NAS Integration (2026-02-04)

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Overview

Integrated Synology DS220j (192.168.1.XXX) with homelab infrastructure for centralized storage, monitoring, and logging.

SNMP Monitoring - ✅ COMPLETED

Successfully added Prometheus monitoring for NAS health and network metrics.

Implementation

Added snmp-exporter service to monitoring stack
Uses built-in if_mib module for network interface metrics
Collects traffic counters (ifHCInOctets) and interface status (ifOperStatus)
Prometheus scrapes via snmp-exporter:9116 with relabel configs

Files Modified

/opt/monitoring/docker-compose.yaml - Added snmp-exporter service
/opt/monitoring/prometheus/prometheus.yml - Added synology-snmp job

Metrics Collected

Network interface statistics (eth0 traffic, status)
Ready for Grafana dashboard visualization (suggested Dashboard ID: 14284)

DSM Configuration

SNMP enabled in Control Panel → Terminal & SNMP
Community: public
SNMP v2c protocol

Commit: 31c7047

Wazuh Agent - ⚠️ SKIPPED (ARM64 Incompatibility)

Decision: Skipped Wazuh-SIEM agent installation due to architecture incompatibility.

Root Cause

Synology DS220j uses ARM64 (aarch64) architecture
Official Wazuh packages expect x86_64 or ARM 32-bit
dpkg installation partially succeeded but post-install script failed
No official ARM64 Docker image available

Alternatives Considered

Custom ARM64 build from source (too complex for homelab)
Docker container (no official image)

Justification

NAS is lower priority for SIEM than servers. SNMP monitoring provides sufficient hardware/network visibility. Wazuh agent coverage on ProxMoxBox, Pi5, Pi-hole LXC, and NPM LXC is adequate for security monitoring.

Syslog Forwarding - 🟡 PARTIAL IMPLEMENTATION

Status: Messages arriving but format mismatch causes parse warnings.

Implementation

Promtail configured with syslog listener on port 1514/tcp
Synology syslog-ng forwarding configured to ProxMoxBox
Logs arriving at Promtail successfully

Issue

Synology sends BSD format (RFC 3164)
Promtail expects RFC 5424 format with version number
Parse warnings: expecting a version value in the range 1-999

Files Modified

/opt/monitoring/promtail/promtail-config.yml - Added syslog-synology job
/opt/monitoring/docker-compose.yaml - Exposed port 1514 on Promtail

Synology Config

/usr/local/etc/syslog-ng/conf.d/remote-loki.conf - Custom forwarding config
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/syslog-remote.sh - Startup script for persistence

Future Enhancement

Add syslog relay container for RFC 3164 → RFC 5424 conversion
Or use Promtail file scraping via NFS mount of /var/log

Decision: Accepted partial implementation - messages arriving and searchable in Loki, format conversion can be addressed later if needed.

NFS/SMB Storage - ✅ COMPLETED

Successfully mounted Synology NAS storage on both ProxMoxBox and Pi5 with full Docker container access.

Challenge - LXC Container Limitation

ProxMoxBox discovered to be unprivileged LXC container (ID 103)
LXC containers cannot mount remote filesystems directly
Both NFS and SMB mount attempts failed with Operation not permitted

Solution - Proxmox Host Bind Mount

Mounted SMB share on Proxmox host (192.168.1.XXX):

mount -t cifs //192.168.1.XXX/HomeLab /mnt/nas/homelab \
  -o credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,vers=3.0,uid=0,gid=0,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,noperm

Added bind mount to LXC container config (/etc/pve/lxc/103.conf):

mp0: /mnt/nas/homelab,mp=/mnt/nas/homelab,backup=0,replicate=0,shared=1

Restarted container to apply bind mount

Made persistent with /etc/fstab on Proxmox host:

//192.168.1.XXX/HomeLab /mnt/nas/homelab cifs credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,vers=3.0,uid=0,gid=0,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,noperm,_netdev 0 0

Storage Access

Path: /mnt/nas/homelab/
Directories: docker-backups/, media/
Capacity: 7.2TB total, 4.9TB used, 2.4TB available

Raspberry Pi 5 Access

Direct SMB mount (not in container)
Same credentials file: /root/.smbcredentials

Persistent mount via /etc/fstab:

//192.168.1.XXX/HomeLab /mnt/nas/homelab cifs credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,vers=3.0,uid=1000,gid=1000,_netdev 0 0

Full read/write access confirmed

UID Mapping Quirk

Shell writes from LXC container fail (UID mapping issue)
Docker containers have full read/write access (Docker handles mapping differently)
Acceptable for use case - backups and media access work correctly

Credentials

User: HomeLab
**password: [REDACTED] Stored in /root/.smbcredentials (mode 600)

Use Cases Enabled

Automated Docker volume backups to NAS
Centralized media storage for future Jellyfin/Plex stack
Shared storage between ProxMoxBox and Pi5

Documentation & Memory Updates

Portfolio Update

Added NAS Integration section to home-lab.md
Documented SNMP monitoring, SMB shares, syslog status, storage capacity

Memory Backup

Synced all CLAUDE.md files to ai-assistant-config repository
Updated global memory (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md)
Updated project memories (homelab-ops, my-portfolio)
Committed with comprehensive message documenting NAS integration

Repository: https://github.com/jhathcock-sys/ai-assistant-config Commit: 96e55ef

Technical Lessons Learned

LXC Containers

Unprivileged containers cannot mount remote filesystems
Bind mounts from host are the correct solution
UID mapping (100000 offset) affects file access patterns
Docker containers bypass some LXC UID mapping restrictions

SNMP Monitoring

Built-in snmp_exporter modules often sufficient (avoid custom configs)
if_mib module works well for most network devices
Prometheus relabel configs essential for proper target labeling

Syslog Standards

RFC 3164 (BSD syslog) vs RFC 5424 (modern syslog) incompatibility common
Format conversion may require relay/translator service
Partial implementation acceptable if messages still searchable

ARM64 Ecosystem

Not all security tools support ARM64 yet
Synology DiskStations (J-series) use ARM processors
Check architecture compatibility before planning deployments

Files Modified

File	Change
`/opt/monitoring/docker-compose.yaml`	Added snmp-exporter, exposed Promtail port 1514
`/opt/monitoring/prometheus/prometheus.yml`	Added synology-snmp scrape job
`/opt/monitoring/promtail/promtail-config.yml`	Added syslog-synology listener
`/etc/pve/lxc/103.conf` (Proxmox host)	Added NAS bind mount
`/etc/fstab` (Proxmox host)	Made SMB mount persistent
`/etc/fstab` (Pi5)	Made SMB mount persistent
`home-lab.md` (portfolio)	Documented NAS integration

Commits

31c7047 - Add snmp-exporter for NAS monitoring
96e55ef - Update memories with NAS integration details

Future Enhancements

Add syslog format conversion for complete log parsing
Create Grafana dashboard for NAS metrics (ID: 14284)
Deploy media stack (Jellyfin/Plex) using NAS storage
Implement automated Docker backup solution to NAS
Consider NFS for better performance (after fixing subnet/auth issues)