Synology NAS Systems are now blocklisted due to Data Loss

We spent some weeks last year to update our IT security policy and our Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The reasons were improvements regarding security configurations and supply chain management. We have a block-list of vendors and products that must not be used for production environments. The latest newcomer on our block-list are all Synology NAS systems. Why? We noticed that some Synology NAS systems experience data loss. There was no pattern. There was also no error with the storage media, RAID levels, filesystems, or any other component. The NAS share that showed data loss consisted of two 8 TB drives. Filesystem was Ext4. File types were mainly archives, multimedia files, and log data. We found that very few files were disappearing without any traces in the logs or other recordings. This is unacceptable behaviour for a storage system.

The Synology storage device line will be replaced with storage systems based on Free Software. OpenMediaVault (OMV), TrueNAS, RockStor, or similar distributions work well. We will also develop our own storage server based on Debian because we have decades of experience with storage configurations and filesystems.

Any storage solution that "forgets" data is a danger to your organisation. Make sure that you select these systems very carefully. A storage server usually lasts more than five years. Storage media will be replaced more often, but the overall system needs to be stable for years to come. If you need help with your storage needs, just let us know. We can help.

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