NAS542 not able to extend volume 16383 MAX?

Waffle70
Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
First Comment
in Personal Cloud Storage

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

image.png

image.png

image.png

Accepted Solution

  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,921  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Seventh Anniversary
    Answer ✓

    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)

All Replies

  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,921  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Seventh Anniversary
    edited 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
    Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    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
    Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    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
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,921  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Seventh Anniversary
    Answer ✓

    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
    Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    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
    Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    Sorry to ask more questions.

    My Linux and Symlink knowledge is not amazing!

    I have created a second volume on the 542:

    image.png

    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
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,921  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Seventh Anniversary
    edited 6:19AM

    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
    Waffle70 Posts: 7  Freshman Member
    First Comment

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

    Have a good day.

Categories

Consumer Product Help Center

EnglishTiếng ViệtРусскийไทย中文（台灣）