= Warspite =

DS216j 2-bay basic model

2x 2TB SATA in SHR configuration, ext4 filesystem

At family's place

= Iowa =

DS916+ 4-bay advanced model with btrfs support

 * Disk group 1 - SSD
  * 2x 8TB SATA SSD
  * Volume 1 - "FAST data"
  * btrfs filesystem, this volume is synced to Backblaze B2 cloud for backups
 * Disk group 2 - HDD
  * 2x 10TB SATA HDD
  * Volume 2 - "SLOW ephemeral data"
  * btrfs filesystem, this volume is not synced anywhere

At home

== Upgrade options ==

I don't need more capacity but I would like more speed. That'd mean 10G networking, and I'd need that in my workstation as well, though it does have a 2.5G NIC onboard which is a decent start. Otherwise I'd have to get a 10G PCIe NIC, and somehow use the M.2 connector on the back side of the motherboard.

 * DS1621+ has room for a 10G NIC addon, Synology branded but normal PCIe
 * DS1522+ takes a mini 10G NIC, which is the perfect answer in my mind (non-standard vendor NIC E10G22-T1-Mini, but convenient
 * DS2422+ is huge and takes PCIe 10G or 25G cards, that's way outta reach though
 * DS1821+ also takes the same PCIe 10G or 25G cards

|| Model   || NIC             || Base  || NIC  || Total cost ||
|| DS1522+ || !E10G22-T1-Mini || $1150 || $232 || $1382      ||
|| DS1621+ || !E10G18-T1      || $1400 || $261 || $1661      ||
|| DS1821+ || !E10G18-T1      || $1678 || $261 || $1939      ||
|| DS2422+ || !E10G18-T1      || $2850 || $261 || $3111      ||

The 1522 seems like a pretty clear winner on price.

Let's compare the two on the bottom end for features as well: https://www.synology.com/en-au/products/compare/DS1621+/DS1522+

||                || DS1621+ || DS1522+ ||
|| RAM            || 4gb     || 8gb ||
|| Drives         || 6       || 5   ||
|| M.2 slots      || 2       || 2   ||
|| 1G ports       || 4       || 4 w/ 1500 MTU only ||
|| USB ports      || 3       || 2   ||
|| PCIe           || Gen3 8x (4x elec) || Gen3 2x custom NIC ||
|| Size           || Wider and longer  || 52mm narrower and 20mm shorter ||
|| Weight         || 5.1 kg            || 2.7 kg ||
|| Power supply   || 250 W             || 120 W  ||
|| Power input    || IEC cable direct  || Friggen power brick ||
|| Idle power     || 25.3 W            || 16.7 W ||

The older model actually doesn't come off too badly in comparison. I really like that the newer one is lighter and uses less power and has more RAM, but I really dislike that it doesn't have an internal PSU.

A possible alternative is to self-host, it's definitely not as convenient, but you can get a machine with tonnes of 10G networking for much less money, with the catch that the drive bays are now all internal: https://www.servethehome.com/everything-homelab-node-goes-1u-rackmount-qotom-intel-review/4/

You'd then run Xpenology on that, AND it's a nice rackmount formfactor with no power brick. Fuck yeah!

Actually, maybe fuck ALL that and get one of these: https://nascompares.com/2024/05/10/asustor-flashstor-gen-2-revealed-and-it-is-a-beast/

The Gen1 Flashstor was already sounding ''pretty'' good, but Gen2 should fix all the problems, namely lack of network ports and enough storage bandwidth. Now that would be worth like a couple of grand that you could be paying for a fancier HDD-based NAS, and I wouldn't even be mad that it's not rackmounted.

Scorptec seems to be the first retailer listing them:
 * $1730 for the 6-bay with 1x 10G port and 8GB RAM: https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/nas/5-8-bays/114974-fs6806x
 * $2420 for the 12-bay with 2x 10G port and 16GB RAM: https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/nas/9plus-bays/114976-fs6812x


= Tools =

If you're SSH'd to the box, you can install/activate extra tools that you'd be used to having as a sysadmin.

{{{
sudo synogear install
}}}

Despite being called with "install", all this does is drop you into a subshell with access to the tools, kinda like activating a python virtualenv. You'll need to run it any time you want to use them (or you can mess with your `$PATH` I guess).

{{{
root@iowa:~# echo $PATH
/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/syno/sbin:/usr/syno/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin

root@iowa:~# synogear install
root@iowa:~# echo $PATH
/var/packages/DiagnosisTool/target/tool/:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/syno/sbin:/usr/syno/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin
}}}


= rsync over ssh =

Maybe I broke it, but rsync doesn't work as expected without some fiddling. I thought it might be due to cruft in my `~/.bashrc` but I don't think it's that.

This works though:
{{{
rsync -avx --rsync-path=/usr/bin/rsync furinkan@iowa:/volume1/path/to/files/ /somewhere/local/or/whatever/
}}}

The error message suggests it can't find or can't execute the rsync binary at the far end, but I can't tell why.
{{{
furinkan@suomi:~$ ssh furinkan@iowa 'echo $PATH'
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

furinkan@suomi:~$ ssh furinkan@iowa 'which rsync'
/usr/bin/rsync
}}}