![]() ![]() ![]() After the installation, you will be able to do the following: Installing Synology Guest Tool on your virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) can help enhance their performance and make managing easier. For Linux, as in my example, you can just download it through the Linux package manager. Synology also provides their own guest tools, at least for Windows, through an ISO file. VMware provides the VMware Tools, and Microsoft provides their Guest Integration Components. So you will see immediately if there’s something wrong with your ESXi host. To mention, this notification bar is always there and refreshes automatically. If all is fine, you’ll get a green notification bar. Simply add the FQDN / IP address, username and password to connect to the ESXi host. No worries, it’s free.Ĭlick the “VMware vSphere” tab and click “Manage Hypervisor” to add your ESXi host. You have to “activate” it in the first step with your Synology account. To do so, open the Active Backup for Business. We need the “Virtual Machine Manager” and also “Active Backup for Business”: Create a backup of your VMsĪs mentioned, we will now first create a backup of our virtual machines. You can directly install these packages through the Synology Package Center. To have everything ready, you have to download two software packages on your Synology NAS. Hint: it’s free! You only have to enable the feature with your Synology account. The next steps will describe how you use Synology Active Backup for Business and create a backup of your VMs. Tl dr – We have to back up the VMs first from our ESXi host to the Synology box, and then we do a restore of the VM directly to Synology VMM before we can run them on the box. But don’t expect too much… And let’s dive into the topic now. A domain controller can even run on it if the resources are used sparingly. You can see, there are not many resources, but it should be fine for some tiny Linux VM. In my case, I was happy that I maxed-out the memory when I initially bought the NAS box. Such a NAS is always somehow limited in CPU resources and memory. To be honest, the Synology box isn’t a Ferrari, or a Fright Liner in terms of performance and / or capacity. It might come in handy, in case you’re searching also for a nifty solution to run a Pi-Hole or a Ubiquiti controller. This blog post will show you how you can easily backup your VMware VMs to a Synology box, with their own toolset, and restore it directly into Synology VMM. But that took to long, somehow (in certain circumstances I can be impatient …). ![]() You can export the VMDK files or create an OVF, which you then import into Synology VMM. You can’t just vmotion your VMware VM to Synology VMM (Virtual Machine Manager). So it will be two VMs running on my Synology box! But how? I didn’t want to go with Docker because of the lack of knowledge, and I have only limited system resources on that NAS box. I knew that at least some Synology NAS systems can run virtual workloads directly, either as a virtual machine or within Docker. But what when I accidentally shut down this PC? Or I want to shut it down? I need another solution which is more like 24/7! What’s the solution? Quickly migrate the VMs to that virtual ESXi host, and that’s it. This ESXi server was managed with vCenter as a replication target for Veeam Backup and Replication. But what should I do when I shut down everything? Well, VMware Workstation to the rescue! I’m (actually, I was) running an ESXi on VMware Workstation on my gaming computer. These are the only “business-critical” services in my home network. I’m using Ubiquiti hardware for my networking (lab switches, home networking, including wireless), and also a Pi-Hole as my ad-blocker. Be sure to check my blog frequently to get more information about the rack, as I will blog about it soon! What’s the reason for this migration? Not also due to this fact, but also because I’m currently building my own customized rack, where I will install my homelab hardware. Due to a month of military duty, when I was at home only for the weekend, I shut down my homelab. But some special circumstances made a special solution to a problem necessary. When it comes to virtualization, I’m working with VMware products in my homelab, alongside (hardware) products from other manufacturers. ![]()
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