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XPEnology ESXI Installation follow up


enzym

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Hi all,

 

after two days of reading different topis and 'idiot guides' of this forum I finally managed to do a XPEnology ESXI Install on my small server and was able to use my 2GB HD as RDM.

Environment:

  • Intel DQ77KB (2x LAN), Celeron G1620 (2x 2.7GHz)
    8GB RAM
    ESXI 5.5
    Datastrorage 250GB HD ( 128MB mSata planed)
     
    DSM 5.0 (4493) / Update5
    NIC: VMXNET 3
    HD1: 16GB on Datastorage
    HD2: WD RED 2GB, physically RDM'ed (-z switch)

 

 

Transfer Speed:

I tested the transfer speed of the virtual DSM with a Windows7 client. So far i get

  • 75-80 MB/s reading
    60-70 MB/s writing

which is quite good i think .

Nevertheless I wonder if could increase speed:

The CPU load is about 30% max, so that wouldn't be the bottleneck. The Harddisk is able to do higher speeds as well.

So I suppose it is related to the network (which is virtulised and have to handle other transfers as well).

As I have two LAN Ports on my board (both working in ESXI), could I possibly 'dedicate' one for XPEnology? Or could I change something else which may result in higher tranfer speed?

 

 

Migration from DS214+/RAID:

Actually I'm running a DS214+ (DSM 4.3) with two 3GB HD's with Synoloyg Hybrid RAID (SHR).

Is there any way, to plug one of these Harddisks in my Server, RDM it and use it instead of my current HD2, without losing all data on that hd?

 

 

VMWare Tools:

I read something about a synology app that would install vmware tools. Does it already exist?

Is there a guide to install vmware tools manually, if no app is existing?

 

 

HD Hibernation:

I'm using my server over the whole day (and night), but sumed up not more than one hour a day, so hibernation (sleep) is important for me.

Is it possible in an ESXI environment, that a RMDed HD could hibernate (i understand that a virtualised hd at datastore could not hibernate)?

I tried to 'force' hibernation at XPEnology in

- using a clean install (just doing Update 5 and two volumes at two hds)

- logging of at the browser gui

- deconnecting! (via ESXI) the network

but it does not hibernate.

Does Hibernation works @ anyone who have a comparable setup?

 

 

ESXI Backup:

This isn't a genuine XPEnology topic but I - ESXI newbie - wonder how to backup my datastore.

As far as I know, VMWare is using a 'special' filesystem for the datastore, which backup solution is advisable (SOHO)?

 

 

Thanks for reading all the stuff, I would appreciate if could help me at any topic.

 

best regards,

Christian

 

BTW: I do really like that this forum allows non-members to access attachments. Most other forums forcing people to register just for reading one link.

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK,

 

one 'problem' solved:

Got a WD40EFRX (WD RED 4GB) and passed it as RDM. The previous transfer rates seems to be limited not by the nic but the other HD.

Now I got:

  • ~ 105 MB/s reading
    ~ 85 MB/s writing

which is (from my point of view) perfect.

My current DS214+ only tranfers 90MB/s reading and 65MB/s wrtiting.

 

best regards,

Christian

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VMware tools can be downloaded via this thread:

 

http://www.domotique-fibaro.fr/index.ph ... gy/page-21

 

Yeah, I found RDM much better than a VHD file, with performance matching my other N54L which is running Xpenology bare metal. I've set the power settings to 'balanced' under ESXi, but can't really tell if the drives are hibernating. It is something I want as mine is on 24/7 too.

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Perfect!

 

For the others, who might don't speak French like me, it's super simple:

- just download the the SPK File from the link in the first post

- install it via pakacke center / manual install

That it.

 

Thanx shteve for this, are you involved in the development?

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Nope, I just virtualised my Xpenology box recently and had the link saved as a favourite. The worst part for me was that damned write cache setting in the BIOS. I ended up buying an Intel network card, different memory and a different hard disk in getting to the bottom of that (and was the reason I was trying to install the VM-tools)! Probably a good thing tbh as my initial installs were using VHDs, and I moved into RDM set ups instead which feels a lot better to me.

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It's the open source version of vmware tools. Vmware only make them for Windows IIRC, and this gives some enhanced functionality to VMs. This is the Linux one packaged for install onto an Xpenology box. You need to have installed ESXi and then Xpenology before you can use it. ESXI is the base OS, just existing to allow VMs to be installed on top.

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