Managing a device from the command line sometimes can be a lot quicker than logging into the GUI and look for the specific utilities. The NAS devices are not an exception and certainly this is the case for Synology NAS as well. In this article the steps on how to enable the terminal to allow Synology SSH connections with popular SSH clients like PuTTY. There are plenty of scenarios where running the command line is becoming handy. It is not just for troubleshooting purposes but also for quickly adding or changing configurations, take a closer look at performances directly from the box, restarting services and lot more.
Synology SSH connection setup
From Synology Desktop > Control Panel > Terminal & SNMP utility the option to control and enable the Synology SSH Server.
Next is to enable the SSH service and decide which port for the SSH service to listen to. Port 22 is the default one and for security it might be a good idea to choose a different one. In the advanced settings the ability to choose the supported encryption algorithms. These are divided in High, Medium, Low and Custom. By default the Medium level already supports the most popular and recent ones like AES, Diffie-Hellman and many others. Once done click on Apply to start the SSH service.
Next step is to use an SSH client like the popular PuTTY for Windows. Linux and Mac already have a built-in SSH client from the pertinent Terminals. It is matter of specifying the correct IP Address or hostname along with chosen Network Port.
If the connection is successful it shows the info about the Synology SSH host key not cached in the registry (Windows machine). As a warning as the source cannot be identified the wizard is asking to accept / trust the connection. It will appear only on first connection or when the SSH Host key is not present in cache.
Right after accepting and saving the host key it is just a matter of entering the credentials for the Synology NAS. From the shell is now possible to run the commands like in a Linux box. In fact, a quick “uname -a” command shows details about the Synology DSM OS release.
From here the popular Linux commands work like a champ. A quick “ifconfig bond0” shows the main info about the Synology network configuration.
To check resources usage directly from the NAS device a simple “top” command will show the consumption in real time. “q” to quit the “top” command.
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