SHR vs. RAID for Synology Devices (2024) - WunderTech (2024)

Today we’re going to look at SHR vs. RAID for Synology devices using the Synology RAID calculator. This should be the first step you take any time you purchase a Synology NAS.

When you purchase a Synology NAS and then get ready to set it up, you’re going to have to create a storage pool and volume. When you create those items, you’re going to be tasked with selecting a RAID type, which is where the Synology RAID calculator is helpful.

In general, you want to ensure that you have some form of redundancy. Redundancy ensures that if one of your hard drives were to fail, your NAS would be able to rebuild that drive using the other drives currently available.

For example, if you set up RAID 5 with four, 10TB hard drives and one of those hard drives were to fail, you’ll be able to remove the bad hard drive, then use your Synology NAS to rebuild a new hard drive. Following this approach, you’ll experience no data loss and after the NAS finishes rebuilding the new drive, you’ll be in the same place you were when you first started.

This article will help explain what Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) is using the Synology RAID calculator so that you can compare SHR vs. RAID.

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SHR vs. RAID for Synology Devices

To compare SHR vs. RAID, we’ll first look at exactly what SHR is.

What is Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)?

Synology Hybrid Raid is an automated RAID management system, which is a fancy way of saying that you will have the flexibility to use different-sized hard drives in a RAID array, while actually utilizing some of the storage space. SHR is based on a Linux RAID system.

SHR is a tremendous benefit as it allows you to mix hard drive sizes. This gives you the flexibility to utilize smaller-sized hard drives initially, and eventually upgrade to larger-sized hard drives if desired.

The main benefit of SHR from a user’s perspective isflexibility.If you intend on using thesame-sizedhard drives and absolutely never mixing drives, you can use RAID 5 and from a usable space perspective, it will match SHR.

It’s also extremely important to highlight that SHR isfault-tolerant.This means that if you were to loseanyof the hard drives due to a mechanical failure, you will be able to rebuild your RAID array entirely. This is an important point to understand, as losing a larger-sized hard drive in an SHR array willnot cause data loss.

Finally, an SHR array can be created with a minimum of two hard drives with full drive-failure protection. On the other hand, RAID 5 must have at least three hard drives installed.This is a big difference, as many people won’t fill their NAS with hard drives immediately.

SHR vs. RAID for Synology Devices (2024) - WunderTech (1)

How does Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) Work?

A traditional RAID array will utilize the smallest drive in a storage pool only, meaning that larger drives will still default to the smaller-sized hard drive’s storage space when creating the RAID array. The only way to increase the size of the storage pool would be to match all drives to be the same size.

SHR is different in the sense that it divides the drive’s storage space into small chunks which allow additional storage space to be used.SHR is not proprietary,meaning that you can technically mount an SHR RAID array in Linux if necessary. It’s not out-of-the-box functionality, but itcanbe done if desired.

RAID Type Suggestions

There are four RAID types that I generally recommend (listed below), but I have a complete article on the best RAID for NAS devices if you’re interested in viewing it. Generally, this is the biggest comparison between SHR vs. RAID.

  • RAID 5
  • RAID 6
  • SHR
  • SHR-2

Overall, RAID 5 and SHR are very similar and RAID 6 and SHR-2 are very similar (we will look at the differences below). RAID 5/SHR allows you to have one hard drive fail while maintaining the integrity of the data, while RAID 6/SHR-2 allows you to have two drives fail. If you have a two-bay NAS, using RAID 1 is a good option, but please keep in mind that you will only have one drive of usable space.

Difference Between RAID 5 and SHR

RAID 5 is extremely simple. The total storage space will be determined by the drive that has the least storage space. We will look at this example below:

  • Drive 1: 12TB
  • Drive 2: 12TB
  • Drive 3: 4TB
  • Drive 4: 4TB

In this example, you have 30 TB of total space, however, you will have 12TB of usable space in RAID 5. 4TB will be saved for redundancy and 16TB in total will be unused (as you are using two, 12TB drives but also using two 4TB drives). Once again, this is because the drive with the least storage space will be used, and one drive will be reserved for redundancy.

I like using this example because from a usable-space perspective, you’ll have the exact same totals as simply using the first two 12TB drives in an SHR array.However, using SHR with the drive totals above will give you20TB of usable space and 12TB of redundancy.

SHR vs. RAID for Synology Devices (2024) - WunderTech (2)

The example above is from Synology’s website using the Synology RAID Calculator.

This is one of the main reasons why using Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) is superior for users who are using mixed drives. If you’re using the same-sized drives, you won’t benefit from SHR (unless you’d like flexibility moving forward).

The reason is well-explained by Synology and is something that I suggest you read and understand as it will help explain how Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) and RAID 5 differ.

As noted earlier, you can use RAID 6 or SHR-2 as well, with the principles from above being true. The main difference is that you will have two drives that can fail rather than one.

Using the Synology RAID calculator (and an example of four 12TB drives and two 4TB drives), you can see that SHR-2 will give us 32TB of usable space with 24TB of protection rather than the 16TB of usable space, 8TB of protection and 32TB of unused space that RAID 6 gives us.

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If you’re comparing SHR vs. RAID to use the same-sized drives, you should go with RAID.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Using the Synology RAID calculator to compare SHR vs. RAID should be the FIRST thing you do when you get your NAS to ensure that you set up your Storage Pool/Volume properly. This will ensure that moving forward, you’ll have the correct configuration and know what drives you can/cannot add. It’s also best to pick the correct RAID type before setting up your NAS.

Thank you for reading the tutorial on SHR vs. RAID. If you have any questions on SHR vs. RAID or the Synology RAID Calculator, feel free to leave them in the comment section of the YouTube video above!

SHR vs. RAID for Synology Devices (2024) - WunderTech (2024)

FAQs

Should I choose SHR or RAID 1? ›

In summary, while traditional RAID offers well-established methods for configuring data redundancy and performance, SHR provides a more flexible and storage-efficient approach, particularly beneficial for environments with mixed drive sizes or where ease of storage management and maximization are priorities.

What is the best RAID configuration for Synology NAS? ›

RAID 5 provides fault tolerance and increased read performance. A minimum of three drives is required. RAID 5 can sustain the loss of a single drive. In the event of a drive failure, data from the failed drive is reconstructed from parity striped across the remaining drives.

Should I use shr 2? ›

It depends on what you are trying to achieve with RAID or SHR/2. SHR gives you single drive fault tolerance at the expense of 1 drive's capacity. SHR 2 gives two drive fault tolerance, but at the expense of 2 drives' capacity. For a 4-drive array, SHR's overhead is 25%, with SHR2, it's 50%.

Can I change from RAID 5 to SHR? ›

The RAID type of RAID arrays in a RAID Group cannot be changed.

What is the biggest disadvantage of RAID 1? ›

RAID 1 has a storage capacity of only half as data is written twice.

Is shr faster than RAID? ›

SHR is slower compared to RAID 0 and RAID 1. However, it offers speed equal to RAID 5 and RAID 6.

What is the most reliable RAID configuration? ›

RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)

As the most common and best “all-round” RAID level, RAID 5 stripes data blocks across all drives in an array (at least 3 to a maximum of 32), and also distributes parity data across all drives (Figure 5).

What is the best RAID format for home NAS? ›

The optimal RAID configurations for a home NAS are RAID 1 and 5. They are the most economical in terms of the number of drives required for configuration, while providing basic fault tolerance in case of a single drive failure.

What is the minimum drives for SHR? ›

A minimum of four drives are required to create an SHR-2 storage pool that can withstand two drive failures. If you already have an SHR-1 storage pool (one-drive fault tolerance), you can use the “Change RAID Type” feature to convert it to SHR-2.

What are the advantages of SHR? ›

Advantages of SHR over traditional methods

It is effective for all hair types, including fine and coarse hair, targeting the hair follicles with precision. This innovative technology ensures smooth and lasting results, making it a preferred choice for individuals looking for permanent hair reduction.

How does Synology shr work? ›

Unlike classic RAID, SHR divides each drive's storage space into smaller chunks and creates additional redundant storage. Using the same example as before, SHR is able to divide the 4.5 TB of unavailable storage into smaller usable chunks and maximize the storage capacity of each drive.

Can I change from shr to shr2? ›

To change from SHR-1 to SHR-2 requires you to have a free bay and extra drive. If you've used all five bays with five drives for a SHR-1 storage pool then you'll have to rebuild the NAS.

Which RAID is best for Synology performance? ›

RAID 5 is most recommended for NAS deployment since it strikes a solid balance between performance and redundancy. With a minimum of three drives required, a single drive is locked away for holding all the necessary data to rebuild a storage medium in the case of a failure.

Why is RAID 5 better than others? ›

RAID 5 evenly balances reads and writes, and is currently one of the most commonly used RAID methods. It has more usable storage than RAID 1 and RAID 10 configurations and provides performance equivalent to RAID 0. RAID 5 groups have a minimum of three HDDs and no maximum.

Do I really need RAID 1? ›

RAID 0 – Good if data is unimportant and can be lost, but performance is critical (such as with cache). RAID 1 – Good if you are looking to inexpensively gain additional data redundancy and/or read speeds. (This is a good base level for those looking to achieve high uptime and increase the performance of backups.)

Which RAID solution should I use? ›

The best RAID configuration for your storage system will depend on whether you value speed, data redundancy or both. If you value speed most of all, choose RAID 0. If you value data redundancy most of all, remember that the following drive configurations are fault-tolerant: RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10.

Should I do RAID 0 or RAID 1? ›

RAID 0 excels in speed through striping but is at the risk of data loss in the event of a single drive failure. On the other hand, RAID 1 prioritizes data redundancy through mirroring, ensuring data integrity even if a drive fails, but with reduced usable disk capacity.

Which redundancy RAID is best? ›

Redundancy: If redundancy is most important to you, you will be safe choosing either a RAID 10 or a RAID 60. It is important to remember when considering redundancy that a RAID 60 can survive up to two disk failures per array, while a RAID 10 will fail completely if you lose two disks from the same mirror.

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