I currently have four 4-TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration, with around 10TB of content. I am looking to replace them with larger drives (12TB). I want to verify the procedure I have in mind as being sufficient.
1) Take one of the 12TB drives and stick it in some other machine. Format it and copy the entire contents of the NAS over. This will be my backup.
2) Replace Drive #1 in the NAS with a 12TB drive. Wait for the re-sync to finish. Repeat with drives #2 & #3.
3) Verify everything is present and accounted for.
4) Replace Drive #4 with the 12TB drive previously used for the backup.
5) Expand the available storage to utilize the additional drive space.
Questions:
- Is this a sound process, or am I making an obvious misstep?
- Will I need to do anything to the 4th drive to make the NAS accept it after it has been used in a different machine?
- I can expand the existing RAID 5 to see & take advantage of the additional storage, right?
If you aren't using XRAID, then switch to that first. It will be a bit simpler.
The procedure is correct, but the NAS will automatically expand during the resync of the second drive. If it doesn't expand at that point, reboot the NAS - that should trigger it. It will expand again when resyncing the third and fourth drives.
Also, you will need to format the last drive on the volume page before the system will add it to the volume.
After you are done with this project, you should consider putting a backup plan in place for the NAS.
It's a sound plan so long as one of drives 1-3 doesn't fail during the resync of the 4th. While one does not usually expect that with new drives, most drives either fail very early or last their intended life.
Your plan sounds OK. There is still some minor Risk, but in general, it's OK. But do you need all this new space NOW? I'm not a fan of filling up a NAS all at once. Because then you end up with all your drives having the same amount of hours and wear and tear on them. If it was ME, use the 1 12TB drive for a backup. Then set it aside. I have HDD Plastic cases to store HDD's in, Slide them it and snap the end close. it protects the HDD pretty well. Once you have that backup, Go ahead and install 1 12TB drive into the NAS and let it rebuild. It's going to take a while!!! Then go ahead and install the second one and let it rebuild. At that point, I would STOP. Do you have enough space at that time on your NAS for a while? Or are you going to need more? You need at least 2 12TB drives in for the system to expand. 1 HDD is not going to do it.
After that, if you can leave the other 2 12TB drives OUT of your NAS. Hold onto them. Someplace safe. You have a backup on one you can just leave for now. And a blank one to hold onto. I don't know how long it takes you to fill up the Space on your NAS? But it's better if you space out the drives you are installing for as long as you can. Let the smaller drives get more use out of them if there is nothing wrong with them, and if you can wait months until you get down to about 2 TB of space, or less, then go ahead and pop in that 3rd TB HDD and let it rebuild. Now you have a bunch more space. Let the NAS fill up again to about 2 TB free and if you want, then pop in that 4th 12TB drive. Spacing them out like this is a good thing.
If you just install all your drives at once and one HDD fails, many times when you replace that HDD and then the NAS has to rebuild the new HDD, it puts a lot of stress on the other HDD and then you have another drive FAIL in the process of the rebuild and you end up losing all of your Data!!! I personally think if you space them out as much as you can, you'll lower your risks. I also don't like buying all my HDD's at once and from the same place. Because I've heard stories of Multidrive failures because all the drives were from the same bad batch.
With all 4 of those 12TB drives installed, you'll have over 32TB of storage space. That is a pretty sizable jump in storage space. So that is what I recommend.
The other thing is that a NAS is not a backup!!! Unless you have a second copy of your file someplace else it's not a backup. When you get into this kind of storage space, the only practical way for backing up is with a second NAS. It's even better if it's off-site. You back up everything locally, and then take the Backup NAS to a second location and then you only need to back up anything new. That doesn't take long or use up too much Data. Why I say off-site is what happens if you get robbed? They take BOTH of your NAS units? Maybe you have a fire and you lose them both. If one is off site, you still have your Data. I have 2 myself. They are in different rooms currently. All my Important Files and pictures, etc are off-site using Carbonite. Pictures and Tax records, Documents, etc. You're not going to use it to backup TB's of Data on a NAS. Comcast has a 1TB a month limit. It would take me a year and a half doing 1TB a month. have nothing left for anything else. Recovery would be just as SLOW. So not practical for a NAS backup.
I know many people buy their NAS and think they're all set. That they are now protected. In some ways you are. If a HDD does fail, you case still get to your files. You can swap drives and rebuild. BUT another HDD can fail during a rebuild and you lose all of your Data. The NAS can break down. Things happen. Fires happen, Robbery's happen. Maybe a bad Roommate trashes your NAS. The list is long of things that could happen. Maybe none of it happens. But do you want to be the one that ends up losing all their Data because you don't have a backup?
My ReadyNAS 516 twice a week backs up to my low-cost QNAP NAS. They use rsync which is built into both of them. The QNAP powers on 2 days a week at midnight to 7am. The ReadyNAS starts sending anything that's new to the QNAP at 12:30am to make sure the QNAP is fully powered up as it does take a little while. It's all automatic. I don't have to do anything. It would pretty much work the same once I bring the QNAP off-site. With the backup only powered up 2 days a week for 7 hours, that is also putting less wear and tear on the backup HDD. That is also currently in RAID 5. It's a 4 bay NAS and so has 4 8TB drives in it which is enough to back up my 6 bay NAS with 2 8TB drives and 4 3TB drives in it. I'm going to run out of space when I expend again.
In the end, I don't think you want to lose 32+ TB of Data.
