Volume Administration
Under Disk Management, click on RAID Management to see the options for configuring your RAID array.
Here is what the help file says about the options available here:
RAID Management Tool
Note: These functions are not applicable on all models.
This function enables capacity expansion, RAID configuration migration, or spare drive configuration while preserving the original drive data. Select a volume upon which to perform one of the following functions.
Field Description EXPAND CAPACITY This function enables drive capacity expansion by replacing the drives in an array one by one. This option is supported for the following drive configurations: RAID 1 expansion, RAID 5 expansion, RAID 6 expansion, RAID 10 expansion ADD HARD DRIVE This function enables adding new drive member to a drive configuration. This option is supported by the following drive configurations: RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 expansion MIGRATE This function enables a drive configuration to be migrated to a different RAID configuration. This option is supported for the following drive configurations: Migrate single drive to RAID 1, 5, 6, or 10、Migrate RAID 1 to RAID 5, 6 or 10、Migrate RAID 5 to RAID 6
Some QPKGs need to be reinstalled (e.g. XDove)CONFIGURE SPARE DRIVE This function allows you to add or remove a RAID 5/6/10 spare drive. ENABLE BITMAP/ DISABLE BITMAP This function improves the time for rebuilding after a crash, or removing/re-adding a device. It does not improve normal read/write performance, and might even cause a small degradation in performance. However, if an array has a bitmap a device can be removed and re-added and only blocks changes need to be made since the removal (as recorded in the bitmap) can be resynced.
Note: Bitmap support is only available for RAID 1, 5, 6 and 10.RECOVER This function can recover failed RAID disk volume from “Inactive” status to the normal state (RAID 1, 5 and 6 will be recovered to the degrade mode, RAID 0 and JBOD will be recovered to the normal state). Before recovering the failed disk volume, please confirm that all hard disks of the disk volume are properly seated in the NAS drive bay. Once recovery is completed, back up your disk data immediately in case the disk volume fails again.
Note: Not all inactive RAID disk volumes can be recovered.SET/ CANCEL GLOBAL SPARE This function allows you to set or cancel a global spare drive. A global spare drive can be used to replace a failed hard drive in any RAID 1/5/6/10 volume. If you have multiple RAID volumes which share the same global spare drive, the spare drive will replace the first failed drive in a RAID volume.
Note: The capacity of the global spare drive must be equal to or larger than that of a member drive of a RAID disk volume.
As you can see, this is a full-featured RAID management tool. I especially like being able to expand capacity and to migrate from one RAID level to another. QNAP did a really nice job in laying out the required tools in this menu area to allow for pretty granular control over your array.
Also note the bitmap support. QNAP supports a bitmapped RAID set to help with faster array rebuilds if you ever have a drive failure. Very nice! Let’s add that feature to my array. Click on the array to manage and click on Enable Bitmap.
Bitmapping is now enabled on this RAID array!
TurboNAS makes administering, expanding, and migrating your RAID arrays very easy.
