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Migrating to Xpenology


Bonobo

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Hello

 

I found out about xpenology a few days ago and have been messing around with it in virtualbox just to check it out. I kind of fell in love with the ease of use that it offers. However, I have a few questions before I move from Ubuntu Server to Xpenology.

 

1. Reliability

How stable is it? I have a solid backup solution that I can use to recover my data but I'd rather not.

Does it contain backdoors in any way? Synology is Chinese so it's not weird to think this. The Synology systems had a few backdoors/bugs(no practical difference really, and I'm ignoring synolocker here)

 

2. Difference nanoboot/gnoboot

To me they look like GRUB clones, which is probably wrong. What is the difference between the 2? I tried searching for it but I could find no clear differences in regard to Xpenology.

 

3. Aptitude/apt-get or something like it

I had some success installing ipkg on virtualbox but it was kind of weird and didn't always run depending on user and folder location. (not a rights issue)

Is there a standard way of installing a package manager? I used a bootstrap script which also left a bootstrap folder in location i ran the script from. You'd think it would get binaries and put them in a global /bin folder so you can run them...

In a best case scenario I'd like to be able to use "apt-get install nano" for example. I think I saw a Debian chroot somewhere but I couldn't figure out how chroot works.

 

4. Hardware support

Tricky one and hard to answer I think. How is the hardware support generally? Does it work with newer systems like a 1900J atom board? or AM1 APU boards?

I also have a SSD but I've read about Xpenology running on ALL hard drives and not able to run from 1 seperate drive. How does that even work?

I'd also like to NOT use a USB with my system. Is that possible?

What does SSD cache do and does it actually work?

 

I'd really appreciate someone helping me with these questions.

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1. Reliability

How stable is it? I have a solid backup solution that I can use to recover my data but I'd rather not.

Does it contain backdoors in any way? Synology is Chinese so it's not weird to think this. The Synology systems had a few backdoors/bugs(no practical difference really, and I'm ignoring synolocker here)

It's hard to find something completely perfect in this world so as long as majority say it's good, it's good :wink:

2. Difference nanoboot/gnoboot

To me they look like GRUB clones, which is probably wrong. What is the difference between the 2? I tried searching for it but I could find no clear differences in regard to Xpenology.

nanoboot/gnoboot is on USB used to boot so honestly, most people don't care since this is not desktop replacement but more like a sever and people don't reboot server every single day

3. Aptitude/apt-get or something like it

I had some success installing ipkg on virtualbox but it was kind of weird and didn't always run depending on user and folder location. (not a rights issue)

Is there a standard way of installing a package manager? I used a bootstrap script which also left a bootstrap folder in location i ran the script from. You'd think it would get binaries and put them in a global /bin folder so you can run them...

In a best case scenario I'd like to be able to use "apt-get install nano" for example. I think I saw a Debian chroot somewhere but I couldn't figure out how chroot works.

I'm just a Linux newbie but I think you should direct package installation to Synology since most if not all packages are from them

4. Hardware support

Tricky one and hard to answer I think. How is the hardware support generally? Does it work with newer systems like a 1900J atom board? or AM1 APU boards?

I also have a SSD but I've read about Xpenology running on ALL hard drives and not able to run from 1 seperate drive. How does that even work?

I'd also like to NOT use a USB with my system. Is that possible?

What does SSD cache do and does it actually work?

I'm testing on Atom, some have HP sever which is AMD and some even have i-series so it's not really CPU but the HW you might add-on.

I might be wrong but I think Xpen only installed on first drive but will write to all drives.

About USB, answer in 2 :wink:

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DSM is installed on the first internal hard drive and mirrored to all internal drives during initialization of them for redundancy.

Rest of the initialized drives space used to create data volumes or disk groups in various RAID configurations.

Volumes than used to store folder shares, apps and their configurations, logs. Disk groups (if created) used to host block iSCSI targets or data volumes.

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So Xpenology installs to the data drives then I guess. Is there any reason for that? I'd like to keep my data and the OS separate to be honest.

The reason for that is that having a full separation allows you to migrate really easily and will be able to change the OS whenever you want.

 

I'll just use as much "external" packages to access the server from the outside to prevent any backdoors from being abused. Synolocker 2.0 isn't a pretty thought.

 

If there is a manual I'd love to see it.

Threads that have for example gnoboot or nanoboot don't bother explaining what it is, it's being assumed you already know. Is there any reason why GRUB or Lilo isn't being used? I tried super grub disk but xpenology doesn't have a syslinux file.

I'm not a complete moron on IT, just not familiar with Xpenology. I figured out how the Debian chroot works so that's nice. It's simpler then it looks.

 

That comment about taking risks... It's data we're talking about here. Taking risks is not in my dictionary in the case of data, and it shouldn't be in yours.

I'll give it a shot soon.

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The reason DSM installs to all drives is redundancy, you won't actually notice it.

 

Xpenology isn't really an OS in the same sense that windows or OSX is, it's just a means to store & share your data to your chosen OS.

 

As for manuals, take a look in the guides section, there are lots to choose from. viewforum.php?f=15

 

If you really want to be as totally risk free & have support then buy a real Synology.

 

Oh & Synology is Taiwanese not Chinese

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That comment about taking risks... It's data we're talking about here. Taking risks is not in my dictionary in the case of data, and it shouldn't be in yours.

I'll give it a shot soon.

 

Wow - really missed the point. Not all data is equal so your comment is pointless.

 

Like I said - if you don't want to take risks then this is not the solution for you.

 

If you do like to take risks, and you backup your data (which you should be doing anyway), then go for it. I am just trying to stop people who mention "risk" in their post from taking a risk.

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The reason for that is that having a full separation allows you to migrate really easily and will be able to change the OS whenever you want.

That is "very safe" behavior. Completely appropriate for not putting your precious data at risk and no need for the backup. Way to go (not).

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