Synology provides SSH access, which allows you to do a number of things you can’t do with the GUI. To enable SSH, simply log in on the Synology and open Control Panel. From the Control Panel, scroll down to “Terminal & SNMP” in the sidebar and check the box for “Enable SSH service” and then click Apply. The device will then have SSH enabled. Open Terminal on your Mac or Windows device and let’s SSH into the root account of the IP address, done as follows (where 192.168.50.5 is the IP address of your Synology): ssh root@192.168.50.5 When prompted, enter the same admin password you normally use. You’ll then be…
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Sync Cloud Content To Synology
A Synology can act as a local file server that is used to share a folder from a cloud account. You can use accounts with from Backblaze, Google Drive, Amazon, Alibaba, Dropbox, Azure, and others. This means you can use a Synology to provide LAN access to cloud solutions. Before you do, make sure you understand that if changes are made in the cloud and on a client computer at the same time, that you will end up not knowing which is right and so file-locking issues will come up. It’s best to use this strategy for home environments or come up with another mechanism for locking files. If you…
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Add Antivirus To Your Synology
It’s not likely that your Synology is going to get infected with a virus of some kind. It’s also not likely that, if you’re switching to Synology from a macOS Server, that most of your clients will get infected or be using infected files. But you probably have that one Windows accounting machine in the back of the office. So you should scan your Synology routinely. To do so, Synology provides a clamav bundle, much like what I usually told people to use on macOS file servers. To install antivirus on your Synology, open Package Center and search for antivirus. Click on Antivirus Essential and then click on Install. Once…
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Backup Mobile Devices To Synology With Acronis True Image
You can backup a Synology in a number of ways. Even if you have a local backup, you should have a backup offsite. Here, we’ll walk through backing up a Synology using Acronis True Image. Before doing so, it’s worth noting that the only things backed up this way are the ones that are by default accessible through an app, and that you’ll have to give access to each of those entitlements in order for the backup to run. These include Contacts, Photos, Videos, Calendars, and Reminders. To get started, first go to the Package Center on a Synology. Then, search for Acronis.At the listing for Acronis True Image, click…
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Migrate From macOS To A Synology Based VPN
Synology is able to do everything a macOS Server could do, and more. So if you need to move your VPN service, it’s worth looking at a number of different solutions. The most important question to ask is whether you actually need a VPN any more. If you have git, mail/groupware, or file services that require remote access then you might want to consider moving these into a hosted environment somewhere. But if you need access to the LAN and you’re a small business without other servers, a Synology can be a great place to host your VPN services. Before you setup anything new, first snapshot your old settings. Let’s…
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Install Directory Services on a Synology
People who have managed Open Directory and will be moving to Synology will note that directory services really aren’t nearly as complicated was we’ve made them out to be for years. This is because Apple was protecting us from doing silly things to break our implementations. It was also because Apple bundled a number of seemingly disparate technologies into ldap. It’s worth mentioning that LDAP on a Synology is LDAP. We’re not federating services, we’re not kerberizing services, we’re not augmenting schemas, etc. We can leverage the directory service to provide attributes though, and have that central phone book of user and group memberships we’ve come to depend on directory…
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Install DNS Services on Synology
DNS is an integral service to most modern networks. The Domain Name System, or DNS is comprised of hierarchical and decentralized Domain Name Servers, or DNS Servers. This is how we connect to computers and the websites that reside on computers by their names, rather than having to memorize the IP addresses of every single computer out there. So you get to type https://krypted.com/ and come to my website instead of typing the IP address. Or more likely, Facebook.com, but just because my website is older, I’m not mad about that. No really… So you have a macOS Server and you need to take your DNS records out of it…
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Install the RADIUS Server on a Synology
Don’t let the name fool you, RADIUS, or Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service is more widely used today than ever before. This protocol enables remote access to servers and networks and is frequently a fundamental building block of VPNs, wireless networks and other high-security services that have nothing to do with dialup bulletin boards from the 80s. I’ve run RADIUS services on Mac servers for years. But as that code starts to become stale and no longer supported, let’s look at running a basic RADIUS service on a network appliance, such as a Synology. To get started, open Package Manager, click All in the sidebar and then search for RADIUS. Click Install for…
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Install Web Services on a Synology
Web services was always easy to install on macOS Server and it’s no different on a Synology. To do so, open Package Manager from the home screen.Click All in the sidebar and enter web into the search box.Click Web Station.Click Install. This installs a few dependencies. Click Open once the install is finished.Click General Settings. Note that the default web server is Nginx. You can install Apache and then Apache will be available in the HTTP back-end server list. If you’ll be using a different service (Apache) then do the switch before you proceed. Otherwise (or after you switch to Apache), click on Virtual Host.Click on Create.Click into the hostname field…
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Install WordPress on a Synology
Earlier, I wrote an article on how to export data from the macOS Wiki Service. But now that you have your data in a file, where are you going to import it into. Well, you could do some kind of custom hosting service. Or if you want to run your own server, you could use a Synology. Synology makes installing WordPress a snap. To get started, first open Package Manager. From Package Manager, search for WordPress.Click Install.Click Yes to install the dependencies.Enter a username and password to pass to Maria DB (root with a blank password).Enter a username and password for the wordpress database and click Next. Click Apply. Click Open…