Howto disable DSM 7.x phone home systemd services

[Balrog]

After upgrading from DSM 6.2 Update 3 to DSM 7.1.0-42661 Update 2 I see that there are some failing systemd services:

root@test4:~# systemctl list-units --state failed
  UNIT                           LOAD   ACTIVE SUB    DESCRIPTION
● syno-oob-check-status.service  loaded failed failed Out of Band Management Status Check
● synoindex-checkpackage.service loaded failed failed synoindex check if there are any synoindex-related packages
● SynoInitEth.service            loaded failed failed Adjust NIC sequence

LOAD   = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB    = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

3 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

I got some news about the failed services!

It seems that DSM 7.x phone home information at every boot and, if e.g. "Photos" is installed, even every 30 seconds(!):

journalctl -u pkg-SynologyPhotos-js-server.service -b

Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 systemd[1]: Starting SynologyPhotos JS Server...
Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 synocloudserviceauth[15672]: cloudservice_get_api_key.cpp:21 Cannot get key
Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 synocloudserviceauth[15672]: cloudservice_register_api_key.cpp:293 Register api key failed: Auth Fail
Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 synofoto-bin-push-service[15669]: pushservice_update_ds_token.c:52 fgets failed
Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 synofoto-bin-push-service[15669]: pushservice_update_ds_token.c:147 Can't set api key
Jun 11 09:58:31 test4 systemd[1]: pkg-SynologyPhotos-js-server.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1

 

I think I got a solution.

 

Just disable these services:

systemctl disable pkg-SynologyPhotos-js-server.service
systemctl stop pkg-SynologyPhotos-js-server.service

 

There are 2 other systemd-services which runs at every boot and as they are depended by other services they can not be easily deactivated but we can "mask" them which means that the symlink from systemd will be made to `/dev/null`. So this service can't start anymore also.

systemctl mask syno-oob-check-status.service
systemctl mask SynoInitEth.service

 

After a reboot there are no more failed systemd services:

root@test4:~# systemctl list-units --state failed
0 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

WIN!

 

As I don't know if the disabled services are important for a DSM update one can enable/activate them before updating in future:

systemctl enable pkg-SynologyPhotos-js-server.service
systemctl unmask syno-oob-check-status.service
systemctl unmask SynoInitEth.service

reboot

 

I think the disabled services can't do any harm as they are failing anyway.

But beware: I dont know any sideeffects till now!
I will have an eye on the services anyway the next days.

 

I got another test-installation where I got 2 additional failing services (but again: I do not see anything not working or missing):

root@test2:~# systemctl list-units --state failed
  UNIT                           LOAD   ACTIVE SUB    DESCRIPTION
● syno-mount-usbfs.service       loaded failed failed Mount usb fs
● syno-oob-check-status.service  loaded failed failed Out of Band Management Status Check
● synoindex-checkpackage.service loaded failed failed synoindex check if there are any synoindex-related packages
● SynoInitEth.service            loaded failed failed Adjust NIC sequence

`synoindex-checkpackage.service` may be related to `Universal Search` but I am not 100% sure.

 

I appreciate any additional thoughts and information about these failing services.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Balrog
fixed typos