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I haven't yet installed it, but I will shortly on ESXi 5.1. I have an older (slow) consumer Synology myself and use FreeNAS for personal large data storage. I'm hoping to be able to use 10 drives (Raw Device Mapping) in a SHR-2 (two drive data redundancy) combination under ESXi. Do you know if your version will support this many (physical pass-through PVSCSI) drives? (FYI: Awesome Raid Calculator: http://www.synology.com/support/RAID_ca ... hp?lang=us). It would be great if I'm able to combine everything and leave FreeNAS behind. As I also support many businesses which are using Synology; to also have a virtual development & deployment testing environment before deploying the actual Synology hardware would be incredible. Cheers & Thanks for all your work.

another problem ... When I connect a USB drive to any port, it is detected as an internal disk. So no partitions mounted NTFS / FAT. Someone happens? Thanks advanced!

This release will not work on VMWare since IDE/SCSI drivers are missing. It works on VirtualBox with data drives configured as SATA. This command will convert the boot image to compatible format: VboxManage convertfromraw DS3612xs_3202-Repack.img DS3612xs_3202-Repack.vmdk --format vmdk or VboxManage convertfromraw DS3612xs_3202-Repack.img DS3612xs_3202-Repack.vdi

After some hours of hacking I now have fully working ESXi 5.1 virtual machine setup with DS 4.2 (3202). To get PVSCSI and VMXNET3 working a new kernel needs to be compiled. To make matters worse, scsi drives are not supported at all. So some steps need to be done: scsi disk support must be added to drivers/scsi/sd.c so that they are marked as SYNO_DISK_SATA instead of SYNO_DISK_UNKNOWN disks must be marked as system disks so that the md will autodetect the system raid partition (gd->systemDisk = 1) having ata as well as scsi disks will not work. quick workaround is to disable sata support from the kernel. this has the added benefit of hiding the boot disk partitions if sata is disabled some important symbols are not compiled in and synobios.ko module will not load, causing scemd to halt the system implement dummy synobios kernel module that keeps scemd happy Performance seems to be excellent, quite possibly due to paravirtualized drivers. S.M.A.R.T. is not working, but that was expected. Some things are still in todo-list: compile in open-vm-tools to keep esxi from nagging about installing tools clean up kernel from unneeded device drivers, also clean modules from hd image try to get scemd not to constantly poll SYNOIO_SET_DISK_LED and SYNOIO_GET_EUNIT_TYPE investigate if using stock kernel is possible with dummy synobios and CONFIG_EXT4_FS_SYNO_ACL

Does this not support USB drives? or USB sticks? if it does support usb, how to make it work?

It depend on what synoboot image you use. System does not need the synoboot image after boot. Images built by "Andy928" identify USB synoboot as an internal harddrive and while not used by system after boot, are still visible and can be overwritten by volume creation process if you are not careful deselecting them. DSM4.2(beta) repack images by "odie82544" identify USB synoboot as USB drive and can be safely ejected after boot. You still can leave them plugged in for the next reboot. Single internal SSD drive will have no use in this native installation. In HP microserver I would use 4 drives as main RAID storage, one large drive in the CDROM bay as a second volume for the backups. Disable built in RAID in the BIOS and let software to handle disks directly.

I really like this build."Correction: I am actually using DS3612xs_2661-Repack, not RS3413xs+, but apart from seeing first two drives as SSD, everything else works the same" Synoboot USB correctly identified as USB flash and can be ejected after boot. All USB ports and external drives are visible and working, but HID UPS still not working. During the installation of DSM USB is not overwritten or corrupted. Installed on ASUS E35M1-I (AMD E-350). Currently installed 4GB of RAM but it doesn't use that much. Even with 1GB RAM it was not using more than 50%. CPU show high utilization on thumbnail generation and during rsync backup, but unit is still very responsive. Performance is comparable with DS412+. 1Gbps network can be saturated with any type of RAID.

Does this not support USB drives? or USB sticks?

Virtualbox can emulate more controllers. You can add more SATA adapters and drives, but you are creating the files for your virtual drives that even slower than RDM. In my tests on ESXi, RDM RW speed were hovering around 50mbps. On the direct, standalone installation over 100mbps, limited by 1Gbps LAN speed. Synology DSM is distributed and installed on all "initialized" internal drives. If any of them survive the move to another system, they will have migratable or degraded status, but can be repaired or updated without erasing data. System partition can be upgraded with different version of DSM during the repair, keeping volumes with data safe. I've moved 4 drives from DS412+ to XPEnology box and it didn't even require repair. The volume just showed up with all the data.

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.

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 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 I appreciate your performance feedback.

This is old question in IT field ... virtual vs real ... I'd say it's really up to your environment. I have a real synology 712+ at home and a major PRO for me is the power consumption. It uses like 15W. Most PC hardware uses around 100W and in some cases even more (in my gaming PC, only VGA card needs around 275W). That can add up on your monthly bill. Other thing is availability. If it is virtual on a home machine that tends to be rebooted - the synology goes offline too. So at my home i'd go for a real BOX running xpenology on it. In my company that has existing VMWare platform that is based on 5 clustered hosts i'd go for VMWare image of xpenology because the platform is already there and anyway needs to be up 24/7 (and company pays the electrical bill). Ideal home platform would consist of mobo with dual core atom, 4Gb ram, and 2x or 4x 2Tb drives spinning at 5400 RPM. My synology ds712+ has 1Gb ram and singe core atom 1.8GHz. It is behind 50/5mbit line. I use pptp vpn, download station, file server, media server, video station, ... CPU hits 100% only when i add new pics to photo station (because they are 12mpix, roughly 6Mb average in size). Video station streams flawlessly without any hickups, while my downloads run in background. So my normal scenario consists of my son watching movies at PS3 over syno media server(LAN), my download station downloading torrents(WAN), my wife watching tv show over cifs share(LAN), my friend downloading my stuff over file station(LAN) and me watching a movie over video station(WAN). My 1.8Ghz cpu is at 7% and memory usage is at 21% ... so i think having a strong cpu like i3/i5/i7 is waste of money and a massive overkill (for home users, not ones that will put syno in gigabit LAN enviroment with >50 users accessing it). Also one thing i noticed is people wanting to use SSD for OS. People - it is not a gaming machine that needs to load BF3 map within seconds. Any 5400/7200rpm sata HDD will do. My first synology ds107 is today up and running with 250Gb samsung sata2 drive. It is running 24/7 without hibernation or standby and it works like a charm.

Thank you so much! Very good. Does this not support USB drives? or USB sticks?

Trying to determine whether there are any gotchas with setting up systems with more than 10 disks? I have a DS412+, and I've really enjoyed the ease of use - my main NAS/SAN currently runs OpenFiler, and I'd love to move it over to xpenology. Boots just fine on the main board (Intel S5000PSL), and detects the SAS controller (IBM M1015), but I have that attached to 3 Chenbro SAS expanders (16 drives each). I know Linux itself will most definitely work, but was wondering if there were any artificial limitations in the Synology interface that would make this combination unusable? The largest con figs on the Synology gear support 36 disks, so short of dismantling my existing setup, does anyone know if this will work? Thanks!

I am currently running XPEnology native on my N40L however I stumbled on the issue that the drives will not go in hibernation. The /var/log/messages file is full with this line: scemd: smartctl_ata_command_interface.c:117 ata ioctl HDIO_DRIVE_CMD error I am 2 of these drives: Western Digital WD30EZRX All services are down, disconnected the internet cable from the NIC. Does anyone have an idea how to fix this? Thanks.

В самом начале тестирования XPEnology на HP Microserver N36L делал много переустановок и почему-то довольно часто затирался загрузочный USB диск, несмотря на принимаемые меры. Неопытный, однако... Меня это достало и вроде нашел нормальное решение этой проблемы. Загрузочный диск делается на карте SD либо microSD но(!) с переходником. После создания диска его нужно просто механически заблокировать на запись (там рычажок Lock есть такой) и готово. В комп карта вставляется с помощью любого подходящего картридера, лучше миниатюрного типа обычной USB флешки. Кроме того встречаются (редко) USB флешки с механическим блокиратором записи. На некоторых моделях (если вскрыть корпус) иногда сам переключатель не распаян, но место под него и контакты предусмотрены. Остается аккуратно присобачить свой простейший замыкатель контактов. Я нашел одну такую (нераспаянную) флешку - Transcend на 8ГБ, сейчас испытываю её после проведения паяльных работ. Некоторые флешки, кроме того, требуют, чтобы в Микросервере в БИОСе режим эмуляции для USB дисков стоял не в положении Auto, а именно в Hard Drive. В Аuto некоторые флешки дают сообщение GRUB Error при попытке загрузиться, либо загружаются через раз, сбивая с толку таким поведением. Заблокирован ли загрузочный USB диск от записи проверяется и выводится на монитор при загрузке системе в общей куче. Предполагаю, что на родных Synology загрузочный диск заблокирован от записи по умолчанию.

Hi together, I would like to know what you would do in my situation: I have XPE running on a HP MicroSerer N40L running VMWare ESXi 5.0 The reason why vmware is that I have to run another small machine on it. Now my question is how would you set up the data storage if you were me? I have three Hard Disks dedicated for NAS data storage, 2TB, 2TB, 3TB A fourth HDD of 1 TB is used as vmware datastore for placing the system containers on. I could now use three ways to create a storage: Option 1: Semi-HW-RAID Use the onboard RAID Controller (HP) and create a RAID5 over all three disks and give the resulting logical disc as a raw device over to XPE which will then detect one data-disc connected. Advantages: RAID is done before any OS sees the drive. So vmware only has to deal with one drive. Disatvantages: a) If my board crashes I probably might not find a replace... oh! It's HP You know what I mean... b) If I decide to move to another device anytime I will need to backup and restore all data. Option 2: SW-RAID5 Pass all three discs to XPE and let the DSM create a software raid Adv: I can pull the discs out and put them into a DiskStation any time without forcefully having to backup and restore. Dadv: vmware has to deal with three discs Option 3: Container Create SEMI-HW-RAID but do not pass the RAW "device" to XPE but use it as ESX datastore. Then create a big vHD for XPE. Additional to Advs and Diss of Option 1 there is the positive point that I could also use the storage for vHDs. Another negative point is that I have one more layer between the software and effectively writing the block... What way would you use?

Hello, I am running the XPEnology_DS3612xs_2668 on a Intel D2700MUD motherboard. Everything is working perfect. The only issue I have is when I do a reboot from the GUI. The http://ip-nas:5000/webman/... Is not accessible. I can still login with SSH but when I give a reboot command nothing happens. Does anyone know what this problem can be and how to fix it. At the moment a manual hard reset is the only option. For the rest keep up the good work Cheers Burner1977

Thank you very much for the VMware img. I have it running on ESXi 5.1. Is PVSCSI supported? I can only add 2 more RDM drives as IDE. I have 3 other drives to add. Is this possible? Thanks!

thanks for this great build. Anyone try to install on PC? It's seems doesn't support hard drive hibernation. I have enable the HD hibernation on DSM control panel. But never enter hibernation mode.

У меня есть старый PATA Disk. Можно ли его использовать как загрузочный вместо USB Drive? На материнке поддержка PATA присутствует. И еще вопрос. Сейчас когда я подключаю внешний USB диск они не виден в разделе Exsternal Drives, а добавляется в список внутренних. Можно ли это поправить?

Hello to all! I have a Acer Gateway GN500F1 Windows Home Server (seems to be somehow compatible to H340) and I'm trying to install Qnology or XPEnology. I got both working with an additinal Intel network card. The only problem I have is: - the integrated NIC is not supported... Well I can live with the gibabit dual port but this card has a really high power consumption also in standby... - I can't get hdd hibernation working. It says "Failed to setup WOL" - The integrated usb stick (motherboard integrated) has been overwitten on installing DSM (ok so far) and is recognized by DSM all the time... I tried to configure HDD hibernation using hdparm without success. The drives are WD10EADS (4x). I only need the NAS (at the moment) to stream videos to my wdtvlive and to access and backup data from laptop... So I really don't need a NAS that allways runs and I'm done running up and downstairs just to switch on the NAS I really hope someone can help me... Bernd

ok... For the NIC I will use a intel gigabit desktop adapter with just a single port. The power consumption is much less than the dual port server adapter. But I'm going crazy on the hibernation / standby problem with the HDDs. I just tried to use a WD20EARS. I reinstalled XPEnology on just a single drive. I can't get it to sleep. The DSM says "Failed to setup WOL" using hdparm -Y the drive just enters sleep mode for some seconds... I'll try to test with a Samsung HDD... Maybe I'll also try to use a different NIC as mentioned above... Maybe WOL will work and the drives will suspend?!

Hmm... After some more investigation on hhd sleep: hdparm -S 60 /dev/sd... is accepted but the disk does not spin down. hdparm -Y /dev/sd... is successful but the disk spins up again after a few seconds. REMARK: a fresh installation of DSM is done before. There are NO data partitions except the DSM OS... It seems to be an issue with my WD10EADS drives. I found several threads with the same problem. They suggest to use hd-idle... Any experience on hd-idle on XPEnology? Bernd

Just use "syno_hibernate_debug_tool --enable 10" and see "/var/log/messages" to find out, which applications uses uour drives. I just try..and no message it's clean....i try --enable-force and same...no went go to standby mode.. I will try my second NL40...