DSM 6.2 on esxi 6.7, how is DSM installed

[breacH]

Hello,

I would like to know how is DSM installed on virtual Xpenology setup.

In standard Synology setup, lets say for example a 4 bays device with 4 disk in RAID 5, the system is spread out on all disks to prevent failure. (every drive gets its own DSM parition)

But how does it work in the case mentionned in the title?

My setup is the following:
- Esxi 6.7
- DSM 6.2
- 5x3 TB in RAID 5

I did follow the installation tutorial for DSM 6.2 on esxi, so DSM was first install on a single VMDK (located on a single SSD).
Once this was up, i did shut down the system, plugged my hard drives in and booted it up again.
Only then i created a RAID 5 array within DSM.

My question is:
- Is DSM only installed on the first VMDK?
- Or has DSM been spread out on the hard drives aswell, once i created the RAID 5 array?

Thanks forward for any explaination.

Kind regards.

[jensmander]

DSM creates a single system partition on every drive which is attached (except for external usb devices). This applies to bare-metal and virtual systems. You can assign all vmdks or real drives (passthrough) before the installation.

[breacH]

Thanks for your reply.

So it means that even if the first install is on a single disk, and then a raid array is added, DSM will "expand itself" on these new drives?

Thanks again, and have a nice day!

[flyride]

DSM installs on all drives, unless you perform some unorthodox heroics.  When a disk shows "Initialized" it means that the DSM partition structure has been built on it.

[breacH]

Ok thanks a lot for the informations. 👍