Upgrading HDD to larger capacity

[bajunid]

Hi,

I have QNAP NAS TS-459 Pro II with system software 4.2.6 (this is the latest this model can support - end of life).

Currently it's equipped with 4 x 2TB HDD configured as Raid 5.

It's mainly used as storing my music and movie files served to multiple TVs in my home.

As I'm running out of space (~200GB left), I am planning to purchase 4 x 4TB HDD.

My question,

That's the best way to perform the upgrade?

I've read the manual it says I can upgrade it one by one and the system will rebuild the raid configuration.

My worry is will the rebuilding take a long time? while rebuilding, will I be able to use the system?

[dolbyman]

have you checked the forum first? should be a couple of dozen threads about increasing capacity (2020 alone)

process is also documented in the online manual (you said that already) and you can access the files the whole time (file access will reduce the rebuild speed)

[jaysona]

Hi,

I have QNAP NAS TS-459 Pro II with system software 4.2.6 (this is the latest this model can support - end of life).

Currently it's equipped with 4 x 2TB HDD configured as Raid 5.

It's mainly used as storing my music and movie files served to multiple TVs in my home.

As I'm running out of space (~200GB left), I am planning to purchase 4 x 4TB HDD.

My question,

That's the best way to perform the upgrade?

I've read the manual it says I can upgrade it one by one and the system will rebuild the raid configuration.

My worry is will the rebuilding take a long time? while rebuilding, will I be able to use the system?

The only way to perform the upgrade (I just finished doing the same on one of my TS-509 Pro units) is the following:

1. swap out and replace one hard drive at a time. (wait about 60 seconds before inserting the new hard drive)
2. wait for the raid array to rebuild before removing the next disk. (I am not sure how long it will take an Atom CPU to rebuild your array).
3. repeats steps 1 & 2 until all the hard disks have been replaced and the raid array has finished re-syncing.
4. Use the storage manager to expand the storage array. (I hope you have a UPS or very stable electricity utility, a power failure during this stage could render the RAID array useless).

You will be able to use the system while the raid array is rebuilding, but system use will slow down the RAID re-sync speed. When you are ready to expand the volume size, I would start it before going to bed, and let it run overnight, the expanded volume size should be available by the time you wake up in the morning.

[bajunid]

Hi,

I have QNAP NAS TS-459 Pro II with system software 4.2.6 (this is the latest this model can support - end of life).

Currently it's equipped with 4 x 2TB HDD configured as Raid 5.

It's mainly used as storing my music and movie files served to multiple TVs in my home.

As I'm running out of space (~200GB left), I am planning to purchase 4 x 4TB HDD.

My question,

That's the best way to perform the upgrade?

I've read the manual it says I can upgrade it one by one and the system will rebuild the raid configuration.

My worry is will the rebuilding take a long time? while rebuilding, will I be able to use the system?

The only way to perform the upgrade (I just finished doing the same on one of my TS-509 Pro units) is the following:

1. swap out and replace one hard drive at a time. (wait about 60 seconds before inserting the new hard drive)
2. wait for the raid array to rebuild before removing the next disk. (I am not sure how long it will take an Atom CPU to rebuild your array).
3. repeats steps 1 & 2 until all the hard disks have been replaced and the raid array has finished re-syncing.
4. Use the storage manager to expand the storage array. (I hope you have a UPS or very stable electricity utility, a power failure during this stage could render the RAID array useless).

You will be able to use the system while the raid array is rebuilding, but system use will slow down the RAID re-sync speed. When you are ready to expand the volume size, I would start it before going to bed, and let it run overnight, the expanded volume size should be available by the time you wake up in the morning.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. It's exactly what I am hoping to get. Thank you very very much.

Just for a benchmark, how long did the rebuilding take for a single disk for you?

A more important question, how long did the expand the storage array take from your experience? estimating if I need to get a UPS or not.

[jaysona]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. It's exactly what I am hoping to get. Thank you very very much.

Just for a benchmark, how long did the rebuilding take for a single disk for you?

A more important question, how long did the expand the storage array take from your experience? estimating if I need to get a UPS or not.

Rebuild time after replacing each disk was generally between 4 and 6 hours, depending on use of the NAS. The RAID volume expansion took about 14 hours or so, I'm not really certain. I did the volume expansion overnight and by the time I got home from work it was complete.

[jacobite1]

In MDADM-land an 'expansion' is a "reshape" process, which are typified by a high level of random I/O operations, rebuilds are much more sequential in nature.

In a worst case scenario, you are limited by the true random IOPS of your worst performing drive (100 is a good number) multiplied by the MDADM chucnk size (typically 64KB) - a migration speed of 6.4MB/s - with 4TB drives you are _in a worst case_ talking about a 170 hour operation.

In reality, however, expansions are a much less random reshape than a migration from one RAID level to another. In my case, the reshape from RAID5 to 6 took 8 days, but adding a 6th disk to that same array a few weeks later took 30 hours.

I'd imagine your expansion should be complete in under 24 hours.

[bajunid]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. It's exactly what I am hoping to get. Thank you very very much.

Just for a benchmark, how long did the rebuilding take for a single disk for you?

A more important question, how long did the expand the storage array take from your experience? estimating if I need to get a UPS or not.

Rebuild time after replacing each disk was generally between 4 and 6 hours, depending on use of the NAS. The RAID volume expansion took about 14 hours or so, I'm not really certain. I did the volume expansion overnight and by the time I got home from work it was complete.

Thank you very much Jasona. Appreciate it.Off to replacing them HDD.

[bajunid]

In MDADM-land an 'expansion' is a "reshape" process, which are typified by a high level of random I/O operations, rebuilds are much more sequential in nature.

In a worst case scenario, you are limited by the true random IOPS of your worst performing drive (100 is a good number) multiplied by the MDADM chucnk size (typically 64KB) - a migration speed of 6.4MB/s - with 4TB drives you are _in a worst case_ talking about a 170 hour operation.

In reality, however, expansions are a much less random reshape than a migration from one RAID level to another. In my case, the reshape from RAID5 to 6 took 8 days, but adding a 6th disk to that same array a few weeks later took 30 hours.

I'd imagine your expansion should be complete in under 24 hours.

Thank you for the detailed explanation Jacob. Appreciate it.

[bajunid]

Just thought I'd do a little update.

1. The guide found on QNAP website to upgrade a HDD is really different than on a 4.2.6 QTS. Not sure if it's me that is outdated or the website. Had to take a leap of faith of sort. Yeah, I'm not really a tech guy.

2. My first HDD too about less than 12 hours of rebuilding as I started after dark and it ends by the time I'm up the next morning. Second HDD looks to be really slow with only 4% after two hours where as I remember the first 5% didn't take more than an hour.

Thanks again for the help folks.

[bajunid]

Final Update.

Upgraded all 4 HDD to 4TB. 3 HDD averaging at 12 hours of rebuilding while the fourth HDD only took 7 hours although it started very slowly in the beginning.

Expanding Raid capacity took 17 hours to complete.

Thank you all for the pointers.

[BlueSkye]

Hi. I am considering doing the same thing with my old EOL TS-459-Pro II. The current set of drives are 3TB Seagate Barracuda XTs which, other than a single disk that coughed up a SMART error (197, 198 : 1 each) recently, the drives have been really stellar performers.

I am considering putting in four WD4003FRYZ 4TB Gold drives to see the TS-459-Pro II to its final resting place. Just to confirm, I understand that 4TB drives are the largest drives that QTS 4.2.6 will effectively use in a 4-disk RAID 5 (~12TB total capacity) due to the 16TB limitation I've read about. Is this correct?

Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

[BlueSkye]

My move from 3TB to 4TB disks went well. One additional advantage to moving to newer disks is that the actual operating temperatures of the individual disks, and the NAS itself, have dropped anywhere from between to five (5) to seven (7) degrees C.

[iron_black_belt]

Hi, I have a little/ big problem with my TS 659 Pro II:

2 weeks ago the 2 old Seagate 2 TB disks in bay 1 and 2 went bad after 9 years.
Due to availibility I had to replace them with a new WD red 3 TB and an old Samsung 1.5 TB.
I replaced the old single disk configuration with a RAID1 for these 2 disks limited to 1.5 TB, reinstalled the whole system, and everything was running fine.
When the next new drive that I could get (WD red 4 TB) arrived, I replaced the 1.5 TB Samsung one, rebuild the RAID1 still at 1.5 TB, and everything was running smoothly afterwards.
Next and final step was to increase capacity to the max available 3 TB with respect to the other drive.

That was the moment when things became weired: After hitting the <increase capacity> button, I lost connection to the system through the admin web page, the red LED next to the orange LAN LED started to flash with around 1 Hz, and the system ist not responding to any service request for 6 days now.

Now the deciding question: Should I wait until the capacity increase is done (cf. above 170 hrs/ 7 days duration estimation) OR did the process fail and another system recovery, i.e. reinstallation is necessary?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations, have a nice week and

Best regards!

[BlueSkye]

Although not an expert, I'd say the thing's toast and, hopefully, you have your data backed up. Personally, I'd start over and reinitialize everything and try and keep all disks the same size, manufacturer and type.

[iron_black_belt]

How long did your capapcity increase take?

Did you lose the admin webpage connection?

thanks for your time and reply