Cloning the system.

[mpalombi]

Good evening.
Can you tell me the simplest and safest procedure to clone the system disk of my Terramaster F5-221 to another disk with more capacity? I have installed TOS ver. 5.1.145

[HeliaWu]

Hello, here are some of our scenarios for using backup, you can choose the right tool according to your needs. You can also use rsync backup.

[mpalombi]

@TMWut: Sorry but it is not clear at all, I need a step-by-step procedure to follow, I know by myself that the backup exists, but which product allows the cloning of the operating system?

Detailed summary of what I need:

Good morning.

I'll start by saying that even though I know a lot about computers, I'm completely new to NAS...
Some time ago I bought a Terramaster F5-221 Nas with 5 bays to mainly make it a video multimedia server with Plex and then I'll also use it as a unit for PC data backup and personal Cloud to synchronize cell phones like dropbox.
For now I have the TOS v 5.1. 145 operating system inside on a 100 GB SSD. Then I have 3 18 TB Exos HDs and a 4 TB Barracuda HD.
Currently the Plex db files are only on an 18 TB HD and the others are all empty. I have a fourth 18 TB Exos HD to insert. First of all I would like to put the TOS system on the 4 TB HD by cloning it from the SSD and hoping not to lose anything of the configuration. Consider that many video cards are customized with several hours of work and I would like to find them without the risk of having to redo everything...

So first, I have to clone the system on the 4TB HD, remove the SSD (which I will use to backup the system regularly via USB), test that everything works and then, inserting the 4th 18 Exos, make a raid between the 4 18 disks, to be precise the TRAID of terramaster. At this point, when I understand how to make the raid, I would also like to partition it by putting a partition for the cloud, while the rest would remain for multimedia content: videos and photos.
The rest of the space of the 4TB HD, if I could also partition that, I would use it for backups.

The point is: how to clone the system disk without losing the settings?
And then: after the raid with the data present, can it be partitioned?

I will start by saying that I already have all the backups of the contents, and I believe a backup of the system, but I don't know if it was done well...

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I would appreciate detailed and not approximate information.

[Gremlin]

Simply put 'It doesn't work like that'!
In TOS5, the operating system is present on ALL disks in the unit. They are configured as RAID 1 - so a mirror copy is on each disk. Remove 1 disk and the operating system should still boot with all the settings. Put in a new disk and the o/s will be mirrored on to it when it is initialised. NB - TOS6 is different.

Consider that many video cards are customized with several hours of work and I would like to find them without the risk of having to redo everything...

I don't understand that. What video cards?

[mpalombi]

Simply put 'It doesn't work like that'!
In TOS5, the operating system is present on ALL disks in the unit. They are configured as RAID 1 - so a mirror copy is on each disk. Remove 1 disk and the operating system should still boot with all the settings. Put in a new disk and the o/s will be mirrored on to it when it is initialised. NB - TOS6 is different.

Consider that many video cards are customized with several hours of work and I would like to find them without the risk of having to redo everything...

I don't understand that. What video cards?

Sorry, but I have strong doubts, so if I remove my SSD where there is tos, and restart the nas should everything work the same? I can try and I'll let you know.

If you know PLEX, for example a movie has a description card (director, actors, dates, plot etc.) then a poster, screenshots of scenes etc.
Many movies and personal videos have descriptions and posters customized by me and I would not like to lose them.

[Gremlin]

You were asking about cloning the os. If your ssd is part of a raid then naturally removing it will degrade the raid. I suggested inserting the new disk to clone the os. If you remove the ssd, the raids (there are more than 1) will need repairing. this can be done by substituting the new disk for the ssd and repairing raid in the os. Read the help files which should guide you. (If not try reading the Synology documents which will be very similar in most cases).

[mpalombi]

You were asking about cloning the os. If your ssd is part of a raid then naturally removing it will degrade the raid. I suggested inserting the new disk to clone the os. If you remove the ssd, the raids (there are more than 1) will need repairing. this can be done by substituting the new disk for the ssd and repairing raid in the os. Read the help files which should guide you. (If not try reading the Synology documents which will be very similar in most cases).

all disks are now separate not in raid. Before creating the raid I would like to clone the TOS system present in the SSD on the 4 TB Barracuda HD
If it is true that the system is already present on all disks then I will not have to do anything other than remove the SSD disk and the NAS should still start normally seeing the data of the 18 TB disk where the contents are, the other 2 disks are inserted but empty and not even initialized in TOS.

[mpalombi]

EDIT:

I tried now. I removed all the disks leaving only the 4TB HD But it doesn't work! At the start I heard three beeps then you only see the lights on the power, the HD1 and the flashing lan light.

[Gremlin]

So many questions....
Did you initialise the 4TB HDD when it was first installed?
Did you create any file systems on it?
Can you determine the partition structure on the 100GB SSD? (On another device for example)
Can you also determine the partition structure on 4TB HDD?
How were the 3x18TB HDD configured? RAID? Which?
Where were your storage pools and volumes established? (Hint Volume 1 was possibly on 100GB ssd as that is the default)
Was the 100GB SSD installed as a single disk. Did you ever have TOS4 installed?

[mpalombi]

So many questions....
Did you initialise the 4TB HDD when it was first installed?
Did you create any file systems on it?
Can you determine the partition structure on the 100GB SSD? (On another device for example)
Can you also determine the partition structure on 4TB HDD?
How were the 3x18TB HDD configured? RAID? Which?
Where were your storage pools and volumes established? (Hint Volume 1 was possibly on 100GB ssd as that is the default)
Was the 100GB SSD installed as a single disk. Did you ever have TOS4 installed?

All disks are single, not in raid and without partitions, I don't even know how to partition them on NAS.
For now, there are only 3 initialized disks
- 128 Gb SSD, where the TOS 5 system is (I hadn't put TOS 4)
- HD 4T on which I had several shared and backup folders that I deleted and now it should be empty.
- HD 18T where I have Photos and Videos and Movies

What I'm thinking of doing is:
- Back up the apps, although I should understand with which product and how to do it.
- Turn off the NAS.
- Remove the 18TB HD with the data and the 2 uninitialized ones for safety.
- Also remove the SSD.
- Turn on the NAS (with only the 4TB HD)
- Install TOS 5.1. 145 on the 4TB HD, and see if it starts and works.
- Restore the backups made previously.
- Turn off the NAS and reinsert the 18TB HD (can it be hot-swapped?) and see if everything goes back to the configurations I currently have.

I will then think about doing the Traid with the other 3 18TB Exos HDs.