QNAP TS-639 and TS-809 Max Volume Size

[revaaron]

the hesitation is that I bought my drobo so I wouldn't have to get something like this qnap box.
Now I don't want to make a second mistake:
http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=13229
I've been asking that question to everyone.

the 639 seems like over kill, but would allow me to do more, using the drobo at work, never needing to "reboot" the machine that the NAS is connected to cause it is it's own machine (my drobo is connected to a win7 machine that needs to be rebooted all the time).
I assume with the QNAP, you can segment the drives so that 4 could be in a RAID 5 and 2 in a RAID1 or 0?

[Q]

hi

I assume with the QNAP, you can segment the drives so that 4 could be in a RAID 5 and 2 in a RAID1 or 0?

yes that's no problem

[McMillan]

Hi

It still isn't clear to me, maybe I'm misunderstanding the terms raid(set) and volume... So is it possible to create a RAID5 set with 6x2TB drives (12TB) in a TS-639 and still use the full capacity of 10TB (devided into smaller volumes if necessary) for storing files?

Hope someone can clear this for me.

[Q]

hi

you can have for example (with TS-639):

1)
a first 3 x 2tb raid5 = 4tb usable
a second 3 x 2tb raid5 = 4tb usable
total usable: 8tb

2)
if you create just one raid5 with 6 x 2tb, then you get 10tb usable.

[McMillan]

Ok, thanks for the quick reply!

Still, do you think the maximum volume size will be upped to 10TB or more in the future or is it best practice to use the TS-639 with 2x 3 disk RAID5 sets (in which case a 4TB disk could be supported)?

EDIT: Previous reply got edited from impossible to possible now?

[Q]

i just edited it so it's more clear because i wrote about two different cases.

as said you have 10tb available when you use 6x2tb drives (12tb gross) in one raid5. always 1 drive is used for parity data in a raid5.

when you create two raid5 with 3 drives each, you loose also two hdd of course for parity (one per raid5 volume).

current theoretical volume limit is 16tb (because of ext3 filesystem), but will be raised by upgrading to ext4 as ivan explained earlier in this thread (http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 041#p62041).

[Toresh]

Hi,
Sorry to ask again but I want to be 100% sure before I buy a TS-809
I plan to buy 8 2Tb Western Digital for the NAS, they are in the supported list so no problems.
I plan to make one RAID 5 array with these 8 disks. Will I have about 14Tb of free space or do I have to make two arrays, 1 8Tb and 1 with the rest?
Or if I buy 4 HD now and make 1 raid 5 of 6Tb, will I be able to expand later with another 4 2Tb HDs and then have add them to the existing raid and have 14 Tb?

Thanks and sorry again

Toresh

[JamzY]

Per the press release on March 25, its all good.
http://www.qnap.com/PressRelease_detail.asp?pr_id=128

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB (WD20EADS) SATA hard drive is now supported by the entire TS-109/ 209/ 409/ 509/ 439/ 639/ 809 /809U-RP and the latest TS-119/ 219 Turbo NAS series.

The maximum capacity can be extended up to a total of 16TB now on a TS-809 or 809U-RP' says Andy Chuo, Product Manager from QNAP.

Also, the latest compatibility list published April 22 has the WD20EADS in the list (and notably without any extra remarks!):
http://www.qnap.com/pro_compatibility.asp

Myself, the server just arrived yesterday and I'm currently waiting impatiently for the RAID 6 rebuild to finish on 7x2TB. Currently simultaneously moving files from the front-USB backup (figured I may as well test it) off the final 2TB drive before I add it into the full RAID set.

At 7x2TB its showing me just below 10TB available ... yeah, RAID 6 means (n-2 disks) with each 2TB showing up only as 1.8TB. I just may decide to make it RAID 5 instead when all is done.


Cheers,
Jamz

[Toresh]

Thanks for confirming my understanding
I have already 4 WD20EADS and the NAS should arrive tomorrow so I will have all weekend to play with it
I'll order the 4 remaining WD20EADS later, I don't need that much space right now anyway.

Toresh

[revaaron]

WD20EADS are way too much money right now.
waiting for them to get down in price before I buy 2 of them.

[Manni]

Dear revaaron
QNAP NAS is designed based on EXT3.
The current max capacity of EXT3 per logical volume is 16TB.
For the TS-809 Pro & TS-809U-RP, you can install the 2TB HDD (the current HDD with max capacity) on the system for 16TB.
Take TS-439 Pro as an example, the max volume you will have is 2x4 = 8TB.

We will release EXT4 support soon through firmware update. There will be no 16TB limitation once the bigger HDD (larger than 2TB) available in the market.

Cheers,
Ivan

Hello Ivan,

When ext4 will be released, will we be able to migrate an ext3 volume to ext4, or do you have to backup and reformat?
Any more precise timescale for ext4, as I am buying a ts-809 and will delay formatting if ext4 release is imminent.

Thanks,

Manni

[QNAPIvan]

Dear Manni
We just released the beta FW 3.1.0 for both Marvell 6281 and x86 series.
The enhancement includes:
- Ext4
- SNMP
- Windows AD Enhancement (User/User Group/Share Folder)
- Virtual Disk (For 4 Bay NAS and above)
- RAID Recovery (For 4 Bay NAS and above)
Please decide EXT3 or EXT4 before you create a volume.

BTW, the Virtual Disk feature allows you to mount another iSCSI target as stacking for storage expansion.
Cheers,

[Manni]

Thanks very much for the reply, I have just bought my ts-809 today, so I will be formatting next week in ext4 using the beta firmware.

One question though, I would like to priviledge performance for copying large multimedia files, does the ts-809 offer to chose a stripe size, or is it a set size determined by the system?

PS: also do you have a link to download the beta, I can't find it in the ts-809 download list?

[Q]

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=151&t=14475