TS 439 PRO II RAID 6 Volume extension

[nemmanon]

Hi

I've changed my four 1Tb units to 4 Tb units subsequently. Everything went fine. Then I chose to Increase capacity. The process has been going on for at least 24 hours and the NAS is still not available (blinking RED light). On the home page, I cannot access the storage management tab, same with the Volume sub menu of the front panel that is stucked but the drives look silent. Is that normal?
I can't even restart the drive via the interface, should I force shutdown and restart ?

Thanks

[MrVideo]

Log in as admin via ssh and enter the following command:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/mdstat

Report back the results.

[nemmanon]

it says:
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [multipath]
md0 : active raid6 sdc3[0] sdb3[3] sda3[2] sdd3[1]
1950387200 blocks level 6, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [4/4] [UUUU]

md4 : active raid1 sdd2[4](S) sdc2[3](S) sdb2[2] sda2[0]
530128 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]

md13 : active raid1 sdb4[0] sda4[3] sdd4[2] sdc4[1]
458880 blocks [4/4] [UUUU]
bitmap: 0/57 pages [0KB], 4KB chunk

md9 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[3] sdd1[2] sdc1[1]
530048 blocks [4/4] [UUUU]
bitmap: 2/65 pages [8KB], 4KB chunk

unused devices: <none>

Since the NAS was stucked I had to reboot it. I'm now back to the previous configuration 4*1Tb in RAID 6. I guess I need to restart the increase, right ?

[nemmanon]

Another thing is that when I launch a check fs, I've got the following error:

Type Date Heure Utilisateurs IP Source Nom de l'ordinateur Contenu

Erreur 2015/11/07 13:53:19 System localhost [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 4 3 2] Examination failed(Cannot unmount disk).

Any clue ?

[MrVideo]

I wanted to see what mdstat had to report before any rebooting. I've curious as to why you are running RAID6 with 4 drives. RAID5 is what you should be using.

If I were you, I'd backup all of the data (if you haven't already) and start from scratch. Power down, pull the 1TB drives and insert the 4TB drives. Power up and build a new RAID5 storage pool volume. You'll have 3.6TB more storage space than if you were using RAID6.

[Don]

You also didn't state whether you followed the expansion directions in the manual or decided to create your own. What procedure did you follow for replacing the drives?

[nemmanon]

Well I had two disks failing simultaneously this summer so even if RAID 6 is expensive in terms of storage lost, I'd rather stay on this scheme for now.
As for my problem, I have found the answer via google and could stop services and qpkq to manually check fs and repair errors. Now everything is back to normal, I can retry increasing the volume or swicthing to RAID 5 as you suggested

[nemmanon]

to Don: I followed the procedure via the QNAP interface, each drive has been replaced one by one and when the last one was successfully activated (Volume was OK), I then started to do Increased Capacity. Otherwise you can't even selet this option

[Don]

Glad you were able to get it back to a place you can proceed from. Too many people try their own method and get themselves into a situation that is difficult to recover from.

Since you have had this issue and ones one the past it might be a good time to review your backup strategy.

[P3R]

RAID5 is what you should be using.

Wow!

Saying that without having asked what the situation is and the requirements are probably qualifies as one of the more stupid statements I ever read in this forum. To be honest you did ask but you didn't wait for the answer, which is the same as not asking.

Who are you to tell people what RAID they "should be using"?

I also happen to run RAID 6 on a 4-bay NAS and I consider myself having pretty good reasons for doing so on that particular NAS. Do you consider me an idiot also?

[MrVideo]

Gee, I'm not the only one who advocates RAID5 for 3-4 drives and RAID6 for 5 and more. Patrick is telling users all the time about what should be used. So, I get yelled at for doing the same thing?

And yes, I think it is idiotic to waste a whole drive on a 4-bay NAS for RAID6. IMHO, there can never be a good reason for it.

[P3R]

@nemmanon,

Please, disregard the stupidities from MrVideo.

He obviously don't understand that people may have different requirements and is mechanically only repeating something that he managed to learn, without really understanding the resaons for it.

RAID 5 is by very far the most common choice in a 4-bay NAS and for most home users it's the best choice but of course, RAID 6 also have it's place when better redeundancy is required.

Good luck in the future!

[MrVideo]

@nemmanon,

Please, disregard the stupidities from MrVideo.

Then he'll have the ignore the "stupidities" of others regarding appropriateness of using RAID5 or RAID6.

RAID 5 is by very far the most common choice in a 4-bay NAS and for most home users it's the best choice but of course, RAID 6 also have it's place when better redeundancy is required.

If you are so worried about redundancy, that is what constant backups are for, both on-site and off-site.

It is your money to waste. I prefer to spend it wisely (or at least I try).

[P3R]

Then he'll have the ignore the "stupidities" of others regarding appropriateness of using RAID5 or RAID6.

I can't remember having seen anyone giving orders in the offensive way you did here and what others say doesn't really matter, it was you that said it here and it was your post I found so very ignorant.

If you are so worried about redundancy, that is what constant backups are for, both on-site and off-site.

Of course I have multiple backups of all data but backups and RAID serve different purposes. Backup protects the data and RAID redundancy improves availability of the specific service. RAID isn't backup and that works the other way around as well.

I have a NAS at a remote location where no person is present for weeks and sometimes the place isn't even possible to physically access for several months. RAID 6 is the obvious choice for that application but it may also be useful in less extreme conditions, where high system availability is important.

It's a pity, I have found some previous posts from you to be good contributions to the community but the fact that you think there can never be a good reason for RAID 6 in 4-bay NAS tells us that you have a serious lack of experience, imagination and interest in adapting your "advice" to the specific application and user requirements.

[MrVideo]

I didn't give orders. Read what I wrote. I never said the OP MUST use RAID5, I said should. I also wrote "If I were you".