Synology Hybrid RAID Expansion Begins…

Synology upgrade begins

This is actually my first go at using this little trick. I only noticed it a few years ago.  i haven’t had a need to use it.  Until now.  i am so delighted that Synology continues to innovate.  Every time i deploy a Synology, it has even more functionality. i am not getting paid for this, honest endorsement.   I only wish they made direct attached storage or SANs.  I do not mean to imply that i have a problem with NAS.

I am not only upgrading the capacity, but the throughput and seek times as well.  With dual drive protection, it will be a few redundancy passes before i see any additional storage and probably even longer before i will see much more performance.  it will be an interesting project. The process so far has been simple. i just deactivated the outgoing drive and replaced it with the new bigger faster drive.  Once that is done, you repair the volume with the new disk and wait.  And wait.  Eventually do it all again. And again.

Status update:

Drobo Speed Test

My Drobo has been acting up since last week.  I couldn’t get speeds over 40MB/sec  for a while i wasn’t seeing anything faster than 25MB/sec.  I read all the forums and i was on deadline to return some customer data.  I put hours into this only to get to 35MB/sec.  The final answer was actually a stupid one i read in a forum but didn’t put much stock in.  My favorite part of USB-C is that it doesn’t matter which way you plug it in.  At least that is what i thought.  Turns out that with some Drobo 5c it does matter.  After flipping the port, i’m back to useful speeds. It’s even mentioned in the Drobo 5c FAQ.

Status update:

Data Transfer - Home Stretch

After almost 10 days of non-stop transferring, we have finally (almost) reached the bottom.  This makes it almost 16TB transferred.  It is almost time to plug the Drobo into the Synology and start using that 16TB volume as a backup!

Status update:

My ancient Drobo array is only maintaining 25MB/sec transfer while still operating in its usual capacity.  I had estimated that i’d see rates as low as 35MB/sec.  This is only one folder and it alone will take 2 days to transfer. See you on the other side.

Status update:

synology NAS

I have an aged storage array in a critical roll on my network. I have wanted to replace it for years, but the expense and the effort always kept it in the future. Apart from the speed being underwhelming, it has always been reliable and problem free.  My recent backup problems have necessitated a new and much larger backup destination.  This created the perfect storm allowing me to buy a huge new NAS to take over the rolls of my current slowpoke.  Thus freeing my old, slow, but reliable array to act as solely a backup.  This will breath new life and impressive capacity to my infrastructure and finally for the foreseeable future put an end to my local backup capacity issues.

Some of the preparations involve typology changes.  Changing the very roadways and turnpikes of my network. If you are doing a performance upgrade, might as well squeeze out all the juice (link aggregation, etc).  This upgrade is so big it will probably take the entire weekend just to prepare and rest of the month to complete!  what could possibly go wrong?  I prefer to think of all the things that will go right when it’s done.

2019 Storage upgrade phase 2 begins!

Drobo 5c - Rebuild

Now the waiting truly begins.  fingers crossed against additional failures.  On the next upgrade i’ll be able to test to see if the Drobo Pro (the original Drobo 8 bay) supports disks greater than 4TB.  Apparently, no one has tested that. I honestly wonder how many of these are still in use? I have now replaced every drive in my Pro.

Update: I have been informed by @mistacabage that the Drobo Pro will not accept drives larger then 4TB. The official documentation just said it was untested.

Drobo Pro - Rebuild

And then there were four!

Drobo 5c StatusI have been experiencing an excess of failures with my own equipment this week.  Mostly aged drives who’s working lifespan is winding down.  Often the preverbal cobbler with no shoes, I rarely have time to maintain my own equipment. My usual quick fix is to throw more drives at the problem. Although that would certainly get me running again, it was more of a stop gap then a real solution.  I have a number of aged drives and i wanted a solution not just for today, but something to make a difference moving forward.  Enter the Drobo 5c.  I have been a fan of Drobo for years.  I have an 8 bay that holds my media library in it’s warm RAID-6 embrace.  I had been eyeing the Drobo 5d for years waiting for the price to sink or my need to raise.  Turns out the 5c is incredibly priced with only minor disadvantages over the 5d.  One reason i love Drobo and the reason it was perfect for this project is the Drobo’s ability to expand in the future while operating at diminished capacity.  I bought this enclosure with only 2 drives.  Started up with mearly one 4TB drive and another 3TB.  This got me started with about 2.7TB of usable space.  Then i got to the task of offloading data from my healthy external drives. As each drive emptied into the Drobo’s volume, it was then fed into the Drobo enclosure to continue to expand the capacity.  Now i have over 8TB of usable storage with both failover protection (a single drive can fail and I loose nothing) and expandability.  It’s one big volume makes organizing and tidying a snap.  That last bay will get a 4TB eventually and it’s doubtful the most recent 3TB i installed will be working this time next year.

Continue reading “And then there were four!”