Tag: synology

Docker folder removed after removed Docker package in Synology

Docker folder removed after removed Docker package in Synology

I was changing harddisk in Synology DSM 7 in the volume with Docker package installed by recreating the volume, it requires docker package to be removed. I thought the docker folder (/volumeX/docker) might not removed, so backed up the container images into docker folder. But I was wrong, the docker folder was removed.

The docker folder was created by Docker package, which can be moved to other volume after stopped Docker package. I didn't see any data in it, and I don't know what the usage of this folder is and it is zero in size.

Synology Volume Low Capacity Notification

Synology Volume Low Capacity Notification

DSM 6

In DSM 6, notification can only set as global value

  • Control Panel => Notifications => Advanced => Internal Storage

  • Click on Low Capacity of Volume, then define the Warning and Critical space thresholds.

DSM 7

In DSM 7, notification can be defined at individual volume level.

  • Storage Manager
  • Click the three dots at the top right corner of the desired volume
  • Select Settings
  • Scroll down to Low Capacity Notification and set thresholds

References

Adjusting Alert Thresholds

Synology vi modify file ACL unintentionally

Synology vi modify file ACL unintentionally

When using vi editor in Synology SSH session, the ACL changed upon saving. This causes issue for permission sensitive application, such as SSH.

Cause

The vi command creates a new file, and write new contents into that file, and the new file doesn't follow the ACL of original file.

Update ACL using GUI

If SSH is not available, for example, the permission authorized_keys changed, and only public key access was opened. If the file was shared, GUI is allowed to change ACL in user's home directory.

The ACL page can be accessed using following steps.

  • Login DSM webpage
  • Right click on the file
  • Select Properties
  • Click on Permission Tab

View ACL from command line

In Synology, use following command to check file ACL

/usr/syno/bin/synoacltool -get <PATH>

Remove ACL from command line

To remove ACL, using following command

/usr/syno/bin/synoacltool -del <PATH>

Edit ACL from command line

For example, remove @users group from usbshare1

/usr/syno/sbin/synoshare --setuser usbshare1 RW - "@users"

Other options

More options can be found using following command

/usr/syno/bin/synoacltool -h

References

Manage Windows ACL with Command Line Interface ?

SSD Cache Basic

SSD Cache Basic

Consideration

SSD cache helps accessing same set of files frequently. But if the system just holding media files, most likely they won't be visited again, then cache doesn't help.

RAM is required for SSD cache, but adding RAM is more directly impact the perform, because there is no duplication between harddisk and SSD.

Synolog

The required amount of RAM is calculated before cache created.

One SSD disk only can be configured for one volume in read-only mode.

Two or more SSD disks can be configured as one raid, for one volume in read-write mode.

Currently, one SSD disk or raid can not be partitioned for different volume.

FreeNAS/TrueNAS (Untested)

Others suggest 64GB or more of RAM before adding a cache, otherwise, will slow the system down if add a cache with 16GB RAM.

Fusion disk could be another choise because the SSD can be used as storage as well, no waste of space.

FreeNAS vs Synology

FreeNAS vs Synology

Synology

Devices: ds1812+ and ds2419+

Pros

  • Hardware are very stable (more than 10 years without issue)
  • Low power and low noise
  • Reasonable price
  • Mix size hard disks in volume
  • Upgrade Hard disk easily
  • Identify hard disk easily
  • Crashed volume in read-only mode, data can be retrieved
  • Many apps can be downloaded
  • Operations on NAS are organized user friendly

Cons

  • Cannot move or copy share folder after volume crashed, manual copy and resetup required
  • Bad hard disk can cause extension unit disconnected from main unit
  • Doesn't accept bad hard disk which smart testing failed, shows failling HDD list
  • Create many special folder named as @eaDir in everywhere, which can be issue when using some services, and huge number of small files in it.
    Note: This folder creation feature could not be disabled.
  • Dedup can not be handled
  • CPU is weak for virtual machines

FreeNAS

Just started on an i7 PC with 32GB ram.

Pros

  • Opensource
  • Can be installed in a normal PC
  • Hardware upgrade is easy, and can import disks used in other NAS before
  • Insensitive to bad hard disk
  • ZFS can handle bad sector natively
  • ZFS can perform dedup natively (haven't tested)

Cons

  • Not easy to understand the tasks to be performed
  • Network configuration screens are everywhere, not easy to find them
  • Network aggregation configuration isn't easy to understand
  • Disk, pool, and dataset are highly related to ZFS
  • Share folder permission and ACL are too complex for NAS operation

TODO: Synology SSD Cache Issues

Synology SSD Cache Issues

Synology SSD Cache have two issues as below

  • Unable to use one disk/array to support mulitiple volume.

    • No answer from Internet and some people mentioned that it is a new request.
    • Possible solution is to create partition/volume on SSD Storage Pool, then use volume as cache device.
    • Synology uses LVM cache, haven't checked whether native linux can do or not.
  • Utilization of cache is very low, about 5GB on fequently used volume, such as volume1.

    • Improved in DSM 7 which supports Pin all Btrfs metadata option. But haven't validated the utilization.