Connecting a newer Readynas unit to a 31400 possible/feasible?

Question

I am running out of room on my RN31400 and want to add some space as well as upgrade this unit. I want to investigate the expansion options. Would it be possible to use this older unit as an expansion box to connect to a newer, upgraded ReadyNAS unit? I am considering purchasing the 5 bay expansion box that's readily available, but I really want to invest in the newer technology of the upgraded unit.

I am currently using 4 WD RE 4 TB drives, and want to keep the 4 TB size as I'm already invested in them, and I don't have a lot of need to expant to larger drives, as the more drives you have, the more versatile it can be with it's functioning abilities. I have 2 more 4 TB Red Pro drives that I use to physically back up the NAS every month, so I don't have to worry about the NAS failure. I was going to use these other 2 drives to add to the collection of drives to make it a 6 drive system. I can buy 2 cheaper units to use as the physical backups, and then expand on that at a later date if need be.

What I'm asking is how to do this. Can I get by without having to use the older unit as a stand alone system? Or can I incorporate a newer unit with an older unit as a dedicated expansion box?

StephenB · Answer

wrote:
Would it be possible to use this older unit as an expansion box to connect to a newer, upgraded ReadyNAS unit?

No, that's not possible.
&nbsp;
The EDA500 is one option, though the eSATA connection between the NAS and the EDA can be a performance bottleneck in some situations.&nbsp; You don't want to create a volume that spans the EDA500 and the RN314 - you'll need two volumes at least.
&nbsp;
Another option is to get an 8 bay NAS (RN528x perhaps), which would give you 4 empty slots.&nbsp; If you want more storage and prefer smaller drives, then a NAS with more bays is your best approach.
&nbsp;
If you are getting a new NAS anyway, then you will need some more drives too.&nbsp; So another possibility is that you can mix in some larger sizes.&nbsp; That lets you increase volume capacity in the RN314 NAS, while continuing to use your 4 TB drives.&nbsp;

DaveNetuser · Answer

Larger drives don't use the full space allocated to the drive unless they are matched with the same or larger drives, is that not correct? I don't want to throw out 4- brand new 4 TB WD Re drives, and I just bought 2 of the 4 TB Red Pro's so I am ready to jump right into a 6 bay NAS straight away. I want to increast the size, but now I am looking at the fact that the NAS I have set up is backing up tself on the NAS, so it's doubling down on the sixe of the storage with the exact same data, and I never intended to set it up that way. I just delested the backups of the data, and it deleted the data in both folders! I have no data now other than the snapshots that can be recovered. I really only need to recover the newest data and get the entire thing redone fresh and stop the redundant backup to itself.

I need to stop backing up the NAS data to the NAS, if that makes sense, and I'd have plenty of room.

StephenB · Answer

wrote:
Larger drives don't use the full space allocated to the drive unless they are matched with the same or larger drives, is that not correct?
&nbsp;

Yes, with XRAID you'd need two larger drives in order to get the full space allocated to the volume.
&nbsp;
 wrote:
but now I am looking at the fact that the NAS I have set up is backing up tself on the NAS
I just deleted the backups of the data, and it deleted the data in both folders!
&nbsp;

Something sounds wrong here.&nbsp; I agree it is not useful to back up a NAS share to the same data volume.
&nbsp;
But deleting the backup shouldn't delete the source.&nbsp; Can you give us more information the backup job settings?
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Note that if you are accessing the NAS with admin credentials you have two paths to each share.&nbsp; One is \nasname\sharename and the other is \nasname\volumename\sharename.&nbsp; These are just different ways of navigating to the same folder.

Sandshark · Answer

wrote:wrote:Larger drives don't use the full space allocated to the drive unless they are matched with the same or larger drives, is that not correct?&nbsp;Yes, with XRAID you'd need two larger drives in order to get the full space allocated to the volume.&nbsp;.My interpretation of your question is a little different than&nbsp;StephenB.&nbsp; My answer is&nbsp;"No, all drives do not have to be the same size.&nbsp; You only need two drives to be of equal size to use the full space on them."&nbsp; Same result, put a little differently.&nbsp;but now I am looking at the fact that the NAS I have set up is backing up tself on the NASI just deleted the backups of the data, and it deleted the data in both folders!Something sounds wrong here.&nbsp; I agree it is not useful to back up a NAS share to the same data volume..One possibility is that you accidently deleted the primary, not the backup, and you have the backup job set to delete files deleted on the source.&nbsp;&nbsp;But you would have had to set up the backup job yourself.&nbsp; You seem to be surprised the backup was even there, which makes me wonder if you are really talking about snapshots instead, though I don't know how deleting the snapshot would delete the original.&nbsp;Note that if you are accessing the NAS with admin credentials you have two paths to each share.&nbsp; One is \nasname\sharename and the other is \nasname\volumename\sharename.&nbsp; These are just different ways of navigating to the same folder.And this is the other possibility.&nbsp; That you weren't looking at a backup at all, but the same data in another way.&nbsp;&nbsp;StephenB&nbsp;lists one possibility of that.&nbsp; The other is that you are looking at a share as a mapped drive and again in "Network" or as a different mapped drive.&nbsp;As far as the EDA500 goes, it is already discontinued; not "readily available" as you stated.&nbsp; Not only do you not want to have a volume span the main NAS and the EDA, you can't.&nbsp; Balance, and especially scrub, are extremely slow and pretty much lock you out of any share on it while they take place.&nbsp; You already have the 314.&nbsp; Just use it and your new NAS simultaneously.&nbsp; Maybe use the 314 as your backup.&nbsp; While it is possible to mount a share from one NAS to another, so they look like one, it's rarely very useful.&nbsp; It's normally better to just address each NAS independently.

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Connecting a newer Readynas unit to a 31400 possible/feasible?

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