How to expand the RAID Volume with larger disks

Overview

This article will guide the administrator into how to conduct expansion of the RAID Volume on the Synology Disk Station (also known as Vertical Expansion) with larger sized disks. Vertical Expansion is performed where disks of older sizes, such as 500GB can be incrementally changed into 2TB Disks, without loss of data. This allows the Synology Disk Station to have storage which can grow with the needs of the administrator. Vertical Expansion can only be performed to the following Volume Types

• RAID-1
• RAID-5
• RAID-5+Hot-Spare
• RAID-6
• Synology Hybrid RAID

This guide was created with firmware DSM2.1-0844

Please refer to the How to Manage the Synology RAID Volume for further background information about this article.

Before executing any type of RAID manipulation, or even using the Synology system, it is recommended to have a backup of data present. For further information about what is a backup, please look here.

Step 1:

• Begin with having a Normal RAID Volume.

Step 2:

• Swap out one disk with a larger disk.
• Note
  • For cold-swap systems, the Disk Station will have to be turned off to replace the disk, ie, the DS409, DS209
  • For hot-swap systems, the HDD can be replaced while the system is in active operation, ie, the DS509+, RS409+, DS409Slim

Step 3:

• Start the RAID repair process for the RAID volume, after replacing the first disk.

Step 4:

• After the Repair Process has concluded and the Volume is normal, proceed with with replacing another disk, and repeat the repair process.
• Repeat this exchange of changing out one disk at a time, repairing the volume, and ensuring the volume is healthy before proceeding with the next disk until all disks within the RAID Volume have been replaced with the newer larger sized disks.

Step 5:

• Proceed to the next portion of this guide to run the Volume Expansion Wizard.

Step 1:

• After completing the disk exchange from the older sizes to the newer-sized disks, proceed to the Volume Manager and click on the Expand button.
• Note in this example about 8GB is available for the RAID Volume

Step 2:

• Click on Next

Step 3:

• Select Expand with unallocated Disk Space and click on Next.

Step 4:

• A final confirmation window

Step 5:

• Close the Expansion Wizard by clicking Finish

Step 6:

• The Expansion Wizard will verify the RAID Integrity...

Step 7:

• ...and then expand the file system

Step 8:

• When the Expansion Wizard has completed, the Volume will return to Normal Status, and the newer capacity (in this case, about 40GB) will be reflected.