Advantages/Disadvantages of Synology Hybrid Raid?

[jackpalmer09]

This may sound silly but pls kindly enlighten me.

I have 6 x WD RE4 2TB in my DS1812+ now. They are set in RAID6 config.
My backup are on 4 X WD MyBook Essential 3TB.

I'd like to add 1 or 2 more WD RE4 2TB to my DS1812+ to expand the RAID6 array.

I have 2 options:
1. Add the disk to DS and expand the RAID
2. Delete the RAID and freshly create new RAID6. Then copy back data from my backup.

Is there any differences of the above 2 methods?
Will fresh creation be better than expanding existing RAID?

Thanks for ur advices.

[okayfine]

I have two Hitachi Ultrastars 2TB and 1812. Drives are not installed yet.

If I get 4 more WD RE4 2TB drives, and make a 6 drive SHR2 (2 disk redundancy) array, what happens if I install a 3TB drive later. Will I be able to expand the array by adding just one more drive?

If I use two 2TB drives, and four 3TB drives (instead of six 2TB drives), will I have more storage? If I want to expand this array, will be I be able to do it by adding one 3TB drive later?

Thanks.

[HarryPotter]

Synology RAID calculator

[okayfine]

I have two Hitachi Ultrastars 2TB and 1812. Drives are not installed yet.

If I get 4 more WD RE4 2TB drives, and make a 6 drive SHR2 (2 disk redundancy) array, what happens if I install a 3TB drive later. Will I be able to expand the array by adding just one more drive?

If I use two 2TB drives, and four 3TB drives (instead of six 2TB drives), will I have more storage? If I want to expand this array, will be I be able to do it by adding one 3TB drive later?

Thanks.

I'm mostly confused with this quote :
"When expanding a 2-disk redundant SHR Volume, whether by larger or additional disk, the new storage will be available as soon as 4-disks have been expanded or added into the SHR Volume"

Does this mean that when I have a 6 disk SHR2 volume, I have to add additonal 4 HD's to expand the volume, or will addition of one HD expand the volume as well?

Thanks.

[pterpm]

so many thing that confused me, can some one help me please
I bought a ds 1812+ a weed ago and still playing with it and not find the right way to config
I spent almost a week day and night to moving file around and try to understand the way of nas config but still don't understand
I got about 3x1tb , 3x2tb full of datas and 4or 6x3tb empty HDD going fill my ds 1812+
First of i put in 1x3tb in and run shr mode with data protection, okie that run fine
Later i put other 1x3tb in and use manager button to expand the space bigger but when it spent over 8 hours check disk but only 3tb space remain , go here and got the explanation why it do that because mirror to protect the 1st hdd.
Later i want to expand my space, but it won't let me do that , the manager button not activate , have to create the vol 2 with shr mode(without protection) later come here again and got the answer
Now, my question is how do i put all of my HDD in included my 1TB,2TB,3TB combine together
Should i put in 3x1tb first and 2tb and 3tb
I don't understand that the word equal or greater size, meaning by the total space together or ....???
EX: if i put 3x1tb in, later if i want to expand the space i have to put 3tb in to make it equal or i can just put it in 1tb or greater size, because if put in this 5tb together and i can not find the HDD with equal with it
sorry for my English, i'm kind of ...not good with this thing
Please, help so i can use my nas so i don't waste my time just moving files around

[wingit]

Hello all. After reading this thread and playing with the box for some time, I believe I have reached an impasse on my attempted setup. Here is what I was hoping to achieve:

DS212J
DSM 4.0
2 3TB Seagate Drives

I wanted to use 3TB in a RAID1 (or SHR) 1.5TB mirror for critical backup (eg iMac Timemachine and my digital photos) with the remaining 3TB available as non-mirrored storage for non-critical files such as music, movies, and the like.

Is this a possibility with my current hardware? I know I could add another external hard drive, but this isn't how I would like to do it, if possible.

Thanks in advance.

[HarryPotter]

No this is not possible.

[HarryPotter]

I don't understand that the word equal or greater size, meaning by the total space together or ...

You can only add a HD with the size of the largest existing disk.

examples:

start with 10x 3 TB => expandable only with 3 TB or larger disks
start with 10 x 1TB, add 1x2TB => expandable only with 2 TB or larger disks

[pterpm]

Thank you very much Harry Potter, i did it, now my nas up and run after 2 weeks buiding Raid

[mhe4]

HarryPotter (or someone else in the know),

I've read through this thread and I almost understand my options. I just purchased a DS1812+ and am, like many, struggling to figure out the best way to use the disks I have to provide space now and expansion ease later.

I have available:
3 x 4 TB
5 x 1 TB (only 1 is available until the new array is up and running)
3 x 500 MB
1 x 400 MB

If I were to put into the DS1812+:
3 x 4 TB
1 x 1 TB
3 x 500 GB
1 x 400 GB

then what would be the minimum size drive I would have to replace the 400 GB (or 500 GB) drive with to get any expansion benefit in useable space?

My confusion comes from some posts saying it has to be at least the size of the largest drive (ie. 4 TB), elsewhere I read it has to be at least the size of the 2nd largest drive (ie. 1 TB), I also wonder if in the scenario above, a 500 GB drive replacing the 400 GB would expand capacity by 100 GB or not.

Finally, what would happen if the 400 GB drive was replaced by a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive?

I understand that SHR sounds simple, but it really isn't easy to wrap ones head around some of the scenarios possible.

Thank you and sorry to be confused,
Mark

[LEDFanCDN]

I have a few questions because it seems that I did not understand something by reading this thread or I made some mistake trying to achieve my goal.

I have a DS210+. I had two 2 TB Hard Drives. One of them was damaged. So, I bought two 3 TB hard drives. I have a SHR Volume. I replaced one of my Hard Drive, then the second one. What I don't understand is the fact that I was expecting my volume to increase since I changed from 2 to 3 TB hard Drives. But nothing has changed! After finally installing the two new hard drives, if I look at the Volume options, the manage button is grey. I cannot expand the volume!

From that point, what do I do in order to get that extra space? I don't want to lose any settings, neither my 781GB data!

[HarryPotter]

Can you post a screenshot of your Storage manager?

[LEDFanCDN]

OK, no problem, it's in French but this shouldn't be a problem. Take note that the SHR type is with data protection.

[HarryPotter]

You are right to expect someting between 2.5 and 3 TB.

My advice is to contact Synology support and give themn remote access. They will allocate the missing space via command line interface.

[Meinaart]

I have a DS207+ running RAID 1 with two 2TB HDD's. I just ordered a DS1512+ with two extra 3TB HDD's.

I want to migrate my RAID 1 to SHR and expand the volume with the two new 3TB HDD's. Is this possible without formatting the drives?

What's the best way of doing this?

My backup solution would be:
- Backup all data of the DS207+ on the new 3TB drive via eSata
- Remove one disk from the DS207+ and put it in the DS1512+
- Create SHR volume on this one disk in the DS1512+ (probably have to reformat it?)
- Restore data from 3TB disk via eSata or USB3.0 to the 2TB disk in the DS1512+
- Remove user data from 2 TB disk in DS207+ (just the stuff on the shared folders)
- Restore stuff from the DS207+ like configuration of surveillance station, MySQL databases and so on.
- Expand SHR volume in DS1512+ with the 2 TB disk and after that with the two 3 TB HDD's.

I probably could also copy data from the DS207+ to the DS1512+ via LAN but I think this would take more time? (It's a gigabit network).