NeoID

Hello, Can you explain how to do this ? Thanks This screenshot shows you how to do it: http://i.imgur.com/maGdg0n.png 1. Select the server on the right and then click on the "Configuration"-tab. 2. Select "Advanced Settings" and then "Edit...". You'll then get a list of all devices. Locate the device you want to passthrough and click ok. 3. Go back to your VM and add the device by right clicking it, selecting "Edit settings", "Add...", "PCI Device..." and then the device you choosed in the previous list. 4. Turn your VM back on and it should now have access to the device.

Here's the graph for my host. I'm running transmission/sabnzbd/sickbeard/couchpotato/plex and a few other services... One week: Can't really complain regarding the use of resource. If I where you I would probably upgrade the hardware if running multiple hosts or using it in a production environment.

I've sold my 2720sgl recently, so I can't test it, but I think it should work without issues... http://matthill.eu/tutorials/rocket-272 ... ssthrough/

You mean 12x 2TB right? ... Or you have some alien technology? Thanks you are of cause totally right, fixed

First revision is up: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3564

Introduction: In this guide I'm going to cover everything I did (as best as I can) in order for you to get a perfect installation. My XPEnology is currently running virtualized on ESXI, running smoothly with12x2TB hard drives and all services supported, even SMART! I've previously been running Hyper-V, but because ESXI is a better hypervisor (not going to cover why) with broader OS-support, I've made the switch and couldn't be happier. For now I'm running two virtual XPEnology system (one for test and once for production), multiple linux servers, windows clients and even mac osx clients. Requirements * A computer capable to run ESXI. I'm not running on verified ESXI hardware (except the raid/HBA card). Look at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compati ... search.php for information on what hardware is supported. The most important is that you have a 64-bits CPU that supports virtualization and that your LAN/SATA is supported by ESXI. I highly recommend a separate raid/hba-controller for your XPEnology in order to get SMART to work. More on that later in the guide. * A 4GB or larger USB-key for installing ESXI on * A 1GB or larger USB-key to install ESXI from (could also be a CD) * At least one hard drive (SSD prefered) for storing virtual machines * At least one hard drive for XPEnology (data-drive) Install ESXI 1. First of all you need a copy of ESXI. In order to get one head over to http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/. You'll need to register in order to obtain a free registration number for your copy of ESXI. In the time of writing the latest version is "VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5 Update 1 - Binaries". 2. Once you have the ISO dowloaded and written down your registration number, download Rufus from http://rufus.akeo.ie/. This tool will help you to create a bootable USB from the ISO. Remember to use the smallest of the USB-keys as you will want to use the larger one for your ESXI installation. You can also burn the ISO to a CD if you prefer doing so. 3. Insert both USB-keys in your computer you want to install ESXI on. The largest drives will be used to install ESXI on, this way you don't waste a hard drive on the hypervisor itself, but rather use all available hard drives as storage. Please note that USB3 ports may cause problems, so use USB2 ports if possible. Once prompted, enter the boot menu of the computer, normally F9 or similar. From here on you just follow the instructions, it's very simple to install! From here on I recommend you to follow this one as needed: Install and configure VMware vSphere Client On your laptop or other computer that you normally use for remote connecting to the server, download and install "VMware vSphere Client" from the same site as where you downloaded ESXI. This tool will be used to administrate the server. You will not make any changes on the physical ESXI anymore after the initial install. Download the installer from here: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/evalcenter Once you have installed the software, login with your IP-adress and root-credentials. Once logged in you'll receive a warning regarding your license/trail version, but once your are logged in you can register your copy by going to Configuration->Licensed Features->Edit... and add your license there. Now we need a place to save all the virtual machines (datastores). In order to setup a datastore go to Configuration->Storage and cilck on "Add storage". Click Next on the first page and then you'll be asked to select the disk you want to use. Make sure you select the right one (preferable SSD) and click on Next. If no drives are listed your SATA/raid controller is not supported by ESXI. Continue to click on Next until you are asked to give the datastore a name (just choose one, eg Datastore01) and click Next until completed. Add your first virtual machine From here you should be able to follow this tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3132 Do step 1-3 as described. When it comes to step 4 I skipped the "optional" step. It's a personal choice really, but remember doing so will reduce the number of available hard drive slots by 1. In other words you'll not be able to use 12 real hard drives, but only 11 as 3612xs only supports up to 12 drives. I do not recommend to add more. When it comes to "Adding your data drives" I would also recommend to bypass your raid-controller instead of using Raw Device Mapping. The reason for this is that XPEnology then gets direct access to your drives and you'll be able to get the SMART-information. Please note that you can only passthrough whole controllers in ESXI meaning a dedicated 16-ports raid controller is recommended (I'm using LSI SAS 9201-16i). It's your choice, if possible pass-through the whole controller, if not use RDM as described in the guide. In case you want to pass-through the whole raid-controller, go to Configuration->Advanced Settings->Edit. From here you'll have to find your raid-device and check the box next to it in order to make it available to virtual machines. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/maGdg0n.png Once that's done go to your virtual machine and hit "Edit Settings". Click on "Add...", Select PCI Device and then your raid-controller. Hit OK and your virtual machine should now be configured correctly. All drives connected to your raid-controller will be available to XPEnology. This is what it should look like: http://i.imgur.com/0JDSfrJ.png At last do step 5 and install DSM. FAQ Q: I have touble expanding my volume A: Read this guide: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3339 I hope this guide will help you out! If it was helpful, please consider a small donation so I can buy a drink and write another guide or continue to offer support.

Sure, I'll try to make another guide in a few hours.

Hi May i know how to make SMART works under Xpenology? I use rdm passthru to map 2 physical disk to the VM, but inside syno GUI it failed to show SMART data... As mentioned on your PM. As far as I know you'll need to pass-through the whole raid/hba controller to the VM in order to get that to work.

Regarding your build I would recommend to google or check your harware here: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compati ... search.php The most important is that your LAN and SATA is compatible. You may need to buy a PCI raid/hba kontroller in order to get everything to work nicely. I thought about answering all your questions one-by-one, but all of them show that you do not understand ESXI. You'll need to read some guides or take a look at some tutorials and you'll quickly understand how it works, it not difficult. Just make sure you connect to your ESXI host from "VMware vSphere Client" once done. I could write a guide on how to install ESXI and setup everything to play nicely if anyone is interested. I have now a perfect setup running stable since I've installed it with 20TB of storage.

Thanks

I am using shr and not shr2. What should i do diffrent in the steps you described? Do you have a diskgroup? If not then the steps should be the same. Not tested, but I don't see the reason why they shouldn't work. The reason I say this is that the only difference between SHR and SHR2 is that either raid5 or 6 is used when creating the mdadm-raid. Since we do not issue any other commands then assemble the mdadm-raid, you should be fine.

The reason for why I didn't elaborated that was because it might differ a lot how people run DSM. As for me I've switched from Hyper-V to ESXI white some might use other hypervisors or even physical hardware. I've added the link to the ISO-file. If you are on a physical machine either burn the CD or use make a USB-drive from the image. After that's done insert the CD/USB and boot the machine running DSM/the volume you want to expand. I've updated my post, hope it helps.

[Moved this guide to the first page so it's easier to find]

Actually, this is not a 16TB limit problem... I've made a 18TB disk group without any problems, but when I try to create a 14.5TB volume it doesn't work: http://i.imgur.com/ieat9SB.png

I heard something about modifying a file to allow more drives, but somehow adding a virtual expansion bay would probably be a lot cleaner solution

Anyone experience with using more then the default 12 drives a 3612xs originally supports? Is there a safe way to add 15 drives? Maybe by adding a virtual drive-extension?

Yeah, that's true. Strange thing is that Synology has patched that issue inn DSM 3 or so, so in theory it should not be present anymore...

Even after upgrading to ESXI and having no issues whatsoever, I got the same problem again after inserting disk no. 11 and 12. My next question is.. might this issue only be related to SHR/SHR-2 or also traditional Raid 5 and 6. Anyone having this problem with raid 5/6? There has to be a "magical" ~14TB limit...

Thanks for the guide LeeBear! Thanks too you I'm now up and running on ESXI with no errors at all. Even SMART works perfectly! I have one question though.. did you ever install vmware tools? I've read about people doing so with gnoBoot, but does anyone here have any experience with it with NanoBoot?

I've tried that and it did't go very well. The volume got marked as crashed, set to read-only and I could not get it to rebuild itself. DSM asked me to reboot in order to fix issues with the volume, but it didn't do anything upon a new boot (as I guess GnoBoot/NanoBoot does not support this).

That's very interesting! If you also experience this problem on a physical PC running NanoBoot, then I would suggest that it's either something that is not emulated correctly by NanoBoot or a problem with drivers/controllers.

@Werter: Do you also use Hyper-V? I think about giving ESXI a try... My best bet is that Hyper-V's SCSI controller is messing something up, but I'm not completely sure...

The guide has been moved in order to be able to keep it up to date: http://idmedia.no/general/expand-volume ... esnt-want/