The about-face

As of the October 8 release of DSM 7.3, the input has been utilized. Here’s the full section from the company’s DSM 7.3 announcement:

As a part of its mission statement, Synology is committed to delivering reliable, high-performance storage systems. This commitment has led to a standardized process of rigorous testing and validation for both hardware and software components, and has been an integral part of Synology’s development approach for many years. Both Synology storage drives and components validated through the third-party program undergo uniform testing processes to ensure they are able to provide the highest levels of reliability with DSM.

Synology is currently collaborating closely with third-party drive manufacturers to accelerate the testing and verification of additional storage drives, and will announce more updates as soon as possible. In the meantime, 25 model year DiskStation Plus, Value, and J series running DSM 7.3 will support the installation and storage pool creation of non-validated third-party drives. This provides users greater flexibility while Synology continues to expand the lineup of officially verified drives that meet long-term reliability standards.

The upshot is that the validated drive requirements are being removed from 2025 model-year Plus, Value, and J-series NAS devices. (Well, mostly removed—the press release indicates that pool and cache creation on M.2 disks “still requires drives on the HCL [hardware compatibility list].”)

We asked Synology whether the requirements will also be lifted from previous-generation Synology products—and the answer to that question appears to be a “no.”

“This change only affects the ’25 series models: DS725+, DS225+, DS425+, DS925+, DS1525+, DS1825+. Models in the xs+ line, like the DS3622xs+, are considered a business/enterprise model and will remain under the current HCL policy for our business lines,” Synology explained.

Updated with comments from Synology.