NAS542 not able to extend volume 16383 MAX?

Waffle70 · May 23

I have a NAS542 that initially had 4 6TB drives. At the time I created the Volume on the Disk Group, the firmware only allowed upto 16TB. This created a volume of 15.87TB leaving approx 300 GB of unallocated space.

When I upgraded the firmware, I expected to be able to extend this volume and utilise this extra 300 MB. But it always came up with the below message when I clicked the "Max" button and whatever I typed in the "New Volume Size" box, the apply box is always greyed out.

I thought that maybe it was maybe because it was so little unallocated space, but over the last week or so, I have replaced each drive in turn with 8TB drives. As you can see, I now have 5.8TB of unallocated space, but I am still not able to extend the volume?

I have the latest firmware.

Is there anyway to extend this volume? Maybe via command line?

Many thanks

Mijzelf · May 23

So even with the latest firmware or re-creating the volume there is no way?

Indeed. The kernel didn't change over all firmware versions, and so didn't the ext4 implementation

Can I run another OS to achieve this?

Theoretically, yes. Problem is that the SoC is not in mainline Linux, and so there is no newer kernel available. (Apart from (unstable) ongoing community development).

Maybe Unraid?

Definitely not. According to wikipedia Unraid only runs on x86_64. The NAS542 has an Armv7 SoC.

I can't think of any easy way of splitting this Syncthing mirror over 2 volumes.

I can imagine that you could move one subdirectory to the other volume, and than either create a symlink, or a bind mount on the original volume. Yet I don't know if Syncthing will accept this. (At least you'll have to take the service down while preparing)

Mijzelf · May 23

Is there anyway to extend this volume? Maybe via command line?

No. It's a low-level problem. The used filesystem (ext4) in combination with the kernel version (3.2.something) can only handle up to 2^32 pages, and one page is 4KiB. So the maximum volume size is 16TiB (maybe minus 4KiB, don't know).

However, you should be able to create a 2nd volume on that disk group, to occupy the remaining space. Then create at least one share on that volume to be able to access it.

Waffle70 · May 23

Thank you for the useful reply. So even with the latest firmware or re-creating the volume there is no way?

Can I run another OS to achieve this? Maybe Unraid?

Waffle70 · May 23

I am using this NAS542 as a Syncthing backup for a share on one of my Unraid servers. This Share is already at 15TB and I can't think of any easy way of splitting this Syncthing mirror over 2 volumes.

Mijzelf · May 23

So even with the latest firmware or re-creating the volume there is no way?

Indeed. The kernel didn't change over all firmware versions, and so didn't the ext4 implementation

Can I run another OS to achieve this?

Theoretically, yes. Problem is that the SoC is not in mainline Linux, and so there is no newer kernel available. (Apart from (unstable) ongoing community development).

Maybe Unraid?

Definitely not. According to wikipedia Unraid only runs on x86_64. The NAS542 has an Armv7 SoC.

I can't think of any easy way of splitting this Syncthing mirror over 2 volumes.

I can imagine that you could move one subdirectory to the other volume, and than either create a symlink, or a bind mount on the original volume. Yet I don't know if Syncthing will accept this. (At least you'll have to take the service down while preparing)

Waffle70 · May 24

Thank you again for all your really useful replies. It has definitely given me some options and things to think about.

I did think Unraid could be a stretch, just from the need to boot from USB to start with. Hadn't considered the processor type! I do have Unraid running on a Qnap, but from memory that has a x86_64 processor.

Have a good day.

Waffle70 · May 24

Sorry to ask more questions.

My Linux and Symlink knowledge is not amazing!

I have created a second volume on the 542:

Currently I have:

/TV Shows/Show 1

/Show 2

On the Unraid Server syncing to:

/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 1

/Show 2

On the NAS542 Volume 1.

I also have Sonarr's root folder and Plex Library pointing to /TV Shows on the Unraid server.

What is the best (and least disruptive to sonarr and Plex) way to split Syncing some of the TV Show subfolders to the new Volume 2?

Many thanks

Mijzelf · May 25

What is the best (and least disruptive to sonarr and Plex) way to split Syncing some of the TV Show subfolders to the new Volume 2?

Sonarr and and Plex tun on the Unraid box, right? So it won't even notice what Syncthing is doing on a remote 542, as long as the local file structure doesn't change.

You can create a directory on the 2nd volume:

mkdir -p '/i-data/<volume2>/video/TV Shows/'

You'll have to find out what <volume2> is. It's some hex code.

Shutdown syncthing, and move 'Show 2':

mv '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2/' '/i-data/<volume2>/video/TV Shows/'

This move can take a long time. All files are copied to another partitions on the same disk, so the disk heads will be busy. Better first try this with a small directory. During the move the terminal needs to be open. If you want to see progress add a '-v' (verbose) to the command.

Create a symlink:

ln -s '/i-data/<volume2>/video/TV Shows/Show 2/' '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2/'

Now the source directory is a symlink pointing to the target. Cross your fingers, and restart syncthing.

If it works, than keep in mind that you should check if everything went fine if syncthing has ever to remove 'Show 2' due to an upstream change.

If it doesn't work, a bind mount might help.

Waffle70 · May 25

Thank you so much. great explanation. I will try this with the smallest subfolder I have, and report back.

Have a good day.

Waffle70 · May 27

I thought it had worked with the Symlink, but I realised after moving several shows, that Syncthing then actually removed the folders completely from the Unraid server!! so I am now copying them back and re-syncing upstream I have since read that Syncthing doesn't support Symlinks….. Not useful Lol

How do you do a "Bind Mount"

Many thanks.

Mijzelf · May 27

Starting with the symlink situation, you can create a bindmount this way:

Remove symlink:

rm '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2'

Create an empty directory instead:

mkdir '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2/'

Mount the target directory on it:

su

mount --bind '/i-data/<volume2>/video/TV Shows/Show 2/' '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2/'

There are some problems with this approach. As you can see you need to be root to do the mount. ('su' takes care for that). Further this doesn't survive a reboot, so you'll have to execute the mount command (and so 'su') after each boot. Because of the 'su', this cannot simply be automated. And it's probably not a good idea to start syncthing when the mount is not yet active, as it sees an empty directory in that case.

And last, it is possible that the box won't shutdown properly when the mount is active. While the mount is active the underlying filesystems cannot be unmounted. So it's possible that the box switches off with mounted filesystems. Which is generally not a good idea. So unmount it first:

su

umount '/i-data/c8c5d1df/video/TV Shows/Show 2/'

(BTW, it is possible that the box will succeed in automatically unmounting the bind mount. The firmware itself also uses bindmounts, which are unmounted at shutdown. But I can't remember if there is a 'find all bindmounts and unmount them' script, or just unmount some known mounts.)

NAS542 not able to extend volume 16383 MAX?

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