Today, we're going to upgrade the existing hard drives in a RAID1 array in a QNAP
TS-451 NAS unit. I currently have four drives in my QNAP. The first two slots have 3TB drives, which are mirrored together in
a RAID1 array, while the last two slots have 2TB drives,
which are also mirrored in its own separate RAID1 array. The two drives that I'll replace are the two 3TB drives in
the first array. I'll be replacing them with two Seagate 5TB drives, which are shown here.
Please note that all the data on the 5TB drives will be erased during the upgrade,
so if you have any data on those drives, make sure you back them up. The only tool
we'll need is a Phillips head screwdriver, and that's just for the screws that attach the drives to the caddies.
Let's start by logging into QNAP's QTS operating system. So here's the procedure:
First, I'll replace the first 3TB drive in the array with a 5TB, and wait for QNAP to rebuild it. Next, we'll
replace the second drive in the array and wait for the rebuild. Finally,
we'll expand the capacity in QNAP's software so it recognizes all 5 terabytes.
This same procedure
applies to any QNAP NAS unit that uses QTS and to any RAID array, whether it's RAID1, 5, or 6.
When you launch the storage manager, it displays the four drives in my system. To get more information for the RAID groups in which each
drive belongs, you'll need to tab over to the Disks/VJBOD
section (which stands for Virtual Just a Bunch of Disks).
The first RAID1 group consists of the drives in the first two slots, while the second group contains the drives in the last two.
As I mentioned earlier, we'll be switching out the two 3TB disks which are in the first RAID1 group. To perform the actual
operation of upgrading the disks, we'll need to go to Storage Space.
Select the RAID group that we're going to upgrade. You can see the group isn't too full, but it's more than halfway.
But that's not the reason I'm switching them out -
I just want to retire my older 2 and 3TB drives because they're getting fairly old, and I do anticipate
storing a lot more files on the QNAP. So you'll want to click on the Manage button.
And after scrolling down a bit, I'll confirm that I'm working on the 3TB drives. What you'll need to do next is click on the
Manage pull down and select Replace Disks One by One. You'll notice that the Expand Capacity button is
disabled, and that's only because I'm using the maximum amount of space that I can use. There's really nothing else we can do to increase
the space, except to swap out the drives. So click on the individual disk that you want to replace, then click Change. The description
will give you the instruction to Please Remove this Drive. At this point,
let's physically remove the drive from the unit. You don't have to power down because these disks are hot swappable,
so you simply lift on the lever and pull out the caddy.
As I do so, you'll notice that QNAP detects the drive is now unplugged, giving you a new instruction to insert the new disk.
So I'll remove the old drive from the caddy by unscrewing these four screws,
then fasten them to the new drive.
After I insert the new disk, a couple things will happen:
QNAP will detect the new drive, and then it'll start rebuilding the RAID array. This rebuild is going to take quite some time.
OK, the rebuild has been completed. What we need to do now is work on the second drive.
We'll click on that disk. Click the Change button, and we'll go through the same procedure.
Let's physically eject the drive. remove the four screws from the caddy, fasten them to the new disk, then insert it into the slot.
This time the rebuild is not going to take as long as the first one.
So now the rebuild is done fror the second drive. As you can see, both drives are now Seagates,
each is 5TB,
and we've got a status of good for both Disks 1 and 2. We'll now want to click the Expand button to expand the capacity to
use the maximum physical capacity of the disks. The expansion of the drives won't take much time at all.
When we go back to manage the storage space, we'll see that the RAID group is now 5TB. I hope you enjoyed -
Thanks for watching!