Moving System from Readynas 516 to 716

Question

I'm considering buying a 716 chassis and moving my 516 disks to the new chassis.&nbsp; As I understand it there should not be any problem moving the volumes as long as I move all of the disks for the volumes (correct me if I am wrong), however I want to move my system also.&nbsp; I have applications installed and I added virtualbox which modifies the OS.&nbsp; Can I move the system harddisk to the new system, i.e. will the harddisk and system software be compatible?&nbsp; And if not, what would be the suggested way for me to move?
Thank you to all in advance.&nbsp; I am presently running OS 6.1.

mdgm · Answer

The RN716X would likely be a second hand purchase (units sold new for more than the RN626X sells for now so buying the RN716X at new prices would make little sense).
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There’s no warranty or NETGEAR support for second hand purchases.
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Firmware mismatches are mainly likely to be an issue if the replacement unit comes with significantly older firmware than the old unit. Newer firmware on the replacement unit isn’t a problem.
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The OS is installed on the disks and all your config and data is either on the OS partition or one/more data volumes. So it will move with the disks.
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If you don’t want to rework your modifications for a different kernel (there is info on the community for getting VirtualBox working on newer versions of ReadyNASOS) I could understand wanting to make sure the firmware matches exactly, but you would be missing out on lots of security and other fixes staying on such old firmware. There’s been a major upgrade to the core OS and multiple major kernel upgrades since 6.1

StephenB · Answer

The system is on the disks, so migrating the disks will move both.
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If the RN716 is running newer firmware than the RN516, then the new NAS will upgrade the system on the disks.&nbsp; If it is older, then the NAS will update it's flash from the system on the disks.&nbsp; If you want to avoid this step you could install a scratch disk on the RN716 and then manually install the same firmware you are running on the RN516.

doubleos · Answer

Thank you Stephen!&nbsp; So, if I am understanding you correctly.&nbsp; If the firmware on the 716 is newer, I could replace the system hard disk with a scratch one, manually install the earlier firmware and then replace the system hard disk with the one I have on the 516.&nbsp; If the firmware is the same version or earlier, I could just replace the system hard disk and the firmware flash would automatically get upgraded if needed.&nbsp; Is this correct?

doubleos · Answer

Just to make sure.&nbsp; You mentioned that migrating the disks will move the system.&nbsp; Are you saying that the system is copied to the nas volume(s) from the system disk and therefore my modifications to the OS (adding virtual box for instance) and apps would be ported by just moving the volumes?

Sandshark · Answer

What he is saying is that there is no "system disk".&nbsp; There is a separate partition for the system, which is duplicated on all drives, not a dedicated system drive.&nbsp; So moving your drives moves the system.

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Moving System from Readynas 516 to 716

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