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Apologies in advance if this is covered elsewhere, but I did not find it.
I have an Ultra 2 with Frontview 4.2.26 (I think that's correct, it's not in front of me now, but it is the latest).
I am using drives off of the HD compatibility list.
I have been using (1) 3TB drive in a Raid 0 config. It is now time to add another disk and I purchased an 4TB drive listed on the HCL (Western Digital Red, like the first one).
I am ok with the Raid 0 config because all the contents of the drive are automatically backed up to a cloud service and that is working well.
What I wanted to do (or really, hoped would happen), is that the addition of the new disk would appear logically and just more disk space for my existing volumes to expand to. (I have 3 shares: audio, pictures, video).
However, I am not given that option in Frontview.
I appreciate any advice as my reading of the docs seems to indicate this should be possible.
If the RAID volume is set to 0 and you started with just single (1) drive and planning to add a new one, there's no other way but to back up the data and reset the system with both drives installed.
If the RAID volume is set to 0 and you started with just single (1) drive and planning to add a new one, there's no other way but to back up the data and reset the system with both drives installed.
Though I don't recommend doing that, because the resulting RAID-0 volume is quite fragile. If either disk fails, you lose everything.
not if u have external backup or another nas as backup.
been using raid 0 many years with backup. at most the volume collapse and u destroy the faulty volume, swap the bad drive with good one and then recreate the volume then restore from backup.
not if u have external backup or another nas as backup.
Of course you should have backups anyway.
If someone is aware of the consequences of disk failure, and is ok with them, then it's perfectly fine to use spanning raid-0. Many users aren't.
I've used the mode myself (because I had shares that were bigger than the max disk size my duo v1 would hold). But as disks have gotten larger, I've found that it is no longer necessary, so I have switched to jbod.
Though I don't recommend doing that, because the resulting RAID-0 volume is quite fragile. If either disk fails, you lose everything.
Yes, that is the page I've poured over, and can't understand why I can't add a disc and expand my logical volume. Quite perplexing. It seems that the manual is in fact, stating that I can do that.
I do understand that raid 0 offers nothing in the way of resiliance and am ok with that. It holds my media, which is backed up to the cloud, and is recoverable, even it if takes a bit of time to get it all back.
So, I am confused by the earlier comment that you can't do what I want to do when you start with a single disc as Raid 0 when the manual does seem to imply otherwise.
I believe only RAID-5 and RAID-6 are supported for Flex-RAID expansion on the Ultra. The screenshot in the manual shows it for RAID-5.
I'm sure you are correct on the limitations, but the documentation unfortunately doesn't say that.
Flex-RAID advantages include:
• The default volume can be deleted and re-created, with or without snapshot reserved space.
• Hot spare disk is supported.
• Volume expansion without data loss is supported.
• Full volume management is available. You can create RAID level 0, 1, 5, or 6 volumes, specify the volume size, delete a disk from a volume, assign a hot spare, and so on.
• Multiple volumes are supported, each with a different RAID level, snapshot schedule, and disk quota definition.
• Each disk can be replaced, one by one, then rebuilt; after the last disk is replaced, another data volume using the newly added capacity can be configured.
The fact that some of these features are limited to specific RAID modes isn't stated anywhere, and it isn't reasonable to expect users to infer those limitations from a screenshot.
Though of course the product is EoL, there wasn't enough explanation on flexraid.
First of all, I want to thank you all for the responses. Yes, the manual implies functionality that is not present (sadly for me).
As avid (I assume ) ReadyNas users, I have a question for you.
ReadyNAS users purchase these products with an intent of storing, preserving, and accessing data that is important to them. This implies a long-term committment to and care for their data.
But I am a bit surprised that NetGear would EOL a bunch of their products. Especially when others are porting the new OS6 software to the older products (again indicating that those older products could be supported).
I understand tech lifecycles (very well), but am now considering a re-evaluation of my investment in NetGear ReadyNAS.
I am curious as to what others think about the EOL of a whole line of hardware and why they would continue to use NetGear as opposed to some of the competitors (which I have not checked to determine how they are EOL'ing their products).
The EOL announcement for the ultra and the pro came about 2 years after the replacement products (the RN300 and the RN500) were introduced.
As an owner of v1 sparc products and a Pro-6 NAS, I was fine with the EOL of the v1 products. Netgear provided several firmware updates for the v1 after the EOL was announced, and those platforms were clearly no longer competitive in the marketplace. Netgear certainly has continued to support the hardware - I received a replacement PSU about a year ago (under warranty).
I am ok with the EOL of the pro/ultra, though I must say I would rather have seen OS6 formally supported on the ultra and the pro. Though Netgear did not do that, they have tacitly supported migration to OS6 - resolving several OS6 issues that were specific to the pro and ultra hardware, and providing some advice and remote help here. My pro-6 is still in service as my main NAS (and is still running OS 4.2 btw). I plan to use it until the hardware fails..
Netgear competitors also EOL platforms, so I don't see much difference there.
Yes, competitors also EOL platforms, don't provide new features to some older models etc.
You can look at competitor product forums and see complaints about devices not getting their latest and greatest new OS or even if they do not getting key new features.
As has been mentioned though unsupported it is possible to install OS6 on a legacy device with the full feature set. Indeed business features that were not available for the Ultra 2 on RAIDiator-x86 4.2.x are available for it if running OS6.
I'm gonna make a wild guess here that upgrading to OS 6 is still going to require that my existing disk be reformatted.
Is that true?
Right now I have a 3TB WD Red disk that has about 2.8TB on it. And a 4TB WD Red that is empty.
Ultimately, I would really, really like to get to a point where my shares span the physical disks and the two physical disks appear as a single logical volume.
Is there a way I can do this without having to back up all the data to some other disk (I could use my cloud backup, but the restore for 2.8TB could take awhile).
I'd try an OS6 update if I thought I could get to this end state without having to basically re-format my HD.
) ReadyNas users, I have a question for you.
