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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. I'm passionate about giving them a life, long after Netgear walked away and turned off the lights. The hardware has more to give.
I've tried every series alternative OS that I know about. plain linux, TrueNAS, Unraid, OMV and others. They each have something that puts me off. No RAID, No ZFS, noisy fans, no LCD display, having to boot from USB, having to give over one or more precious bays for an OS disk, etc etc.
With all the constraints around fixed BIOS (some models) and booting from flash, I want something that still operates a bit like an original Readynas. You turn it on. It boots from flash, starts an OS, and the fans and LCD aren't obviously missing. You dont need a keyboard or BIOS access to get the thing going.
So, first, I've been working on creating a 'recipe' or set of instructions for installing plain-jane Debian 13 onto an x64 ReadyNAS box. I manually put GRUB on flash, and then slice my 6 disks thus:-
Partition 1 - /boot - 2GB. /dev/md0 RAID1 mirror across 6 disks
Partition 2 - swap - 2GB. /dev/md1 RAID10 across 6 disks (so swap = 6GB/more with more bays)
Partition 3 - / - 8GB. /dev/md3 RAID10 across 6 disks (so root = 21GB/more with more bays)
Partition 4 - rest of disk
I then use ZFS to make a storage pool across the 6 disks /dev/sdX4.
If you are interested in reviewing the rough notes for how to build a Debian 13 ReadyNAS, I can share them. But beware, blanking your flash is a one-way operation, unless you've taken an image - which is a fairly expert thing to do.
All this is working fine. But I wanted the ReadyNAS experience. Quiet fans. LCD display. RAID rebuilds. Drive issue alerts via email.
So, second, I started working on something else, a new project called RaidyNAS. A project to put back the missing ReadyNAS features.
At the moment, I'm not covering users, shares, protocols etc. For that, I've simply installed OMV on top of Debian 13.
But RaidyNAS is what I'm now developing. I'm looking to hear from interested parties who might like to contribute, or to test elements of it. I'm actually doing a bunch of testing from a Debian 13 live boot USB stick, in order to avoid blanking the flash on every single one of my NASs, just yet!
So, if you're a bit of an expert with ReadyNAS hardware/OS, and like me, want something future proof, get in touch.
If you're a decent coder and want to contribute, get in touch.
Basically I'm at the early stages. I have an architecture framework, installer, start-up daemon, alerting, emails, hot plug detection, degrading detection alerts, auto rejoin upon re-presentaton of the same disc, guided partitioning and RAID rejoin for new drives, fan control, and LCD display (part complete).
So far this has been tested on Pro6, with some elements in preparation for RN516 also (specific fan profile, LCD display, drive LEDs and front menu buttons). Other RN models can be added.
I'm not looking to profit from this. At some point the code will be up on a public repo.
So, thoughts, volunteers... go go go. Post below or direct message me.
Cheers
34 Replies
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.
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