Synology DS923+ Config Help

[Enquiries]

Hi, and thank you in advance for your help.

I recently purchased a DS923+ with x2 16TB IronWolf Pro drives ($250 USD each) for raid redundancy.
After watching one of your videos where you mentioned triple tiered storage, I'm debating this setup.
I'm hoping you can offer some advice and how this would work.
Can I use non-synology drives (HDD/SSD/NVMe)?
Would/should they all be pooled together?
Any other knowledge you can share on creating the best NAS setup with the hardware I have. If necessary, I can return one or both drives.

Thank you again for the help.

Kind regards,
Andrzej

[ed]

Thank you for your patience. Here’s an updated and detailed guide to configuring your Synology DS923+ with the hardware you have, considering Synology's specific capabilities and constraints.

Synology DS923+ Storage Configuration
Synology offers flexibility in creating separate volumes for HDDs, SSDs, and NVMe drives, but does not support merging them into a single tiered storage pool like QNAP. However, you can optimize your setup effectively:

Using NVMe Drives
Important Note on Synology NVMe Support
Synology officially only allows NVMe drives to be used as storage (not just cache) if they are Synology-branded SSDs. However, there is a workaround (hack) to use third-party NVMe drives for storage.

Step-by-Step Configuration
Primary Storage (HDDs):

16TB IronWolf Pro Drives:
Use your 2 x 16TB IronWolf Pro drives in a RAID 1 configuration for redundancy.
Create a Storage Pool and Volume:
Go to Storage Manager > Storage Pool > Create.
Select RAID 1 and follow the prompts to create the storage pool.
Create a volume on this storage pool to store your data.
Secondary Storage (SSDs):

Optional 2.5" SATA SSDs:
If you add additional SSDs, create separate volumes for them to store frequently accessed data or applications.
Go to Storage Manager > Storage Pool > Create.
Select the SSDs and create a new storage pool and volume.
NVMe SSDs for Storage or Caching:

Synology NVMe SSDs:
If you use Synology-branded NVMe SSDs, you can configure them for storage directly.
Third-Party NVMe SSDs (Hack):
To use third-party NVMe SSDs for storage, you can apply a workaround.
Instructions for the Hack:
Install the third-party NVMe SSDs.
Access the Synology DSM via SSH.
Modify the system files to recognize the third-party SSDs as storage drives. Detailed guides can be found in the Synology user community or forums.
SSD Cache Setup:

If you prefer to use NVMe SSDs for caching:
Go to Storage Manager > SSD Cache > Create.
Select your NVMe SSDs and configure them as a read-write cache to accelerate your HDD storage.