A storage pool combines many physical disks into one large pool of storage space. Disks in the storage pool are joined together using RAID technology to form RAID groups. Storage pools may contain more than one RAID group.

Using storage pools provides the following benefits:

• Multiple volumes can be created in a storage pool, enabling you to divide the storage space among different users and applications.

• Disks of different sizes and types can be mixed into one large storage space.

• Disks from connected expansion units can be mixed with disks installed in the NAS to form a storage pool.

• Extra disks can be added while the storage pool is in use, increasing storage capacity without interrupting services.

• Qtier provides auto-tiering when a storage pool contains a mix of SATA, SAS, and SSD disks. Qtier automatically moves frequently accessed hot data to the faster SSDs, and infrequently accessed cold data to the slower disks.

• Snapshots can be used with storage pools. Snapshots record the state of the data on a volume or LUN at a specific point in time. Data can then be restored to that time if it is accidentally modified or deleted.

• Multiple RAID 5 or RAID 6 groups can be striped together using RAID 0 to form a RAID 50 or RAID 60 storage pool.