Volumes

A volume is formatted by the file system to store share folders and files. Users can manage, monitor, create, or delete a logical volume on this page. The following topics are covered in this chapter:

•	Creating New Volumes

•	Removing Volumes

•	Expanding Volumes

•	Available Volume operations

•	Configuring Alert Threshold

•	Creating New Shared Folders

•

Snapshot

•	Managing Previous Versions in Windows

•	Encryption

•	Setting Thin Provisioning Space Reclamation and SSD Trim

Creating New Volumes

1.	Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".

2.	Click "Create" > "New Volume" to launch the volume creation wizard.

3.	Configure the mode for the volume from static single, thick multiple, and thin multiple according to your needs (learn more about "Thick or Thin Volumes" in the following section) and click "Next".

4.	Select the enclosure unit, hard disk drive(s), RAID type and hot spare disk for the volume to be created and click "Next".

5.	Set the alert threshold and volume alias. You can also enable volume encryption, and create share folders. Refer to below form for the relationship between inode, maximum size of volume and maximum number of files/folders, which you can find the configuration in “File system option”. Click "Next".

Bytes per Inode	Max. Size of Volume	Max. Number of Files/Folders
4096	15.99 TB	Volume Size/Inode size
8192	31.99 TB
16384	63.99 TB
32768	127.99 TB
65536	250 TB

6.	Confirm your settings and click "Finish".

7.	Please note that all data on the selected hard drive(s) will be erased. Click "OK" if you are certain about this.

8.	The new volume will be created.

Note: The hot spare disk feature is only available for RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. For other RAID types, the hot spare disk field will be grayed out.

Follow these steps to create a new, thick or thin volume:

1.	Select "Thick Multiple Volume" or "Thin Multiple Volume". Select to create a new storage pool or from an existing storage pool and click "Next".

2.	Configure the mode for the volume from static single, thick multiple, and thin multiple according to your needs.

3.	Configure the volume capacity, alert threshold, volume alias, Bytes per inode, encryption and shared folder settings and click "Next".

4.	Click "Finish".

5.	A new volume will be created.

Note:

•	Static Single Volume: This mode offers the best performance but does not support thin provisioning, space reclamation and snapshots. For this option, the RAID group itself is a volume.

•	Thick Multiple Volumes: This method can create multiple volumes on the same storage pool and instantly allocate physical storage space for the volume. It has better performance than thin volumes while also offering flexibility.

•

Thin Multiple Volumes: Thin Multiple Volumes: This method can over-allocate the volume capacity for each volume regardless of the physical storage limit. Disk space is only used when files are written to the volume. After files are deleted, this space can be reclaimed for increasing the free space of the storage pool. The maximum size of thin multiple volumes is 20 times that of the storage pool's free space. With thin provisioning, volume space is fully utilized.

•	A thick volume is usually more efficient for high frequency read/write activities. Because the space has been allocated for the volume, the predicament of insufficient physical space can be avoided, but the use of space is relatively inefficient.

•	NAS models that do not support Storage Pools can only create Static Single Volumes. Please refer to the QNAP website, product information, and software specifications for more details.

Removing Volumes

1.	Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".

2.	Double click a volume to be removed to bring up the Volume Management page.

3.	Click "Remove". Click "Apply" and the selected volume is removed.

Expanding Volumes

1.	Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".

2.	Double click a volume to be expanded to bring up the Volume Management page.

3.	Click "Expand Volume".

4.	Enter the desired capacity or click "Set to Max" to allocate the maximum available space for the volume and click "Apply". ("Set to Max" is only available for thick provisioned volumes.)

5.	The capacity of the volume will be expanded.

Available Volume Operations

After you go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space", click "Actions" and choose to configure the threshold and cache settings, check the file system of a volume, rename volume alias, reclaim volume space, create a new share folder, format a volume, or manage snapshots.

Note:

•	All the data on a disk will be erased if it is formatted. Please use the "Format" feature with caution.

•	For encryption related options (Change, Download, Save, Lock this Volume), refer to Encryption.

•	The function or its content is only applicable on some models. To check for applicable models, please refer to the product comparison table on the QNAP website.

o	A minimum of 4 GB RAM is required to use snapshots.

o	x51 series models only support up to 256 snapshots instead of 1024. The HS-251 does not support snapshots.

Configuring Alert Threshold

The alert threshold is used to remind users when the capacity of a chosen volume is used up to the specified threshold level. A warning message will pop up when the specified threshold is reached.

To set an alert threshold, select a volume in "Storage Space" to bring up the Volume Management page, click "Actions" > "Set Threshold", enter the threshold level and click "Apply". The alert threshold is set.

Creating New Shared Folders

1.	Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".

2.	Double click a volume to bring up the Volume Management page.

3.	Click "Actions" > "Create New Shared Folder".

4.	Specify the folder name and description of the new shared folder and select the disk volume for the shared folder.

5.	Click "Edit" to the right of "Configure access privileges for users" in Step 4 and specify user privileges.

6.	Click "Edit" to the right of "Advanced settings" in Step 4 and configure the guest access right, hidden folder, Oplocks, recycle bin and path. Click "Create".

7.	A new shared folder will be created.

Snapshot

Users can take a snapshot, manage snapshots (revert, delete, and clone a snapshot, set up snapshot schedules, or restore snapshot files for LUNs or volumes), or replicate volumes/LUNs between different remote servers using snapshot technology.

Note:

•	Snapshot Replica (or volumes/LUNs replication between remote servers) is covered in Backup Station. For details, please refer to the Snapshot Replica chapter in Backup Station.

•	The function or its content is only applicable on some models. To check for applicable models, please refer to the product comparison table on the QNAP website.

o	A minimum of 4 GB RAM is required to use snapshots.

o	x51 series models only support up to 256 snapshots instead of 1024. The HS-251 does not support snapshots.

Taking a Snapshot

After reserved space is set, you can proceed to take snapshots. To create a snapshot, follow these steps:

1.	Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space".

2.	Select a volume or LUN and click "Snapshot" > "Take a Snapshot".

3.	Specify the snapshot name and duration to retain the snapshot.

4.	Click "OK".

Managing Snapshots with Snapshot Manager

The Snapshot Manager allows you to take, revert, delete, and clone a snapshot, set up snapshot schedules, or restore snapshot files.

To launch Snapshot Manager, select a volume or LUN in "Storage Space" and click "Snapshot" > "Snapshot Manager" (or click the camera icon of a volume or LUN.)

In Snapshot Manager, you can perform the following actions:

•

Restore files: Click a desired snapshot and select the folder(s) or file(s) that you want to restore, right click and select "Restore" to replace the existing folder/file with the one in the snapshot or "Restore to" to restore your data to a different location. Or choose "Download" to download the selection to your computer.

•	Revert a snapshot: Select a snapshot and click "Revert", and the entire snapshot will be restored to its original path. Be cautious that the volume reverted to the selected snapshot will be in the previous state when the snapshot was taken.

•	Delete: Select a snapshot and click "Delete" to delete that snapshot.

•

Clone a snapshot: This action allows you to clone a snapshot into a new volume or LUN. To clone a snapshot, first select a snapshot, click "Clone", enter an alias for the new volume, and select the folders to share after cloning. If the snapshot cloned is a LUN snapshot, you can map it to an iSCSI target.

•	Set up snapshot schedules: Click "Schedule", select "Enable schedule", specify the time, frequency, and retention period. The system will take the chosen volume’s snapshot by schedule. For Smart Snapshot, the system will only take a new snapshot if there are new changes made in the selected volume.

Snapshot Global Settings

Click "Global Settings" in the top-right of the Snapshot Manager window, and there is one global setting:

•	Make snapshot directory (@Recently-Snapshot) visible: Mount a snapshot volume as a directory of a shared folder and set the snapshot volumes to be read-only in File Station. The snapshot directory will appear as "@Recently-Snapshot".

Click "Global Settings" in the top-right of the Storage Manager window, and there is one global setting:

•	When reaching snapshot limitation: Choose the policy to handle snapshots when the snapshot limitation is reached. There are two choices.

o	Overwrite the oldest snapshot: When the number of snapshots reaches the limitation (256 per LUN, 1024 total) the oldest snapshot will be deleted in order to continue taking new snapshots for data protection.

o	Stop making snapshot: When the number of snapshots reaches the limitation (256 per LUN, 1024 total), no more new and scheduled snapshots will be taken until older snapshot are deleted. This option will prevent the deletion of older snapshots without administrators’ consent.

Note: The "When reaching snapshot limitation" setting uses the number of snapshots, not the space used for snapshots. For more details, please refer to the Setting Snapshot Reservation section.

Managing Previous Versions in Windows

Starting in QTS 4.2.1, snapshots can be used with the Previous Versions feature in Windows, allowing you to instantly revert to a previous version of a file in case of an accident (e.g. file deletion, corruption, or accidental changes.)

To use this feature, follow these steps:

1.	In Windows, connect to a shared folder on the NAS (the shared folder must be located in a storage pool that you can take a snapshot.)

2.	Take a snapshot of the storage pool where the shared folder is located.

3.	In Windows, right click on the shared folder (or a file in that shared folder) in "File Explorer" > "Properties" > "Previous Versions".

4.	Select a version and choose to open, copy, or restore that version.

5.	Click "OK".

Note: This feature is only applicable to files that have been changed between snapshots. Otherwise, there will be no previous versions listed in "File Explorer" > "Properties" > "Previous Versions".

Encryption

The disk volumes on the NAS can be encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption to protect against data breaches. Encrypted disk volumes can only be mounted for normal read/write access with an authorized password. The encryption feature protects confidential data from unauthorized access even if the hard drives or the entire NAS were stolen.

Note: The AES volume-based encryption is applicable only to specific NAS models. Please refer to the product comparison table for details.

Data encryption on QNAP NAS

Users can manage encrypted disk volumes on the NAS. Each encrypted disk volume is locked by a particular key. The encrypted volume can be unlocked using the following methods:

•	Encryption password: Enter the encryption password to unlock the disk volume. The password must be 8-32 characters long. Symbols (! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )_+ = ? ") are supported.

•	Encryption key file: Upload the encryption key file to the NAS to unlock the disk volume. The key can be downloaded from the "Encryption" page after the disk volume is successfully unlocked.

Before you start

Please remember the following before using the data encryption feature of the NAS.

•	The volume encryption feature of the NAS is volume-based. A volume can be a single disk a JBOD configuration, or a RAID array. To only encrypt a shared folder, please refer to the Shared Folder chapter.

•	Select whether or not to encrypt a disk volume before it is created on the NAS. A volume cannot be encrypted after it is created unless the disk volume is initialized. Note that initializing a disk volume will clear all data on the disks.

•	Disk volume encryption cannot be removed without initialization. To remove encryption on the disk volume, the disk volume must be initialized and all the data will be cleared.

•	Keep the encryption password or key safe. If the password is forgotten or the encryption key is lost, the data cannot be accessed and cannot be recovered.

•	Before starting, read the instructions carefully and strictly adhere to them.

Note: Data encryption functions may be unavailable in accordance to the legislative restrictions of some countries (ex. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.)

Creating new encrypted disk volumes

1.	Log into the NAS as an administrator. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space" and click "Create" > "New Volume".

2.	Select a volume type based on your needs and click "Next".

Specify the volume details (including the volume capacity, alert threshold and volume alias,) tick "Encryption", fill out the encryption password and choose whether to save the encryption key, select to create a shared folder automatically after new volume initialization and fill out the name of the shared folder for the intended volume. Click "Next".

4.	Confirm the settings and click "Finish".

5.	Note that all the data on the selected drives will be DELETED! Please back up the data before creating the encrypted volume. Click "Yes" after data backup.

6.	Double click the newly-created volume to bring up the Volume Management page.

7.	Click "Actions" > "Encryption" > "Lock this Volume". Click "Yes".

8.	An encrypted disk volume will be created on the NAS.

Encryption key management

To manage the encryption key settings, log into the NAS as an administrator and go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space". Double click a volume to bring up the Volume Management page and click "Actions" > "Encryption".

There are three options to manage the encryption key:

•	Change the encryption key: Enter your old encryption password and the new password. (Please note that after the password is changed, any previously exported keys will not work anymore. The new encryption key needs to be downloaded if necessary, see below.)

•

Download the encryption key file: Enter the encryption password to download the encryption key file. With this option, the encryption key can be saved as a file. The file is also encrypted and can be used to unlock a volume, without knowing the real password (see "Locking and unlocking disk volumes manually" below.) Please save the encryption key file in a secure place!

•	Save the encryption key: Save the encryption key on the NAS to automatically unlock and mount the encrypted disk volume after the NAS restarts. Note that saving the encryption key alone is not completely safe, as if the NAS is stolen, the volume will be automatically unlocked after it restarts.

Locking and unlocking disk volumes manually

To lock a volume, log into the NAS as an administrator. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space". Double click a volume to be locked to bring up the Volume Management page and click "Actions" > "Encryption" > "Lock this Volume". Click "Yes".

To unlock a volume, log into the NAS as an administrator. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space". Select a volume to be unlocked and click "Manage" > " Unlock this volume". Choose either to enter the encryption password, or use the encryption key file exported previously. Click "Apply". If the encryption password or the key file is correct, the volume will be unlocked and become available.

Verifying encrypted disk volumes

To verify that a disk volume is encrypted, log into the NAS as an administrator. Go to "Storage Manager" > "STORAGE" > "Storage Space". The encrypted disk volume will be shown on this page, with a lock icon under "Status". The lock will be shown as opened if the encrypted volume is unlocked. A disk volume without the lock icon under "Status" is not encrypted.

Behaviors of encrypted volumes upon system reboot

An example is provided to illustrate the behavior of encrypted volumes upon system reboot. In this example, there are two encrypted disk volumes on the NAS:

•	DataVol1 is created with the option "Save Encryption Key" disabled.

•	DataVol2 is created with the option "Save Encryption Key" enabled.

Note: For details on enabling or disabling the "Save Encryption Key" option, please refer to the section on Encryption Key Management above.

After restarting the NAS, check the volume status. DataVol1 is locked, but DataVol2 is unlocked and mounted. Since the encryption key is not saved on DataVol1, the encryption password needs to be manually entered to unlock DataVol1. Please remember that by saving the key on the NAS, data will only be protected in case of stolen hard disk drives. However, there is still a risk of data breach if the entire NAS is stolen as the data is accessible after the NAS is restarted. If the encryption key is not saved on the NAS, the NAS will be protected against data breach even if the entire NAS were stolen. The disadvantage is that the disk volume needs to be manually unlocked each time the system restarts.

Setting Thin Provisioning Space Reclamation and SSD Trim

Thin Provisioning Space Reclamation allows you to increase free space on thin-provisioned storage pools by reclaiming space from deleted files. SSD Trim enables garbage collection on SSDs, which wipes out blocks of data that are no longer in use, and increases future write performance.

To enable Space Reclamation and SSD Trim, log into QTS, launch Storage Manager and click on the "Global Settings" icon located at the top right of the Storage Manager window. The Global Settings window will open, then click on "Edit" beside Space Reclamation and SSD Trim. There are two settings for Space Reclamation and SSD Trim:

•	Auto reclaim and SSD trim schedule: Check this checkbox to enable space reclamation and SSD trim.

•	Schedule: Set the schedule for thin provisioning space reclamation and SSD TRIM in order to reclaim space and increase free space for storage pools.

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