Thank you @BeardedConti. That saves me lots of ‘wasted time’ … trying to get something to work on hardware it was not meant to.
Cheers.
Hi guys!
I have my HA setup in Docker on DS920+, but since it’s unsupervised now i’m on ext4 i’m seriuosly thinking of recreating my volume into btrfs and install HA supervised in VMM.
I’ve read whole topic but i didn’t find any info regarding https access. Now i have https acces with reverse proxy, so i use same certificates as Synology (Let’ Encrypt). Is this approach possible with VMM, too, or there’s another way? I would really need external access and i’d rather not do it via http.
Hi Pavel,
the reverse proxy doesn’t care if it forwards to the diskstations IP:port or to another IP (new IP of your VM).
The migration from HA supervised “Fredrik-style” to HA supervised in VM is really smooth. Just go ahead.
br
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You can have https access through DuckDNS/Let’s encrypt combo - no problem with that using Add-On in VM.
I was in the exact same situation as you. DS920+ with one big ext4 volume and all disk slots in use so unable to migrate to the HA VM. I also thought about re-creating the ext4 volume as btrfs but instead opted for an alternative.
You can use one (or both) of the NVME cache slots to create a data volume. It is a simple process but it can only be done from the commandline. My HA VM has been running on NVME volume for over a week now. I don’t know how long this will keep working, there is no guarantee whatsoever.
Disclaimer: This method is not supported by Synology so do this at your own risk!
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Thanks for explanation!
I just reinstalled my HA (thanks to BeardedConti’s videos) and it works as HA Core, but since i’m not well experienced in Linux “tinkering” (sorry for using your nick, @BeardedConti) with settings doesn’t make me feel good, because when i do “as i told” it’s ok, i’m stuck when i will be forced to do something by myself in terminal… that’s why i rather “demolish” my Syno and go with official HA.
@PatrickEhf: well, well… that’s a thing to consider: going with SSD’s. I’ve read here and there that those SSD’s doesn’t really speed up NAS a lot anyway, so it’s usage is supposely questionable (regarding money spent on them, i mean). Using them for HA would in this case be SSD’s well used. Do you feel any slower NAS with or without SSD cache?
You can do as @PatrickEhf - that’s always an option. It will save you a lot of time, especially if you have lot of other data to backup/move before killing your HDD’s and getting btrfs on it.
I personally would never do that - Synology is famous for being stable and just working. And they do that by modifying a lot of stuff and not caring if anyone missuses their system or not - what (in theory) could happen is that there is new patch/update or whatever and they simply kill cache disks if not configured properly. This is as I said theoretical now, but in 8 years that I’ve been using Synology, I’ve seen more then once something like that happen - especially with major DSM version releases (DSM7 coming soon?).
Then again, maybe this would work from today till the end of the times. It’s simply out of our control. My suggestion is to try it and see if it works for you - just be prepared to scratch this as option if anything goes wrong - have backup ready.
In regard to read or read/write SSD cache - depends on how you use your system. For ex. if it detects that your VM is most used, it may in time move/create cache of it on SSD and it could benefit the system. There are a lot of analysis of Syno SSD cache and opinions are very much divided.
On my next Syno I’ll definitely use them, if for nothing then for testing. But you must also remember that they also use up resources same sa VMM and VM’s (in terms of overhead for hypervisor, virtual disks, cache info stored etc).
This was too long post, sorry for that 
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Video of this is ready - it’s currently for members only as they get a perk of early release, but from tomorrow afternoon (17:00 CET) it will be public.
Sorry for a shameless promo 
Thank you for pull you made - at the time of recording it was still not merged, so I mentioned it in video.
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I completely agree with @BeardedConti, stay supported whenever possible. Make sure you understand the risk of unsupported methods. Make sure you have a complete backup at all times and also make sure you know how to restore it. In my case it was just a choice between start from scratch now or maybe start from scratch later.
In that case I would not advise to misuse the NVME slots for data storage.
I have not used the NVME slots for cache and was not planning on using them either. What I read is that in most cases it does not give a real speed benefit, and it can even impose an extra risk. As far as I know the NVME cache is bound to a specific HDD volume. If you utilize rw cache (2 NVME disks in RAID1) and both disks break at the same time, you can loose access to your volume. You will need Synology to fix this for you (if at all possible).
I guess i’ll have to sleep over and think… i’ll look above youtube guide tomorrow, that’s first one.
I have “double backup” of my data already, because i use it to “sync” my two computers. So identical data is on my two PC’s and on my NAS, so i’m pretty safe here. Syno Drive does the job quite well.
Occasionally i connect my external USB drive and copy most important data there, so i have one extra offline copy. Better safe than sorry, right?
Or maybe i’ll take the risk and do both versions and compare… Since currently i have only about 2.4TB of data on 4x4TB system it’s not too much to transfer.
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Hello!
Had anybody Sucess with setup SSL?
I had ***.synology.me domain and trying to move SSL keys and settings to a new VM instance.
But no luck (
Remember that VM is independent machine - it has nothing to do with Synology. It “doesn’t know” that it is virtual or that Synology is under it.
You can use any guide for DuckDNS/Let’s encrypt AddOn to enable SSL.
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Nice… i tried (unsuccesfully) to get let’s encrypt on my current installation. I have my own domain, pointed to my static IP (access https via 443 port), so i have direct access to HA now, but registering didn’t went through, while duckdns went fine, though. If i can i will use my own domain, otherwise duckdns it is…
I did some research. I could be wrong, but this is what i found so far regarding the difference between VM and additional volume on SSD:
- speed: no difference, since synology supposely copies frequently accessed files to cache anyway, so HA will run from SSD in both cases;
- stability/durability: definitely VM, since you never know when update will destroy SSD volume;
- simplicitiy: again VM, as i see above it’s pretty easy and fast;
- warranty: definitely VM. I’ve read that using SSD’s as volume can cause overheat, since they are mounted in such way that they are not intended for heavy and constant use;
- backup: well, if i understand correct creating volume on SSD creates one volume, so no raid. So, if that one SSD fails whole HA is gone into clouds…
So, at the end there’s no advantage to use volume on SSD, except for exploring reasons, which i don’t intend to do.
So, VM it is. Backup on USB is in the process. Then i found a guide that converting from ext4 to btrfs can be done with:
- making raid unhealthy by removing one HDD,
- formatting this HDD in PC and reinserting it,
- create a new volume,
- transferring files in this new volume,
- delete first volume,
- expand volume to other HDD’s.
@sinegovsky-ivan:
you don’t have to move SSL keys. It’s pretty simple, (i guess you mean run HA from docker).
in Synology you do:
Control Panel --> Application Portal --> Reverse Proxy:
Source:
Protocol: HTTPS
Hostname: protoncek.synology.me
Port: 443
Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 8123
Custom Header:
Create --> WebSocket --> ok
Control panel --> External Access -->Router configuration:
Create -->Built-in application
Enable HTTPS, Reverse Proxy 443 443 TCP
In your router make port forwarding from 443 external to 443 internal, pointed to your local IP. Done.
This way HA will be accesible in yourname.synology.me, while NAS will be at yourname.synology.me: NAS-port-number
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it doesn’t work 
I want to use my homeAssistant via https--myacc.synology.me:8123 :
I set reverse proxy 8123 (nas) -> 8123 (synology). My router port forwarding set to synology (8123 port).
However, when I open https://myacc.synology.me:8123 i see “ERR_FAILED”.
Should I add some settings to homeassistant instance? E.g. “external_url” etc
I’m not sure, but i think that using 8123 won’t work, because it’s already occupied with http page. You can’t have same port on both http and https. Try a different port. Using 443 is most easy, because 443 is default https port (same as it is 80 for http) so you don’t have to tyep in port each time. .
I have synology set to redirect http to https so i don’t acces it via http, only https and i have to use my custom port, not default 5000 or something similar.
Also don’t forget to do port forwarding in your router.
So I took the step and migrated all to VM. It took some small tweaks on two of my integrations (NUT and Samsung TV) but overall super smooth. For now I left mqtt and zigbee2mqtt on Synology in docker where it was allready separated from HA. All my USB devices (zwave stick and UPS cable) works on VM without issue.
Thank you @fredrike for this wonderfull ride so far and for all your great work. Enjoy your well earned beers. 
My setup:
- Synology DS918+ with 16 GB RAM
- VMM: 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, 64 GB storage
- At idle Synology CPU stays around 5%
- I don’t see any significant performance drop on VMM
Now to uninstall the Synology Hass.io package… 
EDIT: I have one question. I had a regular scheduled task in Synology to copy Synology certs (fullchain.pem and privkey.pem) to homeassistant/ssl folder (docker). What is the best way to automatically copy those cert files to VMM HA ssl folder? Is there a way to expose a folder in VMM to DSM?
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You can expose that part of HA either with the Samba addon or one of the Terminal/SSH addons. Whatever you prefer.
To copy the certificates I also use the Samba-Share addon.
On the Synology I have created a shared folder pointing to the Samba share in Homeassistant.
On the Synology under Data Services NFS must be enabled.
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So, here’s my story:
I did as i wrote above : removed one HDD, formated it, put it back and made a second btrfs volume on now “degraded” Syno. Then i installed HA according to @fredrike’s and @BeardedConti’s guides. Installation went perfect, all is running.
On my DS920+ with 8GB of RAM i assigned 2 CPU’s and 2GB of memory for VMM, vhich proved more than enough. Synology shows real CPU usage of max. 30% (it goes as low as 5% at times), RAM is at 50%. Supervisor shows a few percent of CPU usage and around 10% of RAM usage. HA runs smoothly and quick, for now i have around 10 add-ons from HACS and 4 from supervisor add-on store.
I would point out one thing regarding HACS installation: on HACS installation page it’s definitely not highlighted enough that you MUST clear browser cache in order to see HACS in integrations at all. Unless you do that it’s not available so you can’t add it in to HA.
HTTPS access: it’s way easier to set than i ever expected. All it’s needed is change one setting from my above guide:
Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: 192.168.0.x ← IP of my new HA in VMM (not localhost anymore)
Port: 8123
After that entering https://whateverishere.synology.me shows my new HA page. No tinekring around with let’s encrypt or duckdns needed.
Now i have to put my Syno in order from degraded state - move all shared folders to volume2, delete volume1 and expand volume2.
At the end i would like to thank to @fredrike and @BeardedConti again for your guides and answers. Many thanks! You make us, not so knowledged people life hughely easier!
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