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Volume

Note: This function may differ depending on the NAS model in use.

Storage space on your NAS consists of logical volumes which are made up of a single drive or multiple drives combined together. Here you can set up new storage space for your NAS and, according to your data protection needs, select the most suitable RAID level. In order to maintain data integrity, you may only use internal drives when creating storage space for your NAS. ADM does not support the use of external drives for storage space.

Reminder: The RAID levels that you may employ will depend on your NAS product model and the number of drives that you are using.

When setting up new storage space, ADM offers the following two options:

  • Quick Setup: You need only specify the requirements for the storage space (i.e., you wish to have a higher level of data protection). Based on this and the number of drives you have, ADM will automatically create a storage volume and select an appropriate RAID level for it.
  • Advanced Setup: Based on the current number of drives, you can manually select a RAID level or set up a spare drive.

Reminder: In order to optimize drive space utilization, it is recommended that you use drives of the same size when creating storage space.


  • RAID Scrubbing: RAID Scrubbing detects the integrity and consistency of RAID 5 and RAID 6 drive data. Regular use of this feature can help you confirm the integrity of your data and fix inconsistencies. If a problem that cannot be repaired is found, your NAS will immediately warn you so that you can respond to unexpected issues early.

    If the system is shut down, RAID Scrubbing will be disabled.

  • SSD Cache Management: Traditional hard drives are not as fast as SSDs, but their capacity and durability are not as good as traditional hard drives. The best way to combine the best of both worlds is with SSD caching. The SSD cache feature saves frequently accessed file data on a hard drive and stores it on an SSD, thereby optimizing the response time and transfer rates of users when accessing data.

    ASUSTOR NAS* devices support read-only access and read-write cache mode. After following the installation wizard, you will be able to easily access your storage spaces and achieve the best balance of capacity and performance.

    1. Read-only mode: supports 1~4 SSDs, default is RAID 0. The data of Read-Only SSD Cache is copied from the volume, so if SSD is unreadable or you eject the SSD Cache drive, there will be no data loss.
    2. Read-Write mode: supports two to four SSDs, two SSDs will use RAID 1, three SSDs will use RAID 5 and four SSDs will use RAID 10. If one SSD is unreadable or you eject an SSD Cache drive, ADM will start writing data from SSD Cache to the volume. If the system has finished writing its data, there will be no data loss.

    * Available on: AS31, 32, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 70, Lockerstor, Lockerstor Gen2, Lockerstor Pro

Note: When mounting an SSD cache drive to the volume, it will stop all related services, if there are more services running on the volume, mounting an SSD Cache drive may take longer to complete.

About RAID

In order to provide optimal storage space utilization and data protection, ADM supports multiple RAID levels allowing you to select the appropriate level for your needs. The following volume types levels are all supported by ADM:


Non-RAID Volume Types:

  • Single: Only uses a single drive in the creation of storage space. This configuration does not offer any type of data protection.
  • JBOD: An acronym for "Just a Bunch Of Disks", JBOD uses a combination of two or more drives to create storage space. The total storage capacity is the capacities of all the drives added together. The advantage of this configuration is that it allows you to use different sized drives together and provides a large amount of storage space. The downside is that it does not offer any sort of data protection.

RAID Volume Types:

  • RAID 0: Uses a combination of two or more drives to create storage space. The total storage capacity is the capacities of all the drives added together. The advantage of this configuration is that it allows you to use different sized drives together and provides a large amount of storage space. Also, data in RAID 0 volumes is accessed in parallel which provides improved performance. The downside is that RAID 0 does not offer any sort of data protection.
  • RAID 1: In RAID 1 your data is written identically on two drives, thereby producing a "mirrored set". Exactly the same data is stored on the two drives at all times. RAID 1 protects your data from loss should one of your drives fail. RAID 1'ss advantage is that it offers protection for your data by providing data redundancy. The downside of this configuration is that when combining two drives of differing sizes, the total storage space will be equal to the size of the smaller drive. Therefore, you will be unable to use a portion of the larger drive.

    Total available storage space = (size of smaller drive) * (1)

  • RAID 5: Combines three or more drives to create a storage space that is able to support one failed drive. Should one of your drives fail, your data will still be protected from loss. In the event of drive failure, simply replace the failed drive with a new one. The new drive will automatically be accommodated into the RAID 5 configuration. The advantage of using RAID 5 is that is that it provides data protection through data redundancy. The downside to using RAID 5 is that when combining drives of differing sizes, the total storage space will be calculated based on the size of the smallest drive.

    Total available storage space = (size of smallest drive) * (total number of drives - 1)

  • RAID 6: Combines four of more drives to create a storage space that is able to support two failed drives. Should two of your drives fail, your data will still be protected from loss. In the event of drive failure, simply replace the failed drives with new ones. The new drives will automatically be accommodated into the RAID 6 configuration. The advantage of using RAID 6 is that it is able to provide superior data protection through data redundancy. The downside to using RAID 6 is that when combining drives of differing sizes, the total storage space will be calculated based on the size of the smallest drive.

    Total available storage space = (size of smallest drive) * (total number of drives - 2)

  • RAID 10 (1+0): Combines four or more drive to create a storage space that is able to support multiple failed drives (as long as the failed drives do not belong to the same "mirrored set"). RAID 10 provides the data protection of RAID 1 along with the access efficiency of RAID 0. With respect to data protection, RAID 10 uses the RAID 1 method of having the exact same data written identically on two drives, producing "mirrored sets". These "mirrored sets" are then combined together in a RAID 0 configuration. RAID 10 requires an even number of four or more drives. When combining drives of differing sizes, the total storage space will be calculated based on the size of the smallest drive.

    Total available storage space = (size of smallest drive) * (total number of drives / 2)

Note:

  • RAID 0 or JBOD volumes cannot migrate to other RAID levels. Data will need to be offloaded to another storage device to set up a new RAID array.
  • It is not possible for anyone to delete a volume where a WORM shared folder is set to compliance mode. (Introduced in ADM 4.2.6)

About SSD Trim

Enable SSD Trim allows the SSDs installed on the NAS to maintain stable read/write performance while simultaneously controlling the frequency of overwriting to specific blocks, extending the life of SSDs.

  • When using SATA SSDs in a Single, JBOD, or RAID 0/1/10 volume configuration, the Trim command for it will be enabled automatically.
  • When using NVMe SSDs in a Single, JBOD, or RAID 0/1/10 volume configuration, the Deallocate command will be used instead of.
  • The Trim feature under RAID 5 and 6 configurations can only be enabled on the SATA SSDs with DZAT (Deterministic Read Zero after TRIM) support. Please contact your SSD manufacturers for details on DZAT support.
  • The Deallocate (Trim) command cannot be used for RAID5 and RAID 6 created using NVMe SSDs currently.

M.2 Storage

With the introduction of M.2 storage on an ASUSTOR NAS, you are now able to choose how you store your data. With M.2 caching, your NAS automatically stores frequently used data on installed M.2 drives. With the all-new M.2 storage feature, M.2 SSDs provide levels of sequential and random performance that are unattainable for most hard drives.

  • ADM 3.5.2 introduces M.2 storage.
  • To maintain optimal performance and quality, M.2 drives may only be paired with other M.2 drives in a RAID array.

Reminder:

  1. Maximum Single Volume Size of AS10, AS-20, AS-30 series: 16 TB
  2. When upgrading from ADM 2.x to 3.x, please contact ASUSTOR support if capacity is displayed incorrectly when expanding RAID.

Learn More

NAS 251 - Introduction to RAID

NAS 352 - Online RAID Level Migration and Capacity Expansion (adding new drives)

NAS 202 - Using SSD Caching on your ASUSTOR NAS

NAS RAID Calculator