Please recommend a disk format strategy

[CheapDad]

I have a DS-718+ with one 4 TB hard drive. I've purchased a second 4 TB hard drive to add to it. I also have my ancient Zyxel NSA-320 with a 2 TB drive in that I plan to eventually use to backup key documents off the DS-718+. (I recognize that its not ideal for a full backup for a variety of reasons.)

At the moment, my DS-718+ is basically a file storage station, although I'd eventually like to expand its use to other things like streaming music. As an aside, I was just ready to jump into Docker and try out some packages when the warning about security flaws in packages came out.

Does anyone have a recommendation on the best architecture for adding the second drive (JBOD, RAID, etc.)?

TIA!

 

[EAZ1964]

the stragegy depends on you requirements:
Use JBOD if you need the full 2 disk storage space and you do not care about losing the ALL data if one disk fails, because data is not important or you have backup elsewhere.
Use two basic volumes if you need the full storage, and accept you will loose all data on one disk if it fails.
Use Raid 1 if you can live with half of the storage space, you need the NAS uptime in case one disk fails, and it gives extra protection (but not a full backup) against data loss.

there is no effect on docker or streaming, that will work regardless of your choice.

 

[CheapDad]

To put a finer point on my use, it's storage of music, photos, files and backups of my home computers. I plan to expand its use as I discover neat things I can do with it.

Since I'm not going to have a full, complete backup of the NAS elsewhere (at least to start), it sounds like JBOD is not a good solution. Likewise, since I can back up really key documents and photos to my Zyxel, I'm thinking that RAID 1 is probably not the optimal strategy at the moment.

That leaves me with 2 basic volumes. Is that RAID-0?

 

[EAZ1964]

No, raid0 has all advantages and disadvantages of JBOD, it is a bit higher read speed though.
Basic volumes is just two separate disks, you can manually manage which folders are on a particular disk by setting the volume when you create a shared folder.

 

[CheapDad]

Got it. So, music, photos, etc. on volume 1 (physical disc 1) and backups on volume 2 (physical disc 2), right?

 

[fredbert]

@CheapDad you first have to establish how the single 4TB drive is configured in the DS718+ right now. If it is SHR, adding a second drive may end up with you have SHR with 1 disk redundancy (similar to RAID 1).

 

[EAZ1964]

Got it. So, music, photos, etc. on volume 1 (physical disc 1) and backups on volume 2 (physical disc 2), right?

that is a possibility yes.
Regarding the remark of @fredbert : that is a valid remark, take care adding the second disk, create a separate pool for it, and its own volume. Synology would create a raid 1 (SHR) by default, so be careful adding this second disk.

 

[CheapDad]

@CheapDad you first have to establish how the single 4TB drive is configured in the DS718+ right now. If it is SHR, adding a second drive may end up with you have SHR with 1 disk redundancy (similar to RAID 1).

I accessed the DS-718+ through my administrator account and pulled up storage manager. It does not appear to say anything about SHR in any of the menus. (I can post a screenshot if someone will tell me which menu is the right one.) It seems like I should be able to put the new drive in, start the NAS and then set it up. Correct?

 

[fredbert]

Storage Manager's tabs for Overview, Volume, and Storage Pool all have this information displayed.

 

[CheapDad]

It seems like no SHR ...

 

[Telos]

JBOD permits disk additions to expand capacity... just without redundancy, such that should any disk fail, you will likely lose the entire volume. This may or may not be an issue depending on your backup plan.

 

[CheapDad]

I added the new drive and created a second volume. However, File Manager only reflects my volume that has data on it and I don’t see any way to “see” the volume and move data to it. What am I missing?

 

[Rusty]

I added the new drive and created a second volume. However, File Manager only reflects my volume that has data on it and I don’t see any way to “see” the volume and move data to it. What am I missing?

Control Panel > Shared folder. There you can move the entire vol1 shared folder to a new volume, or simply create a new folder on the new volume and then you will see it in your File Station. After that, copy, paste, move etc...

 

[CheapDad]

Thank you, that did the trick. I simply changed the location from Volume 1 to Volume 2 and the system appears to be migrating it. I think that I won’t need to change any settings on my local PCs that access it, which is a benefit.

One last question on this: I’m getting a 175 MB/s transfer rate. Does that mean that DSM is sending the data to the computer through which I accessed the NAS and back? I would think an internal movement would be much faster than what I’m getting.

 

[Rusty]

One last question on this: I’m getting a 175 MB/s transfer rate. Does that mean that DSM is sending the data to the computer through which I accessed the NAS and back? I would think an internal movement would be much faster than what I’m getting.

This is an internal transfer from vol1 to vol2.