The Tech Tips !

I had a problem where my baremetal (6.1.3-8) became undiscoverable on the network following a reboot and would not pick up an ip address (according to the router). Putting in a newly created bootloader USB made the device discoverable through Synology Assistant and find.synology.com, but was listed as “recoverable”. Clicking “recover” (the only option) started an immediate reboot which caused the diskstation to become undiscoverable again.

Symptoms:

1. Diskstation disappears from network and is undiscoverable (no IP address) – possibly associated with an update.

2. New USB bootloader makes DS reappear but is marked as “RECOVERABLE”

3. Hitting recover causes an immediate reboot where DS returns to symptom #1 (disappears from the network)

4. Going to an older bootloader version shows the DS as “migratable” but refuses to install the associated .PAT due to the older version

5. Going to a newer bootloader version shows as “recoverable”, returns to symptom #1

Causes– Not sure but likely a corrupted or mismatch in the DSM software on the volume.

Fix (following the synology data migrate process for 5.x)

1. Remove ALL HDDs associated with the DS

2. Prepare new USB bootloader using the established processes. Must be the same version of your old volumes or later

3. Plug in blank temporary HDD by itself (I used an 80GB laptop HDD so anything will do)

4. Go through normal installation process. Setup as per old DSM settings (can use config backup files). Test with a restart or two

5. Shutdown DS, unplug temp HDD, reconnect HDDs

6. Power-on. Find using find.synology.com or Synology Assistant. Should be shown as “Migratable”

7. Chose “Fresh Install, Keep my data”. Go through normal process.

8. Setup however you like. Success!!

I’m not advanced enough of a user to know if there are other methods of repairing this problem; this is the one that worked for me.

What is Xpenology?

Xpenology is a boot-loader for Synology’s operating system which is called DSM (Disk Station Manager) and is what they use on their NAS devices. DSM is running on a custom Linux version developed by Synology. Its optimized for running on a NAS server with all of the features you often need in a NAS device.

Xpenology creates the possibility to run the Synology

DSM on any x86 device like any pc or self-built NAS. So you can benefit from the powerful multimedia- and cloud-features of DSM without buying the hardware NAS from Synology. A lot of people prefer this because they can pick out there own (more powerful) processor and RAM to handle things like trans-coding video.

This will also save money and make you more flexible in the long term.

It’s also possible to natively install and run apps on DSM using their package manager. Think of the package manager like its own app store where you can download (and manage the update process) of each application. This includes some useful tools and packages like git, other version-control systems, cms like WordPress, LDAP-servers, your own mail server, the popular “Docker” and even a surveillance application where you can control and manage IP cameras in your home or business.

I think this is an important thing because Synology offers really great support. They’re smart using Linux and would fix strange bugs remote over ssh. You should decide if its worth from you to buy a stock-NAS to benefit from them.

Especially for end-users which less or none experience in IT/Linux, it would be a better deal for them to buy a Synology NAS, switch it on and have fun without caring about the backend technology.

So in this blog we would like to learn, install, troubleshoot problems based on Xpenology based NAS system.

The Tech Tips !

Xpenology/ Synology : DS disappears – “Recoverable” loop fix / DS dissapears

Xpenology – The Definitive Guide

What is Xpenology?