VMWare Image of DS-106e

[stationer]

Hi,

I have a DS-106e with DSM 2.2 and Bash.
Is it possible to create a VMWare Image of the DS-106e using "VMWare vCenter Converter V5.0"?
If yes, how and what are the prerequisites (e.g. do I need to install any software on the DS-106e)? If no, is it possible with the current diskstation models?
Is there any possibility to create an Image of the DS-106e that can be run in the VMWare Player?
Are there "ready-to-run" Images of any DSM that can be downloaded and run in the VMWare Player?

Many thanks!

[hans_lenze]

Since vSphere Converter only supports the x86 hardware platform, you cannot use it to virtualize an ARM based OS. No DSM, no Android 2.0, no Windows Mobile. So no, you can't copy the DS-106e over to a virtual machine and use it.

Synology does produce an x86 version of the software. This being the DSM version that runs on the Intel based NAS devices. The DSM version for the high end devices is known to run on the Cougar Point platform.

If Synology ever decides to present the software as a Virtual Appliance I'd love to hear about it!

[schoopy]

I currently run the DSM 2.3 inside a vmware session. Note that for some mysterious reason it does not run inside virtualbox. Neither does it work on a geode due to some invalid instruction being used.

Everything is OK except the HDD smart control which is not seen through a passthrough.

I would have paid for such a feature but Synology is not currently providing it.

Now with respect to copyrights, I hereby ask Synology whether I shall provide this to others, them included if they want to commercialize it.

Schoopy

[CCF]

I currently run the DSM 2.3 inside a vmware session. Note that for some mysterious reason it does not run inside virtualbox. Neither does it work on a geode due to some invalid instruction being used.

Everything is OK except the HDD smart control which is not seen through a passthrough.

I would have paid for such a feature but Synology is not currently providing it.

Now with respect to copyrights, I hereby ask Synology whether I shall provide this to others, them included if they want to commercialize it.

Schoopy

Hi Schoopy

How do U make it running? Can U make a guide about it?

[schoopy]

Well I did that some time ago, so without redoing it from what I can remember and watching the changes I made inside the install script, it is hard to give a detailed guide.
Currently I have a cdrom image that is bootable and allow one to either run the installed system or build it for new disks. But this is still version 2.3 hence I should do it over again with 4.0 and write down the steps.

From what I remember I had to rebuild the kernel and erase the comments that prevent the tty console from compiling. Then I either made some changes within the init script or simply bypassed the init with init-/bin/bash at kernel boot. From there you can test and performed a step after another the install scripts.

As mentioned this is now old, so I should definitively start over from dsm 4.0 once I get some time and update this forum.

By the way any help is welcome.

Cheers,

Thierry

[CCF]

Well I did that some time ago, so without redoing it from what I can remember and watching the changes I made inside the install script, it is hard to give a detailed guide.
Currently I have a cdrom image that is bootable and allow one to either run the installed system or build it for new disks. But this is still version 2.3 hence I should do it over again with 4.0 and write down the steps.

From what I remember I had to rebuild the kernel and erase the comments that prevent the tty console from compiling. Then I either made some changes within the init script or simply bypassed the init with init-/bin/bash at kernel boot. From there you can test and performed a step after another the install scripts.

As mentioned this is now old, so I should definitively start over from dsm 4.0 once I get some time and update this forum.

By the way any help is welcome.

Cheers,

Thierry

Hi,

Can I help?
Can i get a copy of the cd image, you have?

Cherrs,

Claus

[tohris]

Hi there!

I tried to do exactly the same thing but proceeded that way :
- Create a virtualbox VM for a linux 2.6 64bit kernel
- download last .pat archive file from ds712+ (any x86-arch-based should do)
and there i got stuck, i tried :
1/ having vm to boot from network through pxe and getting synology setup assistant to transmit the firmware image to the vm (through tftp??) => failed
2/ installing another linux distro (tried damnsmalllinux, ttylinux and slackware, which seems to be the nearest to DSM's own system setup) and overwrite custom linux's system disk (hda1) with the one included in pat file (decompressed hda1.tgz and dd'd to /dev/hda1) => failed

sure I missed something, as both ways should work but I didn't have much time to investigate on that and gave up... until now!

does someone know how DS Assistant does when you present him with a brand new DS on the network and want it initialized? i think it's the safest method, as it would be a clean install.

My goal is to get a fully working testing environment on which i can deploy experimental ipk's and not mess my current "production-grade" setup. I'm not trying to build a complete cloud running DSM software... My current system is a DS-209.

btw, one should move this topic to a more generic one, as everyone's concerned!
And please Synology: allow us to run DSM inside a VM, for example, not getting any support, free only for testing purposes, and having a licensing option for commercial deployments...

[schoopy]

Hi,

I give it a try with DSM 4.0 and managed in a few days to have it running inside a KVM machine instead of vmware server.
BUT so far it is far from working in the sense that any call to apache will bring a file not found page and kill the apache server.
Within DSM 2.3 it would work just fine but nowadays everything is deeply connected to kernel system call to retrieve and drive hardware informations. Hence we will have to create a fake synobios.ko.

The procedure is as follow to get to this point:

- A new kernel is necessary with support of KVM modules and default SATA and network controller as well as a console. The console is a tricky part as the kernel source have comments to prevent registration of a console, hence you will have to remove some #ifdef MY_ABC_HERE from linux-2.6.xx/drivers/char/vt.c. Note that DSM 4.0 as by default a serial console you may have a look at by redirecting it to a file with kvm -serial file:/tmp/xxx option.

- In order to have a console running at boot, the linuxrc.syno within the ramdisk rd.gz should be modified to go into a shell and adding call to load kvm modules. Add /bin/ash after the different proc and sys mount. The new kernel modules should also replace the one within the ramdisk /lib/modules/ directory.

Now you should be able to boot with KVM supplying the initrd and kernel and a couple hdd image.

In order to generate the hdd, have a look at /etc/*.sh scripts and perform them manually or call them (I do not remember exactly here). This will create the structure of the hdd. Once this is done simply mount the root (/dev/md0) (/dev/md1 is the swap) and untar hdd.tgz on it.
Replace again all the kernel modules found in /lib/modules.

Boot the virtual machine still with the initrd but add kernel command to give root its value (/dev/md0). Once in the shell simply exit so that the boot sequence continues and starts from the hdd. You will finaly get to a logon where root passwd is synopass.

That's where I am and honestly I need we will have to create a fake synobios.ko module because theirs no longer load due to some missing symbols. And anyway it would not work properly I believe.

Globally I am considering improving freeNAS rather than recreating everything that will surely change in a couple months.

[ZeroQI]

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?p=262697 would give you boot images for DSM 3.2 and 4.0...
I did tests, vmware sees the nic (e1000e) but not the hdds, while Virtualbox see the HDDs but no NIC... we need a new kernel to replace in the boot partition (or new synoboot.img image) so it work in virtualbox at least...

[schoopy]

I saw that project qnology once but was not aware they went that far.
Actually they provide the solution to the file not found apache error. Will try if it solves my issue and keep you inform.

At first I did try using virtual box but it would always lock for some unknown reason. I see everybody using vmware. But so far I was never able to get smart data out of it. Furthermore vmware server is now deprecated even on gentoo. This is the reason why I am moving to kvm.
Could someone tell me if there are evidences that kvm will not support DSM before I loose too much time.

Thanks

[ZeroQI]

According http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/What_kind_of_CPU_does_my_NAS_have the DS-106e carry a "Freescale PowerQUICC II MPC8241" so you could only emulate it with a virtualisation software that support "arm" emulation like Qemu

xpenology would work under VMware player, and virtualbox, and also under ESXi using default nic.
It does however work on 64 bits intel architectures, i use it on an HP microserver N40L

You can see the forum and download link here http://xpenology.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2
can run DSM 4.1 currently...