Jump to content
XPEnology Community

ESXi vs bare metal


koolvn

Recommended Posts

I'm new here and very confused about which method or guideline to follow??

 

Can someone tell me or point me to the post that has the answers for these question:

 

What different between ESXi and bare metal? What is the minimum hardware for each? Why using ESXi or why using bare metal?

 

Thanks in advance :grin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want a rock-solid but more simple platform, go with bare metal.

If you want to have DSM as a VM, together with one or more VMs like Win7, it's better to use as hypervisor. It needs a dual core minimum and much more RAM. Depending on hyper visor, from 2GB to... Just a lot more :smile:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for quick reply :smile:

 

However, still confused :sad:

 

Let say I have mini-itx with dual core Atom, 64-bit capable, support 4GB DDR3 max, also some 1TB HDD, some 128GB SSD, some 16-32 GB USB... mostly used for media entertainment and/or backup center... Which route should I go? In other words, what benefit of ESXi over bare metal or vise versus? Hope somebody would elaborate a little more.

 

Thanks in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for quick reply :smile:

 

However, still confused :sad:

 

Let say I have mini-itx with dual core Atom, 64-bit capable, support 4GB DDR3 max, also some 1TB HDD, some 128GB SSD, some 16-32 GB USB... mostly used for media entertainment and/or backup center... Which route should I go? In other words, what benefit of ESXi over bare metal or vise versus? Hope somebody would elaborate a little more.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Do you use DLNA or you want to connect it to the TV with a HDMI/etc cable?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again for very quick reply :smile:

 

Mostly DLNA through Ethernet since this box will be away in a high corner, not visible to anybody, but connected directly to the Giga N router almost next to it, I meant N router with Giga ports, and this location is almost in the center of the house so from there, it can be accessed from any TV, PC from any room

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now installed using bare metal guide and connected through browser is OK but through VGA/HDMI, only see the Nanoboot screen, how do you change that? Also, how do you hide the USB drive so nobody would accidently make some change on it?

TIA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now installed using bare metal guide and connected through browser is OK but through VGA/HDMI, only see the Nanoboot screen, how do you change that? Also, how do you hide the USB drive so nobody would accidently make some change on it?

TIA

 

That console (via VGA/DVI) is locked.

If you want access via ssh, enable it in DSM and connect via putty.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi koolvn, remember that initial account that you setup when installing DSM was an administrator account that has full access to files, folders, settings, etc. In order to restrict access to shared folders, like the "usbshare1", you will need to create an additional user account during which you will be able to select the specific folders that the account has access to and the level of access (i.e. read only, read/write, etc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, rdm :grin:

 

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong but it seems Nanoboot USB is only used for booting and by the time DSM up, most if not everything is running on/from it and nothing to do with Nanoboot USB anymore?? So I wonder if it's any benefit when using 32GB instead 32MB stick since the Nanoboot image is only 16MB?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, it's true. After used Win32DiskImager to put Nanoboot on the USB, Win32DiskImager will auto re-format the drive to 16MB regardless how big the size of the USB. The only difference might be the quality or the speed of the USB but only couple seconds slower boot time does not really do any good for me so I've just use a very old 32MB USB for Nanoboot and save my 32GB USB for other good use :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, rdm :grin:

 

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong but it seems Nanoboot USB is only used for booting and by the time DSM up, most if not everything is running on/from it and nothing to do with Nanoboot USB anymore?? So I wonder if it's any benefit when using 32GB instead 32MB stick since the Nanoboot image is only 16MB?

No benefits. rest of USB flash is wasted. Use 32MB if you can find one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ rdm

Actually, I found another way that you can set to hide this USB from showing up in My Network Places and it won't show up in any connected Windows PC. Didn't check on any other Linux system yet but I assume it should behave the same

 

@ XPEH

He he... he he...

You will not believe it but I have not just 1 or 2 but couple dozens 32/64MB sticks since we use them for flashing BIOS and firmware as well as system boot testing at work. Imagine a test which will continuously reboot a system about 1000 times in a chamber ranged -30/+60C, C not F, for couple days and it would kill any HDD/SSD even the industrial drives, so it's better to sacrifice some cheap USB sticks instead :wink:

 

@ all others

It seems I might be wrong about the USB because as soon as I enabled the Download Station, it auto created @download folder on USB and use it for buffer and the speed for download transaction is quite slow and after I managed to set it to the main drive, the @download folder is no longer on USB and the speed is significant improve; however, still see @tmp folder on USB but not sure which app or DSM itself is using it and don't know how to set it to the main drive yet. I guess that on the real Synology systems, they might use the flash ram for buffer and so DSM auto set it on the USB in our systems. If anyone has any idea, I'm all ears :grin: TIA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. Will try it tonight :smile:

For the second question, how do we hide the USB drive?

 

I'm sure someone will correct me but if you don't want DSM to see the USB boot drive after it loads don't you just modify your boot img .cfg file and put the PID and VID of your USB device instead of the default one. The default for nanoboot is something like this:

 

kernel zImage ihd_num=0 netif_num=1 syno_hw_version=DS3612xs sn=B3J4N01003 vid=0x0EA0 pid=0x2168

 

You can plug your USB drive in a windows machine and use device manager/view resource to get the VID and PID of the USB drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. Will try it tonight :smile:

For the second question, how do we hide the USB drive?

You can plug your USB drive in a windows machine and use device manager/view resource to get the VID and PID of the USB drive.

 

You can achieve the same thing in an SSH session by typing:

 

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...