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Hi, currently I have 5x2TB discs in the NAS (iOS 6.10.2). I'd like to move to 2x10TB configuration as the next step (and later add other 10TB ones as needed). Is this possible somehow? I do not want to keep the 2TB ones, because they would just consume energy.
I know I can replace 1 2TB HDD with 1 10TB HDD, then the second one ... but then . ... is there any way to achieve my goal? I do not want to recreate everything (i.e. copy the data somewhere else, remove all the old discs, add the new ones, create a new volume, copy the data back).
It would be possible if you will use Flex-RAID and add 1 disk to your 6 Bay NAS and create a new volume (JBOD) transfer the data to that disk but we recommend doing a backup on another one to make sure you don't lose any in case of an incident and then remove your 5x2TB disks once all data has been transferred. You will have then 5 bays available so you can add the 2nd disk and then expand to RAID1.
It's not possible to just replace the disks since what will happen is that it will be part of the current RAID configuration (RAID5) so achieving the goal without creating another volume or without transferring the data to a new volume is not possible.
RAID configuration will also change from RAID5 to RAID1 since you will only use 2 disks in total.
It would be possible if you will use Flex-RAID and add 1 disk to your 6 Bay NAS and create a new volume (JBOD) transfer the data to that disk but we recommend doing a backup on another one to make sure you don't lose any in case of an incident and then remove your 5x2TB disks once all data has been transferred. You will have then 5 bays available so you can add the 2nd disk and then expand to RAID1.
It's not possible to just replace the disks since what will happen is that it will be part of the current RAID configuration (RAID5) so achieving the goal without creating another volume or without transferring the data to a new volume is not possible.
RAID configuration will also change from RAID5 to RAID1 since you will only use 2 disks in total.
It would be possible if you will use Flex-RAID and add 1 disk to your 6 Bay NAS and create a new volume (JBOD) transfer the data to that disk but we recommend doing a backup on another one to make sure you don't lose any in case of an incident and then remove your 5x2TB disks once all data has been transferred. You will have then 5 bays available so you can add the 2nd disk and then expand to RAID1.
Note any installed apps are stored on your current data volume. So you also need to uninstall the apps before you destroy that volume, and reinstall them afterwards.
FWIW, RAID isn't enough to keep your data safe, so you really should have a backup plan in place for the NAS. If you do make a backup as @Marc_V recommends, I'd suggest that you might as well just do a fresh install with the new disks in place, and restore the data from the backup.
So most probably I'll keep the old 2TB discs and replate them iteratively as needed ... other options seem too complicated.
That is the simplest way. Then all you need to decide is which disks to replace first. All things being equal, replace the oldest. You can see the smart info (including power-on hours) in the log zip file. Look in disk_info.log.
The capacity rule for XRAID is "sum the disks and subtract the largest". The NAS reports space in TiB (1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes), not in TB (1000*1000*1000*1000).
If you start with 5x2TB, then you have an 8 TB volume now (~7.2 TiB). If you add the first 10 TB disk to the empty slot, then the volume will expand to 10 TB (not using the "extra" 8 TB in the new disk). After the resync completes, you replace one of the 2 TB drives with the second disk. That resync will take longer (and might require a reboot along the way). You'll end up with a 20 TB (~18.1 TiB) volume. If you leave an empty slot, and replace two of the existing disks you'll end up with an 18 TB (~16.3 TiB) volume.
I also suggest hot-inserting (or hot-swapping) the new disks with the NAS running. That ensures that the NAS will properly detect the removal and insertion. Also, it's wise to update your backup first. The data isn't protected during the resync, and the each resync requires every sector of all the drives to be either read or written. If there's an undetected issue with one of the existing disks it will likely result in a failed resync and your data will be lost.
You also lose your personal folder contents when you destroy the original main volume. So, make sure you create shares or folders for their contents and copy or move them to the new drive before you destroy the original volume. Note that if you do make them shares, you cannot name them the same as the user since that's reserved for the bullt-in ones. And you won't get a new personal folder for any user until they log in (just like for a new user).
Re: Is it possible to DECREASE the number of disks?
I became curious if a volume EXPORT might not be better than a DESTROY in this case, and my experiments seem to say yes. Note that this is based on some basic experiments, so might not work in all cases. But the only part I think might not work is the re-import of the old volume. So, at worst, you're in the same place you were with a destroy.
Exporting the main volume also transitions the main volume to another one, including building subvolumes for home shares and apps, just like destroying the primary. Alaso lie a destroy, exportt does not move the apps themselves nor create user folders. It is, therefore bext to either use my method for moving apps (How-to-save-your-apps-when-destroying-your-main-volume ) or to delete and re-install. Also like with a destroy, an actual user folder is not created until the user logs on.
The advantage of this is that, should you find you forgot to move something to the new volume, you can re-install the old together with the new. In your case, assuming you've got both 10TB's in a RAID1 and completed sync, you could power off and boot with just one of the 10TB and all of the old drives, and the old data volume would be imported (but no longer as primary) with the new primary still there. The new volume would be "degraded" (lacking redundancy), but the removed drive does serve as a backup of sorts in case of disaster. Disadvantage is the need to re-sync the new volume again after you do everything you need to. Alternately, you could boot with both 10TB and only 4 of the old ones, and the old data would be degraded, but available. The old personal folders would actually still be there, but hidden to anything but SSH.
Of course, if you do everything with just one 10TB installed before syncing to RAID1, nothing will be degraded and there will just be the one sync when all is done.
Note that you have to re-set share accesses on an imported volume before you can see them outside the GUI or SSH and you cannot have any shares that have the same name on both volumes. Andd, of course, you want to re-EXPORT the old volume once you are done with it.
I did find one oddity that I imported the old before creating any new user folders and the user folders reverted back to the old volume. From there, there seemed to be no way to ever make them appear where they belong, even after exporting the old one. It may have been a fluke, but I wouldn't count on it. Insure you've logged in as the user(s) (including admin) to insure there is a folder created.
