NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Announcing a new project
Hi folks, I'm working on a new readynas related project. Let me start by saying I love these things. I have a bunch of Pro6 and RN516 particularly, but I've worked on lots of different models. ...
Are you going to be going in a direction that should also work for units with a 2GB RAM limitation? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe ZFS doesn't perform well on RAM-limited systems, especially with RAID5/6. I ask because I want to know what units to pull from storage when you need some tests run on them. I do see you are running it on a Pro6 with only 4GB, which is still below the suggested amount for ZFS RAID, so maybe it will be fine with just 2GB.
I did pull my Ultra6 out, since it's the lowest powered unit I have that's also capable of having more than 2GB of memory. But it was flakey (only boots from power off some times) when I put it away, and has become more so. I thought it probably just needed a new PSU, but that's not it. I don't know how much debugging I want to do to try and get it reliable enough, so I may not be able to provide data on it. But I'm going to install a VGA cable and see it it's worth pursuing.
Hi, sorry I've barely touched the project in 10 days or so due to illness. ZFS is my preference, but I guess there's nothing hard and fast about that. The data 'volume' is almost the easiest part of the whole thing.
I've tested ZFS on 4GB RAM in a Pro 6 and it runs great. You can shrink down the 'buffer' size as a start.
I've had similar unreliable boot experiences - i think partially suspect flash chips start behaving like that.
Yes, it's easy enough to change the volume type. But it's your GUI I'm wondering about, since it seems to be a little ZFS-specific. The problem is that a lot of units can't go above 2GB because the RAM is soldered in. All 300 and 400 series are in that group and the Pro/Ultra 4 and 2 might as well be since finding compatible RAM to go to 4GB is difficult. I've only seen a couple success stories and lots of failures.
I understand the preference for ZFS. I started looking at it when I started my project, but the RAM issue made me decide against it. I suspect it's one of the reasons Netgear went with BTRFS on MDADM, too.
I have a 312 all set for testing. It successfully boots GRML and has an HDMI port just in case I need it.
The Ultra 6 doesn't even POST -- no output on the VGA, so it's done. If nobody jumps in to volunteer testing with one, I'll be on the lookout for another. Maybe someone here is looking to upgrade an Ultra6 to a Pro6, 316 or 516, as I have more than one of each of those and would take an Ultra 6 in trade toward one of those just to have one for this kind of testing.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
