How long does Synology support its NAS products?
Here’s another off-my-usual-path post. The question of how many years a Synology NAS owner should expect software updates, security fixes, and support comes up a lot in r/synology. Variations of this question include “When should I replace my Synology” and “How long will Synology support DSM 6?”. Synology doesn’t seem to have a public policy, so I decided to figure it out from available information.
Thanks to u/Versed_Perception for offering some feedback to improve this post.
Photo credit: Attapon Thaphaengphan, iMod
Short answer: Expect ~12 years of software support for your Synology NAS
Officially, Synology NASes are supported for as long as your warranty. That varies from 2 years for cheaper models up to 5 years for the premium rack mount systems. And for most there seems to be a minimum 4 year “extended” (security updates!) support.
Unofficially… We’ve seen that Synology NAS products get full software & security support for about 9 years, and after that get security fixes for another 3-4 years — so, 12–13 years in total. Again, they don’t promise this. But that’s been the pattern to date.
Note about DMS 7.2: If you have a 2014 model NAS, you can update to 7.1 but not to the just-released DSM 7.2. All 2015 and newer models do run DSM 7.2.
That’s the short version. Here’s the expanded, more nuanced version:
Long answer: 9 + (3 to 4, unless it’s 5) = 12–14
As far as I’m able to determine, Synology makes no promises other than the product warranty (which depending on model is anywhere from 2 to 5 years). But we can infer policy by examining the support status of their full product line, conveniently provided at:
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/status
That page defaults to products currently sold – but you can use the filters to see the much, much longer list of discontinued models, and what level of support they get.
Stages of Synology DSM & SRM software support
Synology has three stages of software support for DSM and SRM:
Full: Firmware and software updates will be continuously provided
Limited: Only security updates will be provided
End of Life: Future firmware, software, and security/vulnerability updates are discontinued
Here;s the pattern that we see in their support matrix:
Every model sold since 2014 is currently fully supported on DSM 7.1
DSM 6 is also supported for all of those, and will be supported until 2024
But DSM 7.2 requires a 2015 or newer model. (This may not matter unless you want WORM- or compliance-mode data storage, m.2 NVMe storage, or block-level hyperbackup, or the updated Docker Container Manager with docker-compose support. But I digress.)
Most models produced from 2013 to 2010 have “limited support”. This means they get security updates. (A few 2013 models, all of which run Intel CPUs, do get full support.)
Everything made in 2009 or before is End of Life - no security updates at all, end of the line, all done.
Which brings us back to the short version: We can expect 12-13 years of software updates in total: 9 years of full support from the date of a mode’s introduction, plus 3-4 years of security updates after that. And maybe an extra year for some models with more powerful CPUs and more memory.
(The sheer value of this blows my mind. No fees, no “maintenance agreements” required? Amazing. And that’s why I recently bought a new DS220+ to replace my DS214se, and am repurposing the 214 for use as off-site backup target. I’ll probably buy my next NAS in 2030.)