The install flow is the genuine Synology one — a discovery page, a Web Assistant, a .pat upload and a setup wizard. Knowing what each screen is really doing makes the virtual version far less mysterious.
People expect the virtual install to be the fragile part. It is actually the most normal part of the whole project: the installer is real DSM, installed the same way as on Synology hardware. What deserves attention is not the clicking — it is which file you feed it and three wizard choices that echo for the life of the lab.
👆 The Web Assistant sequence — the same flow real Synology hardware uses, because the installer is the genuine DSM (screens recreated for illustration)
DSM announces itself on the local network, and three tools can find it: find.synology.com in a browser, the Synology Assistant desktop application, or a direct look at your router's client list for the VM's IP address. All three only work when the PC and the VM share a network segment — a discovery page that finds nothing is almost always a networking fact, not a broken install. The device appears with status Not installed, which is exactly right: at this point the disks hold no DSM yet.
Web Assistant offers two paths: let it fetch DSM from the internet, or install from a file. On a virtualised install, always choose the file — the .pat you downloaded from Synology's official Download Center to match your bootloader. Letting the wizard fetch the newest DSM automatically is how labs end up with a version their bootloader cannot boot. The wizard warns that data on the disks will be erased; on fresh virtual disks that is expected — on anything else, stop and think. Installation takes roughly ten minutes and ends with a reboot into the setup wizard.
Three decisions in the wizard follow you afterwards. Admin account: create a proper named administrator and keep the default admin account disabled, exactly as on real hardware. Server name: pick something you will still understand in six months — it becomes how every device on the network refers to this NAS. Updates: when the wizard offers automatic DSM updates, decline or set them to notify-only. On this kind of install, an unplanned update is the single most common way to lose the whole lab, and the update case guide in this series explains the safe routine instead.
After the wizard, do the boring things while everything is fresh: open Storage Manager and create the pool and volume (the storage case guide covers what the redundancy really means on virtual disks), create one shared folder, and copy a test file across. Then reboot the VM once and log in again. A system that has survived its first deliberate reboot — bootloader, DSM, pool, folder all returning on their own — is a working lab. One that has not been rebooted yet is a hope, not a lab.
Watch the video to see the discovery and Web Assistant screens live, exactly as they appear during this install.
▶️ Watch Full VideoAlmost never. It means the VM is not announcing on your network segment: check the VM is powered on, the adapter type is E1000E, and the VM sits on the same LAN as your PC. Also try Synology Assistant or the router client list.
On a virtualised install, no. Upload the .pat file that matches your bootloader instead. The newest DSM fetched automatically may not boot with that bootloader at all.
Yes — Web Assistant formats the system partitions during install. It is expected on fresh lab disks, and a genuine stop-and-think moment if the disks hold anything you care about.