Monitor a NAS Without an Agent (Synology & QNAP)

A NAS cannot run the octoja agent. Instead, you add it as an agentless network device, and one of your agent devices on the same network queries it as its monitoring device. Nothing is installed on the NAS itself. How network devices and monitoring devices work together is explained in the network device reference.

Prerequisites

• SNMP is enabled on the NAS with a community (v2c) or an SNMPv3 user — the Synology NAS and QNAP NAS check articles explain where to set it.
• A device with the octoja agent is online on the same network and can reach the NAS.
• You have Edit Device on that agent device and the Monitoring Check Management permission.

Steps

1. Add the NAS as a network device as described in Add a Network Device Without an Agent. Set Device type to NAS, switch on Enable SNMP, and enter the same SNMP version and credentials as on the NAS.
2. Open the new NAS device, click Add Check on its Checks tab, and choose Synology NAS or QNAP NAS. The check takes the host and SNMP credentials from the network device; you only set the thresholds. For backup jobs on a Synology NAS, also add Synology Backup.
3. Attach an alert configuration so somebody hears about failed disks, volumes, or backups: Set up alerts for a check.

Inspect Synology inventory

After setup, open the Synology NAS device page. With a reachable monitoring device and valid SNMP credentials, octoja displays the inventory data returned by the NAS. The NAS device type makes octoja query this data even when the NAS identifies itself over SNMP only as a generic SNMP server.

You can search the drives and export drives and volumes as CSV. These are inventory snapshots, not live readings. Missing sensors or tables do not mean the NAS is healthy. For alerts you still need the checks and an alert configuration.

Choose the monitoring device

As long as no monitoring device is online, no NAS results arrive.

• The site has a server: use it. A domain controller, host server, or terminal server is the natural monitoring device.
• The site only has workstations: pick the machine with the most predictable uptime, and expect NAS results to pause while it is shut down. If overnight and weekend monitoring matters — backup jobs usually run at night — place a small always-on device with the agent, such as a mini PC, and make it the monitoring device for all agentless devices at that site.

The network device reference explains how to add fallback devices and how to notice when a monitoring device goes down.