Am I Stupid? Expanding Storage Pool? How?

[knebb]

Sorry all,

looks like I really do not see the solution.

I have a TS451 which as two 2TB disks and two 500GB disks in it. All are configured for a dynamic storage pool with redundancy if possible. So I hat two RAID1 device in real.

Now I replaced one of the 500GB with a 2TB one and waited until the resync of the 500GB RAID was done.

Then I replaced the second 500GB with another 2TB drive and waited for the resync to be done.

Now I expected to be able to expand the storage pool (or the RAID device) to 4TB.

But how do I do?

Thanks for pointing me to the correct way!

Greetings

Christian

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

http://docs.qnap.com/nas/4.2/SMB/en/ind ... _pools.htm


ctrl+f to find keyword "expand storage pools" or a partial of that. If your unit is not a smb model then refer to the other nas manual for home models.

If still unsure, create a ticket to qnap support expedite for help
https://helpdesk.qnap.com/

you paid for qnap to gain access to support from tech team, use it

[schumaku]

Would be nice if users would read some basic operational procedures instead just wildly swapping HDDs.

Expanding a RAID group capacity (this is what you have to do!) is a guided process:

Expanding RAID Group Capacity

With this function, RAID group capacity can be expanded by replacing hard disk drives in a RAID group array one by one. This option is supported for the following RAID types: RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. Follow these steps to expand a RAID group:
1. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".
2. Double click a storage pool to bring up the Storage Pool Management page.
3. Select a RAID group and click "Manage" > "Expand Capacity".
4. Select at least one hard disk drive. After the description displays "Please remove this drive", remove the hard disk drive from the NAS or expansion enclosure.
5. After the description displays "You can replace this drive", plug in the new hard disk drive to the drive slot. Repeat the same process for all hard drives to be replaced. Click "Expand Capacity" to continue.
6. Click "Yes".
7. The chosen RAID group is expanded.

Now the RAID group is available.

With a flexible volume, you can now expand the volume size as per your needs:

Expanding Volumes

1. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".
2. Double click a volume to be expanded to bring up the Volume Management page.
3. Click "Expand Volume".
4. Enter the desired capacity or click "Set to Max" to allocate the maximum available space for the volume and click "Apply". ("Set to Max" is only available for thick provisioned volumes.)
5. The capacity of the volume will be expanded.

[billytkid]

Hi,

I've just gone through this and have found the answer that works with the most recent firmware. I hope this helps others. Note, the process is still odd!

I started with a spare 3.5TB Disk, I had 2 x 5TB disks from my in use Synology (in a TS-253A), to upgrade it I did the following:
1. Setup QNAP with 3.5TB disk
2. Put in 1 x 5TB disk into QNAP - No need for format or prepare, the QNAP does this
3. Click migrate - then wait quite some hours until this completes
4. Click Storage space
5. Select Storage pool 1 (do not click on datavol)
6. Click manage (Storage Pool 1 management popup appears)
7. At the bottom click Manage, then replace disks 1 by 1
8. Select Disk 1, click change
9. Insert other 5TB disk
10. Click Migrate
11. Wait some more hours until this is complete
... now comes the bit that is poorly designed ...
You'll find that you don't have any extra space, only lots of unallocated space on the volume. Clicking lots of logical things like 'expand pool' will take you nowhere. soooo.
12. Go back to manage storage pool 1
13. Click again on 'replace disks 1 by 1' (bet you think you've already done that, so didnt look here again!)
14. At the bottom click 'expand capacity'
15. Wait some time until this is complete (youll then have a larger storage pool)
16. Go back to Storage space
17. Click on Datavol
18. Click manage
19. Click expand Volume
20. Set to whatever size you want
21. Wait some more, and you're done!

Hope this helps

thx




Words for search:
QNAP Storage pool expansion
QNAP RAID1 expansion
Can't expand storage
Move from Synology to QNAP

[BlindOne]

Hi,

I've just gone through this and have found the answer that works with the most recent firmware. I hope this helps others. Note, the process is still odd!

Thanks for this info! I'm getting ready to roughly do the same process. Is there any loss of data this way (I wouldn't think so)

[dolbyman]

there shouldn't ..but have backups ready in any case (as you always should)

[jainpankaj]

Hi,

I've just gone through this and have found the answer that works with the most recent firmware. I hope this helps others. Note, the process is still odd!

I started with a spare 3.5TB Disk, I had 2 x 5TB disks from my in use Synology (in a TS-253A), to upgrade it I did the following:
1. Setup QNAP with 3.5TB disk
2. Put in 1 x 5TB disk into QNAP - No need for format or prepare, the QNAP does this
3. Click migrate - then wait quite some hours until this completes
4. Click Storage space
5. Select Storage pool 1 (do not click on datavol)
6. Click manage (Storage Pool 1 management popup appears)
7. At the bottom click Manage, then replace disks 1 by 1
8. Select Disk 1, click change
9. Insert other 5TB disk
10. Click Migrate
11. Wait some more hours until this is complete
... now comes the bit that is poorly designed ...
You'll find that you don't have any extra space, only lots of unallocated space on the volume. Clicking lots of logical things like 'expand pool' will take you nowhere. soooo.
12. Go back to manage storage pool 1
13. Click again on 'replace disks 1 by 1' (bet you think you've already done that, so didnt look here again!)
14. At the bottom click 'expand capacity'
15. Wait some time until this is complete (youll then have a larger storage pool)
16. Go back to Storage space
17. Click on Datavol
18. Click manage
19. Click expand Volume
20. Set to whatever size you want
21. Wait some more, and you're done!

Hope this helps

thx




Words for search:
QNAP Storage pool expansion
QNAP RAID1 expansion
Can't expand storage
Move from Synology to QNAP

Thank you, thank you thank you. QNAP, can you please update your guide. to reflect this, or better if you make your user interface more friendly

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Thank you, thank you thank you. QNAP, can you please update your guide. to reflect this, or better if you make your user interface more friendly

Found a video by qnap to help users. Actually a while back i suggested they make video tutorial to help users. It's quite descriptive and helps you to know what to do exactly you just go to subscribe to their youtube channel and also make requests if their missing a video.


How to Migrate to Another NAS (From an Existing NAS)
[youtube=]DzVa_Drma98[/youtube]


How to Expand Your Storage by Adding Additional Hard Drives
[youtube=]JJGX5x0TeD0[/youtube]


How to Upgrade Your Drives on your QNAP NAS
[youtube=]tcGIYGr4guA[/youtube]

[coofercat]

So it seems I'm one of those users who "wildly swap drives without reading the manual" - silly me (whilst I get that Qnap have provided a way to upgrade drives, I'm slightly baffled why you *can't* switch drives first - every NAS I've played with, and just about every hardware RAID controller has a way to do this, and so does software RAID, so whilst I'm an idiot for not reading the manual first, I claim some mitigating circumstances)

I had 2 x 2GB drives, now I've got 2x3GB drives in the chassis, and everything's sync'ed etc. However, the new space isn't yet available. What's my procedure from here? Shall I switch back to the 2GB drives (one by one) and then go through the upgrade procedure, or is there an online way to expand the 'storage pool' into the free space on the drives?

[storageman]

So it seems I'm one of those users who "wildly swap drives without reading the manual" - silly me (whilst I get that Qnap have provided a way to upgrade drives, I'm slightly baffled why you *can't* switch drives first - every NAS I've played with, and just about every hardware RAID controller has a way to do this, and so does software RAID, so whilst I'm an idiot for not reading the manual first, I claim some mitigating circumstances)

I had 2 x 2GB drives, now I've got 2x3GB drives in the chassis, and everything's sync'ed etc. However, the new space isn't yet available. What's my procedure from here? Shall I switch back to the 2GB drives (one by one) and then go through the upgrade procedure, or is there an online way to expand the 'storage pool' into the free space on the drives?

I would think "expand capacity" should now work.

[MrVideo]

Place your bets. I'm thinking not. Reason: when you just pull the drives and replace them, the NAS believes that the drive that was pulled failed and the newly inserted drive is used as the replacement. By following the instructions for expanding the capacity, you are telling the NAS that the drive is being pulled on purpose and that ultimately the reason is to add more space.

Since the QNAP NAS is using software RAID, it would indeed be nice if the NAS noticed that all drives in the RAID are now larger and allow for "expand capacity." But, I believe that the partition tables that are created are as if the drive was equal in size to the drive it is replacing, meaning the drive isn't larger.

In any event, RTFM is a must, or asking here.

[jhnmdahl]

Billytkid, thanks much for explaining what the documentation didn't (or didn't clearly enough for me to follow anyway). I don't know how long it would've taken me to figure that out, but I know how long it took with me not figuring it out :/

John

[925john]

@Billytkid, Another thank you for your simple instructions. Four and a half years later and the manual isn't any clearer on how to do this. Of course the manual is understandable once you know what you're supposed to do.