Comprehensive Synology Support

Synology Support UK

Comprehensive Synology Support Services in the UK Welcome to our dedicated Synology support page for UK customers. Whether you are experiencing technical issues with your Synology NAS, need assistance with setup, or require expert advice, our team is here to help.

Our Services

Technical Support

Our experienced support team is available to assist you with any technical issues you may encounter with your Synology NAS. We offer

• Troubleshooting and diagnostics: Identify and resolve hardware and software issues.
• Firmware updates: Ensure your NAS is running the latest and most secure version of DSM.
• Data recovery: Recover lost or corrupted data from your Synology NAS.

Setup and Configuration

Get your Synology NAS up and running with our professional setup and configuration services

• Initial setup: Assistance with installing and configuring your NAS.
• Network integration: Ensure seamless integration with your existing network infrastructure.
• Backup solutions: Configure reliable backup solutions to protect your data.

Maintenance and Optimisation

Keep your Synology NAS performing at its best with our maintenance and optimization services

• Regular health checks: Periodic reviews to ensure your NAS is functioning optimally.
• Performance tuning: Optimize settings for improved performance and efficiency.
• Security enhancements: Implement best practices to secure your NAS against threats.

Why choose GEN?

• Expertise: Our team consists of certified Synology professionals with extensive experience.
• Local Support: Based in the UK, we understand the specific needs and challenges of our local customers.
• Fast Response: We offer quick and efficient support to minimize downtime and disruptions.

For immediate support head over to the HelpDesk and raise a case, or to discuss maintenance and service pricing please contact us.

Stock and Parts Backup

With so many years invested in the Synology ecosystem, both internally and for our clients, we carry a large number of Synology spares and parts in stock from complete units, through to power supplies, backplanes, mainboards, and we're able to carry out component level repairs on some models.

Core Values

Synology has from their very inception aligned with GEN's core values, that being

• Quality: From the component level right through to application software. An attention to detail that is evident right across the range.
• Features: An entire catalogue of features built right in from the get-go, if it can, then synology do.
• Secure: Security by design, right from the nuts and bolts. Simple yet powerful security options, allowing rich features in a secure way.

Synology have a wide range of products, from the very small personal devices right through to enterprise grade storage solutions, many of which are used internally at GEN. In-fact our very first Synology NAS was the DS101 back in 2004 and we still have this device on display in our head office.

Enterprise

The higher end RackStations provide a power efficient, rock solid and highly scaleable solution. There are clearly defined upgrade paths both in capacity and performance as your needs grow. Internally, we use rack-stations to provide both internal storage, as well as block and file level storage for our virtualisation platforms. High availability is available and reliable for mission critical storage and services.

Storage Protocols:

• SMB The fundamental file sharing protocol for windows, but used extensively now in Linux and MacOS
• AFP MacOS uses Apple File Protocol to share files and services across the network
• WebDAV provides a HTTP based file access protocol that whilst not popular is still used today
• NFS The Network File System stems from the early UNIX OS's and is frequently used in Linux these days
• FTP The File Transfer Protocol is another legacy protocol that still plays a major role in file distribution
• RSYNC A common linux protocol for synchronising files between hosts
• iSCSI A block level file protocol used commonly in virtualisation and backup
• Drive Synology's own file synchronisation and backup service
• Bonjour If you're operating a MacOS ecosystem, bonjour and time-machine support comes as standard

Built-in Services

Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) is a powerful and feature rich operating system that provides a comprehensive selection of built in services all accessible from a beautifully designed web interface.

DNS, a fully features bind9 DNS implementation can be enabled with a few clicks, and config/zones can be managed from the command line, or via the GUI

Calendar, Contacts, nicely implemented as iCal and iCard servers, ready to centralise your organisations scheduling and contacts. By implementing these industry standard protocols, code can easily synchronise these datasets between corporate servers and devices.

Antivirus, is provided at no charge to regularly scan filesystems and take corrective actions

Backup, both hyperbackup for backing up or synchronising data between servers, or ActiveBackup for business which provides endpoint backup services for remote computers, servers, shares and even Vmware/Hyper-v

LDAP, allowing centralisation of authentication that can automatically sync between synology servers, and other LDAP compatible systems. Combine this with Radius support to expand this authentication framework to a far larger selection of devices such as routers, VPN appliances and more. Single-Sign-on & OAuth takes this to another level with token based single sign-on for your applications.

Docker, providing container services directly on the Rack-station, with easy to use configuration, monitoring and management.

File Station, a nicely designed web interface for browsing and accessing files stored on the NAS.

Security Advisor provides a periodic review of the Rack-stations security setting and provides suggestions on improvements, a well designed and functional tool

Surveillance Station, a powerful and feature rich video surveillance solution, with support for up to 144 cameras, and a wide range of supported camera models

Storage Analyser generates periodic reports on storage usage, viewable by user, share, protocol, etc allowing easy management of storage without the need to impose quota's on users, which you can do if you wish.

Task scheduler allows the configuration of scheduled tasks that can run on flexible timescales.

Web station, a fully feature web server that can be setup and configured easily from the GUI

Virtual Machine Manager is yet another unexpected feature providing full virtualisation on the Rack-station itself.

VPN Server, provides secure remote access to your network, with support for common VPN protocols

There are many more packages available for the Synology ecosystem including a vibrant third party selection, but remember, its linux, and if you need something not provided as an easily installed package, then you can install it yourself with dpkg.

Sync

If you need a NAS then you will probably need synchronisation, allowing the automated copying of data from NAS to NAS, or Server to NAS or many other possible configurations. At GEN we have our core storage running on two 12 bay NAS's with two 12 bay SAS expansions each running in High availability, with hourly replications to another NAS server at a third site across the WAN. We then have other systems backing up their data and images to these core NAS servers in the knowledge that we're going to replicate those backup's to a third site within the hour, and we can play with the retention settings so we keep a number of versions both internally and externally.

In our fairly complex setup we have a mixture of rsync, ActiveBackup, Time-machine, Git, and virtualisation all moving data to and from the core NAS's with their 1Petabyte of combined storage (At the time of authoring this article).