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XoN

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    Official DSM 4.2 released! Build 3202

    in Archives

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    Just noticed that the DSM 4.2 is finally released. I have checked if it's possible (just in case :grin:) to upgrade Xpenology online, but it gives error 21.

     

    This is already commented in 4.2 Beta thread.

     

    I'll have to wait until someone with the right skills compiles a version with this new release (including N40L support with USBs hehehehe)

    XPEnology 24TB/36TB Recipe (Check for Compatibility Issues)

    in Archives

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    Honestly I can't help you, but if you allow me to give my opinion, I would consider to get original hardware and buy DS1812+... it's just about 800-900€ , and you will have official support / warranty and system upgrades.

     

    Despite XPEnology is great, it doesn't have support and still has some hardware compatibility issues. This is more oriented to home nas... and 36TB doesn't look like "home" :grin:

    XPEnology - Virtualized vs Standalone

    in Archives

    Posted

    Thats great!

     

    At the beginning of this post I was 95% sure about configuring xpenology on Virtual, but after your comments, I think I'll try with native installation.

     

    Thank you for the info!

     

    PD: Don't worry, if anything goes wrong I will not blame you hehehehe :mrgreen:

    XPEnology - Virtualized vs Standalone

    in Archives

    Posted

    I have tested XPEnology in the virtual environment with VMWare ESXi 5.1

    There is big performance penalty while using VM even with drives connected via RDM (Raw Device Mapping). About half of the speed that achievable with direct DSM installation. Also in ESXI currently it works with IDE emulated drives only and you are limited to 4 drives (I have 6 that I would like to use).

    Configured drives are migratable to another system without loosing data. On the direct hardware install, I was able to replace USB synoboot with different versions and still see and use existing volumes.

     

    Half Speed? Wow is far worse than I expected. I don't know if VirtualBox has the same IDE limitation, but this is a good reason to go "standalone".

     

    Glad to hear that replacing USB worked ok!

     

    Does this mean that Synology "O.S" is distributed among the existing hard drives?

    XPEnology - Virtualized vs Standalone

    in Archives

    Posted

    Thank you for your replies...

     

    In my case, both virtual/real options will fit in the same server (HP Proliant N40L with 4x3TB drives + 64GB SSD), so power consumption difference it's not the issue. It will be running 24/7.

     

    The SSD drive came from my HTPC, the GOAL was to generate as less noise as possible, but the HTPC crashed, so I reused SSD for OS in the server since 64GB is not enough to store almost anything :grin:

     

    Any comment is welcome in this thread, but my goal was to discuss what environment would be "better" for home use (storage movies and photos) and if anyone finds more PROs/CONs for each scenario.

     

    My biggest concern is how can I restore the information from SHR raid if the hardware (server) fails. Assuming that HDDs are OK, It be easier to move them to a different Server if it's virtualized, but I still have some doubts about the performance and failure points, too many layers (Debian >> VirtualBox >> XPEnology >> Data).

    On the other hand if it was installed as main system, I don't know if the recovery process to different hardware would be factible.

     

    For now, looks like virtualization has more advantages, but I always like to have third users opinions :grin:

     

    I appreciate your performance feedback.

    XPEnology - Virtualized vs Standalone

    in Archives

    Posted · Edited by Guest

    Hi,

     

    I want to move to XPEnology but I have some doubts... Which setup do you think it's better?

     

    Hardware: N40L with 8GB RAM ECC + 4x3TB HDs + 1xSSD 64GB for OS

     

    **Note: Please consider that I might be wrong in some of these statements

     

    Scenario 1) Virtualized

     

    PROS:

    =====

    - NO USB flashdrive needed to boot.
- Hardware independent: If the server motherboard crashes, you can port it to a different hardware as long as you have the same HDs.
- Can use both SOFTWARE / HARDWARE RAID as long as Hypervisor is compatible.
- Snapshots
- Possibility to install other Virtual Machines.
- I can install the MainOS (such a Debian + Headless Vbox or VMWare ESXi) in 64GB SSD drive.

     

    CONS:

    =====

    - Virtualized HDs are really Files stored in other filesystems. Slower. 
** Edit: Reported 50MB/s in VMWare even with RAW DEVICE MAPPING. It's 50% performance of a standalone installation.
- No USBs??? (not sure about this).
** Edit: VirtualBox has some instructions to link USBs to hosted machines.
- More failure points, the need to have XPEnology hosted in another OS, makes it less reliable as both systems + virtualization soft (in VirtualBox case) may have bugs.

     

    Scenario 2) Standalone

     

    PROS:

    =====

    - SHR RAID.
- Performance should be sightly better. Again, feedback is appreciated.
** Edit: Reported transfers up to 100MB/s limited by Gigabit network card.
- USB (updating the modules for N40L).

     

    CONS:

    =====

    - USB flashdrive required
- If HW crashes... little mess to bring everything back online. 
**Edit: XPEH explained that Synology O.S. is stored in all hard drives, and even using different synoboot images to boot, it worked OK.
- Adding SSD drive, would provide no beneffit unless I create as a different volume - (Maybe using it as SSD cache?).

     

     

     

    This is all I can think about, but I'm sure that you know more PROs/CONs.

     

    My Needs (if anyone asks):

    - PLEX Media Server

    - Transmission (or another BT Client).

    - Emule client

    - Sickbeard

    - Samba sharing

    - AFS sharing

    - (Planned) Fog Clone server (will install in Debian-Chroot) or nClone.

    - OwnCloud

    - Photostation

    - DynDNS

     

     

    Thank you in advance!!

    [SOLVED] HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    But then the System only starts when the USB Drive is pluged in?

     

    Yep, you need to boot always with USB Drive plugged in. My unconfirmed theory, is that Synology is not ready to boot from an AHCI drive, that's why in VirtualBox Synoboot.img must be added as IDE drive and not as SATA drive.

     

    This is just a speculation. I have to check if there is any chance to put only the SSD drive as IDE, because I don't trust the USB drive.

     

    And why i cant install the normal XPEnology_DS3612xs_2668 with the synoboot.img?

     

    That's because it doesn't have drivers for N36L/N40L network card.

    Please Read

    in Archives

    Posted

    Looks like pretty active to me, considering that this forum was created 3 weeks ago :grin:

     

    This project provides a method to install DSM software in several hardware, nothing else.

     

    About the "production environment" use, depends on your needs, I mean for a home server to keep some movies it's great, but I would not recommend it for a office, since it doesn't have official support.

     

    If you have CRITICAL data, as long as you have backups... there should not be any problem :grin:

    [SOLVED] HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    The modded bios wouldn't change the way the NIC is recognised in my opinion...

     

    Nighthawk. when you say "My N36L have different NIC" do you mean an added NIC in the PCIe slot ? I don't remember broadcom being a used chip in synology hardware? Am i correct in saying broadcom NICs aren't supported (yet) in XPEnology ? If you have an added card, what's the model please ?

     

    Well, as you can see in my BIOS screenshot, the NIC name shows as an Atheros chipset, but It has NC107i and according to the hardware specifications, both N36L and N40L have the same. This is why he wrote "My N36L have different NIC" .

     

    According to the LSPCI on Debian this is the network device:

     

    02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5723 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)

     

    ZeroQI , If you can make it work on your N40L, it would be great :grin:

     

    Do you have default BIOS?

    [SOLVED] HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5tpWhEINjUOdWExQ1I5QjBEY2M/edit

    This is same kernel, with built-in atheros drivers.

    My N36L have different NIC.

     

    Not working, I've been seeking with nmap, and wireshark hoping to capture the DHCP request... but nothing...

     

    I just saw that in the N40L wiki the LAN interface is shown as : Onboard NC107i PCI Express Gigabit 10/100/1000

     

    Considering my hacked BIOS, this could be possible. Sorry for time waste.

    [SOLVED] HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    1. How did you modify your USB flash with Nighthawk's zimage file. I got a format notice when I was trying to open my USB flash with XPEnology boot image in Windows.

     

    The USB stick once you use USB-RAW Tool, is in EXT2 format, you need this to access it: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/

     

    Once installed you should be able to mount the USB.

     

    2. Where I can find the Vender file, I extracted XPEnology image, but didn't find that file.

     

    I would say that you need to search for the NIC MAC address, but as I don't know this for sure, maybe NightHawk can provide more information.

     

    Anyway, as he stated in a comment before, this change is not really required as long as you have only one device in your network.

     

    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5tpWhEINjUOdWExQ1I5QjBEY2M/edit

    This is same kernel, with built-in atheros drivers.

    My N36L have different NIC.

     

    I love you man xD I'll try it again tonigh.

     

    Thank you!

    [SOLVED] HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    I'm trying it right now, but it doesn't work.... Assistant doesn't detect it.

     

    I have modified the USB with your zImage file.

    zImage md5: 22191386e059d1ef731cf6c00fecacb4

     

    This is my current set:

     

    Target: N40L with 8GB Ram ECC with modified BIOS to enable all SATA ports.

    Synology Assistant Client: iMac running bootcamp for this, Windows firewall disabled, AV uninstalled.

     

    DHCP Server enabled

    All connected to a gigabit switch.

     

    :sad:

    XPEnology DS3612xs DSM 4.1 build 2668

    in DSM 5.2 and earlier (Legacy)

    Posted

    first many thanks and respect for this project !!!

     

    I had tested the synoboot.vdi in a vmbox and it working fine, now I'm testing some mainboard´s direct

     

    Here is one question: do I need to modify MAC adress in synoboot.img for a physical machine.

     

    Hi!

     

    I don't know for sure if the MAC change is required for direct HW installation, maybe Andy could enlight us.

     

    Nighthawk just wrote a comment about this for N40L hardware: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6

     

    I assume that you need to look for your card MAC with the HEX editor and then change it. Haven't tested it so can't tell for sure.

     

    Good luck!

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