In this video we take a quick tour of the main elements that make up Disk Station Manager 7. While the user interface of your NAS should be familiar to you as it’s based on the UI of a modern computer. We will familiarise ourselves with were settings are located as we prepare to start setting up our new NAS.
Quick reference notes:
The Main Menu
When selected, the Main menu will display any applications that have been installed onto your NAS. While these applications will have been installed via Package Centre. The Main menu acts as a quick way to find and load an application.
Package Centre
Package Centre is Synology’s equivalent to an App Store. This is where you can find and install either Synology designed or third party applications. When choosing applications to install we prefer to use Synology applications as they will have been better optimised for your hardware.
Control Panel
The Control Panel is the location where you will find most of the settings for your NAS. Within Control Panel you can setup file shares, set permissions and adjust settings on your NAS.
File Station
File Station is the default File Manager built into Disk Station Manager 7. Within File Station you can access, rename, move or delete files and folders stored on your NAS.
DSM Help
DSM Help is a basic set of help articles, you can use to setup your NAS. However, you might find the Synology Knowledge Centre to be of more use.
Notifications
Notifications provide basic information about the status of your NAS, and when something changes. These changes can include, if a backup was successful or if a hard drive is about to fail.
Options
Options is the person shaped icon that can be found in the top right hand corner of Disk Station Manager. It is used for basic account control and to either log out or reboot your NAS. The settings available within Options are determined by the type of account being used. For example, if you log into the DSM with a standard user account, functions like Restart and Shutdown will not be available.
Search
Search as the name suggests, provides you with basic search functionality for your NAS.
Widgets
Widgets are small application windows that sit on the desktop of Disk Station Manager. However, limited in their scope they can be useful to monitor your NAS.
Additional resources:
- Spare network cables – Network Cables from Amazon
- Amazon – Recommended hard drives
Reference materials:
- Synology Support – Getting Started with DSM
- Wikipedia – Network Attached Storage
- mydoodads article – Three alternative ways to power down your Synology NAS
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