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[HOW-TO] Roll your own Synology DiskStation for NAS - Page 2

post #31 of 190
3/8/13 at 1:04pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by magnusvr View Post

Hi R3zon8,

wow, I have been looking for a writeup like this for a long time, thank you! Very keen o try it! I have a 411j but feel that it is too slow.
But:

1. Do you still get the SHR "hybrid raid", or are the drives suddenly handled only by the N40L microserver?
Answer myself: Never mind, I see above that you mention SHR, good.

2. I guess updating the Synology the ordinary way is out of the question? How would we be able to update other than await a newer package from you? DSM 4.2 is out today for instance. Want! smile.gif

3. The N40L, is Intel-compatible right? Thinking of the Plex plugin which only supports transcoding in intel based Synologys. The N40L has an AMD, I guess that will count as Intel based?

4. I get 5 drive support with the N40L and hacked Bios? Not 4+1 or anything like that, IE I can have 5 drives in one big raidset?

5. Do we know of any good way of extending the number of drives of the N40L, like an external SATA tower and a PCI-card? Just toying with the idea.

6. So the 1 Sata drive required, will that always be allocated for the OS and prohibit for storage use, or can you make a 5 drive hybrid raid from start?
Answer: Never mind, also now read that you mention 1 minumum, I'll read that as a 1-5 drive SHR.

Thanks for posting this!

KR
Magnus, Sweden

Hi Magnus,

Youre welcome.

1. Yes, you can create a SHR and/or any other type of raid that DSM supports.

2. 4.2 is still in beta IIRC, when 4.2 final/GM build is released I will update my OP.

3. Yes, N40L is x_86 based. It will work.

4. Yes, 5 drive volume.

5. Add a SATA controller based on the chipset I listed as compatible and you should be able to add more ports/drives to the N40L. Where you fit them is another story.

6. 1 drive is required when you run through the installation the first time. DSM required this to install itself. If your unit is fully populated from Day1, yes create a 5Drive SHR during installation if you wish.
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post #32 of 190
3/8/13 at 1:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hoops10 View Post

I have an old Gateway E-4200 desktop lying around that I would like to try installing this on. Do you think it will work or is it too old? Thanks.

As long at the chipset for the motherboard that system uses is listed then yes it will work.
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post #33 of 190
3/8/13 at 5:46pm
r3zon8, thanks for your fantastic post. But it still doesn't work on my n40L. My n40l configuraton: one 1TB 3.5" in hard-drive cage 1 and one 250G 3.5" in hard-drive cage 2; optical BR-DVD drive on top. System is windows 7. I first created a USB botable flash drive, shut down windows 7 and then restarted computer. It seemed to recognize my USB drive and installed something but now that 20130307_213137.jpg 1106k .jpg file showed up. Could you please tell me what went wrong?
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post #34 of 190
3/9/13 at 5:36am
Also, will the setup from bios crash the windows 7already sit on my hard drive? Is DSM operating inside windows 7 on the same drive? Thanks.
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post #35 of 190
3/9/13 at 5:37am
Tried another one. The same issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by replayrob View Post

Try another USB stick- the smaller the better. I use the 1gb Lexar Firefly USB sticks for booting- larger drives sometimes have boot issues.
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post #36 of 190
3/9/13 at 12:53pm
Need Help.
I tried doing a test of what would happen during a power outage. Pulled the power while unit was on and then powered it back up. The USB stick gets corrupted every time. I have to re image the thumb drive again to make it work. Any suggestions?
Thanks
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post #37 of 190
3/9/13 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shajan View Post

Need Help.
I tried doing a test of what would happen during a power outage. Pulled the power while unit was on and then powered it back up. The USB stick gets corrupted every time. I have to re image the thumb drive again to make it work. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Run the NAS off a UPS... most power problems are transient- lasting only a few seconds, with a UPS your NAS wouldn't even notice the outage.
Or, get one of the flash drives with a mechanical lock switch on it, program it- then set the write protect switch. I just bought a few of them for work for DOS boot drives for out ToughBook laptop and old Motorola DOS only programs.
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post #38 of 190
3/9/13 at 1:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shajan View Post

Need Help.
I tried doing a test of what would happen during a power outage. Pulled the power while unit was on and then powered it back up. The USB stick gets corrupted every time. I have to re image the thumb drive again to make it work. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Ugh. That would be a deal breaker for me. I do not have a UPS. I need to do this test on my new freeNAS. I had done it on my old one. Now that you've mentioned it, let me do the test on my new freeNAS.
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post #39 of 190
3/9/13 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by heimu2000 View Post

r3zon8, thanks for your fantastic post. But it still doesn't work on my n40L. My n40l configuraton: one 1TB 3.5" in hard-drive cage 1 and one 250G 3.5" in hard-drive cage 2; optical BR-DVD drive on top. System is windows 7. I first created a USB botable flash drive, shut down windows 7 and then restarted computer. It seemed to recognize my USB drive and installed something but now that 20130307_213137.jpg 1106k .jpg file showed up. Could you please tell me what went wrong?
Try removing the Buray drive. Perhap the stripped down version of Linux does not have drivers for that drive.
Not sure about the data loss as you ask in your other question. I always keep spare drives around and if you have a drive, remove all the drives and try with a blank drive or a drive you can afford to lose data on.
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post #40 of 190
3/9/13 at 2:48pm
Wow, this is amazing! thanks!
I was always wondering why people couldn't figure out how to run the OS on person al hardware since that's really why Synology is so nice (the software).

Did this just come out? There should be a separate forum for this.
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post #41 of 190
3/9/13 at 3:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dvpatel View Post

Try removing the Buray drive. Perhap the stripped down version of Linux does not have drivers for that drive.
Not sure about the data loss as you ask in your other question. I always keep spare drives around and if you have a drive, remove all the drives and try with a blank drive or a drive you can afford to lose data on.

removed bluray drive and plugged in an empty 3.5" hard drive.
problem still persists.
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post #42 of 190
3/10/13 at 6:35am
Heimu are you sure that you set up the bios to boot from the USB? Sounds like its still booting to Win 7.
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post #43 of 190
3/10/13 at 7:20am
Can't believe you guys want to run your NAS without a UPS, it should be considered part of the system like the hard disks.
Get the smallest one they sell- $49 on sale at local big box stores all the time. No worries after that. No system with hard drives like unexpected loss of power, it's very stressful on the hardware.
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post #44 of 190
3/10/13 at 7:35am
FWIW- the name FreeNAS has been purchased by a commercial entity and has their own system using that name now.
The last true version of legacy FreeNAS before the sale was 7.5x. Although the name was sold- the original open source FreeNAS project has continued to grow and flourish under the name of NAS4Free http://www.nas4free.org/ and has a forum too http://forums.nas4free.org/ They're currently on release 9.1.x of the NAS software. The good news for legacy FreeNAS users is that most older FreeNAS systems can easily be converted over to current NAS4Free software with just some minor mods to your config file if you boot from USB flash drive, no need to offload your files and rebuild your arrays. Additionally, NAS4Free uses the same web based GUI as legacy FreeNAS so you'll feel right at home using it.
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post #45 of 190
3/10/13 at 7:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by replayrob View Post

Can't believe you guys want to run your NAS without a UPS, it should be considered part of the system like the hard disks.
Get the smallest one they sell- $49 on sale at local big box stores all the time. No worries after that. No system with hard drives like unexpected loss of power, it's very stressful on the hardware.
Agreed 100%! Get a UPS, but check the the VA rating to make sure you get the size you need! Some of the cheaper ones are only good for cordless phones ! :-)
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post #46 of 190
3/10/13 at 6:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shajan View Post

Need Help.
I tried doing a test of what would happen during a power outage. Pulled the power while unit was on and then powered it back up. The USB stick gets corrupted every time. I have to re image the thumb drive again to make it work. Any suggestions?
Thanks
In what way does it get corrupted? Does it not boot at all?

I had a problem for a while where everytime I restarted the Synology computer (I was rearranging the computer stuff in that area) the Synology wouldn't boot - I would get a GRUB error 2. All I had to do was reimage the USB stick like you did, and it would boot up. I looked at the BIOS setting, might check that everything is correct there.

After a few reboots it stopped doing that - I hate to say it but I don't exactly know what fixed it.
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post #47 of 190
3/10/13 at 8:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iaflyer View Post

In what way does it get corrupted? Does it not boot at all?

I had a problem for a while where everytime I restarted the Synology computer (I was rearranging the computer stuff in that area) the Synology wouldn't boot - I would get a GRUB error 2. All I had to do was reimage the USB stick like you did, and it would boot up. I looked at the BIOS setting, might check that everything is correct there.

After a few reboots it stopped doing that - I hate to say it but I don't exactly know what fixed it.

Yes, Server will turn on but I couldn't see it on the network. Synology app on another PC wasn't able to locate it either. after further testing, it happens when I turn the server off the the proper way as well. Will try a lockable thumb drive next.
Thanks.
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post #48 of 190
3/10/13 at 9:29pm
This is REALLY interesting. Thanks for the writeup!
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post #49 of 190
3/11/13 at 8:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shajan View Post

Will try a lockable thumb drive next.
Thanks.
Here's the lockable 8Gb flash drive I use at work: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00190IX40/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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post #50 of 190
3/12/13 at 5:21am
It doesn't work on Intel P4. When booted up it said this intent for X64 not for i686 processor. So, I'll give it a try on my Optiplex 745, tonight. Thanks :0
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post #51 of 190
3/12/13 at 10:56pm
Does this support H77?
My motherboard is P8H77-I
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post #52 of 190
3/13/13 at 11:02am
Worked for me on an old Dell E510/5150 with a pentium D processor. Definitely faster than my 110j. I had to use a lockable USB drive though. Half way through initializing a volume it shut itself down due to overheating and then the USB wouldn't boot. Wrote the img to a lockable drive and turned the fan option to cool mode. Haven't had it shut down since but then again I've only done a quick initialize.

Thanks to the OP. This is a really cool hack.
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post #53 of 190
3/13/13 at 12:43pm
Very neat experiment though I don't understand why anyone would actually use this. You want a NAS to be stable and not hack. When playing around with 8TB's of data do you really want to be using a house of cards? Servers don't need to be powerhouses for the most part. There are a variety of price points for Synology and other NAS brands. That would be the safer way to go.

Philip
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post #54 of 190
3/13/13 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Very neat experiment though I don't understand why anyone would actually use this. You want a NAS to be stable and not hack. When playing around with 8TB's of data do you really want to be using a house of cards? Servers don't need to be powerhouses for the most part. There are a variety of price points for Synology and other NAS brands. That would be the safer way to go.

Philip

+1. Maybe for entertainment purposes only I'd do this.
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post #55 of 190
3/13/13 at 6:26pm
Hi Philip,
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Very neat experiment though I don't understand why anyone would actually use this. You want a NAS to be stable and not hack. When playing around with 8TB's of data do you really want to be using a house of cards?
If I had the right hardware lying around (and I might), then I would consider this for a "backup" NAS. What better way to backup your 8TB's?

I already have a Synology, and it is a hassle keeping all of that data backed-up. A secondary Synology to roll to primary onto could simplify my life.
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post #56 of 190
3/14/13 at 11:42am
Why do this?
Uhm, lets see, Money perhaps? smile.gif

The HP is about €250, an performance equivalent Synology is what, three times that?
For about €250 I get the small DS413j, which is inferior when it comes to performance. I have an 411j that I bought for about €250, it gives 15-30MB per second in reality, and GUI is sluggish etc.

No, I would not use this for work production data. But I would use it at home to store my media. Of that media, I would replicate all the important stuff like photos to another Synology at a friends house ( several friends have Synologies, I put a USB drive with them to backup to).

That's why you would use it. I could never afford the Synology I want. smile.gif

I'm very grateful for this opportunity.

/Magnus, Sweden
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post #57 of 190
3/15/13 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkHotchkiss View Post


If I had the right hardware lying around (and I might), then I would consider this for a "backup" NAS. What better way to backup your 8TB's?

I already have a Synology, and it is a hassle keeping all of that data backed-up. A secondary Synology to roll to primary onto could simplify my life.

That's a good idea. An alternative might be the esata expansion box that Synology sells. That's what I have and backing up to it is fast and it's pretty reliable. I used to use a WHS for that but I really prefer this route. The idea of old noisy PC's hanging around just doesn't quite appeal.

philip
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post #58 of 190
3/15/13 at 6:02am
I'm building one in a VM so I can play around with the DSM software and see if it will do what I need before investing in a full blown synology solution. I'm curious how the iTunes server works.
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post #59 of 190
3/15/13 at 6:50am
Han anyone tried or gotten the VM to work? I've never owned a Synlogoy so I'd like to play with this as a way to determine if I want to go that route. I've tried the vdi file in V-box and VMWare (after conversion). I can get as far as the web interface, but downloading the .pat doesn't seem to work. Maybe there is another interface or something else I should be doing. Any hints?

Thanks.
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post #60 of 190
3/15/13 at 7:19am
This works awesome! I have an old HP XW9400 workstation laying around and just turned it into something very useful. The 5 nvidia ports were picked up and work perfectly. Currently I am getting samba transfers from 40 to 60meg/sec. Too bad I can't use the SAS controller that is built onto the mobo. Amazing work and big thanks!
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