Synology DiskStation Manager DSM 7.1 Generally Available

If you are talking about a NAS, then Synology is one of the best known and best names in this field. That’s why we wrote this article before: Making the most of the Synology NAS workshop. Synology estimates that over 5 million active DSM installations are in use as private clouds, backup servers, monitoring servers and more. With DSM 7.1, in addition to 2 major feature updates, there are now also many minor updates, which you can read more about below as well as the new Synology Surveillance Station 9.0 and SRM 1.3.

Major storage improvements
DSM 7.1 presents significant improvements in storage management. It is now significantly easier to share data between multiple Synology NAS/SAN systems in different locations. The Shared Folder Merge 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, greatly accelerating recovery time (RTO) targets in the event of a site-wide outage. The full system restore capability also introduces a quick and convenient way to deploy identically configured systems.

UI updates and performance improvements
The new user interface introduced in DSM 7.0 has been further optimized by consolidating background tasks into an administrator-friendly overview. This provides greater transparency into what is happening on the system, even with different 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.
In terms of performance, DSM has long supported flash caching to improve the performance of arbitrary I/O operations in a cost-effective way. This new version makes it possible to activate SSD caching on multiple storage volumes.

Ecosystem-wide improvements
Synology is also launching several major improvements to applications and services.
• Active Backup for Business: Bandwidth control, extensive monitoring and reporting capabilities, and backup support from DSM.
• Active Insight: Centralized monitoring of login activity and Hyper Backup job statuses, plus the ability to batch update monitored systems
• Synology C2 Hybrid Share: C2 server-side snapshots and local file version management by Synology Drive for easier recovery
• Directory Server: Support for read-only domain controllers to improve system security and flexibility
• Synology Drive: Expand indexing capabilities, revamp the experience for mobile users, and enhance monitoring/control capabilities
• MailPlus: Virtual DSM support, extended management options, import/migration improvement
• Virtual Machine Manager: Improving storage I/O performance and QoS capabilities

Synology Surveillance Station 9.0 and SRM 1.3
In addition, Synology releases Surveillance Station 9.0 with significant improvements in usability, multi-site management, security, and more. C2 Surveillance, an add-on service, will be launched at the same time. C2 Surveillance uses the newly introduced ‘dual recording’ capability in Surveillance Station 9.0 to securely store important video feeds so that they remain available in the event of physical damage or theft of the NVR.

Synology also presents SRM 1.3 along with the launch of the RT6600ax WiFi 6 router. This update improves network management by introducing network segmentation and support of 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 generally available now and are already deployed on Synology systems.
SRM 1.3 will initially be released for the RT6600ax and will be rolled out for older Synology routers in Q3 2022.