User's Manual

38
Chapter
4
Chapter 4: Manage Storage Space
Before sharing Synology DiskStation services with your users, you need to set up storage spaces first.
This chapter explains how to use Storage Manager to set up storage space (including volumes, iSCSI Targets,
iSCSI LUNs), access external disks connected to DiskStation, and check hard drive's status.
What is Volume?
A volume is the combination of several hard drives into one storage space for centralized management.
If you buy a Synology DiskStation with 2
or more bays, you can choose between several volume types. Some
types of volume can provide data protection to prevent data loss caused by disk failure.
Synology DiskStation Supported Volume Types
Volume
Type
Data
Protection
HDD # Description
Volume
Capacity
Standard Yes
≧1
The Standard volume (also known as Synology Hybrid RAID or
SHR) can optimize the volume size when combining hard drives with
different sizes. If the volume is composed of two or more hard drives,
data integrity is protected when one of the hard drives fails.
Optimized
by the
system
Basic No 1
A Basic volume must be created with one hard drive as an
independent unit. When creating a Basic volume, you can select only
one hard drive at a time.
1 x (HDD
size)
JBOD
1
No
≧2
JBOD is a collection of hard drives.
Sum of all
HDD sizes
RAID 0
1
No
≧2
Combining multiple disks to build a volume, RAID 0 offers Striping, a
process of dividing data into blocks and spreading the data blocks
across several hard drives, but without safety measures.
N
2
x
(Smallest
HDD size)
RAID 1
1
Yes 2 - 4
The system will write identical data to each hard drive at the same
time, so data integrity is protected when at least one disk is normal.
Smallest
HDD size
RAID 5
1
Yes
≧3
This configuration includes a backup option. It uses parity mode to
store redundant data on space equal to the size of one disk for later
data recovery.
(N – 1) x
(Smallest
HDD size)
RAID
5+Spare
1
Yes
≧4
A RAID 5+Spare volume requires at least four drives, and one will act
as a hot spare drive to rebuild the failed drive of the volume
automatically.
(N – 2) x
(Smallest
HDD size)
RAID 6
1
Yes
≧4
This volume type eliminates the risk of volume failure and provides
extra data protection. It uses parity mode to store redundant data on
space equal to the size of two disks for later data recovery.
(N – 2) x
(Smallest
HDD size)
RAID 10
1
Yes
≧4
(even
number)
RAID 10 has the performance of RAID 0 and data protection level of
RAID 1. RAID 10 combines two hard drives into a group, in which data
integrity is protected when one of the two hard drives fails.
(N / 2) x
(Smallest
HDD size)
---------
1
Volume types except for Basic are supported on specific models only. See "Appendix A: Synology DiskStation Specifications"
on Page 176 for more information.
2
"N" represents the total number of hard drives within the volume.