How to Configure Synology iSCSi for VM Homelab

Login to your Synology and launch iSCSI Manager

Select Target and click Create

Name your Target and Select Next

Click Next to create a new LUN

Name your LUN and select the size

Click Apply and wait for the LUN to setup

Login to your Vcenter, select a ESXi Server and click on Configure and click on Storage Adapters

Click Add Software Adapter and Click OK

Click on the new Adapter and click Dynamic Discovery

Click Add and enter the Synology hostname or IP

Click Rescan Storage to Rescan the Adapter

Add a Network Adapter to be used to connect to the iSCSI device. It is best to connect this to separate dedicated network adapter, but for a homelab this is fine.

You should now see the LUN you created under Devices

Click on Storage, select your VCenter, and then select Properties, Storage, New Datastore

Select VMFS

Name your Datastore, Select the host you created the iSCSI adapter on and select the Synology LUN

Select VMFS6

Select use all available, and click Next and Finish

Repeat these steps for your other ESXi Hosts

Storage VMotion the VMs you wish to have on this LUN. Do not expect much more than 90MB/s for a 1GB Network Connection. Caching can help with a Synology NAS, and can account for about 10MB/s additional speed.