Synology announces the immediate public availability of version 7.1 of the OS for their NASes – DiskStation Manager (DSM) 7.1.
Synology DSM 7.1 introduces two major feature updates in addition to a plethora of smaller ones: the long-awaited ability to perform full, bare-metal-level backups of the entire system and shared folder aggregation – allowing multiple Synology NAS/SANs to access the same shared folders under different logins. “We estimate that over 5 million active DSM installations are in use as private clouds, backup servers, monitoring servers and more,” said Shamrock Ko, System Product Management team leader. “Building on the solid foundation we laid with the 7.0, we can now begin to focus on improving the customer experience by addressing the specific challenges our customers face during their daily use of the platform.”
Key Storage Improvements
DSM 7.1 presents significant storage management improvements. It is now significantly easier to share data between multiple Synology NAS/SAN systems in different locations. The shared folder aggregation feature uses SMB DFS to create symbolic links between shared folders on multiple Synology devices, making multiple Synology SMB file servers appear as one large portal folder on your network.
Full System Protection
DSM 7.1 introduces full, bare-metal level backups of the entire system. Synology Active Backup for Business allows the entire Synology system to be imported and replicated, significantly accelerating recovery time objectives (RTO) in the event of a site-wide outage. The full system recovery capability also introduces a quick and convenient way to deploy identically configured systems.
UI updates and performance improvements
The new user interface introduced in 7.0 has been further optimized by consolidating background tasks into an administrator-friendly view. This provides greater transparency into what is happening on the system, even with multiple user accounts. For Synology High Availability clusters, users can now view and manage drives on both systems from a single instance of Storage Manager for easier maintenance and management. On the performance front, DSM has long supported flash caching to cost-effectively improve the performance of random I/O operations. This new release allows SSD caching to be enabled on multiple storage volumes.
Ecosystem-wide Enhancements
Synology also launches several major improvements to applications and services.
- Active Backup for Business: bandwidth control, enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities, and support for DSM backups.
- Active Insight: Centralized monitoring of logon activities and Hyper Backup job statuses, plus the ability to batch update monitored systems
- Synology C2 Hybrid Share: server-side C2 snapshots and local management of file versions by Synology Drive for easier recovery
- Directory Server: Support for read-only domain controllers to enhance system security and flexibility
- Synology Drive: Expanded indexing capabilities, a revamped experience for mobile users, and better monitoring/control capabilities
- MailPlus: Virtual DSM support, expanded management options, import/migrate enhancement
- Virtual Machine Manager: improve storage I/O performance and QoS capabilities
In addition, Synology releases Surveillance Station 9.0, which offers significant improvements in usability, multi-site management, security and more. C2 Surveillance, an add-on service, is launched simultaneously. C2 Surveillance uses the newly introduced “double recording” feature in Surveillance Station 9.0 to keep important video feeds safe, so they remain available in case the NVR is physically damaged or stolen. Learn more.
UPS
Finally, another piece of good news for users of UPS with DSM 7.1, is that the UPS can now be turned off automatically again as was the case in version 6.x. This functionality disappeared from DSM 7.0x, to the dismay of many users, but has now returned. Among other things, it prevents a completely drained battery from the UPS, which is definitely good for the lifespan of such devices.
SRM 1.3
Synology also presents SRM 1.3, at the same time as the launch of the RT6600ax wifi 6 router. This update improves network management by introducing network segmentation and support for VLAN and multiple SSIDs. DS router 2.0 is the completely redesigned mobile app launched with SRM 1.3.
Availability
DSM 7.1, Surveillance Station 9.0 and other DSM applications are now generally available and already deployed on Synology systems. SRM 1.3 will be initially released for the RT6600ax and rolled out for older Synology routers in the third quarter of 2022.