How to Enable NVMe Storage Pool on Synology That Only Allow Caching

Last updated on 24 Feb 2023 📧 Subscribe

Synology DiskStations are powerful devices that can be used as centralized storage solutions for personal and business use. They support various types of storage pools and volumes, including HDD, SSD, and NVMe SSD. However, the Synology DSM (Disk Station Manager) interface only allows the NVMe SSDs to be used as cache.

If you want to enable NVMe storage on your Synology device, you can do it through the command line (SSH) interface. Before starting, it is essential to have some knowledge of using the command line in DSM and to back up your system.

Here is a step-by-step guide to enable NVMe storage on your Synology device:

  1. Install NVMe SSD and enable SSH login
  2. First, install the NVMe SSD to your Synology device and boot it up. Then, enable SSH login on your device by going to Control Panel > Terminal > Enable SSH.
  3. Create a partition
  4. Next, login as root with SSH and type the following command to see the NVMe device’s name:

ls /dev/nvme*

You will see the name of the device, which will be /dev/nvme0n1 or /dev/nvme1n1, depending on which slot you installed the SSD.

To see the disk information, type:

fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1

You will see the disk information. If your SSD is in slot 2, use /dev/nvme1n1 instead of /dev/nvme0n1.

Now, create a partition by typing:

synopartition –part /dev/nvme0n1 12

Answer ‘Y’ to confirm. This command will erase all data on ‘/dev/nvme0n1’ and repartition it to follow DSM’s required layout.

  1. Create a basic disk
  2. To create a basic disk, you need to create a single partition RAID1 device. This is what DSM Storage Manager will do when creating a basic disk volume.

Type the following command to see your current RAID setup:

cat /proc/mdstat

You will see the current RAID setup, and the current volume/storage pool will start at md2.

To create your NVMe basic disk, type:

mdadm –create /dev/md4 –level=1 –raid-devices=1 –force /dev/nvme0n1p3

Answer ‘Y’ to confirm.

  1. Verify the basic disk
  2. To verify the basic disk, type:

cat /proc/mdstat

You should see that md4 is now active and has the same size as your NVMe SSD.

  1. Format the partition
  2. To format the partition, type:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/md4

This command will format the partition in ext4 format, which is compatible with Synology DSM.

  1. Create a storage pool and volume
  2. Now that you have created a basic disk, you can use it to create a storage pool and volume.

Go to Storage Manager > Storage Pool and click Create. Select your NVMe basic disk and add it to the storage pool. Then, go to Volume and click Create. Select your storage pool and follow the steps to create a volume.

  1. Enable write caching
  2. By default, write caching is not enabled for NVMe SSDs in Synology DSM. To enable write caching, go to Control Panel > Hardware & Power > SSD Cache. Click on the Edit button next to your NVMe SSD cache and check the Enable write cache option.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can enable NVMe storage on your Synology device, even if the DSM interface only allows NVMe SSDs to be used as cache drives. This can greatly improve the performance of your Synology device, especially if you use it for tasks that involve a lot of read and write operations. However, it is important to note that enabling NVMe storage on your Synology device may void your warranty or cause compatibility issues with future DSM updates. Therefore, it is recommended to proceed with caution and at your own risk.



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13 thoughts on “How to Enable NVMe Storage Pool on Synology That Only Allow Caching”

  2. Anyone having issues with the WD SN850X 1TB nvme drive on the DS923+? It showed up property in DSM 7.2 on a DS423+, but is not visible in a DS923+. Was able to create the storage pool successfully utilizing the CLI in the DS423+, but not the DS923+.

    sudo fdisk -l /dev/nvme* does not return the drive.
    Don’t see it mounted in dmesg.
    Don’t see the drives in any lot the logs in /var/log/

    To test, formatted the disk to ext4 outside of the NAS and re-installed; disk is still not visible.

    Tested with another nvme drive, Crucial P5 512GB, which I plan to use for read caching in the DS923+. The Crucial P5 drive mounted successfully in both nvme bays, 1 and 2, so it does not appear to be a port issue. Issue appears to be isolated to the WD SN850X 1TB nvme drive.

    I can mount the drive in any other OS, Ubuntu, MacOS; etc., just not in DSM specifically in the DS923+.

    Reply

    1. Confirming that the WD SN850X 1TB nvme drive is visible and mounted on the DS423+ and not the DS923+ in DSM 7.2-64570 Update 1. Had an opportunity to test again on a DS423+.

      Reply

  3. Is there a list, or any guidance, somewhere of non-genuine (and therefore technically non-compatible) NVME drives that work for storage?

    The NASCompares video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwlXL_QJHng) seems to indicate that some drives aren’t even detected, so I’m just trying to give the unofficial workaround the best chance of success.

    Reply

    1. Any non-Synology NVMe drive will work.

      If you don’t want to mess around with typing a bunch of commands via SSH see https://github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db which lets you use DSM’s Storage Manager to create and manage the storage pool and volume.

      Synology won’t let you use NVMe drives in a M.2 PCIe card for anything but a cache (even with Synology’s own NVMe drives)… but there’s also a solution for that. See https://github.com/007revad/Synology_M2_volume.

      Reply

    1. sudo fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1

      Or use one of my scripts:

      Get rid of unsupported drive/memory warnings (and allow creating M.2 volumes on some models):
      https://github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db

      Allows creating M.2 volumes with any NVMe brand:
      https://github.com/007revad/Synology_enable_M2_volume

      Creates the storage pool so you can create the volume in storage manager
      https://github.com/007revad/Synology_M2_volume

      Reply

      1. Hello!
        I did this successfully ~7 months ago on my DS220+ and today after a reboot is shows beeping, critical error, and a message saying that this “Storage Pool is not compatible with the current DSM version” 🙁
        Any advice? Is it end of line? Thank you in advance!

        Reply