DSM 4.3 Changes & Administration Interface

Disk Station Manager (DSM) is a Linux-based operating system Synology developed exclusively for their NAS servers. It offers an intuitive, windowed interface with high functionality and is easy to use, even by inexperienced users. The most recent version of DSM was 4.3 at the time of review. It offers several new features we will mention in the following paragraph. The DSM operating system is stored across all installed disks, which allows you to boot and use DiskStation after removing any of the hard drives. This provides some extra security since all crucial system files are stored on every disk. Only if all disks fail will you lose your configuration files.

DSM 4.3 not only introduces several security fixes and enhanced stability over its previous 4.2 version, but also offers several new features, including Windows Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) support, SSD TRIM and cache support, trust domain support in the Active Directory, broader LDAP client support, NFS v4, Speed Limit Scheduler, Task Scheduler, self-service password recovery, HFS+ support, advanced options for Windows File Service (SMB), and 3G/4G USB dongle support.


Once you log into DSM, you will be greeted by the desktop, several icons, widgets, and the taskbar. You can add shortcuts of your favorite applications to the desktop for quick and easy access by dragging the icon from the main menu to the desktop. You can also remove shortcuts by right-clicking on them and picking the remove shortcut option. The "start" button reveals the main menu and is located in the top-right corner, on the taskbar. Next to it are the icons of all open applications, while the notification button and all notifications are on the right (you will recognize this button by its exclamation mark).


Next to the Notification icon, which is hidden if there are no notifications present, is the Options menu (with a figure as its icon). It allows you to log out of DSM or manage all user account settings. The Search icon is next to it on the right.


On the far right of the taskbar resides the Pilot View button. It gives you an instant preview of all open applications.


A widget in the bottom-right corner contains the NAS's system information. You can reveal or close this widget panel by clicking the upward and downward triangle in the bottom-right corner.

Quick Start Wizard

The Quick Start Wizard will pop up as soon as you log into the DSM administration interface for the first time, giving you the opportunity to quickly and quite easily set up the NAS's most crucial parameters. You can safely ignore the Quick Start Wizard if you are an experienced user, but had better follow its instructions otherwise.

Control Panel

The most important icon on the DSM desktop is without any doubt that of the Control Panel because it provides access to all settings and functions. All choices are categorized into four main categories: File Sharing and Privileges, Network Services, System, and Application Settings. All used icons are quite self-explanatory and nicely designed.