convert ext3 to ext4 [merged thread]

[Loek Rots]

great.. that was the answer I'm looking for..

Mostly use it to read (squeezebox system), so I'll stick to the raid 1 solution.

thnx a bunch

[itari]

For performance theorems on RAID, you have to differ between 'read'-performance and 'write'-performance and of cause the number of disks.

2 Disks
Read-Performance is twice: RAID-0 & RAID-1, Read-Performance is normal: JBOD
Write-Performance is twice: RAID-0, Write-Performance is normal: RAID-1 & JBOD

For other combinations look at: http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html

Itari

[adgud]

Still, I'd say you won't feel the difference between non-RAID/RAID1/RAID0 on a network storage. Since RAID1 gives you protection only from disk failure, I advise you to create one volume on each HDD and perform backup every 2 days from one volume to the second one (you can automate this process in DSM). This solution protects you when you accidentally delete a file or there is a power loss when writing to a disk, whereas RAID does not.

Also, Synology says you shouldn't convert ext3 to 4, instead copy everything somewhere, delete volume(s) and recreate them.

[WillyB]

First off, I LOVE DSM 3.0. Fantastic job, team.

I have upgraded to the latest DSM version on my 410. I know on linux you can do an in-place-upgrade from ext3 to ext4 by adding the correct volume options as long as your kernel supports it. Can this be done safely for the 410? I'd like to avoid the pain of having to copy the data off, create a new volume, and copy it all back. I realize the benefits are moderate, but I'd still like to have better free space utilization and journal checksumming.

[e_l_p_i_s]

Just in case others find this useful. I didnt trust using the usual method in updating ext3 to ext4 using tune2fs.

I bought a ds210j with 2 hard drives (WD Caviar Greens which is another story). I installed DSM 2.3 and formatted the drives as per instructions. Played around with it and then a found DSM 3 would be released soon so didnt copy much over until that was available.

After installing DSM 3 and backing up my data to a USB device (which worked fine for my purposes) I tried to delete the volume in the GUI but it would not do anything - it would just refresh the page and nothing would change. I then tried resetting DSM to its defaults (including format) but still didnt do anything. In the end I logged into the ds210j and ran:

Code: Select all

umount /volume1
cat /proc/mdstat
mdadm --misc --zero-superblock /dev/xxx


Code: Select all

/dev/xxx

will be the partitions being used for the raid device for /volume1 listed in

Code: Select all

/proc/mdstat

After a reboot the GUI didnt list my volume anymore and I could create a new volume. Looking at the volume after creation it is a LVM device and formatted with ext4. Not sure whether I need to add noatime to the mount options but will leave it for now.

This may help a few others - not sure whether the other raid partitions (/dev/md0 and /dev/md1) need updating (used for system purposes) but it all seems to work now.

Tom

[Romeo]

running my ds210j with two 1,5tb hdd and got two old usb hdd connected also to it. one of the usb hdd was empty so i could easily format it to ext4 from ext3. now the problem i want to solve is how to can I update the internal hdd running ext3 without loosing all the data I got on them?

[davelx]

AFAIK, you can't, ulness you want to risk one of the free conversion tools not supported by Syno. You need to unload the data, delete the volume, create a new one and reload the data.

There's an extensive discussion about this here: (hint - search the forum for a topic with EXT4 in the title )

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=161&t=27189

[dieter.wunderer]

Since I looked for a long time and couldn't find a "how to guide" to upgrade to DSM 3.0 and changing the file type from EXT3 to EXT4, I made a Wiki page for this:
http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.ph ... _with_EXT4

But be warned: This does not include converting EXT3 to EXT4. So, you have to backup all your data and recreating the volume. This is the only reliable way so far... sorry...

Please update/correct the page as appropriate, since I only could include my personal experience.

[grzmrc]

Hi,
I have to upgrade filesystem to ext4.
I'm concerned to lost data stored on my raid1 device, so I want to write a guideline before starting the mission.
step1 shutdown the NAS
step2 open the case and phisically unmount one of the two drive.
step3 power on the nas
step4 erase everything and reinstall the SO on the new ext4 filesystem
step5 shutdown
step6 phisically connect the other HD
step7 power on the nas
step8 copy all data to the new ext4 drive
step9 format the the old drive and rebuild the raid1

is it possible?

[grzmrc]

well,
I'm try to mount one disk on ubuntu, but I see "linux raid autodetect". What can I do to read my files?

[maxxfi]

Boot your computer with a Knoppix LiveCD.
It should be able to automagically mount your Synology partition