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Convince me to stay with ReadyNAS
NetGear seem to be neglecting the ReadyNAS product line. Apparently even the top most models the 3220 and 4220 are only SATA II based whereas everyone else making computers or servers or NAS boxes has long ago moved on to SATA III. Worse still NetGear continue to fail to add support for authenticating via an LDAP server and limit authentication to either local accounts or an Active Directory server. As far as I can see every other NAS maker does support LDAP including QNAP and Synology in particular. As a more esoteric issue, none of the ReadyNAS models can host Virtual Machines (they can only store the VM disk files). QNAP for example seem able to actually run VMs within their servers. NetGear are also proving incredibly slow to approve new hard drives, they have a very few 4TB drives listed but no 5TB or 6TB drives at all. QNAP have a lot more 4TB drives listed and already also list some 5TB and 6TB drives. The older ReadyNAS models also do not support SMB2 even though a compatible version of SAMBA has been available for ages - it is not necessary to use SAMBA4 to implement SMB2, SMB2 support was added in SAMBA 3.6. The newer OS 6 models do support SMB2, this affects speed.
So while I have been considering getting a ReadyNAS 3220 or a 4220 which might be a fairer comparison to QNAPs equivalent TS-EC1279u-RP model I am wondering if people can provide any reasons to stay with ReadyNAS rather than jumping ship. Here are some items to consider.
So while I have been considering getting a ReadyNAS 3220 or a 4220 which might be a fairer comparison to QNAPs equivalent TS-EC1279u-RP model I am wondering if people can provide any reasons to stay with ReadyNAS rather than jumping ship. Here are some items to consider.
- - RAID expansion, how does ReadyNAS with its X-RAID compare to QNAP or Synology?
- File system expansion (assuming RAID expansion is possible), I get the impression that the new(er) OS 6 ReadyNAS models with BTRFS can pretty much expand unlimited now unlike the older ReadyNAS models which had expansion limits above which you had to factory reset, is this correct? Again what about the competition?
- Speed, issues like SATA III, SMB2, etc.
- Reliability, other than hard disk failures my current flock of ReadyNAS units have been very reliable, any views on the reliability of QNAP and Synology?
- Support for LDAP authentication?
- Support for forked-daapd?
- Support for Spotlight indexing?
- Any other comments?
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- There is no 517. Either you mean a 516 or a 716.
You can install 36 TB of raw disk capacity with 6 WD60EFRX. The speeds I referred to above were measured using 4 WD3000FYYZ.
The Red's have rotational speeds of 5400 rpm, so they are not as fast as the 7200 rpm WD3000FYYZ. A WD4001FFSX would probably give similar performance to the 'FYYZ, but would limit you to 24 TB of capacity.
Anyway, if you want to see a noticeable performance boost for sequential file transfer over your pro-6, you will need to install a 10 gigE network, which is quite expensive (and AFAIK is not available in laptops).
If you have some small files (e.g, photos and documents) mixed with video/music, you could potentially create a smaller SSD volume for the photos/documents, supplemented by a larger volume of WD60EFRX for the media. The SSD volume would be a lot faster for random I/O and folder searches (even on gigabit networks). But you give up capacity if you do that, and of course SSDs are a lot more expensive. - OK Stephen
sorry I will buy the 716 (fastest)
it will probably make a difference over the pro and pro 6 I have with green drives
movies are my thing so I will go for 24 tb for now
but 7200 disks this time and see if it helps
and when I next need to upgrade I will think on bigger disks or just buy the next best readynas
I have house currently switched through two x 16 plug prosafe gigabit switches
will see if they meet my demands
have been looking at 10gig switches but new ones very pricey so will wait and see
buy one if necessary
thanks again it is always good to have experts so handy
will probably hear from me when next needing another nas - @gazgaz
An option is to bond multiple 1Gbps Ethernet connections together, I plan to do this. - I will look in to that then
is it difficult to tie 1gb lines together
I know I have two outputs on my readynas pro/6 so I run multiple leads out of them into the wall in basement
and then they (4) meet at the switch
then out of the switch to router, computers, tvs, etc
will look it up
thanks for suggesting this option
Gaz gazgaz wrote: I will look in to that then
is it difficult to tie 1gb lines together
I know I have two outputs on my readynas pro/6 so I run multiple leads out of them into the wall in basement
and then they (4) meet at the switch then out of the switch to router, computers, tvs, etc
See http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... ge-system/
and http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... -6-storage
and http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=594
Your network switch needs to support this as well, it is sometimes called LACP or port-trunking or 802.3ad
This only improves performance with multiple users, as a single dataflow is still limited to 1 gbs.jelockwood wrote: An option is to bond multiple 1Gbps Ethernet connections together, I plan to do this.
Not sure about the non-standard bonding modes, but with LACP this dataflow limit of 1 gbs applies even if the source and destination are both bonded.- Let me add my experience to this thread:
Case #23923006:What kernel did you use for 6.1.9? Within seconds of upgrading to it and putting load on I see btrfs hang and have to force a reboot. It wouldnt be based on something between 3.14 and 3.16-rc5-ish, would it? The dmesg traceback looks like the known hangs for kernels in that sort of range. Yeah, Im downgrading to 6.1.8...
Followed up with logs, detail, a note that simply reverting to 6.1.8 allows the transfer to resume and run to completion and a note that rebuild times are insane because the array had no write-intent bitmap.
The response:the kernel version of 6.1.9 firmware is 3.0.101.
It looks like you had access to the device in ssh and executed some commands as mdadm, can you confirm?
in this case Netgear can deny support ( see user manual http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/ReadyNAS%20OS6.1%20SW%20UM16Oct2013.pdf on page 193)
otherwhise I shall inform you that your phone support has expired on Feb 26, 2014 and you need to purchase a phone support contract ( you can choose a per-incident support or a 24x7 contract )
I would point out that 6.1.8 is also kernel 3.0.101 *but* Netgear backport BTRFS changes from dev to stable. The answer is technically correct but basically flannel.
You can draw your own conclusions. - Jelockwood we now have a 6TB enterprise disk qualified for our 3220 and 4220 devices.
- Slightly off topic to op, but why does the RN 716x which is a desktop 6 bay NAS has 16GB of RAM and the RN 4220 which is a 12 bay NAS has only 8GB? Is there a specific reason for that as why a double size NAS using same "architecture/OS" would have half the RAM?
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