Using the D5-300 with the F4-423

[CraftyClown]

Hi folks,

I have an F4-423 with 4 x 20TB drives in raid5 and I've just set up a D5-300 with 5 x 16TB drives in raid5 to use as a backup

I have a few questions:

1. I set up the D5-300 on my Mac as EXFAT and then formatted it on the F4-423 as EXT4. Is this the recommend way to connect and use the two devices?
2. Can I manage the D5-300 raid via the F4-423 once it's connected or do I need to reconnect it to my Mac to replace a disk etc?
3. Is it possible to format the D5-300 as BTRFS?
4. What is the recommended method to backup the F4-423 with the D5-300? Would it be using USBCopy? Or is there something more efficient/reliable?

Thanks for the help

[crisisacting]

1. I set up the D5-300 on my Mac as EXFAT and then formatted it on the F4-423 as EXT4. Is this the recommend way to connect and use the two devices?

That's not a supported format for external storage on any TNAS devices. Per your NAS' specifications: EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, BTRFS

2. Can I manage the D5-300 raid via the F4-423 once it's connected or do I need to reconnect it to my Mac to replace a disk etc?

Reconnect to Mac. There's no RAID management utility for TDAS on TOS, yet.

3. Is it possible to format the D5-300 as BTRFS?

Yes, however you'd need to do this through a Linux VM on MacOS, if you're not going to do so on the TNAS through ssh or TOS.

[CraftyClown]

Thanks for the quick response, although I'm a little confused by a couple of your responses. I may not have explained myself properly.

My NAS is already formatted as BTRFS, I was asking about the DAS. I chose EXFAT as I setup the DAS using Raid manager on my MAC. The only formatting options I could find when I connected it to the NAS were FAT or EXT4 however I was hoping to use EXT4. Are you suggesting this is possible via TOS? Or would I need to SSH in to achieve this?

Can anyone suggest the best method for backing up the NAS to the DAS?

[CraftyClown]

Sorry my post above cant be edited, but what I wanted to say was "I was hoping to use BTRFS on the DAS. Is this achievable via TOS, or do I need to SSH in?"

[TMzethar]

If you use D5-300 disks as expansion slots for F4-423, you can use them to create storage pools and BTRFS file system volumes. However, this may not be suitable for your usage needs

[CraftyClown]

If you use D5-300 disks as expansion slots for F4-423, you can use them to create storage pools and BTRFS file system volumes. However, this may not be suitable for your usage needs

Thank you, this is what I was hoping to do. To use as an expansion slot is it as simple as creating a storage pool on it as I would with any other USB device? Or is there another advised method when using the D5-300 as an expansion slot?

Can I also ask what the best advised method for backing up from the F4-423 to the D5-300 might be?

[TMeric]

If you set up D5-300 through RAID Manager (the accompanying RAID software for D5-300), it is recommended to use USB Copy when connecting to TNAS. You can set up various backup scenarios as needed, but you may not be able to use BTRFS. (By the way, why are you obsessed with BTRFS?)
If you plan to use D5-300 as an expansion slot for F4-423 to create a second TNAS RAID, you can back up the data in one RAID to another RAID through the TFM backup tool. But please note that the D5-300 at this time can only be used to connect to the TNAS and cannot be used for other devices. When you plan to connect or unplug the D5-300 as a slot expansion, you need to turn off the TNAS. Proceed below to disconnect smoothly.

[CraftyClown]

If you set up D5-300 through RAID Manager (the accompanying RAID software for D5-300), it is recommended to use USB Copy when connecting to TNAS. You can set up various backup scenarios as needed, but you may not be able to use BTRFS. (By the way, why are you obsessed with BTRFS?)
If you plan to use D5-300 as an expansion slot for F4-423 to create a second TNAS RAID, you can back up the data in one RAID to another RAID through the TFM backup tool. But please note that the D5-300 at this time can only be used to connect to the TNAS and cannot be used for other devices. When you plan to connect or unplug the D5-300 as a slot expansion, you need to turn off the TNAS. Proceed below to disconnect smoothly.

Not really sure why you think I'm obsessed with BTRFS? When adding a volume to the F4-423 the only options are EXT4 and BTRFS and as I understand it both have there advantages and disadvantages. I have all my other volumes set up as BTRFS so I thought it sensible to do the same if adding the D5-300 as an additional volume.

I think however I am getting something wrong here, are you saying I can add the D5-300 to the F4-423 and create the new raid on the NAS? If so this is what I wan to do, however I can't find any documentation on how this should be done. I only ever intend to have the D5-300 connected to the F4-423 so if you could explain how to set It up as an expansion slot that would be great!

[TMzethar]

{L_BUTTON_AT}CraftyClown

Just like you see the SATA built-in hard drive of F4-423, you will also see the disks inside D5-300 in the same place. The operation of creating storage pools and volumes is the same.
If you cannot see them, please configure the RAID and file system partitions within D5-300 and try again.

[CraftyClown]

{L_BUTTON_AT}CraftyClown

Just like you see the SATA built-in hard drive of F4-423, you will also see the disks inside D5-300 in the same place. The operation of creating storage pools and volumes is the same. If you cannot see them, please configure the RAID and file system partitions within D5-300 and try again.

Thanks I did work it out in the end. I wiped the raid using Raid manager on my Mac, then reconnected the D5-300 to the NAS and the 5 individual discs showed up, giving me the option to create a raid 5 storage pool. The synchronisation has begun however it has taken 10 hours to sync 5%. Does this seem right for 5 X 16tb Seagate Exos drives in a raid 5 array? By my calculations that's 8 or 9 days to sync the raid. Also I don't seem to be able to select fast sync for this storage pool. If I select the option it hangs on the configuring screen until the GUI times out, then if I go back and check it's still on slow sync. Is there a way to set fast sync via terminal?