Finding your Synology Logs

General Aug 24, 2021

The Synology logs can be found in a few ways, and each way provides varying levels of detail. Two of these methods are only usable via the DSM gui.

Non-DSM

SSH

You can SSH in to your machine and navigate to /var/logs which will list out your whole log list. I don't find it particularly pleasant to use a terminal to view all the logs, but it's important to know this in case you don't have access to DSM, but do have access to the machine through SSH and need to troubleshoot.

Via DSM

Log Center

The easiest way, which provides the most basic information, is to select Log Center from your app tray, which can be found by pressing the button in the top left corner of your Synology GUI.

  1. The 'Overview' tab focuses on incoming user connections, whether it's directly via DSM, logging in via SSH or some other file sharing method such as FTP or SMB
  2. The 'Logs' tab will provide details about packages being installed/stopped/uninstalled, as well as information on your LAN connection(s)
  3. The rest of the tabs are for setting up various ways to send and receive logs, as well as creating notifications and settings for your logs

Support Center

This provides the most detailed logs, and if you ever open a Synology ticket and are asked to provide logs, this is where you'll go to create a zip file.

  • Open Support Center from the DSM menu and select the Support Services tab on the left. You should see the following screen (scroll down a bit if necessary)
select the logs you wish to generate
  • Select the logs you wish to generate
the above screenshot is from DSM6. DSM7 no longer has a 'System' item to select, it has been bundled with 'Performance'
  • Hit the 'Generate logs' button and it will begin preparing your download
logs being generated - this can take some time
  • After you've waited a few minutes, a file called debug.dat will be downloaded to your local machine (windows or mac, whatever you're using to access DSM) and this can be opened with any zip program. Inside you'll find a folder called DSM, which stores all the services you've downloaded, including logs
opening the debug.dat zip file
  • The primary logs can be found in dsm --> var --> log
select var

select log

your logs
Preshared Keys and more - SSH on Linux and Synology
An easy guide which explains how to access and use your SSH sessions to their fullest, including clients and logging in with preshared keys
Academy @ PointToSourcePTS

PTS

With very limited knowledge, PTS fell down the selfhosted rabbit hole after buying his first NAS in October 2020. You can find him on the Synology discord server (click the icon below)

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