Author Topic: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5  (Read 5729 times)

Wile.Coyote

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Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« on: April 17, 2018, 06:57:47 PM »
I have a LS-Q4 with four (4) 1TB drives in a RAID5 array.  The array is 94% full, so I'm trying to increase the size of the storage.  I took a 3TB drive out of the box and created a blank partition, then put it into slot 1, replacing the old 1TB drive.  In NASNavigator, I logged into the NAS and went into Disk Management, then RAID Setup.  I click on the tools icon next to the RAID array, which had a note that "An error has occurred" in the Disk Structure column.  All 4 drives were properly listed.  Disk 1, the new 3TB drive, was not checked.  So I checked the box next to it and press the button to "Restructure RAID Array."  The NAS went thru the process to rebuild the RAID array.  It took less than a minute.  Now, on the front of the NAS, all four drive lights are steady green.  The status light is flashing.  One (1) long red, then three (3) short red.  It's been that way for hours.  What does this mean, and how do I increase the size of the array.  From reading the manual, this seemed like the way to do it.

oxygen8

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2018, 01:10:06 AM »
the normal way

Backup the nas
delete the Raid
change one drive
format the new drive with the nas
change the other 3 drives
format the new 3 drives with the nas

restore your backup



the dirty way
you can open ssh and remove one drive from the array with mdadm
now replace the removed drive with a bigger one and use mdadm to repair the array
it will take days
you have to do this with all drives one by one (Raid5)

after weeks you will have a nas with 3tb drives, but only 1tb per drive will be used
now you have to use mdadm grow and xfsgrows to expand the array

DO NOT USE THIS RISKY WAY WITHOUT BACKUP.

If you have a backup use the first way

:)

Wile.Coyote

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2018, 05:13:39 PM »
And here I thought, from reading the manual, that I could replace the drives one at a time and let the array rebuild itself with each new drive added, all without loosing any data. All because, the way a RAID5 array works, you should be able to replace a drive with a new one and the array rebuilds itself.

Well, guess it's time to trash the array and start all over.  Fortunately I have a second array that already has most of the data on it.  So I'll just update that.

Thanks for the hints.  I'll let you know how that works for me.

Wile.Coyote

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2018, 10:29:50 PM »
Well, I at least got to the part about inserting the first new drive and formatting it.  Something is amiss though.  After over 24 hours, the NAS status light still flashes red, and occassionally the Disk 1 light us orange.  When I pull up NAS Navigator, it gives me an error message "E22: Cannot mount drive 1."  Is there a size limit on the drives that go into the LS-Q4?  The old drives are 1TB.  The new ones are 3TB.  When I log into the NAS and go to Disk Management, Drive Properties, Disk 1 shows up, but the file format is not available.  The other three drives are formatted as XFS.  Should I pre-format the new Drive 1 as XFS before putting it into the array?

Wile.Coyote

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2018, 06:06:31 AM »
Hmm, no wonder things aren't working.  I have put a new 3TB drive in the Drive 1 slot.  The other 3 slots still contain the original 1TB drives.  The drive light for Drive 1 is read, the others green.  When I log into the web interface on the LS-Q4, and go to Disk Management, RAID Setup, the error message states that 2 disks are damaged.

Is there some way to change all the disks to the new 3TB ones and rebuild the array from scratch?

oxygen8

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2018, 10:03:08 PM »
Code: [Select]
Should I pre-format the new Drive 1 as XFS before putting it into the array?Yes.

The old LS-QL can only use 512 bytes per sector
The new LS-QVL can use all available drives (512 and 4096 bytes per sector).

have you a V on your front?


Quote
Is there some way to change all the disks to the new 3TB ones and rebuild the array from scratch?
Yes.
After formatting drive one replace the other drives.

A second way is to replace all drives and start with E06.
But this is not so easy.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2018, 10:07:27 PM by oxygen8 »

Wile.Coyote

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Re: Increase Size of LS-Q4 RAID5
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2018, 11:57:31 AM »
No, no "V" on the front.  So I guess I can't do this the easy way then, huh?  It figures.  I can replace the 4 drives and start with E06, but I don't understand what that is.  Please explain.

davo

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Re: Increase Size of LS Q4 RAID5
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2018, 04:51:28 AM »
Hi,

I have 4 5900RPM drives and 4 7200RPM drives.  I would like to have one pool using all of them.  Is it possible to create 2 raid configurations one for each drive speed and pool both raids together?

If that is possible, would I see any speed increase having each set of drives in their own separate raid configs, and then pooling the two configs together?  Or is it best / only possible to do everything in one raid configuration.

Thanks,

Fort

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