Synology DS220+ NAS Setup: Synology Admin, Quick Connect and Creating Volume

Setting up the NAS

In this post, you’ll learn how to set up your newly bought Synology DS220+. Setting up the NAS is very easy and might take about 10 minutes. Once you unbox the NAS,

  1. Keep the NAS on the flat surface
  2. Pull out the drive tray (s) and install the hard drive (s)
  3. Connect the one end of the LAN cable to NAS
  4. Connect the other end of the LAN cable to your WiFi router
  5. Power up the NAS using the provided adapter
  6. Press the Power button on the NAS to boot the device
Synology DS220P 3

After making sure both Router and NAS are connected properly, open any web browser on your PC and enter find.synology.com. It will take a few seconds and you’ll see the details of your NAS along with Model Number, Mac Address, IP Address, and Status. Make a note that, there is also an official app called Synology Assistant which will help you set up the NAS. I would still recommend a browser-based setup as it is quick and no additional downloads are required.

Note: Make sure you are connected to the same WiFi router to which your DS220+ is connected. You can connect your PC or Laptop to the router using a LAN cable or WiFi. The LAN mode will give you more speed wherein WiFi allows you to connect to the NAS without any additional wires but with lesser speeds.

Synology DS220+ Setup

Now, it’s time to install the DSM (OS). Click on Connect and Accept the License Agreement. Now, click on Set up. Now, you’ll be asked to install the DSM. Click on ‘Install Now‘. During the installation, all the data on your hard disk (1) will be deleted and you need to select OK from the popup to proceed with the installation.

Now, Synology will format your hard drive and download the latest DSM version from its servers. This process is automatic and it will take a few minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection. The NAS restarts automatically once the download is complete.

Setting up Synology Admin

The next step involves creating Admin Controls. You’ll be asked to create a Username and Password which will be used to access and manage your DS220+.

Synology Admin Account Creation
Synology Admin
  • Server name: Give a unique name (Ex: Server1, Server_Office)
  • Username: Enter any name (It’s nothing but your Login username)
  • Password: Enter a string password (It can be changed anytime)
  • Confirm Password: Repeat the password

Once you enter the required details hit Next. Make sure you remember the Username and Password. You need to enter these every time if you want to access or manage the NAS.

Setting up Synology Quick Connect ID

QuickConnect is a service from Synology that allows you to access your NAS via the Internet using any application such as Audio Station, Video Station, Download Station, Surveillance Station, Photo Station, File Station, etc. If you set up QuickConnect, there is no need to set up port forwarding rules (Ignore if you don’t understand). This step is optional and you can set up QuickConnect even after the setup or whenever you need it.

Synology QuickConnect
Synology QuickConnect

In the QuickConnect Sign up window enter the following details

  • Email address – Enter your Email ID
  • Password – Create a very strong password
  • Confirm password – Enter the password again
  • Region – Select your region
  • QuickConnect ID – Enter the ID (Ex: YourName, YourName123 etc.)

Now, hit Next. Make sure you remember the QuickConnect ID and Password. You need these when you set up the Synology apps on your smartphone or access the NAS when you are outside the home.

Please be noted, Synology Admin Account and QuickConnect Account are different. Synology Admin account is to access your NAS in the Home network wherein the QuickConnect helps you access the NAS outside the home through internet or mobile data.

Now Accept the privacy Policy -> Reconfirm your QuickConnect ID and select Go. You’re now all set to access your NAS for the first time.

Synology Homepage
DSM Home Screen

The DSM is nothing but an OS just like Windows 10 or macOS. You’ll see a Desktop with Apps – Package Center, Control Panel, File Station, and DSM Help. There is a System Health widget placed on the bottom right that shows CPU, RAM usage along with a few other details.

Creating Volume to Store Files

Before exploring one last important task is to create a volume. The Volumes provide the basic storage space on your DS220+. All of your data such as shared folders, documents, etc. are stored on volumes. So, before you start storing anything on your Synology NAS, you’ll have to create a volume. If you are a beginner and don’t know much about the file system, simply follow the below steps. To create a volume:

  1. Click on the Main menu and Select Storage Center
  2. Click on Volume -> Create Volume
  3. Select the mode – Select Quick if you don’t know what you are doing. Custom mode is recommended for expert users.
  4. Select Raid Type as SHR and tap on Next.

Note: One of the key differences between SHR and RAID is the combination of hard drives you can use. The SHR allows you to use hard drives of different sizes. This means you can combine a 4TB drive with an 8TB drive which is not possible in RAID. So SHR is useful when you are upgrading the hard drives of different capacities. RAID has its own advantages such as Speed, Improved Performance, etc. Also, you can not switch to SHR from RAID without formatting the hard drives. So it is recommended to use SHR.

  1. Select the Hard Drive – You can select either one Hard drive or both. I used only one hard drive during testing so only one hard drive is showing here.
  2. You’ll get a Data Erase waring – Select Yes
  3. Select the File System – Select BTRFS (Recommended)
  4. Confirm the Settings – Select Apply

Now, the NAS will create a New Volume and it will take a few seconds. Once the Volume is created, the disk will undergo Verification (called Parity Consistency Check) and it will take a few hours (took about 5 hours for me) depending on your hard drive capacity. This process is automatic and you don’t need to do anything.

Synolog Drive Verification
Synology Drive Verification

Also make a note that, during the verification, you can use the NAS but the NAS performance may go down due to the background verification process. So it is recommended to keep the NAS idle till the verification process completes.

Synology Drive Check

Once the verification is done, the Status of the hard drive will change to Healthy. That’s it, now your Synology DS220+ is ready for use. You can now install apps, copy files, etc. Do let me know in the comment section if you need any help.

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That’s it. If you have any queries, do let me know in the comments or drop an email to admin@gizarena.com. Follow GizArena on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

39 Comments

  1. Hello all. I am a total noob to all of this NAS stuff so please be patient with me. One thing I am curious about are the USB ports. Is it possible to attach a 5TB external drive to the back USB port for storing backups? If not, how is it used? What is the USB port on the front used for? Also, am I correct in thinking that I can set the NAS up so that I can make different user accounts for people. This is my scenario … I record and mix music. I work with people all over the world. Each person records their part and puts it on DropBox (something I want to get away from – tired of paying for it) and I retrieve their file that way. If I can use the NAS in this way, how do they access the folder(s) designated to them? I hope this makes sense.

    Thank you in advance for your help.

  2. Hi,
    Can I connect an external usb drive as an extra backup. Something that backs up & can be set to check for changes to the drive that then makes changes to the usb drive, say weekly. If I add or delete files the usb sees the changes, hopefully I’m kinda clear. Appreciated

  3. Thank you for your setup guide! I want to start with a single 12TB drive. Later I want to add another 12TB drive, but I want the full capacity (24TB) for storage. How would I setup the first drive initially, and then setup the second drive later to achieve that?

    • Hi Bruce, I am already working on a new tutorial and it will be published soon. Right now you can use the 12TB drive and later you can create a new volume to get full capacity.

  4. During insital setup I am getting error of not able to format drive, using brand new 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drive. How it fix this issue, or do I need to replace my drive, its DOA.

  5. Thank you for these nice instructions.
    Sometime ago I have set up my DS220+ with only one drive with the SHR mode. Now I have added another drive with the same capacity and want it to be a mirror/copy of the first one. How can I do this?

    • Hi Pedro, You need to add the second hard drive to the storage pool. Make a note that, the capacity of the hard drive you are adding must be equal to or larger than the primary drive in the storage pool. To add a drive to a storage pool. Power off your Synology NAS and Insert a new drive into an empty drive slot. Power on your Synology NAS and launch the Storage Manager application. Now, Go to the Storage Pool page and select the storage pool you want to expand. Go to Action -> Click on Add Drive from the drop-down menu. Select the newly inserted drive. Follow the wizard to finish the process.

  6. Thanks for this guide.
    I have 1 question.
    Currently I’ve setup my DS220+, I have 2 drives of 5.45TB size each, but after setting up my volume, I only get 5.45TB size.
    I suppose to have 10TB in total. Why does this happen? Is there any way I can get 10TB?

    • HI Laili, thanks for reaching out. Seems like your NAS is set to SHR-1, means, your data will be protected if one of the drives fails. Selecting SHR-1 during the setup will reduce the usable capacity by 1 drive just like RAID. That’s the reason only 1 drive capacity is showing. If you don’t want the protection against hard-drive failures, you can opt-out of SHR-1. For this, you need to remove the storage pool and created a new one without SHR-1. This will delete all data stored in the hard drive. While re-creating the Volume select only 1 hard drive by selecting “Basic” as the RAID type and repeat the process again for your second hard drive to get the full capacity. You can also join both hard drives by selecting JBOD (which stands for “just a bunch of disks”) and selecting both hard drives during the setup. Before initiating this process, don’t forget to backup all the data stored in the NAS.

  7. Very helpful article as I consider purchasing DS220. How would I create two volumes – one for file storage for music and photos, another for Apple Time Machine backup?

    Thanks for your clear and detailed instructions… a lifesaver!

  8. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this fantastic tutorial, it’s made it so much easier for a novice first time NAS user like me 😬

    If this is ok, I just have a couple of questions:

    With 2 x 1TB drives installed and set to SHR, is redundancy something I have to setup or is it auto? I just want it setup so that if a drive was to fail, I don’t lose all my info and can just replace the failed drive.

    Also, what’s the best setup to make this work the closest to Google drive? I currently have an android phone and two PC’s that all have Google drive and if you add something to a file on one of my PC’s or phone etc, it’s auto on all devices.
    I also need to be able to take a photo of a receipt on my phone and then upload to a particular file on the drive and then have this uploaded photo available to me on my PCs

    Thanks for any help 😊

    • Hi James, I am glad that the post helped you.

      1. Check out this official post from Synology to create an SHR storage pool that can sustain one drive failure. I may write a dedicated post with detailed steps in the coming days.
      2. You can use Synology Drive as an alternative to Google Drive. Install Synology Drive on all your devices and connect it your NAS. It works almost the same as Google Drive.
      3. To backup photos captured on your phone, check out this article.

  9. Thank you, for your web page I wish I saw it 6 hours ago, something this simple and direct needs to be part of each NAS device Synology has on their site, instead of 50 googles and site searches.

    • SHR is an automated RAID management system from Synology specially designed to make storage volume deployment easier. SHR is easy to set up and allows you to mix the drive capacities. SHR allows for 1-disk or 2-disk worth of redundancy. This means, the SHR volume can suffer up to two disks lost, and the data volume will still be available for use. In simple words, if a drive fails, you’ll still have access to full volume data.

  10. Many thanks Satwik for a really comprehensive and easy to follow guide. You really helped a novice! I find so many guides often miss out a section which throws the set up, but your screen shots were immensely helpful. Can my DS220+ be both a plex server and a household backup for several laptops and desktops?

  11. Seems very straight forward step by step instructions. I am learning while I am waiting for my new ds220+ to arrive. I have a question. Can I use the same volume to storage my files and also another one for surveillance cameras? I know this device have the capability for handle IP cameras so I wonder if I can allocate 1tb only for the surveillance recording and the rest of an 8tb disk I have for my personal files?
    Finally, I have a doubt, once I have the volume created I just connect my external hdd to the synology and start copying over my folder structure there or what is recommended to keep my info (photos, videos, files) organized?

    • Hi Erick, Glad you liked the article. Yes. you can allocate 1TB only for the surveillance recording and the rest of the storage can be utilized to store your personal files. If you keep your files organized, it will help you find a specific file (Ex. a particular videos or Photo) quickly. Else just copy the files from Hard Disk as is and use the Synology Universal Search to find the required files.

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