I used to have a lot of work files. These were mostly sample databases that I had constructed to use in testing various SQL Server storage management techniques on the home server that I used to have in the basement. The files weren’t really important, but I wanted to back them up and I was always working on my backup scripts. It took a few Terabytes, depending on how long I kept the backups. I also had a lot of photo files. Maybe a Terabyte or so. And my wife, Ulli, had a lot of photo and video files that came from both her work as a photographer and from all of her life. She needed a few terabytes as well. We used a lot of storage.
The solution was a NAS, and I installed one in the basement years ago. That didn’t go that well. We had a couple of them fail on us. Most of the files were recovered, but not all and that was a problem. But a NAS is still be best way to keep a large amount of files online, so I purchased a Synology DS 1520 in 2020 to take on the load. This one came with five 3.5” bays. I purchased six Western Digital 8 TB drives. Five for the NAS bays and a hot spare for eventual failures.
Having been burned, I decided to go for a RAID 6 configuration, which was supposed to withstand the failure of up to two of the drives. The downside was that after installing five 8TB drives there was only 22 TB of usable space. Of course, 22 TB is a lot and we weren’t close to filling it up.
Our need for that much storage faded in the last few years, but it was still useful to have. That NAS sat there for a long time and just worked until a few weeks ago. Then I got e-mails from it saying that there was trouble brewing:
SUBJECT: Detected an abnormal power failure that occurred on Drive 2 in Volume 1, Volume 2
FROM: Synology Notification System <sns@synologynotification.com>
The system detected an abnormal power failure that occurred on Drive 4 in Volume 1, Volume 2. For more information, go to Storage Manager > Storage and check the suggestion under the corresponding volume.
To stop receiving this message, go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD and select a drive. Then, click Action > Configure Write Cache, untick Enable write cache, and click Apply.
From NAS4
That wasn’t good. I turned the NAS off. A few days later I needed it for a few files and turned it back on and it was working with no problem. I didn’t pay enough attention to the failure messages. I did turn on the Storage Manager application which reported one drive that was not healthy.
Then where was another message from the reporter:
SUBJECT: NAS4 was shut down improperly
FROM: Synology Notification System <sns@synologynotification.com>
NAS4 ran into a problem and was shut down improperly. This could be caused by power failure or other reasons and may result in severe data loss. Therefore, we highly recommend using an SNMP or USB UPS to protect your device and data if you don’t already have one installed.
From NAS4
And then…
SUBJECT: Detected an abnormal power failure that occurred on Drive 5 in Volume 1
FROM: Synology Notification System <sns@synologynotification.com>
The system detected an abnormal power failure that occurred on Drive 5 in Volume 1, Volume 2. For more information, go to Storage Manager > Storage and check the suggestion under the corresponding volume.
To stop receiving this message, go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD and select a drive. Then, click Action > Configure Write Cache, untick Enable write cache, and click Apply.
From NAS4
Indeed, there were two failed drives reported by the Storage Manager. It surprised me that the server was still working at all. But it was. Then I remembered that I had used RAID 6. It was supposed to work.
This had to be fixed right away. I turned the system off and purchased two 8 TB drives from Amazon. There were two surprises as I did that. The first surprise was that the price for an 8 TB drive was nearly identical to when I had purchased the originals 5 years ago. The AI explosion has raised demand for all computer hardware and it’s expensive. The second surprise was that Amazon offered to deliver the drives in three hours for a $4.99 fee. I wasn’t in that big a hurry and the system was off, but they would deliver in five hours for free, and I took them up on that.
At 10 PM when the drives arrived, I slipped the first drive into the bay of one of the failed drives and started the system up. Synology DSM did its thing and completed its work by the next morning. The second drive went in and when I checked back in the evening everything was working.
RAID 6 is supposed to do this, but I’m still surprised.
What of the hot spare? Why didn’t I use it? Because I didn’t know where it was. At least not for over a day when I remembered that when Ulli switched to a Mac I had put the spare drive into an external drive case and copied her files onto it. It’s still connected to her Mac.
I thought about buying another hot spare. But why? If Amazon will deliver a drive in three hours for $4.99, I’ll just rely on them and hold on to a little cash until I need it.
