[gibxxi]

I have a question... all this back up stuff aside... I did find where it saved the backup with phpMyAdmin by the way...

However since all of my packages are installed on Volume 1 it doesn't want to let me delete it even though I have a second volume installed.
This is so frustrating... I generally have zero trouble figuring things out on a PC but when it comes to the NAS I'm freaking lost!!

I'm getting ready to just yank all 5 hard drives out and start over!!


EDIT>>>>> Volume 1 in the process of being removed...
EDIT2>>>> Volume 1 cleared but still RAID6 and it wont let me change it... all data wiped.
If it's been wiped I don't know why it wont let me change RAID type and start over. Shoot me please
EDIT3>>>> I think I'm making progress ... getting my 5x8 set to SHR1

Does the NAS not have a Factory reset feature in the GUI? It won't allow you to delete volume 1 since that's the volume the OS is installed on. The NAS doesn't run off firmware only. The firmware will be responsible for expanding a base image for the OS, but it will be installed on the RAID array and obfuscated (hidden) from the user,  hence the need to use SSH to get at it.

I don't get why your wanting to remove volumes, this won't change anything. A reset will return the NAS to stock settings, but the security restrictions Synology have put in place to deter you from messing with it will remain. You'll still need to use work-arounds to get it working how you want it to, rather than the "walled-garden" they are offering you. Think Apple & Jailbreaking iPhones.

Not only that, it insulates them from support requests by people messing around with things, then the unit going pear shaped and asking them for support.



Dan / Gib.

[gibxxi]

I would like to draw a distinction between the "RAID Array" (as a whole), "RAID Volumes", and "Partitions" here too. The three things are each entirely different entities from each other.

The hardware "RAID Array" is made up from the total number of installed disks. For RAID-5 this will set aside 1x physical HDD (or alternatively the *size* of 1 complete HDD) for parity checking & recovery, so you lose the total space of that drive, once the array is created. On a 6-drive physical RAID array, it may be possible to dedicate 2x physical drives for this purpose, but in the case of enclosures up to and including 5x physical disks, it's (usually) 1x physical Hard Disk or the total size thereof, if memory serves.

A single RAID array may contain multiple "RAID Volumes". QNAP do this with their NAS devices, as do NETGEAR, so I expect Synology are no different. "RAID Volume 1" will consist of the host OS, and any installed addon packages. Whether installed by default, or the end user. "RAID Volume 2" will be the user data volume, containing the "shares" you see over the network. The size of this volume can be expanded or shrunk up to the maximum amount of available space allocated to the array as a whole (minus that reserved for parity checking as already mentioned). You may also create additional "RAID Volumes" up to the size of the remaining available space. I do this on my primary NAS, I have a 3rd "RAID Volume" allocated to hold the share that contains my audio/music library, to protect against excess fragmentation. I'm OCD, bite me, lol.

Finally, you have "Partitions" which contain the logical volumes that actually contain the data. These work similar to Windows partitions, but Linux is known for typically using more and they are named somewhat differently than the Windows standard, in addition to being formatted using different file systems (i.e: ext3, ext4, BTRFS, ZFS, etc, etc. vs. NTFS on Windows). On the NAS there will be a shedload of Symlinking to hide the fact there are multiple volumes / partitions to make the file system as a whole appear to the host OS as one physical volume. This is a highly simplified explanation on how it works, admittedly, but NAS devices are complicated in the way they work, if all you've ever been used to is Windows. The limited knowledge I possess is based on years of trial and error (a bit of trial, resulting in a whole load of error, lol) on my part. First with NETGEAR, then Asustor, and most recently, QNAP. However this is going insanely off-topic, so i'll leave it there.



Dan / Gib.

[huttdes]

I have to delete my original volume so I can change my RAID array. My 5x8 is set as RAID 6 and I want to change to SHR1
I don't need that level of redundancy since my NAS is not my primary storage nor is it my sole backup.
So I installed my 2x14 on a new no RAID volume then copied all my data to it.
I can't start my new array with my 2x14 because you can't add smaller drives to the a SHR1 array.
So I have to start over by changing the 5x8 to SHR1... I will then copy the data to the new 5x8 SHR1 array.
Then delete the 2x14 volume and add it to the 5x8
So finally at the end I'll have 5x8+2x14 in an SHR1

I had to delete MariaDB 5 and 10... deleted phpMyAdmin as well as Web Station.
Once this was all gone it allowed me to remove my original Volume 1
I backed up the general NAS settings as well so when I rebuilt Volume1 as SHR it gave me all my old settings and folder structure.
Right now I'm waiting for it to go through its painfully long parity check... probably take 24 hours... although I can transfer data while it does so but I'll just wait until its done. I sent a few test files over and was able to access from Kodi using my Nvidia Shield and PC.

So right now it looks like all should be good but with the parity check and about 30TB of data transfer it will probably be next Sunday before I'm fully functional again!!

I really appreciate all the help! Thank you.

[gibxxi]

I was about to ask you "What the hell" SHR-1 was, lol (I Googled it). I've never owned a Synology NAS - I find the enclosures to be hideously ugly to look at. Probably not the best mantra to base your buying choices on, no doubt, but hey ho.

Well good that you've managed to get the hardware where you want it. Like you, i'm an entirely self-taught hardware geek. I did do a college course on computers (BND) 25 years ago, but what practical use that has been to me since, you could write in very large print, on the back of a very small postage stamp!



I feel your pain with the ReSync. QNAP's weekly "RAID scrubbing" I have set-up regularly takes 24 hours+ and severely impacts the NAS performance even at low priority. Let me know how you get on once your up and running again. PM if you need to. I work 8-5 weekdays, but I'll be here in the evenings.

Dan / Gib.