Synology Storage Manager



  1. Synology Storage Manager Missing
  2. Synology Storage Manager Data Scrubbing
  3. Synology Storage Manager Loading

Storage Manager is a management application that helps you organize and monitor the storage capacity on your Synology NAS. Depending on the model and number of the installed drives, Storage Manager helps you accomplish the following tasks: Create different types of RAID and non-RAID storage configurations, such as volumes and storage pools.

My Synology DS918+ has two Seagate Ironwolf NAS 6TB drives in it, currently configured in a Storage Pool. With two drives, one is essentially a mirror of the other, so the total storage available is only 6TB. Well 5TB if you 'count' the way hard drive manufacturers do.
It's now time to add to this storage. I called C-Zone at PJ Digital Mall and was told they had the drive in stock. Unfortunately, when I got there, it turns out there was a mix up and they didn't have actually have them there, only in their Lowyatt Plaza branch. Which meant a drive into the city.

Storage Manager in DSM 7. A redesigned Storage Manager that brings new performance optimization features and more safeguards against data degradation. It is going to be easier to troubleshoot, monitor, and maintain your Synology NAS. Also, the new version includes SSD cache enhancements that allow three-times faster SSD cache write-backs. The actual HDD size will be affected by the system partition and can vary between vendors, so the values calculated may differ from the actual results. Please refer to Synology Storage Manager for precise data calculations for storage installed on your Synology NAS. RAID F1 and SHR are only available on selected models. Synology Cloud is a paid service from Synology that lets you sync important files from your Synology NAS to Synology’s cloud storage service. Data Security Synology NAS has a lot of security features like AES 256-bit encryption for files, secure key management, account protection, firewall, HTTP 2.0 support, IP auto-block, multiple SSL. In DSM 6.2, we aim to provide better IT management flexibility and usability in every aspect. The new Advanced LUN, iSCSI Manager, and Storage Manager take management efficiency to a whole new level. Security update with no service downtime in SHA and abnormal DSM login detection bring you a more powerful but secure DSM.

In the rain.

Fortunately it was a Sunday so there weren't too many cars on the road. In the end I managed to get my hands on another Seagate Ironwolf NAS 6TB drive.
I started by pulling out the empty caddy for slot #3. Then a small flat screwdriver was used to prise off the panels at the side.

The new drive then is placed in the caddy, with the holes aligned, and then the panels at the side are pushed in until they lie flat on the sides.

The caddy then slides back into the slot, going all the way in until the SATA connectors mate.
Synology Storage Manager

It takes about 20-30 seconds for the drive to power up and be recognized by the system, at which point the DISK 3 LED lights up.



Logging into the NAS and firing up the Storage Manager's HDD/SSD screen shows that Drive 3 is recognized but 'Not Initialized'.

To add the drive, I selected the Storage Pool screen and selected 'Add Drive' from the Action button-menu:

Then choose the new 'Drive 3' and press Next:

Confirm by pressing OK:

Synology Storage Manager Missing


Then press Apply:

And we're returned to the Storage Pool screen. There's a moving symbol at the four squares to indicate it's busy doing stuff. The Drive first changes from 'Not Initialized' and then to 'Normal', after which the Storage Pool is Expanded to encompass the new drive. This process can take a long time as it has to recalculate the parity bits across the 3 drives.

The existing data on the volume is still available while it's going through this process, although access speed is reduced. I was still able to stream HD video from my Plex server running on the NAS without any issues (4K would end up buffering every 20 seconds or so), although putting any load on the NAS may slow down the time it takes to expand the Storage Pool. I estimate that it took around 36 hours for my three 6TB Ironwolf NAS drives.
After that, the Storage pool had a capacity of 11TB:

Synology Storage Manager Data Scrubbing

The Volume is still using only the initial 5.24TB of space, however:

The last step is to select 'Volume 1' in the Volume screen, then choose 'Configure' from the 'Actions' menu. Click the 'Max' button next to the 'Modify allocated size' field, and press OK:

The NAS then starts expanding the file system to use all the available space in the Storage Pool. This took about 15 seconds, and finally:
Synology

And that's all there is to it.
The DSM UI on the Synology NAS makes expanding the storage an absolute doddle compared to using mdadmon a PC-based linux system. My ideal setup is now to use just SSDs for fast storage within the PC, and store everything else on the NAS. Of course you need wired gigabit networking connecting everything together, but for most desktop PCs this is not an issue. Hopefully this allows me to reduce the size of my desktop PCs eventually.

The Synology DS412+ started beeping on the one of the nights when I just got back from work. At first I thought my neighbour’s appliances/alarm clock was beeping and disregarded it. When I walked past the Synology DS412+, I realised one of the disk’s status LED was not lit. Is the disk down?

Synology Storage Manager Loading

I started to worry for the data on the Synology Hybrid RAID Volume. Quickly fired up my browser, accessed the DSM and checked the Storage Manager. I was right, disk 2 has failed and no more information was provided.

So how do one recover from degraded RAID volume on the Synology DS412+ on Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)? It turns out to be 3 simple steps:

  1. Turning off the warning beep
  2. Replacing the failed hard disk drive (hot-swappable)
  3. Repairing the RAID volume

Turning off the warning beep

Updates
31st March 2017 The beep control can now be found under Control Panel > Hardware & Power.

I guess this step is really optional if you do not find the every 2 seconds beep irritating. For me, I prefer to turn it off after knowing what went wrong with the volume. Turn off the warning beep by:

  1. Navigating to the DSM page (your Synology NAS’s IP address) using a desktop web browser. The mobile DSM does not give you an option to turn off the beep
  2. Login to the DiskStation Manager (DSM)
    You should be shown the DSM desktop
  3. From the “Start” menu, launch Storage Manager
    Storage Manager should launch
  4. In the Storage Manager, select the Volume tab
  5. In the Volume tab, click on the “Beep off” button
    The warning beep should stop and the “Beep off” button will be grey-ed off

With the warning beep off, it is time to replace the faulty hard drive.
Replacing the failed/faulty hard disk drive

You should always replace the failed/faulty hard disk drive with one of similar specifications. It can be larger in size but not smaller as it will affect the size of the total RAID volume. To find out the available size of a RAID volume, use the Synology RAID calculator.

For the replacement hard disk, you can either:

  • Get a brand new one and switch place with the faulty disk; or
  • Extract the fault disk, send it for warranty replacement and wait the replacement

Do note that if you are going for option 2 of waiting for replacement, do note that you do not enjoy data protection. If any of the remaining disks fail, you will lose your data.

The physical replacement of the hard drive is quite straight forward, you can eject the drive when the Synology NAS is still up and running (if it is hot-swappable) or you can do it when the Synology NAS is powered down.

With the new hard drive inserted, the system logs should reflect a newly inserted hard disk. Similarly, the “HDD Management” tab in “Storage Manager” should reflect the newly added hard disk. Once the new hard disk has been reflected, proceed to the next section.

Repairing the volume

This is the most time consuming part of the entire process as the DSM will be rebuilding the newly inserted hard disk. It all depends on the size of the volume, the bigger it is, the longer the wait.

  1. Login to the DiskStation Manager (DSM)
  2. From the “Start” menu, launch Storage Manager
    Storage Manager should launch
  3. In the Storage Manager, select the Volume tab
  4. In the Volume tab, click on the Manage button
    A Volume Manager Wizard should launch
  5. In the Volume Manager, select the Repair option and click on the Next button
  6. Select the newly inserted hard disk and proceed by clicking the Next button
    A warning prompt highlighting that “all the data in the new disk will be erase” should be prompted
  7. Acknowledge the warning prompt by clicking the Ok button
  8. Once you have confirm the settings for the repair, click on the Apply button
  9. If done correctly, you should see that Volume 1 is back to 4 disks and the status of the volume should be reflected as “Repairing”.
  10. Congratulations! You have kick started the repair process. In the mean time, the volume will still be accessible, albeit a little slower due to the repair process.

Conclusion

The Synology DS412+ successfully rebuilt the new disk with the necessary information. The RAID volume is up and running with data protection of 1 disk fault-tolerant again!

This is very important as I had use other NAS which had problems rebuilding the RAID volume. Some even formatted the data drive instead of the new disk, worsening the problem further.

I am glad that the DiskStation Manager knows what it is doing and the repair process is easy without needing the end user know all those Linux commands. This is how a good product should be!

Treat shadowandy!

If these step-by-step guides have been very helpful to you and saved you a lot of time, please consider treating shadowandy to a cup of Starbucks.




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