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DSM 7.1.1 on Gigabyte C246M-WU4 (Baremetal or ESXi 8.0)


jhonny

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Just wanted to report that Gigabyte C246M-WU4 is an excellent choice for building using Tinycore Redpill.

You can configure it both using ESXi 8.0 and put the SATA controller in passthrough mode or

you can deploy TinyCore natively to the system and it works perfectly. Hot swap of drives works as well. So does onboard Ethernet.
And with the StarTech PEXM2SAT3422 adapter I have 2 NVME drives that show up as SSD's in DSM (when the adapter is setup in JBOD mode). I can create a RAID1 on them as well in DSM.

Alternatively I can create a virtual disk from the two NVME drives on the PEXM2SAT3422 adapter and present that as a virtual disk and install ESXi on it.

 

 

Hardware I used:

CPU: i7 8700 (non-k)

RAM: 4 x 16GB Corsair 2666 MHz memory

MOBO: Gigabyte C246M-WU4

CASE: UNAS NSC-810A

USB: SanDisk Fit 32GB

PCI: StarTech 2 x M.2 adapter, model: PEXM2SAT3422

PCI: 10Gtek Intel 82576 2 port ethernet card

 

Here are the instructions for setting DSM 7.1.1 up in ESXi 8.0:

Quote

SETUP ESXi
===========
Install ESXi 8.0

Once ESXi is booted:
- Set a password
- in Troubleshooting Options
    Enable SSH
    Enable CLI


ENABLE PASSTHROUGH OF DEVICES:
==============================

Ssh into the ESXi host from your laptop
cd /etc/vmware
vi passthru.map


Add the following to the end of the file:

# Gigabyte C246M-WU4
8086  a352  d3d0     default
# Gigabyte C246M-WU4 USB Port
0718  069c  d3d0     default


Login to ESXi GUI web interface:
- Go to: Manage -> Hardware -> PCI Devices
    - Select: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH-H AHCI Controller and click the "Toggle Passthrough" button. You will get an error, but the device will nw go into "required reboot" state.
- Reboot ESXi server

CREATE THE SYNOLOGY VM SHELL:
==============================

Once back up and running:

- Create / Register VM
- Create a new virtual machine
    Name: Synology
    Compatibility: ESXi 8.0 virtual machine
    Guest OS family: Linux
    Guest OS version: Other 3.x Linux (64-bit)
- storage: datastore1
- Customize settings:
    CPU: 4
    Memory: 8096 MB
    Expand memory option and select: [x] Reserve all guest memory (All locked)
- Remove Hard disk 1
- Remove SCSI Controller 0
- Remove USB Controller 1
- Remove CD/DVD Drive 1
- Remove Network Adapter 1
- Finish

(you will receive an error that the VM can't start in this state, disregard the error)

Edit the Synology VM settings (right click: Edit settings)
- remove the SATA Controller 0
Save.

Edit the Synology VM settings (right click: Edit settings)
- Add other device: SATA Controller 
- Save

Edit the Synology VM settings (right click: Edit settings)
- Add hard disk -> New standard hard disk
    size: 21 GB
    thick provisioned lazily zeroed
    Controller location: SATA controller 0 SATA 0:0

Edit the Synology VM settings (right click: Edit settings)
- Add other device -> PCI device: Cannon Lake PCH-H AHCI Controller
- Add other device -> PCI device: Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter
- Add other device -> PCI device: Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter
- Add other device -> PCI device: uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller
- Save


Edit the Synology VM settings (right click: Edit settings)
- Add network adapter: VM Network
    [x] Connect at power on
    Adapter type: E1000e
    MAC Address: Automatic
- Save


COPY TINYCORE TO DATASTORE:
===========================
From ESXi Web gui go to: Storage: datastore 1 -> Datastore browser

Select: Datastore1 -> Synology 
You should see in there already:
    Synology.vmdk
    Synology.vmsd
    Synology.vmx

Click: Upload
select file: tinycore-redpill.v0.9.3.0.vmdk.gz
Close

Open an SSH session to ESXi host.

cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Synology
ls -la

You should see:

[root@localhost:/vmfs/volumes/63aba548-3fbb4c6a-73d1-b42e993658f8/Synology] ls -la
total 22120576
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         73728 Dec 28 03:33 .
drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root         73728 Dec 28 03:22 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root     22548578304 Dec 28 03:28 Synology-flat.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root           443 Dec 28 03:28 Synology.vmdk
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root             0 Dec 28 03:22 Synology.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          2743 Dec 28 03:30 Synology.vmx
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root     101082797 Dec 28 03:33 tinycore-redpill.v0.9.3.0.vmdk.gz


gunzip tinycore-redpill.v0.9.3.0.vmdk.gz

vmkfstools -i tinycore-redpill.v0.9.3.0.vmdk SynologyTinyCore.vmdk

cp SynologyTinyCore.vmdk Synology.vmdk
overwrite ? -> yes

cp SynologyTinyCore-flat.vmdk Synology-flat.vmdk
overwrite ? -> yes

exit > close ssh session

CONFIGURING TINYCORE:
=====================

Start the Synology VM
Once TinyCore loads in the terminal type:

Ctrl+C to exit the bottom screen. Top terminal should remain open. 
In there type:

./rploader.sh 

(get the value of the newest version of firmware for ds3622 e.g.:
ds3622xsp-7.1.1-42962 - you will need this later)

./rploader.sh serialgen DS3622xs+ realmac

Serial number for Model = adasdafafwefwef
Mac address for Model DS3622xs+ = 00:xx:zz:cc:ss:dd
Real Mac Address : 00:0c:29:5e:2e:d4
Notice: realmac option is requested, real mac will be used
Should i update the user_config.json with these values ? 

Y
Enter


./rploader.sh satamap

Machine is VIRTUAL Hypervisor=VMware

Found "02:01:0 VMware SATA AHCI controller'
Detected 30 ports/1 drives. Mapping SATABOOT drive after maxdisks

Found "03:00.0 Intel Corporation Device a352 (rev 10)"
Detected 8 ports/8 drives. Override # of ports oor Enter to accept <8>

Press ENTER

Computed settings:
SataPortMap=18
DiskIdxMap=1000

Should i update the user_config.json with these values ?

Y
Enter

./rploader.sh backup


./rploader.sh build ds3622xsp-7.1.1-42962 <<<-- make sure its the latest value for ds3622 by running just ./rploader.sh without any flags)

Y
Enter


exitcheck.sh reboot

When it does make sure to select SATA in the gurb menu, you only have 1 second to do it.


The Synology VM will now load

Open up synology assistant and setup as you would a normal synology


ENABLE SSH AND ENABLE SHR:
=========================
Once Synology is setup and you can access the web gui
Enable SSH in Control Panel
login via ssh into your synology using your admin account.


cd /etc.defaults
sudo vi synoinfo.conf


Password: type in your admin password.

search for a line  supportphoto="yes"

above it add:

support_syno_hybrid_raid="yes"
 

and also comment out using "#" the following line:

supportraidgroup="yes"
change to:
#supportraidgroup="yes"

write + quit
:wq!


reboot synology from synology gui.

 

Here are the instructions for setting DSM 7.1.1 up in baremetal mode:

Quote

In the BIOS setup CSM to enabled and make sure boot mode for storage / network devices is set to Legacy.

Prepare the USB as per the instructions in github

Make sure to use these commands: 

./rploader.sh update

./rploader.sh fullupgrade

./rploader.sh serialgen DS3622xs+ realmac

./rploader.sh identifyusb

./rploader.sh satamap (make sure to limit the number of ports to 2 for the Marvell 88SE9230 / PEXM2SAT3422 controller

./rploader.sh backup

./rploader.sh build ds3622xsp-7.1.1-42962

exitcheck.sh reboot

Now setup the system as you normally would a synology (With Synology Assistant)

 

Once Synology is setup and you can access the web gui
Enable SSH in Control Panel
login via ssh into your synology using your admin account.


cd /etc.defaults
sudo vi synoinfo.conf


Password: type in your admin password.

search for a line  supportphoto="yes"

above it add:

support_syno_hybrid_raid="yes"
 

and also comment out using "#" the following line:

supportraidgroup="yes"
change to:
#supportraidgroup="yes"

 

 

Edited by jhonny
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