Automatically moves infrequently used data from local hot tier to remote cold tier based on data access or modification frequency
Enables administrators to configure tiering plans, which support:
Automatic data movement to the cold tier based on days since last access or modification as defined in tiering policies
Automatic data movement to the cold tier based on available storage capacity
Performing data movement at scheduled times
Including multiple shared folders to plans
Automatically triggers and executes data movement according to your settings once tiering plans are configured
Enables users to access tiered data from hot tier. Frequently accessed files are immediately moved back to the hot tier
Provides administrators with a centralized interface to view the storage status of each folder, remaining space, data distribution, and plan usage for both hot and cold tiers
Offers troubleshooting suggestions to assist with data management
Specifications
Requires DSM 7.3 or above
Requires installing Synology Tiering Vault on the cold tier
Only administrators can view and operate Synology Tiering and corresponding cold tier folders
Supports file access in hot tier via the following protocols: SMB, AFP, NFS, FTP, and WebDAV
Maximum number of concurrent SMB/NFS/AFP/FTP connections: 5,000
The actual number of concurrent connections may vary based on the Synology NAS model
Maximum tierable file size: 1 TB for a single file
Maximum tiering plans configured in the hot tier: 10
Each plan can include up to 10 shared folders
The total number of shared folders supported across all plans depends on your storage system's hardware specifications. This limit typically ranges from 10 to 30
Only shared folders located in Btrfs volumes can be included in plans
Each plan can only have 1 cold tier
Both hot and cold tiers require at least 1 Gbps network bandwidth, with 10 Gbps recommended for optimal performance. Daily data tiering limit depends on the network bandwidth and disk read speed on both tiers
The first character cannot be a minus sign or a space character
The last character cannot be a space
Tiering policies can be based on file inactivity or modification, ranging from 1 to 1800 days
Allows configuring tiering frequency and start time:
Frequency: minimum 1 day, maximum 1 week
Supports storing 6,000 logs
Data tiering behavior includes the following:
Once a shared folder is included in a tiering plan, data are moved at the file level
Eligible files are moved to cold tier as per the tiering schedule. If volume capacity tiering is enabled, and the hot storage capacity remains below the set threshold after this initial tiering, the system will then move the oldest files. This process continues until the available space in the hot tier exceeds the defined limit
Tiered files are moved back to the hot tier upon editing or frequent read access from the hot tier, with the following exceptions:
If hot tier remaining space is less than 1% or 100 GB, the file will not be moved back solely due to read access
Editing is prevented if the hot tier lacks sufficient space to accommodate the file
If hot tier usage exceeds 95%, new shared folders cannot be added to existing plans
Renaming a file on the hot tier does not trigger its return from the cold tier
If tiering fails, the system waits until the next scheduled tiering without retry attempts. Failures are logged and displayed in the status and log
Once a file is moved to the cold tier, structural changes made on the hot tier (such as renaming or moving the file) will not be reflected on the cold tier
Data tiering and retrieval increase system memory usage, potentially impacting overall performance and the access speed of tiered files
Quotas set for hot tier source folders include tiered data
Supports setting independent quotas for corresponding folders on the cold tier
Supports tiering shared folders located in encrypted volumes. However, the cold tier volume is not automatically encrypted
Synology Tiering records file access time separately. The file access time recording frequency in Storage Manager does not apply to shared folders included in tiering plans
The following settings from hot tier source folders are not applied to their corresponding cold tier folders:
Hide this shared folder in "My Network Places"
Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions
Recycle bin settings
Data checksum settings
Shared folder quota
File or folder permissions
Advanced permissions
NFS permissions
Custom integration with selected Synology packages:
File Station: Administrators can view whether a file is currently in the hot or cold tier from File Station on the hot tier
Hyper Backup: Supports separate backups of hot and cold tier (Learn more)
Snapshot Replication:
Supports taking snapshots of both hot and cold tier simultaneously from hot tier, until either tier reaches its snapshot limit(Learn more)
Tiered files are not moved back to the hot tier when a snapshot is taken
Hot and cold tier snapshots are stored separately and locally
If snapshot lock and immutable snapshot are enabled on the hot tier, these functions will also be automatically enabled on the cold tier.
Storage Analyzer: Hot tier analysis includes tiered files; these files are not moved back to the hot tier during analysis
Antivirus Essential and Antivirus by McAfee: When scanning the hot tier, tiered files are excluded from the scan
Storage Manager: Data deduplication supports independent operation for hot and cold tiers
Limitations
Does not support moving files to locations other than a Synology NAS
Does not support copying, encrypting, or moving shared folders included in tiering plans to other volumes. It also does not support converting them to Hybrid Share folders or setting them as source/destination folders for Shared Folder Sync
Does not support moving automatically created cold tier folders to other volumes
Does not support tiering files that have path names longer than 3,000 bytes
Different character encodings may contain different data sizes (e.g., a character with UTF-8 encoding may contain 1 to 4 bytes)
By default, only administrators have read permissions for tiered files on the cold tier; general users cannot access these files directly from cold tier
Deleting or editing tiered files directly in cold tier may lead to file corruption. File management should be performed entirely on hot tier. If the hot tier becomes inaccessible, files can be accessed directly from the cold tier (Learn more)
Limitations when integrating with the following Synology packages:
Hyper Backup:
Restoring hot or cold tier separately, or restoring both to different backup time points, may cause data inconsistency or loss (Learn more)
Restoring files to a folder that is not the original backup source will not retain hot tier stubs, preventing access to tiered files from the hot tier
Snapshot Replication:
Does not support taking snapshots of cold tier independently
Does not support separate restoration of hot or cold tier
Does not support snapshot replication or cloning
Storage Manager:
Does not support cross-volume data deduplication
Does not support performing Data Scrubbing for tiered files
Security Advisor:
Does not support storing reports in the corresponding cold tier folder
Audio Station, Synology Photos, Universal Search, and Media Server:
Re-indexing in these packages or via Control Panel > Indexing Service will move tiered files of the following formats back to the hot tier: DNG, ARW, SRF, SR2, DCR, KDC, CR2, CRW, NEF, PEF, RAW, 3FR, ERF, MEF, MOS, ORF, RW2, TIFF, TIF, and PDF
Web Station:
Including the "web" shared folder, the "web_packages" shared folder, or any other web service shared folder in tiering plans may impact Web Station performance
Does not support including the following shared folders into tiering plans:
Folders included in other tiering plans
Hybrid Share folders
WriteOnce shared folders
Compressed or encrypted shared folders
Shared folders within ext4 volumes
Shared folders on external devices
Shared folders designated as team folders for Synology Drive
Active Backup for Business shared folders
Chat shared folders
MailPlus shared folders
PACS shared folders
Shared folders currently in use by Download Station
Shared folders currently in use by Container Manager
Shared folders synced by Cloud Sync
Shared folders where Synology Mail Server stores indexed mail
Shared folders designated as storage destinations for archived logs in Log Center
Active Backup for Google Workspace and Active Backup for Microsoft 365 backup destination shared folders
Local directory shared folders for Presto File Server Site Express tasks or Presto Automator tasks
Synology Tiering Vault
Feature
Allows users to assign a Synology NAS as the cold tier for a tiering plan, offloading infrequently accessed data from the hot tier to the cold tier
Specifications
Requires a Synology NAS model that meets the following requirements:
DSM 7.3 or above
Minimum 2 GB RAM
At least 1 Gbps network bandwidth, with 10 Gbps recommended for optimal performance. Daily data tiering limit depends on the network bandwidth and disk read speed on both tiers
Synology Tiering Vault must be installed on the cold tier, and the corresponding Synology Tiering package installed on the hot tier
Cold tier volume must be in the Btrfs format
When a tiering plan is created, a corresponding shared folder named "Tiered_[source folder name]" is automatically generated in the cold tier
Only administrators group users can view the corresponding cold tier folders and tiered files
Limitations
Deleting or editing tiered files directly in cold tier may lead to file corruption. File management should be performed entirely on hot tier, unless the hot tier becomes inaccessible (Learn more)
Renaming a source shared folder or moving tiered file stubs on the hot tier will not automatically update the corresponding cold tier folder's name or location
File or folder permissions set in the hot tier will not transfer to the cold tier