Xpenology native vs ESXi installation?

[sofianito]

I'd like to install Xpenology on my microserver and I'd also to be able to run docker for creating images. Apparently xpenology has a package that allow to run docker.

 

What would be the best option in terms of performance and easy backup?

[sunefred]

Synology has a lot of functionality. Replacing each of these items would be a tremendous amount of work. I would only chose esxi for the ability to run a lab environment with custom virtual machines and for the flexibility to chose a particular software solution for each of your needs, backup, docker, filesystem, etc. Your question about performance is a good one and I am looking forward to someone answering it =) I am personally choosing the esxi route, so I will chime in with performance numbers once the build is complete.

[danyxp]

Esxi has issues with the hpvsa driver, no matter what os is on the vm's. I have been on esxi 6.0 for about 1 year, with the version 0.88 of the hpvsa driver it was ok with xpeno. I moved to a bare-metal install of xpenology about a week ago, there is a performance increase but nothing spectacular. The only thing I miss from the esxi install is the fan speed, 6-7% versus 13-17% on bare-metal. 

I tried to get back on esxi just by changing the usb boot stick - just to see if it's possible - but I lost the data on a 4Tb drive; from 4 drives that was the only one that was lost, the other 3 where repaired by dsm. 

[sofianito]

Esxi has issues with the hpvsa driver, no matter what os is on the vm's. I have been on esxi 6.0 for about 1 year, with the version 0.88 of the hpvsa driver it was ok with xpeno. I moved to a bare-metal install of xpenology about a week ago, there is a performance increase but nothing spectacular. The only thing I miss from the esxi install is the fan speed, 6-7% versus 13-17% on bare-metal. 

I tried to get back on esxi just by changing the usb boot stick - just to see if it's possible - but I lost the data on a 4Tb drive; from 4 drives that was the only one that was lost, the other 3 where repaired by dsm. 

 

Thanks for sharing you experience, and sorry to hear you lost data.

 

I'm gonna try the ESXi way to see how it goes ...