D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-325 => Topic started by: Matt26 on September 12, 2017, 08:06:55 AM
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Hello!
I upgraded the firmware on my DNS-325 to 1.05 and have a couple of questions..
First, I created a RAID 1 volume with 2 x 500 GB hard drives, and noticed that this left over 3 GB of unallocated space, and looks like it can only be allocated to a separate JBOD volume?? Is this by design? Can the unallocated space be assigned to the RAID 1 volume? I didn’t see any options to do this in the RAID setup or after setup was completed, so not sure if it’s an option..
Second, I noticed the DNS-325 support page now has a newer firmware version, 1.05b09 (beta); does anyone know what changes were made with this release? The link for the release notes doesn’t seem to go anywhere.. I find it curious that a firmware update was released this long after support ran out for the hardware, any chance it might get out of beta status and become an official release??
Thanks for your time!
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Anyone?
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Regarding your second question, where is the beta firmware (what regional dlink site)? The US site only has 1.05B3. The beta firmware may be a regional fix.
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Link>Welcome! (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=48135.0)
- What region are you located?
B09 is a BUILD #.
Hello!
I upgraded the firmware on my DNS-325 to 1.05 and have a couple of questions..
First, I created a RAID 1 volume with 2 x 500 GB hard drives, and noticed that this left over 3 GB of unallocated space, and looks like it can only be allocated to a separate JBOD volume?? Is this by design? Can the unallocated space be assigned to the RAID 1 volume? I didn’t see any options to do this in the RAID setup or after setup was completed, so not sure if it’s an option..
Second, I noticed the DNS-325 support page now has a newer firmware version, 1.05b09 (beta); does anyone know what changes were made with this release? The link for the release notes doesn’t seem to go anywhere.. I find it curious that a firmware update was released this long after support ran out for the hardware, any chance it might get out of beta status and become an official release??
Thanks for your time!
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sorry, yes it was the Canadian site- would this be a regional update as suggested, since it doesn't show up on the US site? any thoughts/comments regarding the first question? that was really the focal point of my post..
many thanks!
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I messaged D-Link Canada to see what the "security fix" is on 1.05B09.
Are both hard drives the same brand/model? If they are different, 1 drive may have more space than the other. The DNS will use the lesser space of the 2 drives. If that is the case you cannot allocate that space to the RAID.
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The 1.05B09 BETA firmware fixes a few exploits. Not sure why the US did not get this.
- Fix the Command injection in CGI
- Fix the exploitable stack overflow in the binary
- Fix the security issue on Lighttpd configuration
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thank you! i'm pretty sure the hard drives are the same model and size, would that be the only thing you can think of to generate the unallocated space for the JBOD? it makes sense if the drives differ in size, maybe these are slightly different models and therefore the drive space varies slightly between the two- but they're both WD 500 GB. is there any other reason the DNS-325 would leave this space unallocated?
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Since the DNS is letting you allocate the 3GB to JBOD, that is usually from 1 hard drive so the DNS is not seeing it as usable space for RAID 1 on both drives.
That is the only thing I can think of. I know hard drives don't always have the full advertised space available, even if the same brand and model.
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actually, i do recall seeing the unallocated space as being 1.5 GB on each drive, so it looks like maybe this isn't the case of extra space on one hard drive vs the other. strange.. is there any way to configure settings for the RAID, either during setup or after creation, that would allow this space to be part of the RAID?
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It is normal for any NAS to leave a little extra space for RAID information. Whenever you format a drive there is always a little extra space. I am surprised though it is letting you allocate it.
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3 GB worth though? i know what you mean, but seems like a lot for that extra space for the RAID information.
if i can't change this, then i would like to use the space for storage rather than letting it go to waste- i'm going to be swapping the hard drives for larger ones, so i'm assuming this unallocated space will grow in that case. my next question is, if i create a JBOD from this unallocated space, will this affect the data on a single hard drive in the event of a software/hardware failure? for example, the NAS itself or the other hard drive.. from what i understand, you should be able to take a single hard drive from a RAID 1 configuration and plug it into a computer to get the data off of it- would adding a JBOD to these RAIDed hard drives affect the ability to get the data off of that single hard drive in the event of a hardware failure?
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Ok, first thing.
1) What size are your hard drives?
2) Did you deliberately only make a 500GB RAID 1 set?
3) If your drives are larger than 500GB what did you intend to do with any remaining space?
Next. Since we are dealing with a SOFTWARE RAID setup there can only be ONE RAID array per set of disks. Hardware RAID is a totally different ball game.
Bearing this in mind you may need to think your disk setup strategy, backup any data you have on the array and, if necessary, reformat to a larger array.
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Ok, first thing.
1) What size are your hard drives?
2) Did you deliberately only make a 500GB RAID 1 set?
3) If your drives are larger than 500GB what did you intend to do with any remaining space?
Next. Since we are dealing with a SOFTWARE RAID setup there can only be ONE RAID array per set of disks. Hardware RAID is a totally different ball game.
Bearing this in mind you may need to think your disk setup strategy, backup any data you have on the array and, if necessary, reformat to a larger array.
2 x WD 500GB, and yes my intention was to create a 500GB RAID 1 set, but did not expect to see any unallocated space after the RAID was created, let alone 3GB worth.
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Ok, first thing.
1) What size are your hard drives?
2) Did you deliberately only make a 500GB RAID 1 set?
3) If your drives are larger than 500GB what did you intend to do with any remaining space?
Next. Since we are dealing with a SOFTWARE RAID setup there can only be ONE RAID array per set of disks. Hardware RAID is a totally different ball game.
Bearing this in mind you may need to think your disk setup strategy, backup any data you have on the array and, if necessary, reformat to a larger array.
2 x WD 500GB, and yes my intention was to create a 500GB RAID 1 set, but did not expect to see any unallocated space after the RAID was created, let alone 3GB worth.
Which WD 500GB drives? This box is from circa 2011? Dropping in some 2017 drives might produce problems, although I would hope not.
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One other question, are both drives the same model number?
We have seen a couple of cases where drives that were stated to be the same capacity and put in a RAID 1 array showed up with one drive having unused space. We tracked the space down to how the drives firmware dealt with the spare sectors used to cover faults in the platter (ID5 on the SMART table).
I don't know if it this in your case and since people generally buy drives in pairs if they are going to setup a RAID array I didn't mention it. Different SATA speed ratings can cause space discrepancies again because of different drive firmware, this normally doesn't matter if the drives are going into a computer or a JBOD or STANDARD RAID array.
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both hard drives are WD5000AAKS, Caviar Blue models.. both hard drives have a date of March 4, 2010.
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Very strange.
You now have two choices, 1) go with what you have or
2) download the WD disk tools and then pull a drive, put it in a USB/SATA caddy or adapter, plug it into the computer with the disk tools loaded then run the full battery of tests. Save all information then replace the drive in the NAS and then do the same with the other one. You can then compare the two sets of results for any anomalies which may indicate where the spare space is from.
You have had my people scratching their heads over this. Yes, we can understand different capacities on different drives and a RAID 1 array will always use the smaller amount - the idea is that both parts of the array are identical. You said that you think there is 1.5 GB available on each disk, normally that would only happen if you specified an array that was smaller than the full capacity of the disks - we have seen that when a client installed 750GB disks but formatted them as a 500GB RAID 1 array because that was what the old array was. In other words we are clutching at straws over this.
Another thing my service guy just pointed out you should log in to the webUI, go to 'Management' --> 'Disk Management' and check what is shown there regarding disk capacity.
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update: i decided to do some further RAID testing with other hard drives, to see if the JBOD shows up again and to test some other things.
i set up a new RAID1 with two 80GB WD WD800JD-60LUA0 hard drives. not sure how to attach screenshots, but during the RAID1 setup i was presented with a "Size Settings" section where you set the size of the RAID1 (72 GB max in this case) and how to handle the remaining space (3 GB); the only options are to leave it unallocated or create a JBOD. i left it unallocated this time to see what happens- it just creates the RAID1 volume and then under the "Disk Management/Hard Drive Configuration" page there's an option to "Create A New Volume From The Remaining Available Storage Space", which i did, so now i also have a 3 GB JBOD volume.
what's interesting is that the 3 GB unallocated space in this case (with an 80 GB RAID1) appears to be the same as with my earlier 500 GB RAID1 (ie the unallocated space doesn't appear to scale according to the RAID1's size), so i wonder if that 3 GB is set aside by the DNS for some reason? i don't get it, i can still use this space for storage, so why can't it be added to the RAID1 volume? i agree, very strange!
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update: i finished my testing and decided to plug in my 2 new (factory sealed, purchased together) WD WD101KFBX 10TB Red Pro hard drives, as these are what i will be using for my "live" NAS.. same thing happened, created RAID1 array with 2GB remaining for JBOD, which i configured.
i guess this is just by design, unless anyone has any thoughts to share that might debunk this conclusion..