DSM 7.2 arrives with great news on the updates front: the long-awaited update to WebStation version 4 that revolutionizes the self-hosting experience in particular. This update is especially important for those using WebStation and those web hosting from home on their own Synology NAS. With the powerful WebStation 4 you won’t need to worry about MariaDB updates, PHP updates etc. anymore. Right now, you can use the latest version of PHP on your website. Thanks to the campaigns launched on mariushosting and your numerous Feature Inquiries sent to Synology last year, we managed to get Synology to integrate the latest PHP 8.2 in WebStation, as well as all the latest versions of MariaDB 10, Node.js, Python, phpMyadmin, WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki. To be able to use the latest versions of the above-mentioned products, you will absolutely need not only WebStation, but also the new Synology Container Manager.

Right now, my website, mariushosting, is running on PHP 8.0.23 using the latest Synology PHP package. But when DSM 7.2 is out of Beta, I will be installing and using the latest Dockerized PHP 8.2 in WebStation.

I was able to perfectly manage the installation of PHP 8.2 and the latest version of MariaDB 10 via the powerful WebStation 4.0. WebStation 4.0 allowed me to move the entire blogging ecosystem using the latest technologies, latest version of MariaDB 10, latest version of PHP 8.2, latest version of phpMyAdmin. In short, it represents a finally giant step made by Synology to better manage the demands of its users, me included, who often complained about package updates taking years.

For example, one of the strengths of a dockerized PHP 8.2 is that it have more than 100 extensions available and ready to be activated with one click through WebStation, rendering the process clean, simple and accessible.

And not just extensions, but also modules, all updated in real time.

Note: The new WebStation 4 is still in its beta phase, and I noticed some bugs, such as when trying to save data in the Core Settings, the data is not being saved. This works only on the second or even third attempt. Also, the initial PHP creation takes quite a few minutes, and it has a mandatory dependency on MariaDB. In short, small errors that can be easily fixed before the official launch of the DSM 7.2 version.

This post was updated on Tuesday / March 28th, 2023 at 7:13 PM