Xpenology Discussion

springtide

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So there looks like there is now a community developed/ported 'clone' of the Synology OS that will run on standard x86 (if limited) hardware.

Legality: It seems that as Synology use GPL code for their OS and hence are some license requirements that mean they need to share the changes with the community.

The GNU General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

So the project to take advantage of the above has started and is being developed at:

http://xpenology.com/

I completed the install on a N54L last night and all seems to be working without any issues.

This is what I installed:
XPEnology NAS • View topic - XPEnology DS3612xs DSM 4.1 build 2668++ (more hardware)

And this was the step by step process of completing the install:
XPEnology NAS • View topic - Installing XPEnology in PC

The only bit that was not clear for me was booting. The USB key is needed to boot, but the system configuration is stored on the HDDs (and is mirrored across all drives in the pool). You need to avoid having the USB key attached when it creates the config volumes, but it is needed for booting.

In reading the documentation and legalities, it seems that although Synology will not exactly be happy with Xpenology development, as they are using GPL code there is nothing they can do to currently stop the project... but maybe in the future this may change.

If the mods have any objection about discussing this topic, please feel free to remove this post. I put up a headline yesterday and have had no feedback, so assume it's all fine.

Additional packages:
http://www.cphub.net
http://packages.quadrat4.de
 
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This sounds very interesting. I am interested in the power options for this, does it come with WOL and synology proprietary raid. As I currently have a 2 bay synology but lacks WOL and was considering a N54L upgrade. Also all the raid options with FreeNas are over whelming.
Thanks.
 
The version of Xpenology I have running is DSM 4.1 - so it has all of the same features including the RAID (and the apps).

The DSM OS I believe is embedded Linux, but obviously it's designed for specialist hardware. What the team have done, is taken the source code and the package, added Linux driver support for more hardware.

What this means is that to get WOL working, there must be hardware support on the system that is being deployed (and is obviously comparable with how it's being implemented).
So, if Synology have designed hardware specifically for their platform that isn't present on standard x86 hardware, then you'll not be able to get this working.

So there are limitations, but these are not that limited. I think the WOL and other Power Management Features maybe lacking with the N54L as it's a server designed to be run 24/7 (see the threads about the lack of S3 support in the BIOS).


I've tested FreeNAS and I do like it a lot. It needs a lot of RAM (1GB for every 1TB of RAW Storage) to run ZFS (and ZFS is the only option for RAID). ZFS & FreeNAS isn't as flexible with storage expansion compared to the Synology RAID.

Synology also has the advantage of the build-in apps - which are configured from within the main portal. And most importantly for me, Crashplan is very easy to setup on Xpenology.

But saying all the above (which looks to be very Xpenology biased), I feel more comfortable having my data stored on FreeNAS than Xpenology for the simple reason that Xpenology has a much smaller community (and it's future is uncertain if Synology move away from using GPL and/or make restrictions in an attempt to stop Xpenology development.
 
The cphub.net website you linked above is really useful. I am going to try out the advanced power management app later on my synology. If the N54L does not support S3 sleep, does that mean with DSM the power management sleep and wakeup features do not work? I dont like the idea of having the server on 24/7 and power management is one of the main features for me.
With regards to community support for Xpenology, if a version of DSM is stable and all the features are there one requires (4.1) do the legalities only come into it for future versions of DSM. So it may not be possible to upgrade in the future if synology make it illlegal. So your stuck on an old version of DMS.
 
I've been running Xpenology on a N40L with 5 2TB disks since February without any issues. I started with 4.1 then upgraded to 4.2 when that became available.

I had a readyNAS NV+ before getting the N40L & the difference is night & day. The Synology software is so much more flexible & genuinely useful. It serves all my streaming needs, both to TV's & iPads as well as serving my PC & Mac.
 
I've been running Xpenology on a N40L with 5 2TB disks since February without any issues. I started with 4.1 then upgraded to 4.2 when that became available.

I had a readyNAS NV+ before getting the N40L & the difference is night & day. The Synology software is so much more flexible & genuinely useful. It serves all my streaming needs, both to TV's & iPads as well as serving my PC & Mac.

I see that there are a few versions of the DSM 4.2 for the Microservers.

Which one and/or guide did you follow? And importantly, did you loose your data ;)
 
I see that there are a few versions of the DSM 4.2 for the Microservers.

Which one and/or guide did you follow? And importantly, did you loose your data ;)

I used the DS3612xs - DSM 4.2 build 3202 files & no I didn't loose any data when I upgraded, everything went very smoothly. I did have backups though :)
 
Does power scheduler work for automatic startup and shutdown with the hp microservers?
 
Quick question.... Did you use this guide?

[HOW-TO] Roll your own Synology DiskStation for NAS - UPDATE 5/28/2013 DSM 4.2-3211

Or the one over at the Xpenology forum? And is the upgrade procedure the same as the install?

I used that one but you can use either. Yes the upgrade process is exactly the same.

By the way although the 4.2-3211 update is the latest version from Synology I haven't upgraded to that version yet as 4.2-3202 is perfectly stable for me & as it's only just been released I'll wait a while to see if there are any issues.
 
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Does power scheduler work for automatic startup and shutdown with the hp microservers?

It certainly does for shutdown but I haven't tried it for startup.
 
ok thanks. I ve been reading of people reporting in DSM 4.1 that the hard drives never spin down, so the HDD hibernation feature doesn't work. Have you found this to be true in 4.2 as well?
 
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ok thanks. I ve been reading of people reporting in DSM 4.1 that the hard drives never spin down, so the HDD hibernation feature doesn't work. Have you found this to be true in 4.2 as well?

Don't know, I'll have a look, I've just setup WOL too so will report back on that later.
 
I used that one but you can use either. Yes the upgrade process is exactly the same.

By the way although the 4.2-3211 update is the latest version from Synology I haven't upgraded to that version yet as 4.2-3202 is perfectly stable for me & as it's only just been released I'll wait a while to see if there are any issues.

Thanks. I have now upgraded to 4.2-3202, and still have my data and apps!

Edit...

I noticed that the nfsd.ko module wasn't being loaded - hence NFS wasn't functional. A bit of googling took me to:
http://xpenology.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=558&p=2600&hilit=nfs#p2600

It seems that the module "auth_rpcgss.ko" is required by nfsd.ko and needs to be loaded if NFS is enabled... so you just need to add the following towards the end of the /etc/rc file

File: /etc/rc
------------------------------------------------------------

..
..##### Start Load module for NFS #####

Support=`/bin/get_key_value /etc.defaults/synoinfo.conf supportNFS`

if [ "$Support" = "yes" ]; then
insmod /lib/modules/auth_rpcgss.ko
fi

##### END Load module for NFS #####



SYNOTunnel

exit 0

------------------------------------------------------------
 
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I have installed I have installed sinology DSM 4.2-3202 installed on my HP Microserver 54L.

Everything seems to work fine, except I can't get an external USB hard drive to work - I want to use this to back up my data from my microserver to it

The microserver recognises the usb hard drive under storage manager > HDD management but the status is "not initialized".

If I go to backup and restore, the external USB drive is not recognised. It is also not recognised under control panel > devices and printers > external devices.

The drive my original formatted as NTFS, and I've now tried ext3 - neither seem to work (I've mounted and formatted using the guide on Linux Hard Disk Format Command)


Can anyone help?
 
Configured my N40L running DSM 4.2-3202 for WOL & HDD hibernate but haven't been able to get WOL to work even though everything looks to be configured correctly with the "real" MAC address etc. As for HDD hibernate, again it's enabled but I can't see any way of verifying if it's working or not.

Has anyone else got WOL or HDD hibernation working or have any suggestions ?
 
HDD hibernation works on my N54L using the modded BIOS.

I can't get Wake After Power Loss to work - says I don't have the rights as an admin ><
 
HDD hibernation works on my N54L using the modded BIOS.

I can't get Wake After Power Loss to work - says I don't have the rights as an admin ><

What version of DSM are you running?
 
Installed version 4.2 and got it running but a lot to learn .I have a drive installed on the 2nd sata port but this is not showing on the disk station only the 2 drives installed in the bays show up. Any ideas why please
 
Installed version 4.2 and got it running but a lot to learn .I have a drive installed on the 2nd sata port but this is not showing on the disk station only the 2 drives installed in the bays show up. Any ideas why please

Have you flashed the bios? DSM won't recognise them otherwise. The other thing to check, is the drive unformatted, if not put it into a PC & delete any partitions then try again.
 
Have you flashed the bios? DSM won't recognise them otherwise. The other thing to check, is the drive unformatted, if not put it into a PC & delete any partitions then try again.

Bios is flashed I had windows server 2011 installed on it and that worked,will delete the partitions and try again thanks
 

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