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QNAP

QTS 5.0.x

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Creating a Static Volume on a RAID Enclosure

Important:

  • The Mode switch on the RAID enclosure must be set to Software Control mode. For details, see the enclosure's hardware user guide.

  • The RAID enclosure must not contain any existing RAID groups.

Warning:

To prevent errors or data loss, do not change the enclosure Mode switch from Software Control to any other mode while the enclosure is connected to the NAS.

  1. Open Storage & Snapshots.
  2. Click External Storage Devices, and then select External Storage Device Management.

    The External Storage Device Management window opens.

  3. Click Configure.

    The External RAID Device Configuration Wizard opens.

  4. Click Next.
  5. Select two or more disks.
    Warning:

    • All data on the selected disks will be deleted.

    • All unselected disks will be automatically assigned as spare disks, and cannot be used until the RAID group has been deleted.

  6. Select a RAID type.

    QTS displays all available RAID types and automatically selects the most optimized RAID type.

    Number of disks

    Supported RAID Types

    Default RAID Type

    Two

    JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1

    RAID 1

    Three

    JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 5

    RAID 5

    Four

    JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 10

    RAID 5
    Tip:

    Use the default RAID type if you are unsure of which option to select.

    For details on RAID types, see RAID Types.

  7. Click Next.
  8. Select Create Volume.
  9. Click Create.

    A confirmation message appears.

  10. Click OK.

    • The RAID enclosure creates the RAID group.

    • The Volume Creation Wizard opens on the Select Disks screen.

    • The RAID group you created is automatically selected and the RAID type is set to Single.

  11. Click Next.
  12. Optional: Specify an alias for the volume.

    The alias must consist of 1 to 64 characters from any of the following groups:

    • Letters: A to Z, a to z

    • Numbers: 0 to 9

    • Special characters: Hyphen (-), underscore (_)

  13. Optional: Encrypt the volume.

    QTS encrypts all data on the volume with 256-bit AES encryption.

    1. Specify an encryption password.

      The password must contain 8 to 32 characters, with any combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Spaces are not allowed.

      Warning:

      If you forget the encryption password, all data will become inaccessible.

    2. Verify the encryption password.
    3. Optional: Select Save encryption key.

      This setting saves a local copy of the encryption key on the NAS. This enables QTS to automatically unlock and mount the encrypted volume when the NAS starts up. If the encryption key is not saved, you must specify the encryption password each time the NAS restarts.

      Warning:

      Saving the encryption key on the NAS can result in unauthorized data access if unauthorized personnel are able to physically access the NAS.

  14. Optional: Configure SSD over-provisioning.

    Over-provisioning reserves a percentage of SSD storage space on each disk in the RAID group to improve write performance and extend the disk's lifespan. You can decrease the amount of space reserved for over-provisioning after QTS has created the RAID group.

    Tip:

    To determine the optimal amount of over-provisioning for your SSDs, download and run SSD Profiling Tool from App Center.

  15. Optional: Configure advanced settings.

    Setting

    Description

    User Actions

    Alert threshold

    QTS issues a warning notification when the percentage of used volume space is equal to or above the specified threshold.

    Specify a value.

    Accelerate performance with SSD cache

    QTS adds data from this volume to the SSD cache to improve read or write performance.

    -

    Create a shared folder on the volume

    QTS automatically creates the shared folder when the volume is ready. Only the user account that creates the shared folder will have read/write access to the folder.

    Note:

    This setting is only available when logged in as "admin".

    1. Specify a folder name.

    2. Select Create this folder as a snapshot shared folder.

      A snapshot shared folder enables faster snapshot creation and restoration.

    Bytes per inode

    The number of bytes per inode determines the maximum volume size and the number of files and folders that the volume can store. Increasing the number of bytes per inode results in a larger maximum volume size, but a lower maximum number of files and folders.

    Select a value.
  16. Click Next.
  17. Click Finish.

    A confirmation message appears.

  18. Click OK.

QTS creates and initializes the volume, and then creates the optional shared folder.