Migration Assistant
DSM Version
7.4 7.3 7.2

Migration Assistant

Migration Setup

System requirements

  • The source device must run DSM 6.0 or above.
  • The destination device must run DSM 7.0 or above.
  • Migration Assistant must be installed on the destination device.

Data and Configuration Migration

Migration scope

  • Migration Assistant migrates data, system settings, and packages from one Synology storage system to another for storage system upgrades or replacements.
  • All data and system settings on the destination device are deleted and replaced by the source device data and settings.
  • Data is migrated on a volume or block-level LUN basis, so the file system type cannot be changed, such as from ext4 to Btrfs.
  • The destination device keeps its original DSM version and is not rolled back to the source device's DSM version.

Migrated and excluded settings

  • Migration Assistant migrates all data, packages, and system configurations.
  • Firewall and DHCP server settings are migrated but disabled on the destination device by default.
  • The following settings are not migrated: (Learn more)
    • Synology Account settings
    • Licenses
    • Network settings in Control Panel
      • Server name, default gateway, and IPv6 default gateway in the General tab
      • Network Interface settings, except VPN profile, IPv6 Tunneling, MTU value in IPv4 settings, and 802.1X
      • Static Route settings
    • Push Service settings in Control Panel > Notification
    • Desktop widget and taskbar settings
    • Virtual Machine Manager settings

Service Continuity and Performance

Service availability

  • Services on the source device remain available during most of the migration process.
  • Services on the source device pause temporarily at the beginning and end of migration.
  • New changes on the source device are synchronized to the destination device before migration completes.

Migration performance

  • Migration speed depends on RAID type, network environment, and services running on the source device.
  • When services run on the source device, migration speed may be reduced to as low as 30 MB/s to preserve source device service quality.

Migration Management

Pause and resume

  • Migration tasks can be stopped and resumed during migration, including after unexpected power outages or network disconnections.

Logs

  • Migration logs are available.

Storage creation

  • Storage pools can be created automatically when the destination device has no storage pool. (Learn more)

Network and system behavior

  • Ports 7400 through 7499 are reserved for migration.
  • SSH on the source device is automatically enabled by Migration Assistant after connecting to the source device.

Limitations

Unsupported features

  • Migration Assistant does not support:
    • Synology High Availability
    • MailPlus cluster
    • Time Backup

Capacity limits

  • Migration Assistant does not support migrating volumes larger than 200 TB.

Source device restrictions

  • The following operations cannot be performed on the source device during migration:
    • When the source device is joined to CMS as a managed server:
      • Upgrading packages through the CMS host
      • Applying updated policy rules related to syslog
    • When the source device is running as a CMS host:
      • Centrally installing DSM and packages on managed servers
    • Playing videos with Video Station
    • Adding download tasks, downloading RSS feeds, or using BT Search in Download Station
    • Restoring Synology Application Service with Hyper Backup

Destination device restrictions

  • Resource Monitor on the destination device is unavailable during migration.