RAID 5 to RAID 6 Migration

[Ph03n1x]

Hi There

After installing 4x 3TB drives it was configured as Raid 5 and afterwards I tink I chosen HDD4 as a spare can't really remember now, last night I tried it after taking aout the HDD4 it come up as in degraded mode and on the display said HDD4 unplugged. That is when I tried to change it to Raid 6 but everything was greyed out. I will have another look this evening after I return from work and see what is going on.

[doktornotor]

As noted multiple times:
1/ Cannot migrate if you have more than 3 drives in RAID 5
2/ You must remove the hotspare before migration/expansion. See the fine manual for the proper procedure to remove a hotspare.

[pwilson]

Hi There

After installing 4x 3TB drives it was configured as Raid 5 and afterwards I tink I chosen HDD4 as a spare can't really remember now, last night I tried it after taking aout the HDD4 it come up as in degraded mode and on the display said HDD4 unplugged. That is when I tried to change it to Raid 6 but everything was greyed out. I will have another look this evening after I return from work and see what is going on.

There is no way to migrate a RAID5 array with more than 3 drives to RAID6, except to "wipe" and "start from scratch". This is clearly identified in the fine manual. (I'd quote the manual for you, but you neglected to tell us which version of the Firmware you are using).

[Ph03n1x]

I will take a look this evening if I need to start from scratch so be it, the firmware version is 4.0.1 I was on 4.0.2 but down graded as there are bugs in 4.0.2.

I had a look at the manual as suggested yesterday but still either I missed something out or just won't do it; I can start from scratch as I have all data backed up on another NAS

[pwilson]

I will take a look this evening if I need to start from scratch so be it, the firmware version is 4.0.1 I was on 4.0.2 but down graded as there are bugs in 4.0.2.

I had a look at the manual as suggested yesterday but still either I missed something out or just won't do it; I can start from scratch as I have all data backed up on another NAS

Perhaps we could provide better assistance if you provided accurate information about your configuration. Please review article: When you're asking a question, please include the following.

You can "harvest" much of this information requested by logging into your NAS via SSH, (login as "admin"), and typing the following commands:

Code: Select all

df -h
echo "NAS Model: $(getcfg system model)"
echo "Firmware Version: $(getcfg system version)"
echo "HDD1: $(hdparm -i /dev/sda 2>/dev/null | grep Model)"
echo "HDD2: $(hdparm -i /dev/sdb 2>/dev/null | grep Model)"
echo "HDD3: $(hdparm -i /dev/sdc 2>/dev/null | grep Model)"
echo "HDD4: $(hdparm -i /dev/sdd 2>/dev/null | grep Model)"
cat /proc/mdstat

Please cut&paste these commands to your SSH session, and please cut&paste the output of these commands back to this message thread.

[thomasvs]

You can only migrate from raid 5 to raid 6 from a 3 disk raid 5. Not sure why but that is the way it is. Only way to do it now is to start over from scratch.

Woah, really?? I wish I had read this before I bought a new TS-870 Pro this week!

Does anyone know for the reason for this limitation? My four year old readynas was able to do this just fine a few years ago, and there is no underlying limitation in the linux kernel or RAID system that would impose this limitation. Why would QNAP deliberately cripple one of the most obvious migration paths?

I specifically bought the 8 bay model so I could do 1 redundant disk per set of 4, which seems like an excellent tradeoff. But due to this weird limitation, I have to start off with RAID-6 now and lose 33% of my capacity as planned just so I can migrate later.

Why, QNAP?

[holger_kuehn]

You can only migrate from raid 5 to raid 6 from a 3 disk raid 5. Not sure why but that is the way it is. Only way to do it now is to start over from scratch.

Well, I'd say this seems to be wrong, as I'm doing this right now. Here is the configuration for my TS 869L in time:

2 HDDs, RAID 1 - migrated to
7 HDDs, RAID 5 - right now migrating to
8 HDDs, RAID 6

Firmware is the latest Beta 4.1

Chears

PS: Just thinking, if this statement was posted in context of a 4-bay device, it's valid ...., but definatly not for 5 and more drives.

[pwilson]

You can only migrate from raid 5 to raid 6 from a 3 disk raid 5. Not sure why but that is the way it is. Only way to do it now is to start over from scratch.

Well, I'd say this seems to be wrong, as I'm doing this right now. Here is the configuration for my TS 869L in time:

2 HDDs, RAID 1 - migrated to
7 HDDs, RAID 5 - right now migrating to
8 HDDs, RAID 6

Firmware is the latest Beta 4.1

Chears

PS: Just thinking, if this statement was posted in context of a 4-bay device, it's valid ...., but definatly not for 5 and more drives.

Perhaps the 4.1 Beta removes that restriction finally. The "Home" version of QNAP Turbo NAS User Manual v4.1 still makes that same claim as previously, however it does not seem to be listed in the "SMB" version of the QNAP Turbo NAS User Manual v4.1 with the new Storage Pools.

Your TS-869 uses the SMB version, so as stated above, perhaps this restriction is now gone for NAS devices capable of using the new Storage Pools. Thanks for sharing, this potentially sounds like great news if you are correct about this, which you probably are.

[holger_kuehn]

I'll let you know, when it's complete. Currently it's working at about 25% ....

I didn't noticed there had been two versions of 4.1, will take a look tomorrow.

[holger_kuehn]

So, ... kind of late repley, but it took an awfully long to complete.

But the extension worked just like a charm to me. As pwilson mentioned this limitation to a 3-disk-RAID 5 extention seems to be no longer valid with the new storage pools ....

[StarterGUY]

Guys can anyone point me how to do the raid 5 to raid 6 migration without losing any data. I have a 3 disk raid 5 and bought 2 more HDD to make the raid 6. Thanks!

[Don]

Guys can anyone point me how to do the raid 5 to raid 6 migration without losing any data. I have a 3 disk raid 5 and bought 2 more HDD to make the raid 6. Thanks!

Read the manual. It is explained in there.

[StarterGUY]

Guys can anyone point me how to do the raid 5 to raid 6 migration without losing any data. I have a 3 disk raid 5 and bought 2 more HDD to make the raid 6. Thanks!

Read the manual. It is explained in there.

Im kind of dumb... Read it but Don't understand If I can do it without any further issue. I have a 670 and have 3 disk installed. So I will install 3 more. After that just do the migrate?

[Feybio]

Someone can conferm? can i migrate from Raid5 (more than 3 disks) to Raid6?

Thank you

[Don]

Try it. If the option appears on the gui then you can do it. If it doesn't then you can't.