Feature | TrueNAS SCALE | Synology |
---|---|---|
Operating system | Linux-based | Linux-based & only on their hardware |
Open Source | Yes | No |
Centralized Management Option | TrueCommand | Active Insights |
High availability | *On IX Systems Hardware, Gluster Cluster in the future | Available and varies by model Configuring a Synology HA Cluster and Showing What Happens When You Pull The Plug! - YouTube |
External management via relay proxy | No | Yes, via Synology |
Hard Drive Support | Sata/SAS/NVME & Most Common drives | Varies by model What Happens When You Use "Non Verified" Drives with Synology? - YouTube |
File systems supported | ZFS | Btrfs or EXT4 |
Share Types | NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, WebDAV | NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, WebDAV |
RAID support | RAID-Z, RAID-Z2, RAID-Z3, mirrors, ZFS Special VDEV types TrueNAS ZFS VDEV Pool Design Explained: RAIDZ RAIDZ2 RAIDZ3 Capacity, Integrity, and Performance. - YouTube | RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10,SHR, F1, & JBOD https://kb.synology.com/en-id/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/storage_pool_what_is_raid?version=7 |
Expanding existing Raid setups | Yes, but VDEV’s to be symmetric TrueNAS: How To Expand A ZFS Pool - YouTube | Yes How do I expand the storage pool or volume capacity? - Synology Knowledge Center |
Deduplication | Yes | Yes |
Virtualization support | Yes TrueNAS Scale Virtualization Features and How To Get Started Building VM's - YouTube | Yes Synology Virtual Machines Quick Review - YouTube |
Docker support | Yes, but not standard | Yes, but not standard |
Native encryption | Yes | Yes When using BTRFS |
Snapshot support | Yes ZFS | Yes When using BTRFS |
Replication | Yes: To other ZFS Targets such as TrueNAS Scale or Core TrueNAS 12 ZFS Replication & Encryption - YouTube | Yes: To other Synology Running BTRFS Protect Your Data, Replicate You Data, & Recover Quickly From Ransomware Using Synology Snapshots - YouTube |
Backup to external services | Popular Cloud Services and Custom targets TrueNAS Backup To BackBlaze - YouTube | Popular Cloud Services and Custom targets Synology Hyper Backup to Synology and to C2 Cloud - YouTube |
Plugins/Extensions | Yes via their App catalog & third party catalogs such as TrueCharts | Yes via their App catalog and some third party apps exist |
Web-based interface | Yes | Yes |
Active Directory support | Yes | Yes |
Application Setup & Management | More Complex How To Setup TrueNAS Scale Apps With Shares For Host Path Volumes - YouTube | Easy setup |
NVR/ Surveillance system | Not at this time | Yes, but needs one time licenses Quick Review: Synology Surveillance Station Version 9.0 - YouTube |
Backing up your computers | Not at this time | Active Backup Synology Active Backup Demo & Review 2023 - YouTube |
Backing up Office 365 / Gsuite | Not at this time | Active backup 365/Google Synology Active Backup for Microsoft 365 & Google Workspace - YouTube |
Photo App With Phone Backup | Photoprism / no native phone app backup | Synology Photos Synology Moments Google Photos Alternative - YouTube |
Office Suite | Open Source NextCloud | Synology Office |
File Sync App for Client or Server | Syncthing (more complex setup) | Synology Drive & has Mobile Client |
Media Player Apps | Plex / Emby / More via third party TrueCharts Catalog | Plex / Emby / Video Station |
Considering a big departure from typical enterprise storage vendors for our video post production house. We’re currently on a NetApp FAS and considering the move to TruNas Scale or Synology SA, HD, or FS series. No experience with Synology or TruNAS in a high availability SMB environment. Can either of these solutions be trusted to get close to our match NetApp/Dell/HP/Qumulo in performance or reliability? Big win is going to be upfront cost and support cost. Thoughts?
We sell at lot of TrueNAS M Series unit to the movie industry. So that answer is yes for TrueNAS but for Synology we have not deployed at the same scale so that is less tested but that really depends on at what scale you are referring to.
Lots of random reads, very hard to predict the assets that will be required even day to day. 3 to 4 Adobe Premiere editors with Media Encoder exports. 5x video transcoders prores LT/HQ masters to MPEG2/4. IOPs at the high point of 5000 and an average of 500-600 IOPs. Throughput peaks at flooding 10Gbps and is a constant of 400-500 MBps. 15-20 team members.
NetApp performance has been solid but it’s time to explore a more open hardware compatibility platform. Hybrid array solutions would be best, M Series looks like it might fit. Synology seemed appealing because of virtual DSM and to my understanding it could replace the functionality of SVM on NetApp. Identity (AD) and network segmented storage is a compliance requirement. To my knowledge, multiple VLANs are not possible on a base instance of either DSM or TruNAS. Could be wrong.
I have never tested virtual DSM but TrueNAS has no issues with multiple VLANs and can be built to maintain high iops under load.
I wonder why it’s never mentioned in any reviews that the Synology disk encryption is practically useless. It has a maximum file name length limitation which varies depending on the language used to label files (unless they changed that in recent years) and what’s even worse you can simply gain admin access (and decrypt the drives) by pressing the physical reset button on the appliance. So there’s virtually no protection from burglars stealing the NAS from your office even when you have the encryption turned on.
The two things that made me return the NAS 2 days after testing it. I wonder why this is NEVER mentioned in the reviews of Synology NASes? You only find that info in the fine print in the manual (which no one reads of course).
So in that regard it’s unusable if you are concerned about theft.
That said: I tested one probably 3 years back so maybe this has improved now?
If you want to protect the data from physical theft on TrueNAS or a Synology you need to use passphrase for the folder on Synology or Dataset on TrueNAS. Using keys that are kept on the device is not a great for either device as there are ways to extract them. Using a passphrase mitigates this issue for both platforms.