DiskStation Manager 4 Tour

As we already stated, DSM is a windowed operating system so it is very easy to use. The task bar is located on the top side and in the top left corner resides the Windows "Start Menu" button which opens a window with the most popular programs/applications and also provides two buttons for restarting or shutting down the NAS server. On the right side of the interface there are the widgets which provide useful information about the NAS and an easy way to access popular functions like resource monitor, scheduled backup, system logs etc. You have the option to hide the widgets if you find them annoying.


The control panel provides access to all settings and functions of the NAS. All choices are categorized into four main categories: file sharing and privileges, network services, system and application settings. The icons used are quite self explanatory and won't confuse you. Below we will take a look at some of the settings that are listed in the control panel menu.


You can create new users and groups and assign access permissions to them through the "User" and "Group" choices. If you want the NAS to be accessible by anyone you should enable the guest account which by default is deactivated.


The NAS is equipped with a firewall through which you can create various rules for each of the two network interfaces.


Another interesting selection of the control panel is the power setting, through which you can adjust the power recovery settings, set the fan speed mode, tamper with the beep control, enable UPS support if your UPS can be controlled through network, create an operational schedule for the NAS and finally adjust the HDD hibernation modes.


Through the Network choice you can set the NAS name on the network, the DNS server and the default gateway and also set up the network interfaces. In our case we bonded the two network interfaces together to form one with higher capacity (2 Gbps). In the network interface tab you can also enable or disable Jumbo frames and enable VLANs. Remember that LACP and Jumbo frames should be supported by the switch to which the NAS is connected and also the frame size on the client PCs should be set accordingly.


If you feel lost in the DSM operating system you can fire up the DSM help application and get some guidance.