synology nas question

hornetstinger · 10 May 2019 at 09:07

Just bought ds418. I have a 3tb, 2tb and 2tb drive.

Once these are installed can I add another hd without disrupting the data on the other drives, and when I add a 10tb just slot it in format it then move files from the two 2tb onto the 10tb then remove them?

Is the os stored on one of the hd? If so removing hd will bigger it? I'll use the 3tb for music storage.

I'll be use individual drive layout.

What if I install the 3tb first then setup the Nas install firmware the os is installed to that and then add the two 2tb?

Silent Bob · 10 May 2019 at 10:54

I believe the nas creates a small raid1 array for the os across whatever disks you install. You can then add and remove disks and it'll re-configure itself without having to re-install the os.

hornetstinger · 10 May 2019 at 10:58

I have a 64gb ssd I no longer use would there be any benefit of using this in the Nas? Pity can't set which drive os and apps are installed.

There's something in install setup about SHR.

Silent Bob · 10 May 2019 at 11:05

From what I remember it's possible to add a SSD and the nas can use it as cache to increase performance. I've only got a 2 drive unit so never tested it out. SHR allows you to create a flexible raid array using mixed sized drives. Might be worth looking into if you want to add some redundancy https://nascompares.com/2016/07/06/...tween-synology-hybrid-raid-and-ordinary-raid/

bledd · 14 May 2019 at 16:46

My advice..

Just buy 4x drives the same size that are big enough so you'll never want to 'upgrade' them. Either get WD Red drives or Seagate Ironwolf.

Either set them to RAID5 or RAID10. Single drives is madness in a NAS.

4x4TB drives, RAID5 = 12TB usable
4x4TB drives, RAID10 = 8TB usable

FrankJH · 24 May 2019 at 10:06

bledd said:
My advice..

Just buy 4x drives the same size that are big enough so you'll never want to 'upgrade' them. Either get WD Red drives or Seagate Ironwolf.

Either set them to RAID5 or RAID10. Single drives is madness in a NAS.

4x4TB drives, RAID5 = 12TB usable
4x4TB drives, RAID10 = 8TB usable

In your opinion is RAID 10 a bit overkill for personal use?

I have a 5 bay Synology - but only 3*12Tb drives currently in SHR - when funds allow I was thinking of adding one more data drive and keeping the 5th slot for hot spare?

( I have Ironwolf drives, so think the warranty should cover me reasonably well for any drive failures)

bledd · 24 May 2019 at 14:59

It would be for my use, but if you needed performance, then it's a good option.

The issue with SHR (RAID5) is the long rebuild time on large drives. With 12TB drive, it would be probably 4 or 5 days I'd imagine..

pp111 · 27 May 2019 at 10:54

bledd said:
Either set them to RAID5 or RAID10. Single drives is madness in a NAS.

It depends how you are using the NAS. My NAS is independently backed up so there is no real issue with the number of drives. Also, if you are using the NAS as a backup then there will always be the primary copy on the PC's you are backing up!

FrankJH · 8 Jun 2019 at 05:41

bledd said:
It would be for my use, but if you needed performance, then it's a good option.

The issue with SHR (RAID5) is the long rebuild time on large drives. With 12TB drive, it would be probably 4 or 5 days I'd imagine..

sorry - meant to come back earlier and say thank you , you have a good point about the rebuild time but as the unit (reportedly anyway lol) will still be usable , its less of an issue (although possibly putting more strain on the working disks while rebuild is taking place)

bimbleuk · 8 Jun 2019 at 07:42

As noted above the issue with long rebuilds is you're exposed and putting the remaining drives under a lot more load which could make another HDD fail. So additional tested backups is also a good idea. I have a QNAP 4 bay but also have a caddie attached that I can backup to old desktop drives for the most important stuff.

SSD cache is good in certain situations but mostly streaming or direct copying isn't going to make the best use of it. When I finally decide to upgrade to 10gbe I will install the SSD/10gbe PCI-E expansion card for my QNAP and install a spare M.2 SSD and then at least not lose one of the 4 bays for large storage.