A nas with blank discs brings out the child for every fan of computers and technology. What you can do with it! But over time, that nas fills up. We explain how to free up space on Synology and QNAP’s nas.
A full nas requires a plan. Namely, there are many options to solve the problem, but none of them should lead to accidental data loss. It is therefore important that you start with the backup all data on the nas and only then take the next step. And also, after each step, you check whether the nas is still healthy and all files are safe. Only then can you continue with the next step.
Make sure that the nas indicates early on when its storage is full by informing you by email or text message. You can set this on a Synology via Control Panel, Notification. On the tab E-mail enable the email notifications and enter your email address to receive the messages.
The smtp server is the outgoing mail server of your internet provider. Use the name of the nas as the sender, so that you immediately recognize the message. On the tab Advanced you can indicate which events you want to receive a warning about. below Internal Storage is included the option to receive a warning at less than 20 and 10 percent free space.
With QNAP, each volume has a threshold of 80 percent volume by default. When the volume becomes full, a notification is generated. Through Control Panel, Notification Center, Alert Rules you can indicate that you would like to receive it by e-mail, for example.
What takes up so much space?
When the storage becomes full, log in to the NAS with the web browser. Check the logs to see if there are any other issues with the device besides the full storage. After this it is important to get an idea of ​​the data on the NAS. What makes it so full?
Synology offers a handy tool to analyze storage with the Storage Analyzer. click on Report, Generate report. By filtering in the report on, for example File type or Size, you can very quickly identify the largest users. Through View report you get an overview of all relevant data about the current use of the storage capacity.
QNAP doesn’t have as nice an inventory option as Synology; QSirch comes closest. This can be installed via the App Center, after which you can use Qsirch, Explore your NAS can search by files and numbers.
Alternatively, you can use a Windows program such as WinDirStat or TreeSize to map the space used by the files on a shared folder.
Cleaning up
The first remedy for a shortage of free storage capacity is cleaning up. Use the information from the storage analysis to find and delete, for example, old or very large files or all films. Use the FileStation for this, the explorer on the nas with which you can select and delete files and folders.
You also free up storage capacity by removing users who no longer use the nas. This goes through Control Panel, User. The same goes for packages and apps with which you previously expanded the functionality of the nas. Each expansion uses a portion of the storage capacity, and removing add-ons that you no longer use will free up space.
Open the Package Center on Synology or the App store on QNAP and select the installed components that are no longer in use. First deactivate the function and then select remove.
Expand volumes
It will occur less often, especially with a NAS with only one or a few drives, but it is possible that there is still unused storage capacity on the NAS itself. This can be a portion of the total storage capacity that has not yet been added to a volume, or a slot that can accommodate an additional hard drive.
To check this, open the item on a Synology Storage management and with QNAP the Storage and snapshots. See if all disk bays are populated, if all disks are part of any storage pool, and if all space in the storage pools is contained in a volume.
If there is still room for an extra hard drive or if there is still unused storage capacity in the NAS, take a deep dive into the manual of the device. The best solution differs per NAS and disk configuration, and often also depends on the firmware used.
If in doubt, contact the nas manufacturer’s support department. He is usually very willing to think along for a while.
Replace discs
If cleanup does not provide enough free storage capacity and there is no free space in the NAS, then there is only one option left: replace disks with ones with a larger storage capacity. It is very important that you know how the storage is constructed and arranged. How many disks are there, how many storage pools, how many volumes?
To see how the storage is structured, look at a Synology in the Storage management and in a QNAP Storage and snapshots. Because this is certainly the most common configuration for smaller NAS devices, we will assume in this article that there is one storage pool containing all disks and one volume on it.
It is very important whether the storage is configured with or without data protection. Without data protection, all configurations are with one disk, but also jbod (just a bunch of disks) and raid0.
In these three situations, the data is on the nas once and no measures have been taken to protect the data against a failed disk. If a disc breaks or is removed from the NAS, data will be lost. This makes increasing the storage capacity less flexible.
If the storage is configured without data protection, first copy all data from the nas to another device. Then switch off the NAS, take out the disc or discs and label them, so that later you know which disc was in which position in the NAS. Insert discs with larger storage capacity into the NAS and reboot it. Configure the storage and then copy the data back to the NAS.
If the storage is configured with data protection, all data is stored on the NAS in such a way that it is preserved if one disk breaks. This applies to raid1, raid5, raid6 and raid10. This has the advantage that the storage capacity can be increased by replacing the disks one by one with copies with a larger capacity. This is not possible with a nas with one disk, jbod or raid0.
If the storage consists of two or more disks and it is configured as raid1, raid5, raid6 or raid10, you can increase the storage capacity by replacing one disk with one with more storage capacity, then repairing the raid and then the next disk to do. Until they have all been replaced. If the nas is hot-swappable, this can even be done without disabling it.
At Synology, open the Storage management and see which disk in the storage pool is the smallest. Take that disk out and replace it with a bigger one. The nas warns that the storage is damaged, and that is correct. It must be repaired first. Select at HDD / SSD the new disk, it has the status Not initialized. Then choose Storage Pool, Action, Restore. Select the new disk, confirm that it can be erased and click To apply.
The NAS is now starting to recover from the raid. Wait for this parity check to be completed; this can take a day or more. Only when the recovery is complete do you replace the next disk and then restore the raid again and so on.
If you have a QNAP nas, the procedure is roughly identical. Open Storage and Snapshots, Storage / Snapshots and select the volume. click on Manage, Manage, Replace the drives one by one. Select the first drive and click Modify. Replace that disk with a bigger one and let the nas recover the raid. Wait for this job to finish and then switch the next one.
If all disks have been replaced, open Storage and Snapshots, Storage / Snapshots and select the volume. click on Manage, Manage, Replace the drives one by one. Choose now Expand capacity and then confirm that you want to run the extension. The raid is now synchronized again, which again takes many hours. Wait patiently.
When the work is done, the nas will neatly notify you that the raid has been restored and you can use the extra storage space.
Or buy extra nas?
Instead of replacing the disks in the NAS with ones with a larger storage capacity, a buy new nas sometimes a better idea to put next to it. This way you avoid having nice new disks in a nas, of which the further hardware is outdated. A newer nas with a faster processor and more memory is a good investment that brings more fun than just larger drives.
If you choose a new nas, you can continue to use the old one as a backup of the new nas via rsync, for example, or use the old animal as a test nas.
Finally, instead of a second nas, it is also possible to connect a second enclosure on some nas models containing only additional disks. Almost every nas brand offers such expansion units, such as the Synology DX517, DX1215 and the TR-002 and TR-004 from QNAP.
In order to be able to expand a nas with such a unit, it is necessary that the nas has the appropriate connection. That is usually an eSata or USB-C port, but sometimes also a very own ‘plug’ specifically for that one NAS brand.
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