Manual for using Synology servers in development organisations

Submitted by Saskia Harmsen on Friday, 4th February, 2011 — Blog entry

cover of the manual

During the Cross-Country Learning Exchange on using Synology servers to manage and share content, participating project managers and technical staff from various development organisations indicated the need for a manual tailored to their needs. The request was for a manual which they could refer to when administering their own servers, but which would also be useful to them in training other staff members and peers on the use of this technology.

Tonny Lule, an ICT4D specialist from Kampala Uganda, has since developed this manual to help development organisations in their decision-making on whether or not to use this server technology, to assess what competences are required to successfully administer the technology, and to get started with installation and use.

Our thanks go out to:
Tonny Lule for following up and creating the manual.
Sengerema Hospital in Tanzania, especially Dickson Kalembo, for hosting the event.
All participants from Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, and Burkina Faso for their active participation and sharing their knowledge and experiences.
And Gael Hernandez from IICD for facilitating the event and the production of the manual.

Regarding the content of the manual:

The first section, “Using a Synology server in your organization”, aims to help project coordinator in decision-making and planning for using a Synology server for the project. Chapters dealing with technical requirements and IT competences required by technicians should be of great help when embedding a Synology server in the institution.
The second section, “A technical approach to the Synology server”, covers mostly technical aspects of the implementation of services such as shared folders, web servers and installation of PHP/MySQL applications.
The third section, “Technical sustainability: maintenance and support”, presents tools and procedures to troubleshoot and maintain your server in best working conditions.
The fourth section, “Advanced Synology” is an attempt to dig into more advanced features such as bootstrapping, cloning servers or developing applications for the platform.