Expansion of RAID created on Asustor NAS

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    Hi,


    Just moved over from an Asustor NAS and my RAID array mounted perfectly in OMV, however I have a question about expansion. I want to replace each disk one-by-one with larger drives, and eventually expand the arrays. Used to do that by just removing a drive in the Asustor, but understand with mdadm, I should remove the drive one-by-one, shutdown, swap the disk, boot back up and add the new drive to the array.


    The Asustor format is however actually two arrays on each disk, the first array is a 4 disk RAID 1, and the second, a 4 disk RAID 5. I understand normally its possible to replace and grow the arrays in the GUI, but will the OMV GUI through 'Multiple Disks' handle this set-up given there are actually two arrays on each disk?



    Cheers

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    • Official Post

    OMV's md plugin won't handle this because the asustor raid arrays are using partitions. OMV doesn't use partitions for mdadm. You will have to create the partitions on the new disk. Even more strange is that you have three partitions on each disk. I don't know what the point of the md126 array is either. You would be better off having chatgpt walk you through the change using the command line.

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    • Official Post
    Quote from Callifo

    Just moved over from an Asustor NAS and my RAID array mounted perfectly in OMV, however I have a question about expansion. I want to replace each disk one-by-one with larger drives, and eventually expand the arrays. Used to do that by just removing a drive in the Asustor, but understand with mdadm, I should remove the drive one-by-one, shutdown, swap the disk, boot back up and add the new drive to the array.


    The Asustor format is however actually two arrays on each disk, the first array is a 4 disk RAID 1, and the second, a 4 disk RAID 5. I understand normally its possible to replace and grow the arrays in the GUI, but will the OMV GUI through 'Multiple Disks' handle this set-up given there are actually two arrays on each disk?

    Asustor is probably using the same procedure as other commercial NAS. It creates a RAID 1 with a small replicated partition on each drive to house the operating system (or part of it). The rest of the drive is used with another partition to house user data, depending on the file system type the user chooses; in this case, you chose RAID 5.

    So, my advice would be to get rid of all that since you no longer need it and create a new RAID using the OMV GUI. That is, if you still want to continue using a RAID. Obviously, you'll need a backup of all your data first, which you should already have, considering that RAID is not a backup. https://www.raidisnotabackup.com/


    Welcome to OMV.

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    Quote from ryecoaaron

    I don't know what the point of the md126 array is either. You would be better off having chatgpt walk you through the change using the command line.

    The Asustor NAS boots from a ready only DOM, and they store all the config files on the RAID1 volume by the looks of it. Only an etc folder, and a bunch of application config files.


    OK ta, was toying with moving over. The new disks are big enough to take all the data, and I could rebuild the existing disks with OMV, then move it back, and then expand later. Get RAID is not a backup - my important data is backed up, the rest is stuff I'd prefer not to loose but can live with the consequences.

  • Callifo

    Added the Label resolved

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