Vinetos

Posted on Aug 25, 2023 • Updated on Sep 16, 2023

DSM 7.2+ on Proxmox with arpl-i18n

#xpenology #dsm #proxmox #tutorial

In this article, I will cover the installation of DSM 7.2+ on Proxmox with arpl-i18n.

Introduction

What is Proxmox

Proxmox is an open-source virtualisation management platform that combines virtualisation (KVM) and containerisation (LXC) technologies, enabling the management of virtual machines and containers on a single integrated platform.

What is ARPL-i18n

Automated Redpill Loader (i18n) is a project that was created to facilitate the configuration of Redpill, a loader for DSM.

Prepare the host

On the host machine, you will need curl or wget, unzip and optionally file.
You can install them by running :



apt install wget file unzip

Create the VM

To run the DSM, create an empty VM with no disk and 4 GB+ of RAM. Leave everything else to the default value.

Download ARPL-i18n

Go to the releases section of the GitHub repository, copy the download link of the latest arpl-i18n-XX.XX.XX.img.zip and download the file directly from the host :



wget "https://github.com/wjz304/arpl-i18n/releases/download/XX.XX.XX/arpl-i18n-XX.XX.XX.img.zip"
unzip arpl-i18n-XX.XX.XX.img.zip
file arpl-i18n-XX.XX.XX.img

Import the image to the VM

arpl.img is a disk image containing the loader.



root@nas ~# file arpl.img
arpl.img: DOS/MBR boot sector

We have to convert it to use it in Proxmox. We use qm importdisk for that :



qm importdisk <VMID> arpl.img local-lvm

Add a virtual serial port to the VM

DSM uses the serial port. So we configure it.



qm set <VMID> -serial0 socket

Configure the VM with the arpl disk

Go to the Hardware interface section of the VM and double-click on the newly Unused disk to attach it to the VM. Make sure to select SATA.

Go to the Options section and update the boot order to include the disk.

Pass through disks to proxmox VM

For best performances, I will pass my disk directly to the VM. I will let Synology manage the disks.
Here is the official documentation.

In my case, I will use :



# List all the disks
lsblk |awk 'NR==1{print $0" DEVICE-ID(S)"}NR>1{dev=$1;printf $0" ";system("find /dev/disk/by-id -lname \"*"dev"\" -printf \" %p\"");print "";}'|grep -v -E 'part|lvm'

# Add the corresponding to the VM
qm set VMID -sata2 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-....
qm set VMID -sata1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-....

‼️	ARPL only support SATA

Configure the loader

Time to boot the VM!
In the boot selection, go to Configure the loader.

When the prompt is available, launch the configuration menu with



menu.sh

First, choose a model. I use DSM923+, which is a recent one.

Then, choose a version. I will go for 7.2. Check the URL and press Enter.

Then, Build the loader. It will download the DSM and install the DSM.

Finally, Boot the loader.

Connect to the DSM and install it

After a few moments, arpl shows the IP address of the DSM. Connect to the page and configure it as you wish.

‼️	Make sure to disable automatic update.

Et voilà! You have a fully functional NAS in a VM with DSM 7.2+.

Bibliography

https://github.com/wjz304/arpl-i18n
https://github.com/fbelavenuto/arpl
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Passthrough_Physical_Disk_to_Virtual_Machine_(VM)#List_disk_by-id_with_lsblk

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