Synology DP320 review
Last year, the rollout of new products was less abundant compared to previous years, primarily because Synology was deeply focused on preparing for 2025. Aside from the Bee series, 2024 was marked by significant DataProtection announcements, culminating in a Christmas Eve rollout of the new lineup in Taiwan. Just two weeks later, the global release was made official on January 8th, introducing three DataProtection devices.
These included the flagship model, the DP7400, and two desktop models, the DP320 and DP340. If you missed the review of the notable 12-bay model or the new ActiveProtect Manager OS, be sure to check those out via the provided links.
Luka Manestar
Full hardware review of the new DP7400 backup appliance
Luka Manestar
In-depth review of the new ActiveProtect Manager operating system driving the new DP lineup of devices
This time, let's delve into the DP320, the smallest member of the three new models. Externally, it resembles familiar 2-bay devices, yet it possesses a unique character, primarily due to the APM OS running under the hood. We’ll explore whether its suggested price of €1499.99 aligns with its capabilities and ultimately determine if this device meets your business needs.
Table of Contents
: Introduction
: Price and licensing model
: Unboxing and specifications
: Setup
: Tests
: Conclusion
: Introduction
Before we go any further, make no mistake, this is not an SOHO device or something that was intended to be purchased from a retail store. In fact, if you search any major online store, you won't find the DP series anywhere.
These devices are designed to be sold through official Synology reseller and partner channels, typically as part of project implementations.
Now, that might seem odd for some, that a prepopulated device of this size, and a reasonable price for what it offers is not accessible via retail channels, but it only goes to show that Synology is specifically targeting businesses and enterprises focused on purchasing a backup appliance and not a general use NAS device.
ActiveProtect appliance is designed for all business which streamlines the data protection process for an entire organization, from deployment to recovery, through a unified and intuitive management interface, no matter where the backup tasks occur
Without reiterating too much from the DP7400 review intro, Synology's DP320 device is intended to offer customers a backup appliance that is pre-sized and pre-configured. It comes with the necessary capacity, CPU, memory, and network ports, eliminating the need for a custom-built setup.
DataProtection is all about ease of use, speed, and efficiency
Some key highlights of the DataProtection products:
Simplified management: easy procurement, with initial setup completed in 10 minutes*, automatic protection mechanism combined with on-demand expansion cluster architecture, truly simplifying management on a single platform
High Performance: Reliable software and hardware integration with source-side deduplication technology, saving 99% of duplicate data transmission, significantly improving backup speed, and saving 70% of storage costs.
Reliable recoverability: Synology's native immutable storage technology, combined with data verification and automatic repair, provides one-stop management of off-site backup copies, ensuring high reliability of data restoration
Compared with the large DP7400 model, the DP320, apart from the hardware element, won't have certain features and options, but the out-of-the-box experience and initial setup are identical. This means that getting those initial backups configured and running will indeed be within 10 minutes as advertised.
: Price and licensing model
The suggested retail price for this DP320 is €1.499,00.
The DataProtection series comes with a licensing model. Any additional cluster node (another DP unit) will cost €1.800,00 for 3 years (each node).
One thing important to note here is that the additional licenses will only apply to the third (3rd) additional node (and any other after that) in the cluster.
So, for the first three devices in a single cluster, we only pay for the actual appliance. This being a business/enterprise-driven platform, the pricing comes as no surprise, but it is more than an average Synology DS+ setup similar to the DP7400 compared to the XS+ or SA lineup.
Synology Inc.
While these prices are simply suggested, it is best to consult with either Synology or any reseller partner and look into specific needs, and finally the exact pricing. For that, it might be useful to use the following link.
Synology Inc.
: Unboxing and specifications
Since the last encounter with the DP lineup, there have been several changes. Truth be told, the DP7400 model came to testing during an internal beta test, and the DP320 a month after the official roll out.
During that time, Synology changed the name of the devices from Active Backup appliance to ActiveProtect appliance, to be more in line with the ActiveProtect Manager OS, as well as to not overlap with the Active Backup for Business DSM package (regardless that it shares many features with it).
The content of the box now includes everything that we expect from a backup appliance (the unit, cables, adapter, keys, etc), and it comes with two (2) 8TB HAT3310 SATA drives as well.
The drives are packed in static bags, unlike the ones with the DP7400 model, and secured inside a block of foam.
As before, the drives are not installed because of protection, but unlike with a rack model, the installation in DP320 is identical to any DS NAS (using the screwless method) resulting in a much quicker overall process.
The exterior of the unit is identical to some other 2-bay models like the latest DS723+. With the obvious lack of NVMe slots on the bottom and no 10G adapter slot on the back, the DP320 from afar can be easily mistaken for a similar DS NAS model.
The real difference when compared to the DS723+ model is on the bottom and the back (no NVMe or 10G slots)
Looking closely also on the back of the unit we will see two ethernet 1G ports. Again, unlike some other dual-port models, the DP320 comes with a single management and data port that are clearly labeled as well.
Without a 10G option, unlike the DP340 model, the DP320 is limited to 1G network speeds. This indicates that its target audience is businesses and individuals who do not require frequent or intensive data transfers.
DP320 comes with two Synology branded SODIMM 4GB sticks
Moving inside the unit we can see that the RAM slots are both occupied with dual 4GB ECC DDR4 memory, marked as D4ES03-4G. Synology sells this model at about 90$ per module. With HDDs and RAM, Synology now has a complete set of HW elements to call this an "appliance".
The only thing not visible is the CPU on the bottom side of the unit's internal case, which we know is an AMD R1600 dual-core processor.
Like all the other models from the DP lineup, DP320 was designed to be automatically configured, in this case as RAID1 configuration mirroring the two 8TB drives with a recommended total backup size of up to 5TB.
Speaking of HAT3310 drives that come with DP320, the internal Storage Manager tool offers a simple benchmark tool that reveals these drives are on par with expected speeds for a SATA drive. With an average speed of 230MB/s, they will be more than enough to accommodate any data transfer over that limiting 1G network connection. Of course, a real-life test will provide a much better and more realistic result than a simple synthetic one, but more on that later.
: Setup
This article will focus on the tests and not on all the possibilities that ActiveProtect Manager offers. For more in-depth details on that, consider going over the dedicated article, as it applies to the entire DP lineup.
Luka Manestar
In-depth review of the DP's new ActiveProtect Manager OS
Still, saying this, the initial setup is worth mentioning as we reflect on the "10-minute" marketing quote by Synology. With this model, we can be certain that including unboxing and APM installation, we will be able to hit our first backup at a 10-minute mark.
As already said, the drives, unlike in the DP7400 model, do not require any screws (unless we are using 2.5" drives), and the fact that there are only two, and not 12, expedites the process significantly.
APM installation process is identical to that on the DP7400 model, and nearly identical to the already known DSM setup.
Accessing the OS will be using the HTTPS/443 of the appliance management port/IP address (ActiveBackup for Business functionalities), while using the same IP address on port 5001 will give access to the Management Console interface (DSM-like interface)
The split between the console and the dashboard has its advantages, and considering that we are using a backup appliance, it makes sense to separate the backup tool frontend, from the configuration and metric backend.
With this, the dashboard will provide a more familiar Active Backup user interface, that will be used for setting up jobs, plans, connecting various endpoints, cloud tenants, etc. The console interface is a familiar DSM UI that has only few "packages" available including Control Panel, Resource Monitor, and Storage Manager. Most of these are not fully featured as they are on the DSM side, but the reason is again the same. DP device is not a full-fledged NAS, but a backup appliance. Because of this, it has limited options and features, and that's more than fine for the job it needs to perform.
The rest of the configuration will not be covered by this article as already noted, for more details refer to the APM-dedicated article. Moving forward with testing. Let's see what this dual-bay device can do, and just how much we can push its CPU and network before things get complicated.
: Tests
One of the most common backup scenarios that this device, or any backup device for that matter, will be used, is backing up a computer. Be it a Mac, Linux, or any of the many PC variants out there running Windows.
On APM, everything starts with two main steps:
- installing the APM client agent
- configuring the connection key
For the following tests, we will use two identical Windows 11 VM computers. Both are 10G capable, with a quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and SSD storage. While the machines are 10G wired, the fact that the DP320 only has 1G network capabilities makes no difference in the end.
Windows 11 backups
Unlike Active Backup for Business, APM OS requires us to create a connection key that will be used when connecting a specific computer with APM. So, what is a connection key? It is used to map a specific protection plan with a unique key.
This way, once the key is entered as part of the client configuration on the computer device, the APM will know what exact plan to execute and when. More details on the actual plans in the APM article.
Entering the IP address of the DP320 as well as the backup plan connection key, we will complete the configuration, and the endpoint device will show up in the dashboard list
By default, the backup will be triggered based on the actual plan, but of course, we can execute it manually at any point.
The first VM is a 49GB-used space machine that completed the backup in 17 min with an average speed of about 50MB/s.
The second VM with identically the same specifications, took only 5 min to do the initial first backup. Now that would mean that the backup speed on average was close to 170MB/s. While the client machines are 10G capable, the DP320 is not.
What happened was the deduplication process that APM supports.
Deduplication is the process of identifying and eliminating duplicate copies of data to reduce storage space and improve data efficiency. It can ensure that only unique instances of data are maintained, thereby optimizing storage usage and reducing costs.
So to sum up this first set of tests. For a total of 22 minutes of backup time (17 +5 for both machines), the actual space used is a little under 38GB of storage while having 98.5GB of data backed up.
For a moment let's imagine this setup in real life with an office of about 10 "identical" machines (give or take user data difference) and a DP320 as their backup device. Assuming that the first machine completes in 17 min, and the rest do indeed have about 5 minutes of backed-up data difference each, that brings us just over 1 hour of backup time for the whole office.
Any subsequent backup after the initial one will probably be very fast, depending on the size of the delta. But even a daily backup will be completed in a matter of minutes.
Windows 11 bare-metal restore
With backup completed, it is time to see how well a bare-metal restore process will go. Unlike the single file restore via the Recovery Portal, the bare-metal restore implies that the whole machine will be restored including OS and data.
The first step will be to create a recovery media device (either a USB version or an ISO file that can be booted via network or any VM hypervisor) using the ActiveProtect Recovery Media Creator.
The process once completed will produce an ISO image of a bootable ActiveProtect environment that will allow us to connect to the DP device and restore any backup needed from any of the versions that are listed.
The process of bare metal recovery includes choosing the correct device and version
Depending on the size and the speed of the computer, backup and restore can take some time to complete. For the actual case above, a used space of about 30GB (100GB of total partition size) took only 4 min to complete the restore. This was done over a 1G network, on a quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM and an NVMe drive.
File Servers - Synology NAS backup
One backup in particular that we were unable to complete at the time of the initial DP7400 testing was the "File Servers" option. The APM did not offer it back then, but now we have several protocols.
Located under the Workload menu, the File Servers section will offer a simple four-step wizard and four server types to choose from.
Starting with a default SMB protocol, all the way to Synology NAS, we are also able to choose NetApp and Nutanix as server types.
By identifying in the second step, we are offered the content of the destination NAS using a standard tree format.
Backup speed (left) and backup activities (right) during the Synology NAS content being backed up to the DP320
Upon selecting the protection plan, and the data, the only thing left to do is to run the backup. This particular task is about 582GB in size, consisting of large files. The transfer rate is consistently around 120MB/s maxing out the 1G port on the DP320.
As far as the overall saturation of the device during this task, we can say that it is moderately in use both CPU and RAM-wise.
With an average speed of about 110MB/s, this task completed in 93 minutes as expected for the amount of data.
With two out of four cores maxed out at 100%, only 2.5GB of RAM in use, and the network fully saturated, it's clear that the DP320 has ample power to handle additional tasks. Even in a RAID1 setup, this configuration feels capable of supporting a 2.5G interface for data transfer. The question of why this apparent DS723+ clone lacks this feature, especially since the actual DS723+ came with the same CPU and only 2GB of RAM but included an optional 10G slot, remains a mystery.
In terms of restore, the use of the Recovery Portal is the only way to access the data and download it. Yes, only download data is possible with no in-place restore option.
While in-place restore would be a great addition, doing so against a remote source seems to be a bit of an issue, so only download is possible. Also, the search field above the content, as already mentioned in the original APM article, is still a simple filter. Meaning that using it as a deep search tool in the Recovery Portal will not be of use.
The restore process of the same content took longer. With an average speed of about 77MB/s for the same 582GB of content, it took 2h:15min to complete the task. As usual, the content is zipped into a one large file to maximise the overall transfer speed. So regardless if the restore is a million small files, or 10 large ones, the end result will be a ZIP archive.
Interestingly, the speed was about 25% slower on average in this test as opposed to when the data was written onto the DP320, while the drive speed tests in both read and write were about the same at about 230MB/s. Still, the read results were with lower IOPS and more latency, which might explain the difference.
To be clear, the restore target was again a 10G capable device with NVMe drive, with more than enough throughput to accommodate a full 1G transfer that DP320 can offer. So the issue could be on the drive side of things and the fact that the array is RAID1 configured. Finally, this was the only task running at the time, and no other load was present on the device.
Multiple backup and restore tasks
As seen before, APM does not perform parallel backups when it comes to devices of the same type. While it makes sense due to deduplication and the fact that it maximizes the network utilization, the question is how does it behave with both backup and restore tasks happening concurrently?
For this test, we started both the backup and restore process at the same time, followed by another backup on top of that.
A simple Windows 11 machine backup along with a VM restore back to an ESXi hypervisor do indeed kick off at the same time and are performing in parallel as well. The interesting thing here is that the restore process is utilizing almost 75% of available bandwidth, and continues to do so for the whole duration of the restore.
We can also see from the image above, that the CPU is not tasked more than 25-30% during this process.
While it makes some sense to have a faster restore process than the backup, the odd thing is that at some point in the process, the backup has halted completely (this is with no additional backup task running in parallel). It can be seen from the following image that the backup transfer (green) has halted and resumed several minutes later.
Why this has happened is unknown, but it is important to note that there was no error or network disruption, nor did the task report any issue, it simply "paused" for a while.
About 8 minutes after the initial backup and restore have started, another backup task was activated. This new task soon started to pick up speed, and with backup task No.1 pausing periodically during this time, the second task soon overtook the lead.
During the 100% process time of the second backup, the initial one only completed about 20% of the backup before resuming to full speed once the second task finished. Now, with backups of the same type, it makes sense that one task will be faster than the other due to the deduplication process. Also, the second task was only about half the size of the first one, and completed in half the time as well.
So to summarize these processes:
- Backup task 2 started 8 min after the initial one
- Backup task 2 completed in 9 min compared to 20 min for the first task
- The restore process had no pauses with an average speed of about 78MB/s (11 minutes for 50GB VM restore)
While APM is adept at multitasking through its internal logic and deduplication processes, operational planning is limited to scheduled plans only. One key feature that seems absent is a unified overview of all concurrent activities, specifically backup and restore actions. Currently, these actions are separated into distinct sections, requiring users to either switch between web browser sessions or click between the two.
Although viewing both types of activities simultaneously may not be universally desired, a unified activities pane with filtering options would be highly beneficial. This is especially important considering that the existing sections for backup and restore activities feature a "search" box, which functions more as a filtering tool rather than a true search utility.
This is something that could arrive with next version(s) of APM, but at the moment, we will have to be satisfied with separate panes for these activities.
: Conclusion
Just like its bigger brother, the DP320 delivers a lot to the table. A pure backup appliance with a dedicated new OS, while similar with DSM's Active Backup, still offers more than a few new features and options.
True, it might not have a multi-gig network interface or 10G option like DP340, or the DP7400, but with deduplication, and maximizing the network throughput, it will be more than enough for a small office or business setup.
The mirror configuration provides up to 7TB (with a 5TB recommendation) of backup space, utilized efficiently and optimally, particularly in a corporate setting with multiple "identical" machines. With APM OS supporting local endpoint backups, VMs, and MS365 tenants, there's very little this device can't back up.
When outlining the pros and cons, it's notable that the setup process is fast and straightforward, offering a turn-key solution that quickly enables you to start running backups. Configuring against a VM hypervisor or an M365 tenant is simplified to just a few steps within an easy-to-navigate wizard.
Conversely, although the device boasts considerable power and resources, it's unfortunate that a faster network interface wasn't included. This omission limits its potential in multi-gig network environments and could affect its long-term usability.
This model occupies the same footprint as any Synology DS two-bay model but isn't available through retail channels. It's unfortunate because, despite its recommended price being slightly above that of a comparable DS723+, it would be a valuable addition to a small SOHO setup. Notably, this model can operate independently without needing to be connected to a cluster. However, regarding clustering capabilities, it's important to mention that the DP320 isn't designed to function as one, aligning with the overall concept behind the DP lineup.
DP320 comes with a 3-year warranty by Synology, including the unit and the drives inside it.
If you're seeking a straightforward yet robust and versatile backup solution for both on-premises and cloud endpoints, the ActiveProtect lineup is worth considering. Synology has significant plans, including new models and additional APM features, ensuring these products will continue to evolve. In the face of threats like ransomware, prioritizing data safety is crucial. The DP320 offers exceptional value, providing far more protection than the cost of a potential ransom if your business were to be compromised.
