AutoCAD in Synology NAS environments.

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon,

I am new to the world of AutoCAD and we have a client who uses various CAD types of software.

Please can someone let me know if having AutoCAD files stored and accessed from a Synology NAS works ok.

I've seen the following article but would like real world examples of it either working or not working so I can see whether putting forward a Synology NAS solution would be ok.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Autodesk...

Thanks in advance.

Richard

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

The article you found is a good start on this issue.  Over the past year I have seen several threads/posts regarding this configuration not working 100% but those might be the exception rather than the rule.

Is it possible to test one in your environment to see how it might behave?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Hi @john.vellek,

Thanks for you response on this.

Unfortunately it's not something I can really test in the clients environment as it would require the purchase of the equipment up front.
Not really something we can afford to do.

With the doubts around the software working 100% in a NAS setup I'm starting to thing a Windows Server setup may be the way to go.

At least it is 100% supported and would be easier to sell to the client.

Out of interest would AutoCAD work in a Hyper-V server setup?

If a Windows server is the way we look to go then ideally a Hyper-V environment would be preferable i.e. new hyper-v DC and file server hosting the AutoCAD, Revit, TAS files.

Thanks,

Richard

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I have set up several offices using both VM-Ware and Hyper-V servers where both AutoCAD and Revit were the primary software applications in use.

I need to state that at this point in time, Autodesk does not support such server configurations but I would wager that a majority of our customers are running in this kind of environment.

I suggest that if you design your server(s) correctly for load balancing, storage, etc. that you could set up first, a storage server for data files. Monitor its performance with your users and then if yo find no issues, go ahead and complete your implementation.

Make sure you consider redundancy and recoverability in your design to ensure that you have no points of failure in your network.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post helped you with your problem. Please add a post with how you decide to proceed and your results so other Community members may benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Thanks @john.vellek. Appreciate your advise.
Seems strange that Autodesk state it's unsupported when like you say I would think a lot of people have moved or moving to a virtualised server setup.

I think I will still go down the router of a hyper-v file server to host the files rather than a Synology NAS.
Yes, it states that NAS environments are fully supported either but at leased with hyper-v being on a Microsoft platform and element of it will be supported.

[jasenSB7TV]

It's possible to load from the Synology drive.  You just have to Map a drive from your windows machine, and set the destination to the folder, or drive that contains your AutoCAD .dwg files. The Synology drive also has a feature that prevents multiple people from editing a single file, which is a huge time saver, ensuring two people aren't doing redundant work, and that the file on the sever is the most up to date file. The Synology NAS setup has been very intuitive, and is more powerful that I ever expected. In regards to you thinking of going with a Windows Server setup, I would personally recommend the Synology NAS system, over a Windows Server. But that's just my preference. 

[ctbailey]

Hi JasenSB7TV,

I've been running a Synology NAS for a while, but when loading XREF image files stored on the NAS, AutoCAD will only load multiple XREF's only once per session.

I see that you've had success.  AND you mention "a feature that prevents multiple people..."    alas, the second time I attempt to load a drawing with multiple XREF images (images stored on the NAS), only the first XREF file is "found."

I have mapped a drive letter to the Synology NAS shared folder.

This is a windows-only environment.

have your users complained about the inability to load multiple XREFs during sequential sessions?  If we EXIT AutoCAD, and restart, the dwg with the multiple XREF image files always loads as expected.

Thanks very much.