Xpenology is a community-driven project that allows users to install DSM on non-Synology NAS devices, effectively turning them into Synology NAS devices. A serial generator is often required to activate the system and receive updates.

As Synology tightened its security with the rollout of DSM 7.0, the old generators from 2019 and 2020 began to fail. The forums—hidden corners of Reddit and specialized XPEnology boards—were filled with users seeing the dreaded "Invalid Serial Number" message.

Since 2021, the community has shifted from manual generators to automated loaders that handle serial generation internally: Is there a DS3617xs Serial Number Generator?

The generator provides a and a matching MAC address for specific Synology models (e.g., DS3615xs, DS918+).