Migrating from 2-bay RAID1 to 4-bay RAID1

[philguk]

I currently have a 2 bay NAS with two 4TB disks configured as RAID1

I’m looking to upgrade to a 4 bay NAS with the two existing disks, expanded (probably) with two 6TB disks to make a 10TB RAID1 storage pool

What’s the best way to do the migration WITHOUT LOSING ANY EXISTING DATA in the two current 4TB disks??

Thanks for all suggestions. These disks currently hold my wife’s entire digital photo collection and, while I do have backups, I’d rather avoid the stress of any data loss !!

Cheers

Phil G

[dolbyman]

You cannot migrate to RAID10

What you can do:
- Make/Check your external backups
- Move the 2 4TB disks over (see migration compatibility guide)
- replace the 4TB with 6TB disks
- migrate the RAID1 to RAID5 or RAID6 (if you need dual parity)

forget about RAID10

[philguk]

Ahhh, I see. RAID1 is only for single disks?

So, I COULD have a pair of 4TB disks mirrored, and a second pair of 6TB disks also mirrored

So 4TB RAID1 and 6TB RAID1

That may be enough

[dolbyman]

Ahhh, I see. RAID1 is only for single disks?

No, RAID1 is for RAID1 .. Single disks are single disks

So, I COULD have a pair of 4TB disks mirrored, and a second pair of 6TB disks also mirrored

You could .. but that's not what you described .. you wanted 4 same size disks RAIDed together

I showed you a path to RAID5 or RAID6

================

So did you want to keep the original drives AND get 2x6TB ?

a RAID5 makes more sense still

4TB+4TB+6TB+6TB in RAID5 = ~12TB(*0.9)

Two RAID1 is costing you overhead

4TB+4TB & 6TB+6TB=~10TB(*0.9)

Makes no sense to go for two RAID1

[philguk]

Ahh (again!)

Yes, no need to dump the 4TB drives yet, yet I need more space

Thanks for the RAID5 suggestion

When I get closer to actually doing it, I may be back for baby-step directions!

Much appreciated

[philguk]

Oh, and kind of a related question!

Do QNAP NASs have a limit to how much disk they support? Is going to 12TB on a SOHO 4bay NAS going to be “difficult”??

[dolbyman]

Depends on your NAS model

If CAT1, then you are limited to volume sizes of 16TB max and migrating the disks to a CAT2 will not change that (Legacy Volume will be migrated)

So without disclosure what NAS system you have , no answer can be given.

[philguk]

Currently my two 4TBs are in a TS269, but I’m looking at a TS431 as an upgrade

Also wondering if it’s easier in the long run to just empty the disks, reformat them and build the new storage “subsystem” then migrate the data as a separate step. I think I have enough temporary storage to stage through other NASs (Hybrid Backup Sync is a wonderful thing) - I certainly have the time to spare to do it properly! In fact, I think that’s what you’re saying

[dolbyman]

That migration will not work
https://www.qnap.com/en/nas-migration?o ... ion=ts-431

But mark my words about backup, a RAID is NOT a backup, so if you have to scramble now to offload the data from one unit to another, you apparently do NOT have backups

A tearful lesson that many have learned after it's too late (you can get USB backup drives for pretty much dirt cheap nowadays .. there is no excuse)

[philguk]

I have backups (ex database guy here). But moving the data, I’d rather keep the backups in my back pocket and stage the data elsewhere. Then during the migration, I’ll have TWO backups

Did I mention I’m an ex database guy? There really is no such thing as “too many backups”

[philguk]

That migration will not work
https://www.qnap.com/en/nas-migration?o ... ion=ts-431

Thanks a lot for your help

Creating new NAS it is, then move the data to it

[tonylima]

Re backups, I've been hot-swapping new drives (one at a time), basically creating what I hope is a clean copy of all the disks. I then plug the copies into the new enclosure. If this won't work, please let me know. I'm having issues that I'll describe in another thread.

[dosborne]

Hot swapping is not "copying" in any usable way and is DEFINITELY NOT any form of backup.