We are moving from a windows 2012 dc/file server to a synology nas. 15-20 users access shared network folders. Do you recommend we use synology directory and vpn or use synology drive client? We have about 10 users that need to be able to remotely access files.
We do both. We use Synology Directory Server, primarily for our on-prem users and computers, and Drive for remote workers. You can add the remote workers as regular domain users, and their credentials will work for the Drive Client to their home directory.
Honestly, it works great for us. We have about 30 remote workers, and management is simple. Our remote workers are often on-site throughout the week, so they can sit at a workstation and log into the domain.
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Thank you. Ok, I’ve got Synology Drive straightened out. Do you think Synology Directory Server is necessary?
It is all use case. If Drive works for what you need, you probably do not need to mess with the Directory Server. If you need shared drive/file locations, a need to use Group Policy, remote admin features, etc., you will probably want to look into Directory Server.
Should I set up the domain from scratch or use the “Migrate from a Windows Server Domain” option in the Synology to migrate from the Windows 2012 dc?
edit: I’m pretty sure I’ll just set it up from scratch.
If you start from scratch , you will have to join all the machines to the new domain, login as the new users and copy across user profile.
I would clean up your existing ad and migrate
It depends on the number of users/devices and if you have easy access to the computers. I have never migrated, so I can not speak to that. I generally do a new domain.
If needed, you can mount the remote folder from the old server to the Synology so you will not end up with mismatched copies of shared files if your workers have shared resources. It works great if you can not get them all transitioned over immediately.
You may also want to consider HA if this is mission-critical work. It is easy to do. In 10+ years I have never had anything fail other than an external power supply on the dozens of units we have deployed, but HA is an inexpensive insurance policy, and we have it configured for all our AD and/or mission-critical clients. The boxes have to be provisioned precisely the same, which may not work for you depending on the age of the equipment, but you may want to consider it in the future.
It looks like you can’t migrate from 2012 server anyway. You can only migrate from 2008 or older.
What is HA?
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Doesn’t Drive essentially have all those features?
High Availability - Synology High Availability Package | Synology Inc.
It is an active-passive failover in the event of some type of hardware failure.
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How about setting up azure ad and connecting synology and all workstations to it?
Am I complicating things for no reason?