SSD Upgrade

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Digital999 wrote:

We have a variety of Netgear ReadyNAS systems in the field. 

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What ReadyNAS models do you have?

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Digital999 wrote:

 

What is the current thinking regarding SSD replacement for rotating storage in the ReadyNAS system?

What is the current thinking for eliminating Raid 1 two disks versus one SSD and then having expanded capacity?

 

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I can only give you my own thinking (and I still have mechanical disks).

I haven't seen any data that says that SSDs are more reliable than mechanical disks.  SSDs certainly will give you faster random access - browsing large folders, database access, etc.  They generally won't help much with sequential access, as that is limited by network speed, etc.  They also use somewhat less power.

On RAID-1, I'd still use it.  But I'd stagger the drive replacement schedule - scheduling a replacement of one drive in each pair about half-way through it's expected life.  My thinking there is that SSDs have a limited number of writes - and if the disks are mirrored, both drives will reach that limit at the same time.  So if the replacements are staggered, you reduce the risk of simultaneous failures.

OS-6 systems have a middle ground btw - you can use SSDs for metadata tiering (and in the next release for data caching).  That's called "ReadyTier".

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Digital999 wrote:

Any other issues or concerns that will byte us in the A##?

 

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AFAIK the NAS web ui won't give you any indication of the total bytes written (or the wear level reported in the SMART stats).  You could monitor that by downloading logs, or you could write your own app/script which reports that information.

Also, OS-6 NAS drive trays support 2.5" SSDs.  But older NAS drive trays don't.  You'd have to use an SSD drive bracket to put the drive in the correct position.  That bracket might need to be glued to the trays somehow.

Some of the maintenance functions ( scrub, balance, and perhaps even defrag) do a lot of disk writes.  So you'd want to trade off the benefits against the reduction in drive life.  

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Digital999 wrote:

 

I have never heard of the 3+ golden rule

 

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NAS backup comes up pretty frequently here, as many people make the wrong assumption that RAID is enough to keep their data safe.

I think Retired_Member  is referring to my own backup policy - which is to have at least 3 copies of everything I care about on different devices (including the original).  That reduces the risk of losing data when the primary device fails ( and then you learn that the backup is corrupted somehow).  Plus if one copy is off-site, and another is on-site you can recover quickly when needed, but still have protection from a disaster.