Home Assistant on Synology

Hardware
#1

Hi All.

I am new here. I want to start to install Home Assistant on my Synololy DS218play with DSM7. But now i discover that i can not install Docker on my DSM.

If I want it, i have to by a synology 220.

Now I have a few questions before I buy it.

  • Home Assistant is totaly new for me. Do you advise this me to by a new NAS for the use of Home assistant?
  • Are there more users with a synology and whats your experience?
#2

I think the Synology ‘play’ series of devices are the more budget models designed for things like media streaming in the home whereas the ‘+’ series are more business orienated and support Docker and Virtual Machine Manager.

I have a 918+ (the currently model is the 920+ and these are similar to the 218+/220+ with 4 drive bays rather than 2). I ran HA in Docker very successfully on this for over 2 years before recently switching to Virtual Machine Manager which allows you to run the Supervised version. Bearded Tinker has done a whole series of videos on YouTube relating to HA on Synology Docker, however I think VMM would be the prefered way to go as there is better functionality like the Add-on Store and less maintenance needed to keep Docker images etc. up to date.

If you do upgrade your current Synology then you could migrate your existing drives but make sure they are formatted btrfs (not ext4) which is a requirement. You will also need enough memory and the 2GB default in the DS220+ will not be enough (the HA VMM will need 2GB minimum or 3GB ideally plus whatever you need for anything else you are running, I have 8GB in my Synology).

Hope that is useful.

1 Like
#3

You can use RasPi as start and decide later. Once you add HA you may want others and what add may ultimately influence hardware you desire

Honestly if you decide upgrade I would not away from synology if you plan to add services like HA, NVR, etc

Synology is nice and I own many years but ultimately found hardware too confining. I buy used 4 bay server under $200 and best ever choice.

#4

Thanks mark and tmjpugh.

This answer is very useful to me. I think the VMM is a to high level for me for now. Maybe I sell the 218Play en by the 220+. Good to know that the play version is more a budged model, so I don’t buy the 220Play and have the same problem.

I Will ask this question for sure on the synology forum.

But the answer of tmjpugh is also a good idea. I can buy first a Raspberry. But… The Raspberry is approx €100,-. To sell en buy a new synology is approx 130,-,. I don’t leave Synology, I am very happy with it:).

So I can think about is what to do :).

#5

I have a Synology DS218 Play and I am running Home Assistant Core successfully. You need to add SynoCommunity as a third-party package source (see https://synocommunity.com/), where you will then find the package.

#6

Mám synology Ds218J a nainstaloval jsem tam Home Assistant Core. Jak tam přidám Sky connect? Moc tomu nerozumým. Děkuji