Mike Tabor

miketabor.com

May 4, 2021

Synology 10GbE Upgrade for the Home Lab

One big feature I was looking forward to taking advantage of when I replaced my old Synology DS1815+ with a new Synology DS1621+, was the PCIe expansion slot and support for 10GbE cards. I could now setup a 10GbE network between the NAS, the home lab Dell R720, and my main PC. My goal was to create a small 10GbE network without spending a ton of money. In order to achieve this goal I purchased the following items: MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN...
Read More
March 31, 2021

Backup Synology NAS to Amazon Glacier

Recently I replaced my Synology DS1815+ with a new Synology DS1621+ NAS. After migrating all the data from the old to new NAS and re-setting up Backblaze on the new Synology, I wanted to have a second backup of everything… just in case. If you already have an AWS account and want to know how to backup your Synology NAS to Amazon Glacier then keep reading. How to backup Synology NAS to AWS Glacier First log into your Synology NAS...
Read More
March 20, 2020

How to Replace a Failed Hard Drive in a Synology NAS

Earlier this week I received a notification from my Synology NAS that a hard drive was failing. Right now in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic, one thing I don’t need is my NAS down and the kids and wife unable to watch any shows or movies. Luckily for me Synology has made drive replacement a breeze. Here is how to easily and very quickly replace a failed hard drive in your Synology NAS. How to replace a failed hard...
Read More
August 28, 2019

Upgrade Synology DS1819+ RAM to 32GB

Recently got my hands on a Synology DS1819+ which offers a number of great features, one of which is the ability to support 32GB memory! Giving me more than plenty of resources for all kinds of Docker containers, virtual machines, and Synology applications. In this quick guide I’ll detail how to upgrade your Synology DS1819+ to 32GB of RAM. Items needed: Philips screwdriver Kingston KSM24SED8 RAM Modules Crucial 32GB kit (some users have reported issues with this brand) How to...
Read More
January 8, 2018

Defrag to improve Synology BTRFS performance

My Synology NAS gets a lot of use at home. Not only is the Synology NAS a central point for my VMware home lab, but all my PCs are connected to it for document, photo, and ISO storage. In order to keep things as optimized as possible I try to defrag the drives every once in a while. Depending on how fragmented the drives are, this could help improve performance in sequential read and random IOPS. In this post I’ll...
Read More
June 25, 2017

How to create a virtual machine on a Synology NAS

A common request I’ve seen among Synology NAS owners, is the ability to run virtual machines directly from their NAS. Recently Synology released a beta version of their new Virtual Machine Manager package that allows users to do exactly that. Below I’ll detail how to install, configure, and create a Windows 10 virtual machine on my Synology DS1815+. Before getting started, your Synology NAS not only needs to be compatible but also needs to meet a couple requirements: Have at...
Read More
February 16, 2016

How to upgrade Synology DS1815+ to 16GB RAM

Just last week I replaced my Synology DS412+ to with a Synology DS1815+, which has twice the drive bays with the addition of supporting two expansion units, a much more powerful CPU, and 2GB RAM out of the box. I’ve seen some people mention with very mixed results that both the Synology DS1515+ and Synology DS1815+ can be upgraded to 16GB of RAM, the biggest issue seems to be around what memory modules to use. So I figured I’d document...
Read More
October 15, 2015

Secure Public WiFi using Synology VPN Server

Public WiFi is something many of use enjoy while we’re at the coffee shop, hotels, airports, libraries and so on, but one thing everyone should or needs to know is that public WiFi is NOT secure. In fact it’s so easy for people to eavesdrop and hack a public WiFi that even a 7 year old girl can do it, in under 11 minutes! The solution would be to use a VPN which will encrypt your traffic between you and...
Read More
September 8, 2015

Synology DSM 5.2-5592 Update 4

The new DSM 5.2-5592 Update 4 fixes several security vulnerabilities as well as the false-positive that the Antivirus was reporting in /usr/syno/bin/zip. In addition this update also fixes the issue where DSM cannot be updated after system recovery on certain models Fixed Issues in DSM 5.2-5592 Update 4 Restored the mandatory file (/usr/syno/bin/zip) that has been removed due to Antivirus Essential’s false-positive detection. Upgraded Apache HTTP Server to 2.2.31 to address one security vulnerability (CVE-2015-3183). Upgraded PHP to 5.5.28 to...
Read More
April 24, 2015

Synology fixes SMB vulnerability with DSM 5.1-5022 Update 5

Synology released DSM 5.1-5022 Update 5 that fixes a vulnerability that could allow for unauthorized access to shared folders on the NAS. Fixed Issues in DSM 5.1-5022 Update 5 Fixed a vulnerability that could allow unauthorized access to the shared folders via SMB protocol. How to install Synology DSM 5.1-5022 Update 5 You can download the Synology DSM 5.1-5022 Update 5 from the Synology Download Center or by logging into your Synology dashboard and going to: Control Panel > System...
Read More