Migrating from QNAP to Synology NAS

[binaryshadow]

Synology migration​

I am currently using QNAP TS-253A with a 4TB main drive and 6TB second drive in Raid setup. The storage is nearly full so I decided to upgrade the NAS as well as storage. For the upgrade I have purchased DS923+ and 2x 16TB WD Red Pro Hard Drives. I have the NAS delivered but the drives are due in February (i guess).

While waiting for the new Hard drives to arrive, I am planning to setup the new synology NAS so that I can get used to it and also migrate my data in the meantime. In addition to the NAS drives, I also have a old 1TB spare external hdd which is USB2.0 (probably slow as it was bought in 2013).
I am looking for suggestions from this forum on how best to migrate and setup my new synology NAS.

1. I am thinking of pulling out one of the current NAS drives from QNAP and using it to setup the Synology NAS (this drive will be formatted).
2. Then use synology sync or local network to copy the files from QNAP NAS to Synology NAS. Finish off by pulling out the other drive from qnap after completing the copy and mounting it onto synology NAS.
3. when the new drives get delivered, I want to make the new 16TB as main drive and use the other 16 for RAID. I dont know if i will need the old drives at all after.
4. In this process, I also want to get rid of a truckload of duplicate images that my wife generates with burst mode. Ideally get rid of the dupes before doing backup/copy operation.

I hope what I am planning to do is reasonably correct/optimum method to migrate. I would like to know if there is any tool or a different method I can follow to make my migration simpler.
Also, I would like to know if there is a guide to follow that sets up my synology NAS in an efficient use. My use case is mostly for home use, photo uploads, running a few docker containers, calibre library, etc. But this time on synology I want to avoid duplicate photos getting into albums from the beginning. So I am thinking a tool/automated process to scan for images when they are uploaded, either skip or mark duplicate/similar images and not copy them into the main album that is used for indexing photos.


Thanks a lot for your support and suggestions.

 

[Rusty]

hope what I am planning to do is reasonably correct/optimum method to migrate

Welcome!

The steps are correct and the plan is solid. Once the 16TB drives arrive you can simply pull one of the old drives and replace it with the new one. This ofc means that you have completed your initial 3 steps and ended up with an SHR/raid1 array. Once the first 16TB drive has been installed and the volume repaired, repeat the process with the second disk and again let it rebuild.

In the end you will end up with both old drives available for whatever.

 

[binaryshadow]

Welcome!

The steps are correct and the plan is solid. Once the 16TB drives arrive you can simply pull one of the old drives and replace it with the new one. This ofc means that you have completed your initial 3 steps and ended up with an SHR/raid1 array. Once the first 16TB drive has been installed and the volume repaired, repeat the process with the second disk and again let it rebuild.

In the end you will end up with both old drives available for whatever.

thank you for confirming. Can you suggest any tool that can make the copy task easier ie., to sync/copy all my files from QNAP NAS to Synology Nas.

Also, as soon as I remove one of the two drives, QNAP will be running in degraded mode. What setup should i use in synology with that hdd ? I doubt I can set it up as raid config with only one hard drive plugged in ?
Can you also suggest a tool for deduplication while copying ?

 

[Rusty]

What setup should i use in synology with that hdd ? I doubt I can set it up as raid config with only one hard drive plugged in ?

Correct, but DSM offers something called SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid). That is the default raid array that will allow you to setup an SHR array with just one drive. Adding additional one later on will immediately turn those 2 drives into mirror mode (RAID1), if the drives are the same size.

SHRs benefit is the fact that it can provide redundancy even if the drives are not the same size. Now, what needs to be mentioned here is that once you have SHR setup up, you can replace or add new drives only using the drives of the same or larger capacity then the largest drive that is already part of that array.

So bottom line, yes, you will be able to start off with a single disk, and add a second one on the fly. If you are aiming for mirror configuration, this is it.

Can you suggest any tool that can make the copy task easier ie., to sync/copy all my files from QNAP NAS to Synology Nas

Considering that you need to copy data from QNAP (it being the source), I would suggest using its own version of "Hyper Backup". So any tool that QTS has for backing up data off the NAS. If that tool does support rsync, then configure your Syno box to be a rsync destination and use that method.

On the other hand, using a simple network mount (SMB or NFS) you can also utilize DSMs File Station manager to connect QNAP share(s) to Syno and then copy/paste the data that way.

Can you also suggest a tool for deduplication while copying ?

Dedup in DSM "world" is only supported with Active Backup for Business and Hyper Backup tools, none that can help you in this migration process considering that you are in the process of migrating to Syno. Later on, those will come in handy for sure.