Synology Add Drives

[dweagle79]

Thanks in advance for the help! I currently have a Synology DS920+ with a single 8TB Ironwolf NAS drive in it. I have DSM 7 installed with plex, docker, etc. running on it. I use the NAS for plex mainly, but also picture and music backup on it. The 8tb drive is in basic raid setup because I jumped into it without much knowledge on how I should have set it up. I have two 16TB HDDs that I want to put in the NAS and remove the 8TB drive from the system completely. I'm not sure what to do in this instance. Can someone recommend to me what configuration I should install the new drives? Can I transfer the currently running setup over to the new drives without losing configurations for apps, DSM 7, etc? Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[Telos]

You can do what you want, but you will have to reinstall any non-system apps (Plex, for example).

It depends on how you want the 2x16TB drives configured...

• 16TB (mirrored)
• 32TB (w/o mirror)
• (2) 16TB basic volumes.

I'd go with the first one. No matter which you choose, you should have an off_NAS back up plan for important files.

 

[Rusty]

a single 8TB Ironwolf NAS drive in it

If this single 8TB drive is configured as an SHR, then you can add one more 16TB to the mix to get 8+16 in SHR. Once the array has been completed, then remove the 8TB one and replace it with another 16. This will in the end be 2x16 in SHR will give you +/- 16TB of space with another 16 as redundancy.

If you want to use both 16 as storage space then just create another volume with a single 16TB disk. Migrate the data of the 8tb to the 16tb (including reinstall of apps) and after all is done, delete the 8tb volume, remove the drive and place 16tb (second) as a new volume again.

 

[Telos]

If this single 8TB drive is configured as an SHR

Maybe the OP was unclear, but I read that this is set up as a basic array. If indeed it is SHR, then Rusty's comment is optimal.

 

[dweagle79]

If this single 8TB drive is configured as an SHR, then you can add one more 16TB to the mix to get 8+16 in SHR. Once the array has been completed, then remove the 8TB one and replace it with another 16. This will in the end be 2x16 in SHR will give you +/- 16TB of space with another 16 as redundancy.

If you want to use both 16 as storage space then just create another volume with a single 16TB disk. Migrate the data of the 8tb to the 16tb (including reinstall of apps) and after all is done, delete the 8tb volume, remove the drive and place 16tb (second) as a new volume again.

Thank you for the reply, Rusty. Sadly, it is set up in basic RAID. I didn't fully understand what I was doing when I started a year and a half ago. I understand the fault of my set up now though. I just had it in my head at the time that I only have one drive right now so I wouldn't need anything but a basic set up with one drive. I didn't realize what limitations I would have in the future with basic.

After some reading though in the last few days, I decided that I will install into the NAS a second 8TB drive that was basically taking up a bay in my PC. DSM7 will allow me to convert the basic raid into raid 1 on the original 8TB drive. I will now have two 8TB drives in raid 1. I'm going to take the two 16TB drives, set them up in RAID 1 for storage of media in the other two bays of my NAS as a separate volume. This way I don't have to redo all the installations of apps, plex server, etc. If I'm feeling feisty down the road, I will redo things into something different.

-- post merged: 15. Feb 2022 --

You can do what you want, but you will have to reinstall any non-system apps (Plex, for example).

It depends on how you want the 2x16TB drives configured...

• 16TB (mirrored)
• 32TB (w/o mirror)
• (2) 16TB basic volumes.

I'd go with the first one. No matter which you choose, you should have an off_NAS back up plan for important files.

Thank you. I will work on the off NAS back up plan later. I think I've figured out what I want to do with the drives I have now. I appreciate the reply.

-- post merged: 15. Feb 2022 --

Another question about the two 16TB drives. Should I set those up with the SHR instead of RAID 1, or will RAID 1 suffice?

 

[Rusty]

Another question about the two 16TB drives. Should I set those up with the SHR instead of RAID 1, or will RAID 1 suffice?

SHR vs RAID# will depend on whether you want to mix different size drives or not. In a volume with the same drives, it will not matter at all. On a personal note, RAID over SHR, just because if you one day update to a model that doesn't support SHR. Conventional RAIDs are supported on all models. My 2c