Assembling The Synology

Parcelforce man arrived just after lunch, so check one item arrives next day,  open box to check contents, faultless service from dabs.com.

Next how to access to install the HDD,  no screws and simple slide of the side cover and we’re in,  screws supplied in a bag.

Nice and simple layout inside,  only counter intuitive part is that HDD1 sits on the top.

I plan to install 2x SeaGate 500GB 7200RPM drives in to start with,  but one contains some data,  so I’m installing single for now,  will create a volume move the data and add the 2^nd.

So far so good,  so plugged it in,  let it power on,  ran the connection utility and,  oops couldn’t connect!

Checked the DHCP server to get its IP address and browsed to that directly and we’re in. GUI steps through downloading latest firmware and formatting the HDD all seemless.

Synology DS123j

Excited to have just ordered a Synology DS123j hopefully this will give me a light weight portable NAS which presents NFS and iSCSI.  It was a tough choice to not go for the Synology DS412+ with its built in VAAI but its 2.03kg without HDDs and as it houses four which I'd no doubt end up filling it would have been very heavy to carry.  The DS123j is 0.73kg and it only holds two disks.


I've ordered it on next day delivery,  and plan to find a couple of 500GB Seagate 7200 drives to see how it goes.  I was in two minds as whether to order more drives but thought probably best to use what I have for now and make a considered decision later.

The OS looks easy to use,  and provide a live demo here logon with
  uname:admin
  pword: synology

Guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow!

VMware Fling: vCenter Mobile Access

I stumbled across an old VMware fling called VMware vCenter Mobile Access today.  As it was published in November 2011 and not updated since I thought it might be a dead duck.  But thought I'd give it a try anyway,  so downloaded and imported the OVF.

The OVF is well written,  and I just assigned to correct vDS powered it on,  there was no obvious setup needed.  I then proceeded to install the iPad app enter the IP address of the vCMA appliance,  then the IP address, username and password of vCenter.

Was pleased to be greeted by


Its a bit limited in functionality but you do all the basics like can power VMs on and off, get basic performance info,  and rather cool you can even initiate vMotion!!