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Forum Discussion
Expanding Storage on RN104
Hi All, I am looking to expand the storage on my RN104. Currently I have 2x 4TB drives set up in JBOD in slot's 1 & 2. My plan is to migrate to 8TB drives. I also want to set-up my RAID so it has...
xander85 wrote:
I'm quite a n00b when it comes to RAID and unsure what is what. But from what I have now, if one drive fails. I am screwed, right?
Yes. How screwed depends on whether you set up one volume or two volumes. If you have one volume, then if either drive fails you lose everything on both. If you have two volumes, then if you lose a drive you still have the data on the other one.
You can get redundancy (RAID-5) with 1x8TB+2x4TB installed, but you will waste space. With RAID, you want the two largest drives to be the same size.
If you were to get two 4 TB drives instead, then you could create a 12 TB data volume, with protection against one failure. That's about the same cost as an 8 TB drive. If you can stretch to two 8 TB drives, then you could get a 16 TB data volume with the same protection. The rule is to sum the drives and subtract the largest.
I think you will find that raid sync time with very large drives (6-8 TB) is quite slow. 4x4TB might be the better approach. I do have a WD60EFRX and an WD80EFZX in my RN102, but that is running jbod with two volumes (and is used to back up another NAS). So the larger drives are compatible.
Getting there from where you are will require backing up all the data, and then recreating a new XRAID volume. The simplest way is to do a factory reset and reconfigure/rebuild the NAS.
I'd add that while RAID redundancy is a good thing, RAID arrays still do fail and there are other ways you can lose data. So you should back up your data (at least the most precious stuff) on a different device. Though it seems expensive, it is cheaper (and more certain) than spending money on data recovery services later on (after data has been lost). Perhaps the first step is to invest in backup for your existing array (perhaps some USB drives), and postpone switching to RAID-5. As noted above, you'll need to back up your data anyway in order to change the RAID mode.
Thank you, StephenB for your advice. I was tossing up between another 2x4TB drives and one 8TB. But I think I should go for the 2x4TB drives.
I would essentially use the new drives to back up my exisiting single volume 2x4TB JBOD setup. Move it all back then add the new drives to the array and end up with 12TB. I think 12TB will suffice for now. I lasted on 8TB for almost 2 years.
I'll run though my plan, if there are any holes, let me know.
- Aquire 2 new 4TB drives
- Set them up as two seperate volumes so I can back up my current volume to them bit by bit.
- Reset the NAS, starting over with a new XRAID
- Move the data back from 1 backup drive
- Add newly empty drive to the XRAID
- Move data back from the final drive & add it to the XRAID
I think that sounds okay?
Also, in future if I was to expand the size, is it just a matter of swapping out a drive? How would that work?
Thank you again!
It might be a bit tricky to migrate all your data in place. The OS6 release notes have (or at least had) some caveats about changing from flexraid to xraid after expansion.
One option that might work out better is to get a USB 3 adapter kit (with power cable) - they are quite inexpensive, and I find mine generally useful.
Then
-Back up the data you have to the two new disks using the adapter kit. Try to limit one of the disks to < 3 TB of data if you can.
-Uninstall your apps
-destroy the data volume(s), and create a new one as raid-1. Then switch to XRAID.
-recreate the shares, and reinstall the apps
-Copy the data from the one of the new drives (the one with the least data) back onto the NAS. When that completes, add that drive to the array - and wait for it to expand to 8 TB.
-Repeat that process with the second drive, and you'll end up with a 12 TB volume.
xander85 wrote:
Also, in future if I was to expand the size, is it just a matter of swapping out a drive? How would that work?
The next future expansion needs you to swap out two drives. For instance, get two 8 TB drives. Remove one 4TB drive with the NAS running, and then hot-insert one of the 8 TB drives. Wait for the resync (which will take at least a day) and then do the same with a second 8 TB drive. The NAS will resync a second time, and then will expand the volume to 16 TB (with yet a third resync).
The first two resyncs are to rebuild your existing volume - which is always needed when you insert a new drive The final one adds a new 4 TB RAID-1 layer to the array. You'll see one volume, but underneath it will be a 4x4TB RAID-5 "base" layer plus an 2x4TB RAID-1 layer using the new space on the two 8 TB drives.
After that you can expand further by upgrading another drive to 8 TB. You simply repeat that procedure - removing a 4 TB drive, and inserting the 8 TB replacement; all with the NAS running. The RAID-1 upper layer is converted to 3x4TB RAID-5 and you'll have a 20 TB volume.
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