Storage Manager

Volumes are the storage units for a Synology NAS (and not only). You must, before anything else, create a volume to do anything useful with a NAS. This can easily be done via the Storage Manager. Create more than one volume through the Volume Setup wizard if you want. It offers you a quick option which creates an SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) volume, and a custom option, which supports different RAID levels. The DS214play supports three RAID levels: SHR, RAID 0, and RAID 1. You can also configure your disks in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) or simply install a single HDD. Synology also gives you the highly valuable option to skip checking the disks during RAID initialization, which dramatically accelerates RAID setup times. However, you have to be sure of your disks being in good condition and without any bad sectors or your RAID will fail, endangering the data on those disks.

The Hybrid RAID level (SHR), available through the Quick option of the Volume Creation Wizard, is an automated RAID Management system exclusive to Synology. It is for users who do not care for and do not want to acquaint themselves with the finer aspects of various RAID setups. The SHR level of the DS214play works with a single disk worth of redundancy, allowing the SHR volume to suffer the loss of one out of two disks, which it has in common with RAID 1. SHR is also the best option if you plan on installing differently sized disks since it creates the necessary partitions to exploit the full capacity of the disks—not a single byte of space is left unused.


You can check on the SMART status of your disks here, and also take a look at their details. You can even schedule a test and enable write cache, which boosts performance.

You should enable the SSD TRIM option if a volume consists entirely of SSDs (Solid State Drives). This feature will enhance the read- and write performance of the drives and extending their lifetime.


iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) is a storage area networking (SAN) service that provides access to consolidated block level data storage. The main use of iSCSI is to facilitate data transfers over intranets, which allows users to manage their storage space over long distances. You will, to put it simply, "see" a remote storage location as a local one through your workstation, which makes expanding the storage space of any system a simple task. An iSCSI LUN (logical unit number) represents an individually addressable portion of an iSCSI target. An iSCSI LUN can be mapped to multiple iSCSI targets to perform storage operations, like read or write.


You can create an iSCSI target in the iSCSI Target tab of your Storage Manager.

Resource Monitor

Monitor your system's resources through the Resource Monitor, including CPU usage, memory usage, disk utilization, and network transfer speeds. You can monitor resources in real time or view bygone data.


The Process tab shows each process's CPU and memory usage.


The Current Connections tab lists all currently connected users. You can export this list, kill specified connections, or disable a user.


View and manage file transfer processes and apply speed limit to these processes in the Speed Limit tab. You can update the lists or even kill specific file transfers.


The Advanced Settings tab allows you to configure several additional options.

System Info

The System Information window gives you an overview of the NAS's status and the status of all connected devices. A green icon under Thermal Status in the first tab denotes a normal state, while orange stands for high internal temperatures which will have the NAS shut down at any moment to prevent overheating system components. The Report tab allows you to collect data and generate reports that provide information about disk-usage trends.

Backup & Restore

You have several ways to back the data on your NAS up. These include local, network, and Amazon S3 backup. This particular group of options also allows you to save and restore the configuration of your NAS, and synchronize shared folder content on one Synology NAS (client) up with another (server) on the network.

DSM Help

DSM Help does what its name implies by providing detailed instructions on all DSM functions and features. Take a look at it if you ever get stuck.

EZ Internet

Use the EZ-Internet wizard to set remote access to the NAS up. It will set your Internet connection up, opening the necessary ports to your router, implementing the firewall rules, and enabling the DDNS service should your NAS not be connected to the Internet through a static IP.

Package Center

Easily install and update a variety of applications which greatly boost the usability of the NAS through Package Center. All you have to do is to browse through all available applications, selecting those you want before installing them with a few clicks of your mouse.


Synology offers many applications. These are grouped into the following categories: backup, multimedia, business, security, and utilities. We will take a look at the most important applications on the next page.