Ups and downs of Synology
I have a DS918+ which has served me quite well for the past two years.
Synology's software is easy to use, but lately I've realised I am slowly (but surely) moving away from Synology's own packages and over to docker. One problem is with runtime versions. Synology's own packages use older runtimes (I think I had three different versions of python at one point) and it struck me that docker was just easier and felt a lot cleaner.
I enjoy their filesystem though. I've already replaced two drives in order to gain a bigger volume, and I was able to do that without offloading anything. I'm keeping an eye out for alternatives though (https://serverfault.com/a/272835/ is one thread I'd love to see some more in depth answers to).
Its caching strategy looks a bit cumbersome to me. I have a few things running that would benefit from the m.2 drives I added, but Synology enforces those to be designated for its own caching purposes. I suspect I could do better and actually help the thing hibernate during the night.
The way it handles its volume baffles me. I believe that I have to create shares off its root. I can't create my own hierarchy and share something deeper down.
Another quirk is the lack of WireGuard support. There are some workarounds, but nothing official at this point AFAICT. Isn't their OS based on Linux? Why does it feel like they're lagging behind?
I suspect I, at this point, might be better served by FreeNAS. Assuming I could still get a dynamic RAID like SHR up and running.