[HOW-TO] Roll your own Synology DiskStation for NAS - Page 3

Good job!
Those are the kinds of transfer speeds I usually see from my Nas4Free system.

This is definitely a high recommend for those with spare PCs laying around (helps to be near state auctions...case in point this xw9400 was $25 bucks). I have started to install a few packages including Audio Station and working great so far. Now my testing is done with 1 drive its time to move on and test expansion...

I am wondering if the Synology OS will work on a HP MediaSmart EX490 Server.

As I have said before, this is a neat experiment. I can't see it being used as a main device for two reasons. The first is you don't want a hack as a server. The second, and this seems to not have been brought up, is that this appears to be something verging on theft of Synology's OS. DSM is one of the reasons why people buy their hardware. Remove that and their hardware becomes less valuable. There really seems to be something wrong in all of this.

Philip

Can you please take a look if external USB drive works on your N40l build? I was able to turn my N40l into a synology DS. Everything was great until I tried to plug in a USB drive to copy some file onto it. The USB drive was mounted as an " not initiated Hard Drive", but not a "usbshare volume" like my ds212j does. Any idea would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I currently own a DS1812+ and owned several hand built NAS solutions with FreeNAS and Windows Home Server. I think this is pretty neat for somebody who like to roll their sleeves and build one. I don't recommend this for people who never used NAS or have no experience configuring RAID. The beauty of synology or other dedicated NAS is they are preconfigured and easy to setup. Support is there if you have issues. The reason Synology is popular because they have a lot of cool app packages that's well written and easy to use. The hardware is pretty similar to what get from what players such as Thecus, Dlink, Seagate, etc.

I would build this for a home entertainment streaming solution but not for my critical data storage. I can't imagine not being able to recover a 14TB SHR Raid Set.

I followed the steps using N40L and a 4GB usb flash drive. Everything worked fine during the installation process, and I was able to log into DSM. However, when I shut down from within DSM, and turn the unit back on, it fails to boot with the following error message:

GRUB loading, please wait....
Error 17

I have a DS1812+ and would like to use this as a backup target for Folder Sync. Could anyone assist with the error above?

Thanks.

Same for me. Tried a USB stick with FAT16/FAT32, same problem on both.


I got that once as well.

I simply erased the USB stick and then re-flashed it.

The suggestion by others in the thread was to get a USB stick/SD card wth USB adapter, that has a physical switch for write protection on it. That way you should be able to prevent it from getting corrupted on shutdown/if the server looses power - I have not tried that myself so. You could also just backup the USB stick using a drive cloning software, after you have finished setting it up the way you want it to be. That way you can easily restore it, if the need arises.

Mine has now been running for ~ 2 weeks. I have re-booted it a dozen times or so and it seems stable. I have hooked it up to a spare port on the UPS, which it shares with an ancient Buffalo Terastation and another N36L. Looks good so far.
Edited by SUMMONER - 3/17/13 at 12:50pm

Thanks. I flashed the OS onto a USB Flash Drive with a write protect switch, and it seems to work fine now. It has survived a few reboots.

If anyone else is having trouble getting the VM to work, here's how I got it to work with Virtualbox:

1) Change Mac address to 00:11:32:08:D6:2A
2) Add a SATA 0 drive to the VM
3) Don't forget to have DHCP server running
4) Run the Synology Assistant and click search
5) Right click on your device and click install
6) Let it run and install
7) Mine VM showed a Grub 22 error so I shutdown the VM and deleted the SynoBoot_3612xs_4.1++.vdi in my VM dir
8) Recopied the original SynoBoot_3612xs_4.1++.vdi that I downloaded here and copied it into my VM dir
9) Started the VM
10) Searched again in the Synology Assistant and right clicked on the device and finished configuration

Hope this helps.
Edited by johnnyneverdies - 3/17/13 at 7:24pm

I had the same problem with an external USB HD drive, trying to attach it to the Synology. My "Synology" isn't a N40 but a white-box build. Same symptoms as yours - in the end, I gave up. Couldn't figure it out and there seemed to be nothing on-line to help or suggest a direction. I did see that when I plugged it in the console messages on the Synology indicated that it saw the external USB drive and mounted it - and saw the same indications in the DSM, but it never gave me the usbshare volume either - so I never did anything with it.

This might or not might be related, but I have an UPS with a USB port that can plug into a computer to give a signal when it is running on battery power. The Synology support documents say that mine is supported - but when I plug it in the "UPS" section doesn't indicate it's plugged in. Perhaps there is something unique in Synology's USB driver that doesn't work with USB on other motherboards.
Edited by iaflyer - 3/17/13 at 7:31pm

So I think we need to take this discussion to the next level and talk about what hardware is currently out there to implement this on a cheap level. For example take a look at this board the Asus C60M1-I:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131843
The board has 6x sata 6.0gbps ports built on. It appears this plus a nice mini itx would make for a kick butt NAS system...however is there a way to tell if the SATA controller will work or not for sure? Not worried about the network cards as you can always fine one of those to match with the system. However this would make for a cheap butt 6-bay NAS system!


I figure most of the NM10 Intel Atom boards would work however they limit on the amount of SATA ports usually at 2. Anyone know of an intel atom board with 4x sata ports? Ideally the lower the power consumption the better!

At the beginning of this thread, the OP listed hardware that was required, chipsets and all that. I have a working system and everything in my build was on that list - by chance, I didn't go out and buy anything, it was an already built system I had sitting around.

So - that board you posted has a "AMD Hudson M1" Northbridge, which isn't on the list of SATA supported. Also, the network chip is "Realtek 8111F" which isn't on the list either. So - off the top of my head I'd say it wouldn't work - but you never really know until you try.

Yeah wasn't too concerned about the network card as you could find a supporting chipset NIC for $10...I was more worried about the SATA chipset. So with that in mind what about something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/-Win-200-Watt-Mini-ITX-Black-BP655-200BL/dp/B005ITOAL8 - Inwin 200 watt micro-itx case (holds 2 3.5" drive)
http://www.amazon.com/Foxconn-Intel-G31-DDR3-1066/dp/B007VOLMJG/ - Foxconn Intel Atom D2500 (1.86ghz dual core, 2x sata)
http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Signature-PC3-10600-Notebook-PSD32G13332S/dp/B002IV7FPM/ - 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM

So for $115 you can pretty much replicate a Synology DS212j and in ways be further ahead hardware wise but perhaps behind in software wise....

I just picked up a N54L last week (when they were on for $239) and I'm deeply interested in throwing DSM on it! I'll be giving this a try shortly, but has anyone confirmed that the lockable USB drive solves the reboot lockup/corruption?

Also, just to clarify, DSM cannot be run from the USB like FreeNAS and whatnot? IE: you boot the image from the usb and have to install it onto a disk?

(Also, long time reader, first time poster!)

Thanks!

Looks like 4.2 is out. Any word on posting this version?

Well after tooling around with this and getting my first taste of NAS I have decided to do a real box. I am moving over to WHS 2011 and FlexRAID with my current setup. I have been eyeing my power usage through a Kill-A-Watt and can definitely say that going this route does NOT utilize the power saving features of my processor. I currently am drawing a sustain power draw of 225 watts (dual core operton, 5x hard drives). The power draw does not change one bit even after 5/10/15/30 minutes. This also tells me this make shift synology box might not be spinning the hard drives down properly either. I have dropped that power draw down to 140 watts using WHS 2011 and FlexRAID. Again this is with my current hardware as no funds to be all new stuff. I feel the whole idea of a NAS box goes beyond storage and should include power consumption for complete success. Thanks again for the excellent write up and hope others start seeing the benefits of what NAS can actually do!

Hey guys first time poster, found this thread by accident, but am definitely interested in this. This is what I am seeing, I go on ebay there are literally thousands of servers you can buy for less then $100-$200 which spec wise beat the pants off most normal NAS's. I am not really currently interested in power consumption, but anyone have any suggestions on servers I can filter that meet the hardware requirements of this port for me. Pretty much just looking for anything that can support raid 5 (would love it but not needed, not sure if synology even supports it) and meets all the hardware criteria. I know some people would be more familiar with these servers then others, so some might know off the top of their head which dells/ibms/hps fit the specs. Thank you in advance. Also am interested if there will be a upate to 4.2 posted. Originally I was going to get a Zyxel nsa325, but loving the synology gui and the possible performance i could get from building my own, I am leaning more toward this.
Edited by PeteyTheStriker - 3/20/13 at 1:23pm

Hi Sarcoptic, Yeah, I guess that's the disadvantage of not having a real Synology.

I have a fully-populated 4-bay Synology, and the power-supply is only capable of 80 watts. So that's the maximum it can draw, and since it does spin down the drives, average must be much less. I think I saw a spec that said less than 15 watts when no drives are spinning. It's an old CubeStation CS-406.

Any thoughts on getting DSM to run on other manufacturers NASes....like the ReadyNAS? Netgear's NAS OS is very long in the tooth (old); hardware wise, an x86 Readynas shouldn't be too different from an x86 Synology.

Originally this was ported to the HP micro servers, as long as the hardware is the same as the requirements on the first page then it should be no issue.

My HP MicroServer was delivered today and I followed the instructions in the OP with the default single hard drive in the leftmost drive bay and everything worked fine. I then took the drive out and put in a SSD in the Optical Drive bay and then tried to repeat the process so that I could subsequently add hard drives and use only those for the SHR. Unfortunately, the installation step terminated with an error message (screenshot attached) asking me to contact Synology which I cannot do for obvious reasons!

I have updated the BIOS to turn on/speed up the 5th and 6th SATA ports and confirmed this by installing Ubuntu to the SSD in the same location where the DSM installation failed.

Has anyone been successful in using that SATA port?

Thanks.

Does any RAID cards work on the system?

I am using a Dell H700 RAID card on my server.

Thanks!

After I install DSM 4.1
My PC will automatically power down after running over a lot of words.
I don't know why? Any helps?


Thanks

(ADDED)

It seems that my DELL PERC H700 RAID Card casue this problem, after unplug it, the DSM successfully boot up.
Edited by gene396302 - 3/21/13 at 8:40am