years.
[1783.30 --> 1784.22] I don't even know.
[1784.36 --> 1787.26] It's crazy how long that thing has been running.
[1787.72 --> 1789.64] So it seems like it's been pretty solid.
[1789.98 --> 1795.58] I think for the people who like to deploy something and then begin to figure it out and learn how it works,
[1795.72 --> 1797.52] it fits that so well.
[1798.22 --> 1801.24] I worked with Synology to get one of these for Wes for Christmas.
[1801.24 --> 1809.34] Because it's not that Wes doesn't know how to manage a server, obviously, but he just doesn't really have the time.
[1809.42 --> 1810.90] He's got other stuff to do, right?
[1810.90 --> 1819.18] He still wants to be able to run Jellyfin, in his case, and manage his media and save files to a centralized location on his network.
[1819.54 --> 1824.54] But he doesn't have the time to build a box and set up all of the services, even though he knows how.
[1824.54 --> 1827.10] And so I thought a Synology would be perfect for him, too.
[1827.16 --> 1833.60] And so we say it's for beginners, but it's also just for people who got a lot going on.
[1833.72 --> 1841.24] Like people just kind of like in your situation that just maybe have a little less time or interest in building it completely from scratch.
[1841.72 --> 1842.72] I think I agree totally.
[1842.72 --> 1849.84] Now, one thing I would like to discuss is the version of Docker that's running on the NAS.
[1850.08 --> 1856.32] And it's running 18.09, which, as the name suggests, comes from 2018.
[1856.88 --> 1863.26] So what this means is if you SSH into the Synology, you can get in behind the scenes and go and tinker with what's going on.
[1863.64 --> 1871.16] And you think to yourself, great, I'm just going to use Docker Compose and I will circumvent the UI and just do it that way.