Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

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wizengamot
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Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by wizengamot »

The basic question is: Can I expand the storage pool (when it contains a thick volume) to use the unallocated space.
In Storage and Snapshots I click on the Storage Pool (not the volume) and click Manage. The info screen says "Volume/LUN: 79.67% (78.21TB) Unallocated: 20.34% (19.97TB). My goal is to add the 19.97 to the 78.21 and have the Unallocated number to be zero or as close to zero as QNAP will let me.

I called support and they said to convert the thick volume to a thin volume and then the storage pool can be expanded. However, I have heard that you have the option to replace the disks 1by1 and expand the pool that way. However, for me the expand pool button in the replace disks 1 by 1 is greyed out.
I searched the forum and Google first before asking this and I cannot seem to find any post that matches what I am doing. All the scenarios seem to focus around expanding a storage pool by replacing disks 1 by 1.

Given that I have no need to buy higher capacity drives and I want to expand the storage pool to use teh unallocated space on the same array, what is the best way to do this?

I reviewed this link:

https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial ... ty-upgrade

and this one

viewtopic.php?t=116369

Neither one seems to match what I am doing, so I wanted to double check here that support is no the right track. I don't want to waste a large amount of time doing this thick/thin conversion if that isn't the write process.

Thank you in advance for any tips/help you can provide.
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dolbyman
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by dolbyman »

You can expand thick volumes as well.

Here is a more recent thread (not an 8 year old one)
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=169992
wizengamot
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by wizengamot »

Unfortunatly, its the Storage Pool itself that needs to be expanded. I have reviewed the link you posted and it talks about expanding the volume. In my case, I can expand the volume another few percentage point (and still leave room for snapshots) but its the storage pool itself that I am wondering about in this case. The support staff at QNAP tell me that the only way to expand the Storage Pool is to convert the volume to a thin one. My goal here is to confirm their assertion without having to do the conversion of the volume, so I can know that the conversion isn't a waste of time.
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dolbyman
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by dolbyman »

You were talking about thick to thin conversion .. you can only do that with volumes not with pools (there is no thin or thick pools)

So are you missing drive space on the pool (after swapping all the drives with larger ones) or are you planning to and don't know how ?
diwiwi
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by diwiwi »

The only ways to expand the Storage Pool would be to replace the drives by larger ones, or adding new drives.
That has nothing to do with converting thick to thin volumes..
wizengamot wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:09 am However, for me the expand pool button in the replace disks 1 by 1 is greyed out.
Just to make sure, have you already replaced the drives?

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wizengamot
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by wizengamot »

I have attached a screenshot of the Storage Pool 1 Management screen.

There is unallocated space (as shown in the screenshot). The system will let me create a second storage pool with the available space if I want to, but I would prefer to expand the existing pool with the available space. The line in question shows the Volume/LUN at 78TB and the Unallocated at 19.97.
:shock: :-0 :idea:
Am I just not "getting" this? My thinking was that the Storage Pool has a size, but I just got a thought that maybe the only structure with "space" is the actual volume itself and I did not clue into this (until now, if I am right). This is my first QTS NAS and the only other systems I have played with are ZFS (with FreeNAS) and UnRaid which isn't really RAID in any sense and the FreeNAS was so long ago that I really don't remember it very well.

If I am right, I should be able to re-size the volume without doing anything to the Storage Pool...
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diwiwi
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by diwiwi »

The unallocated space is from the Storage Pool.
You cannot expand the pool with space from the pool..
The Pool capacity is defined by the drives size. Total = 98 TB. Allocated + Unallocated = 98 TB.
That unallocated space can be used to expand your Volume.

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dolbyman
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by dolbyman »

so IT IS the same as the link I posted
wizengamot
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by wizengamot »

You are quite correct.. it is the same as the link you posted. I was completely wrong. I had it in my head that the storage pool could be expanded (without changing the drives) ... that the unallocated space I was seeing was somehow not available in the storage pool. This was reinforced by the fact that I was told by a QNAP support technician that the only way to expand the storage pool (and I said this like 3x to confirm what I was hearing) was to convert the thick volume to a thin volume. It didn't make sense to me but I could not put my finger on the why (at first).

I do want to thank you diwiwi and dolbyman for sticking with this thread and helping me out. All of your help is greatly appreciated.
diwiwi
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Re: Storage Pool with a single Thick Volume.

Post by diwiwi »

You're welcome, and glad that your issue is resolved :)

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