[Synology NAS] Does removing a drive from a JBOD cause DSM failure

[Overloke]

I know that it's basically impossible to remove/replace a disk in a JBOD without data loss to on the array (for lack of a better term). I can't find anything specifically about whether the DSM installation should also be affected. Every result returns information about the data, which I don't particularly care about, it's just that setting up DSM from scratch every time is a pain in the ass.

 

Basically, I have a dead drive in a DS418 and want to swap it out. The last time I upgraded a drive, it completely fecked my DSM installation and had to reset it from scratch. I have taken a few DSM config backups, but I'm wondering if anyone else can definitively provide steps to make sure my DSM doesn't crap out, or am I just SOL and I'll need to rebuild the DSM every time I swap a drive out? Does DSM get installed onto the drives itself, or does the NAS have a little flash partition or something that it saves the DSM on?

[StDragon]

DSM is installed on a partition. So unless there's fault tolerance with your volume (like RAID or SHR), you will lose DSM when the JBOD disk dies.

That said, it's good you have the config backups, because once you load DSM again, you just restore the config file.

[StDragon]

https://kb.synology.com/en-af/DSM/tutorial/Which_drive_is_DSM_installed_on

Every drive you install in your Synology NAS contains the system partition, which stores the DSM operating system, user's settings (including account credentials, network settings, and Control Panel settings), and system logs.

 

By default, the system uses the mirroring capability of RAID 1 and saves an identical set of system partition data onto every drive in a Synology NAS. When the system detects damaged or failed drives in your Synology NAS, it can still use the system data from a healthy drive for system startup. If multiple healthy drives are available for system startup, the drive with the smaller drive number will be used first. For example, if both Drive 1 and Drive 4 are in a healthy status, then Drive 1 will be used for system startup.