Synology on Facebook
Follow us on TwitterHome > Knowledge Base > Tutorials > How to Expand Volumes or Disk Groups by Adding Hard Disks to Synology NAS
How to Expand Volumes or Disk Groups by Adding Hard Disks to Synology NAS
Overview
Synology DiskStation is designed to grow with your evolving storage needs, allowing you to create volumes or Disk Groups with a single hard disk and then gradually expand by installing additional hard disks as necessary. This feature allows you to expand the capacity of your volume or Disk Group according to your budget and with no need to worry about losing your existing data.
This article will guide you through the process of expanding an existing volume or Disk Group by installing additional hard disks.
Contents
1. Before You Start
This article assumes that you have already done the following:
- Created a volume on your DiskStation (see “How to Create Volumes on Synology NAS”)
- Prepared an additional hard disk with which you can expand your volume’s capacity.
Maximum Hard Disk Size: To expand a volume with 3 TB or larger disks, make sure your DiskStation is updated to DSM 3.1-1742 or later. For more information regarding what hard disks are supported by each model, please see here.
Back Up Data: Although the volume expansion process will not delete any existing data, we strongly recommend backing up your data before proceeding.
Minimum Hard Disk Size:
Please see the guidelines below regarding replacement hard disks' minimum size:
- For SHR: The capacity of the hard disk you wish to add must be equal to or larger than the largest hard disk in the volume or Disk Group. For example, if your volume is composed of three hard disks – 2 TB, 1.5 TB, and 1 TB respectively – then the capacity of the new hard disk must be at least 2 TB.
- For RAID 5, RAID 5 + Spare, or RAID 6: The capacity of the hard disk you wish to add must be equal to or larger than the smallest hard disk in the volume or Disk Group. For example, if your volume is composed of three hard disks – 2 TB, 1.5 TB, and 1 TB respectively – then the capacity of the new hard disk must be at least 1 TB.
For information about basic hardware and software setup, please refer to the Quick Installation Guide for your Synology product. You can also see Synology DiskStation User's Guide (available at Download Center) for additional information related to this article.
2. Expanding Volumes or Disk Groups with Additional Hard Disks
DiskStation supports expanding capacity of volumes and Disk Groups with the following RAID types: Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), JBOD, RAID 5, RAID 5+ Spare, and RAID 6.
To add hard disks and expand capacity:
- Turn off your DiskStation (skip this step if your DiskStation supports hot-swapping).
- Open the outer casing of your DiskStation.
Important:
To avoid harming yourself or damaging your DiskStation, please follow the hard disk installation instructions found in the Quick Installation Guide for your Synology product. - Insert any new hard disks you have prepared into empty hard disk slots.
- Turn on your DiskStation.
- Log into DSM (DiskStation Manager) with an account belonging to the administrators group.
- Go to Main Menu.
- Open Storage Manager.
- At this point, please do the following:
- Volume: If you are expanding a single volume on RAID:
- Go to the Volume tab.
- Select the volume you wish to expand.
- Click Manage.
- Continue to Step 9.
- Go to the Volume tab.
- Disk Group: If you are expanding a Disk Group:
- Go to the Disk Group tab.
- Select the Disk Group you wish to expand.
- Click Manage.
- Continue to Step 9.
- Go to the Disk Group tab.
- Volume: If you are expanding a single volume on RAID:
- Select Expand the volume (or Disk Group) by adding hard disks. Then click Next.
- Select the hard disks with which you wish to expand the volume or Disk Group. You can add hard disks by checking the corresponding checkboxes. Then click Next.
- A warning will appear, reminding you to make sure there is no important data on the selected hard disks. All existing data will be erased during the expansion process. Click OK to continue.
- Double check your settings on the confirmation page. You can click Back to return and modify settings, or click Apply to complete the wizard and begin expanding the volume or Disk Group.
- The expansion time varies depending on your environment. To check the status of the expansion process, please go to Main Menu > Storage Manager > Volume and see Status and Disk Info.
2013-03-25 15:27:00