Is it possible to expand a volume? - SoftRAID Volumes

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

SoftRAID Support — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 18:35:54 +0000

@dgiffin

We have a developer request filed with Apple. When we get that resolved, we will add this feature.

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

dgiffin — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 14:13:49 +0000

Any update on resizing APFS volumes, is it on your roadmap?

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

SoftRAID Support — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 05:06:45 +0000

@joe12south

NAS is hardware, it is a controlled environment. This is not so easy a feature when users may be running on unreliable hardware, etc.

I don't know if we will ever add this, its not on our immediate roadmap.

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

joe12south — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 03:31:20 +0000

It's now 2022 and we still can't add drives to a RAID 5 array, while it is a common feature on most NAS. I'm really beginning to regret going the SoftRAID DAS route. Migrating 24TB of data to to another set of drives in another enclosure and then back again just so I can expand is an expensive and time consuming proposition.

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

SoftRAID Support — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:17:53 +0000

Sorry, no we do not have this feature.

RE: Is it possible to expand a volume?

Graham Withers — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:12:03 +0000

Hey Team! From past replies it seems as though adding a drive to expand a RAID 5 array has not been possible in the past. Is this still true? I have a 4 drive RAID 5 array that I would like to add another drive too. Much appreciated.

Is it possible to expand a volume?

SoftRAID Support — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 20:01:13 +0000

I would prefer CCC to Time Machine, as Time Machine breaks on occasion. Time Machine can just "stop working" for no reason. Typical Apple, in that it is OK for casual user backups, but when you have lots of data, it is not equipped to handle challenging environments. CCC has new features to save(archive) older files, as well, not as comprehensive as how Time Machine saves every version, but it is available. Since you are running RAID 0, then CCC would be better because it is an "available" set of data (the backups are essentially finder backups), you can use it without needing to restore, unlike Time Machine, where it can take many hours to restore your volume.

Is it possible to expand a volume?

softraider — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:48:56 +0000

Thanks for your quick reply. So it sounds like you're recommending Carbon Copy Cloner ("CCC" from now on) INSTEAD OF Time Machine? And either way, are you recommending RAID 5 at minimum for my backup volume? In my head, if I have a constant Backblaze backup PLUS a CCC or Time Machine backup, then RAID 0 isn't so risky – because the worst that happens is that I lose a few hours' work. And the only way that would happen is if BOTH my work drives and backup drives died at the same time, plus my Backblaze hadn't finished uploading a hypothetical 1 GB of work, from either: a) electric surge or b) fire. For me, that's not such a huge risk for what I do (photo editing/design/video editing). I'm willing to consider CCC. What I like about Time Machine is that, I believe, you can recover accidentally-deleted files as well. Also, that Time Machine is working in the background at all times. I'll look into whether CCC does all of that as well.

We have no plans to add disks to RAID 0 volumes. to do so would require moving all data around the volume after adding the disk. Considering RAID 0 is not intended for mission critical data, it should be backed up regularly to another volume. (Time Machine is not a great backup strategy for fast access to files) Get a couple spare disks to back up the RAID 0 data to. We may enable a user to add more disks to a RAID 5 volume at some point, but not in the near future. I recommend you rethink your backup strategy. Time Machine is OK, but not robust and relatively slow to access files. While there are occasions where you may need an older version of a file, generally, you just need archives with a few versions. Apps like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, Chronosync are all good at copying changed files to a volume. 4TB USB 3 drives can be bought for $99. While not great for demanding use, they make for inexpensive archive/backup locations.

Is it possible to expand a volume?

SoftRAID Support — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 16:16:52 +0000

We have no plans to add disks to RAID 0 volumes. to do so would require moving all data around the volume after adding the disk. Considering RAID 0 is not intended for mission critical data, it should be backed up regularly to another volume. (Time Machine is not a great backup strategy for fast access to files) Get a couple spare disks to back up the RAID 0 data to. We may enable a user to add more disks to a RAID 5 volume at some point, but not in the near future. I recommend you rethink your backup strategy. Time Machine is OK, but not robust and relatively slow to access files. While there are occasions where you may need an older version of a file, generally, you just need archives with a few versions. Apps like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, Chronosync are all good at copying changed files to a volume. 4TB USB 3 drives can be bought for $99. While not great for demanding use, they make for inexpensive archive/backup locations.

Is it possible to expand a volume?

softraider — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 03:46:12 +0000

Hi, I wish that you would have explained this inability to add new drives to the same RAID array, in your description of RAID 0 – which is what I use. Had I known that, I would have considered other RAID options that allow the addition of drives. I DO use Backblaze, and I DO backup to Time Machine. However, it's highly inefficient to have to have Backblaze ship me drives every time I add one extra drive to my RAID 0 array. Currently, I use a Thunderbay 4 with two 3TB drives in a RAID 0 array. I'm adding a third 3TB drive to this Thunderbay, so I guess I'll just make it a new volume on its own. I guess that's a good enough solution, though I had originally created the RAID array to provide faster speeds. However, for my Time Machine setting I'm currently using two, 4TB external drives (OWC Mercury Elite Pro's) which I've made into a RAID 0 array. To add a new 4TB drive to this array, I'm probably going to have to delete my entire array, so that I may add the 3rd disk and create a new RAID 0 array. I don't have extra drives to copy my almost 8TB of backup data-to, so that I can then copy it back to my hypothetical, new 12TB array. What I don't like about this is that I'll be losing about 10 months of versions that were backed up in Time Machine. Backblaze only provides 3 months of older versions, I believe. I suppose another option for my backup will be that I use the new 4TB drive on it's own to backup my new 3TB drive. However, I'm not sure you can have multiple Time Machine volumes. It looks like you can "rotate" to multiple Time Machine volumes (in this Backblaze post: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/use-multiple-hard-drives-time-machine/), but I'm not clear on whether that will actually increase my storage capacity. Unless I'm misreading, rotating only seems to create more redundancy.