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+--- Thread: Best route for NAS Expansion (/showthread.php?tid=10997)
Best route for NAS Expansion - Enquiries - 07-17-2024
Currently have a QNAP TS-464-4G with all 4 hdd's occupied.These are nearly full (plex server) and are in raid 5. Looking for the best way to add another 4 drives. I have the TS-464 connected to a ups which forces shutdown incase of sudden power lose which if possible i would like the expansion hdds to also do. From my understanding something like this is what im looking for QNAP TR-004 4 Bay Desktop NAS Expansion but wanted to know if i could use a cheap nas as these seem to be even cheaper and just use it as passthrough for the drives to current nas like TerraMaster F4-210 4-bay NAS Quad Core. Also would like to know if a enclosure states it does not support raid like this TERRAMASTER D6-320 External Hard Drive Enclosure Does this mean it doesnt support hardware raid only or hardware and software raid. And if it does support software does my nas support it?
RE: Best route for NAS Expansion - ed - 07-19-2024
Thanks for your detailed question! Here’s how you can approach expanding your NAS setup:
QNAP Expansion Unit: Adding a QNAP expansion unit like the TR-004 is a straightforward solution. You can connect it to your existing TS-464, and the QNAP OS will handle the RAID configuration for the new drives. This approach ensures seamless integration and unified RAID management across all your drives.
External USB Enclosure: If you prefer using an external USB enclosure, such as the TERRAMASTER D6-320, keep in mind that the RAID will need to be managed within that enclosure itself. The QNAP NAS won't be able to configure or manage RAID on external USB enclosures directly. You’d need to ensure that the external enclosure has its own RAID capabilities and manage it separately.
Network Attached Storage (NAS) Integration: Another option is to connect another NAS on your network and use virtual JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) to link both NAS units into a single volume. This setup allows you to pool storage from multiple NAS devices and manage them as a single entity. This can be a bit more complex but offers flexibility and scalability.