Synology Disk Station DS508 Release Notes

Version: DSM 2.0-0722

(2008/09/22)

Change log

1. RAID 6 Support: RAID 6 volume type cuts off the risk of volume failure and provides extra data protection.
2. NFS Support: With built-in NFS option, admin can quickly enable NFS and set up privileges on the UI by a few checks only.
3. Link Aggregation: Provides load-sharing and failover support for dual-LAN-port models. Two modes are supported: IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation and Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB). Read the compatible switch list here. Note: Enabling Link Aggregation will disable PPPoE service.
4. Virtual Host: Hosting up to 30 websites on one single server for a more efficient and economical purpose; name-based virtual hosting is supported.
5. Batch Users Creating: By importing the user list, admin can now efficiently create a number of user accounts on a batch basis.
6. SSL Certificate Support: Admin can now host a valid SSL server by importing the certificate issued by trusted Certificate Authority (CA) and the private key.
7. HDD S.M.A.R.T.: The S.M.A.R.T. information and S.M.A.R.T. test are available on the management UI for admin to monitor, detect, and report the hard disks status, in a way to alert possible HDD failures.
8. Enhanced Surveillance Station (supported on Internet Explorer browser):
   1. Alarm Recording Support: Other than Continuous Recording and Motion Detection Recording modes, a new option of Alarm Recording mode is now supported. In Alarm Recording mode, Surveillance Station records videos when receiving external I/O signals from the camera.
   2. MPEG-4 Support: Other than M-JPEG video format, MPEG-4 format streaming and video recording is also supported, which significantly reduces the storage capacity requirement.
   3. Megapixel Support: Depending on the IP cameras capability, megapixel video live-view and recording can be supported.
   4. Snapshot: Snapshot taking in live-view and event play back is available.
   5. Enhanced Management: Admin can go to Privilege page of Surveillance Station and grant other users the privileges of managing Surveillance Station, simply watch the live-view and events, or nothing at all. In addition, admin can now monitor the live-view on full screen, and manage the cameras by enabling/disabling cameras without deleting all the settings. Event recording can be stopped at anytime and played back immediately.
   6. Enhanced Performance: Depending on the IP cameras capability, admin can choose to implement the motion detection by camera rather than Surveillance Station, which further enhances the system performance.
   7. Additional 45 IP Cameras Support: 45 more IP camera models from Panasonic, Vivotek and LevelOne are added into the support list. Synology Surveillance Station now support up to almost 70 IP camera models in total from 7 renowned brands. Read the detailed camera list here.
9. Enhanced Local Backup: Enables multiple scheduled Local Backup tasks with the assistance of Local Backup wizard, the backup destination can be either the external HDD or the shared folders on the internal HDD. From now on, the external attached HDD (EXT3 or FAT format) can be used as storage and backup disk simultaneously.
10. Enhanced FTP Server: The advanced privilege of "write-only" is supported. In addition, limiting the maximum connections from each individual IP provides better bandwidth management together with the bandwidth restriction option. UTF-8 filename support which better handles multilingual characters is also optional.
11. New Download Station 2: Other than BitTorrent/FTP/HTTP download, new download channels eMule and NZB are now supported by the Download Station 2. In addition, partial files download from BitTorrent is also allowed. Download Station 2 is now separated from the management UI and stands on an individual webpage.
12. Enhanced File Station: Admin can designate his/her own File Station with a different port as well as customize webpage banner, so that users will login the File Station independent from the NAS server management UI. The advanced privilege of "write-only" is also supported.
13. Enhanced Audio Station: No USB speakers are required for playing music stored on the server anymore. The new streaming mode streams .mp3 audio files to the client PC⁽¹⁾ and delivers by built-in speakers. A built-in playlist "Random100" will randomly choose and play 100 songs each time it is selected.
14. Enhanced Photo Station 3: Admin can now customize Photo Station 3 background and theme in his/her own fashion, and sort photos and albums according to personal preference in the Settings area. Language setting is also modifiable based on his/her choice. The media RSS feed is now supported. Moreover, users can now enjoy the Photo Station 3 with Cooliris (formerly known as PicLens) dazzling full screen 3-dimensional photo slideshow⁽²⁾. FLV video files are now supported.
15. Enhanced Windows ADS Compatibility: Better handles the Windows domains especially for those with a large number of domain users. Windows Server 2008 is also supported now.
16. Enhanced Mac OS Usability: Synology NAS servers will be automatically found by Bonjour protocol, including Finder and Safari browser (Bookmarks > Bonjour).
17. Enhanced iTunes Server: M4A and M4P file formats are correctly indexed on iTunes server with tags information. WAV and AIF files are now supported to be streamed, but metadata may not be indexed.
18. Enhanced Hibernation: Improved hibernation mechanism is introduced particularly to solve the problem of Western Digital Green Power series HDDs' not sleeping while in hibernation.
19. Enhanced Concurrent Connection Capability: The maximum concurrent connection number is now expanded to 256.
20. Perl Support: Perl 5.8.6 is formally included in Synology Disk Station Manager 2.0.
21. Package Management & Logitech SqueezeCenter Support: The Logitech SqueezeCenter will be supported on Synology NAS servers after installing the SqueezeCenter package (download here) provided by Synology. Users can easily install and uninstall this package, run and stop the SqueezeCenter service on Synology NAS servers on the [System > Package Management] page.

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(1) The client PC must be installed with Adobe Flash Player 8 or onward to play the streamed music; only .mp3 audio files are supported by Flash Player.
(2) The client PC must be installed with Cooliris browser plug-in.

Special Notes

1. Along with the Download Station 2 enhancement, the previous Download Redirector versions will no longer work with Synology Disk Station Manager 2.0. To execute the download tasks on desktop, please download and install the latest Download Redirector (v.720) instead.
2. Synology Surveillance Station is officially supported on Internet Explorer, while part of the functions might be limited on other browsers including Firefox.
3. After firmware upgrade and reboot, the system will re-create all thumbnails (bigger in size than the previous ones) for all photos stored in "photo" shared folder. This process might take some time, depending on the amount of files.

Major Changes of Synology Data Replicator 3

1. (740) Users can choose "photo", "music" and "video" or "web" shared folders on Synology NAS products as the backup target.

Limitation & Known Issues

• Audio support is not included in Synology Surveillance Station at the present moment.
• Refer to "Limitation & Known Issues for all versions" for other limitations.

Version: DSM 2.0-0640

(2008/06/30)

Change log

1. (5896)(5893) Enhanced access compatibility with MAC OS clients.
2. (5890) Enhanced m4a format support on Audio Station.
3. (5856) Enhanced MySQL database compatibility with phpMyAdmin.

Limitation & Known Issues

• Refer to "Limitation & Known Issues for all versions" for other limitations.

Version: DSM 2.0-0637

(2008/06/17)

Change log

1. CIFS Recycle Bin: The shared-folder level design provides extra data protection by ensuring all deleted files are recoverable from the recycle bin folder. This function works for all CIFS connections.
2. Enhanced BT Download: The DHT support, 25%⁽¹⁾ download performance enhancement, BT encryption support, and seeding options are added.
3. Enhanced AFP Performance: The AFP download performance is improved by a maximum of 89%, and upload 72%⁽²⁾. The test results are listed below:
   

   Model	DS108j	DS207+	DS508
   Max. Download Improvement	89%	21%	49%
   Max. Upload Improvement	10%	15%	72%

4. Enhanced Photo Station 3: The performance of thumbnail browsing has been improved. The Google AdSense, calendar-based article browsing, and sticky articles are added to the blogging system.
5. Enhanced Audio Station: The renovated AJAX drag-and-drop mechanism is added to the playlist management.
6. Extra IP Cameras Support: 6 more IP cameras are now supported on Surveillance Station include: Linksys WVC54GCA, LevelOne FCS-0010, TRENDnet TV-IP100, TV-IP100W, TV-IP400, and TV-IP400W. Read the completed compatible IP camera list here.
7. Integrated Telnet/SSH: Telnet and SSH terminal services are now configurable directly from the management UI.
8. New Multimedia File Format Support: FLAC format is supported on both Audio Station and UPnP Multimedia Service⁽³⁾.
9. New Language Support: The Polish language is added to the Disk Station Manager 2.0, Synology Assistant, Synology Data Replicator 3, and Synology Download Redirector.
10. Upgraded Apache: Apache is upgraded to 2.2.8.
11. Upgraded PHP: PHP is upgraded to 5.2.6.
12. 3rd-Party Apps Integration Guide: For users who wish to install the 3rd-party applications on the Synology NAS Server, this development guide helps them integrate the application into Synology Disk Station Manager 2.0. For further information, read this.

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⁽¹⁾ The best test result from the Synology lab and compared with DSM 2.0-0598.
⁽²⁾ They are the test results from the Synology lab.
⁽³⁾ Your Digital Media Adapter must also support FLAC format.

Limitation & Known Issues

• Refer to "Limitation & Known Issues for all versions" for other limitations.

Version: DSM 2.0-0598

(2008/04/15)

Change log

• N/A. (This is the initial release of DS508)

Limitation & Known Issues

• Refer to "Limitation & Known Issues for all versions" for other limitations.

Limitation & Known Issues for all versions

1. Safari 3 Beta is not officially supported currently. Please access Synology Products with prior versions of Safari or any other browsers.
2. USB Disk Limitation:
   • FAT32 format: is portable, easy and convenient to use on Windows and Mac OS X. Mac OS 9 does not support FAT32.
   • Native format: is the most reliable format. USB disks with such format can be used among different Synology products. The USB disk must be larger than 1GB.

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