Firmware 3.0 of the Synology Disc Manager (SDM) introduces SHR, Synology Hybrid Raid. This is a kind of "automatic RAID", where the firmware chooses the best RAID configuration based on the size and number of hard drives in the NAS.
SHR thereby combines the selected disks, so that maximum storage capacity remains and the data is protected against the failure of one disk. SHR also ensures that the storage capacity of a NAS is used to the maximum when disks of different sizes are installed. In a standard situation, the smallest disk or volume dictates the size of the protected data storage. This is not the case with SHR. SHR uses the otherwise unused storage space to create additional small volumes, increasing storage capacity while maintaining data security. Incidentally, SHR is not a proprietary development of Synology: it is based on standard open source Linux technology.
Synology Hybrid Raid is a way to choose the best layout and RAID for a Synology NAS without difficult choices.
