Xpenology is a bootloader for Synology’s operating system which is called DSM. It can be used to setup DSM on a PC or in a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox or VMWare.

I am using VMWare 15. But any version from VMWare 11 should work.

 

1: Download and unzip this package, containing:

• the configuration of the virtual machine (dsm.ovf, dsm.vmx, disk.vmdk and synoboot.vmdk),
• the xpenology boot file for DS918+ (synoboot.img) and
• the image of the DSM 6.2.2 for DS198+ (DSM_DS918+_24922.pat)

2: Open VMWare Workstation. If you never configured the default location where you want to create your Virtual Machines, press CTRL-P to open the “Preferences” panel. There, set this default location (I am using D:\VMWare).

3: Go next to “Windows Explorer”, in the folder where you have unzipped the package, and double click dsm.ovf. This is going to import the VM into VMWare. Type a name for the new virtual machine (I am using DSM918 6.2.2) and click “Import”.

4: Here is the outcome to the importation. You can now click on “Power on this virtual machine”. If you want, you may also first increase the Memory, the Processors or the size of the SCSI Hard Disk (Do not touch the SATA Hard Disk which contains the boot loader).

5: As soon as you have run the VM, click into hit to let it capture the keyboard, and press the “down arrow” to select the loader for “VMWARE/ESXI” (attention, you don’t have a lot of time to start the selection). Press next Enter and it will boot.

6: Open the “Synology Assistant”, which is more efficient than the page http://find.synology.com to find your VM, and after 1 minute click on “Search”. If you didn’t wait long enough, you will see an Error message (In such a case, click Search “Again”. I never had to do this more than 3 times).

7: Finally, the Assistant will find your VM. A webpage should automatically open (Otherwise, right click on the VM and select “Install”). Click on “Set up” in that page.

8: Click next on the link “Manual Install”.

9: Click on Browse to select the image of the DSM 6.2.2 for DS918+ and Select the file “DSM_DS919+_24922.pat” in the folder when you unzipped the package downloaded here previously.

10 Finally, click on “Install Now” and confirm that the installation can override the disk… it’s the virtual SCSI Hard Disk member of the VM. No worry ;)

11: The installation will take a few minutes

12: Once the installation complete, you will see in the VMWare Workstation that the VM is rebooting. On the installation page, you see a count down. If you want to check the status of the VM, you can go back to the Synology Assistant and Click Search. You should see that it’s restarting, installing patches, reconnecting and finally ready. At that moment, you can select the VM and click Connect.

13: You will now be able to login into the VM and configure it.

14: It’s now time to us the SCSI Hard Disk to create a first Volume. Open the DSM Main Menu and start the Storage Manager.

15: Go to Volume and click Create. Select the HDD of 20GB, etc…

16: You have now a brand new DS918+ with the DSM 6.2.2-24922 Update 3.

17: Now, you can upgrade the VM to your version of VMWare. Shutdown the DSM Properly (via the menu on the Buddy Icon in the top-right corner). The VM will soon stop.

18: Once the VM stopped, upgrade it by clicking on “Upgrade this virtual machine”.

Et voilà !