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Need To Confirm Questions About X-RAID and ReadyNAS 628X
I have two RN628X systems. One has five 12 TB Seagate Ironwolf HDDs. The other has four 16 TB Seagate Ironwolf HDDs. Both are configured in the default X-RAID. I have the understanding, perhaps w...
XrayDoc88 wrote:
I have the understanding, perhaps wrong, that it is always best practice to build your
RAID arrays with same Manufacturer, same model and size HDDs.
Opinions on this vary. Some intentionally use different manufacturers.
I generally have gone with the same line of drives (most or my systems are using WD Red Plus), but I did replace one failed WD Red Plus drive recently with an Ironwolf, and had no problems at all.
As far as size goes, XRAID does support unequal disk sizes, so you can expand by replacing existing disks with larger ones. Note that you need to upgrade two disks to the larger size in order to get the full capacity. The capacity rule is "sum the disks and subtract the largest".
XrayDoc88 wrote:
1. Would there be any problem adding the Seagate Ironwolf "PRO" HDDs to these two systems, instead of the non pro versions?
That will work. You might get a warning about mismatched RPM, but it is safe to ignore that.
XrayDoc88 wrote:
2. Is it actually OK to add a 16 TB HDD to the 12 TB system? I believe it will only add 12 TB of storage until all HDDs are actually changed individually to 16 TB models. Then you would gain the extra 4 TB per drive, minus the parity drives.
It is ok. As I clarified above, you will gain 4 TB of space when you upgrade (or add) a second 16 TB drive. Then 4 TB for each drive after that.
XrayDoc88 wrote:
3. On the 12 TB system with 5 drives currently, adding a 6th drive will convert the X-RAID 5 to X-RAID 6? I will actually have to add two more hard drives to gain any storage capacity, correct?
Desktop NAS will convert to RAID-6 when you add the 7th drive (6 drives remain RAID-5). You do want to make sure you have at least 3 drives of the largest size installed when you add the 7th - otherwise the system won't be able to convert.
XrayDoc88 wrote:
I have the understanding, perhaps wrong, that it is always best practice to build your
RAID arrays with same Manufacturer, same model and size HDDs.
Opinions on this vary. Some intentionally use different manufacturers.
I generally have gone with the same line of drives (most or my systems are using WD Red Plus), but I did replace one failed WD Red Plus drive recently with an Ironwolf, and had no problems at all.
As far as size goes, XRAID does support unequal disk sizes, so you can expand by replacing existing disks with larger ones. Note that you need to upgrade two disks to the larger size in order to get the full capacity. The capacity rule is "sum the disks and subtract the largest".
XrayDoc88 wrote:
1. Would there be any problem adding the Seagate Ironwolf "PRO" HDDs to these two systems, instead of the non pro versions?
That will work. You might get a warning about mismatched RPM, but it is safe to ignore that.
XrayDoc88 wrote:
2. Is it actually OK to add a 16 TB HDD to the 12 TB system? I believe it will only add 12 TB of storage until all HDDs are actually changed individually to 16 TB models. Then you would gain the extra 4 TB per drive, minus the parity drives.
It is ok. As I clarified above, you will gain 4 TB of space when you upgrade (or add) a second 16 TB drive. Then 4 TB for each drive after that.
XrayDoc88 wrote:
3. On the 12 TB system with 5 drives currently, adding a 6th drive will convert the X-RAID 5 to X-RAID 6? I will actually have to add two more hard drives to gain any storage capacity, correct?
Desktop NAS will convert to RAID-6 when you add the 7th drive (6 drives remain RAID-5). You do want to make sure you have at least 3 drives of the largest size installed when you add the 7th - otherwise the system won't be able to convert.
I made a mistake in describing my 12TB NAS. It actually has six 12TB HDDs installed currently, not five.
"You do want to make sure you have at least 3 drives of the largest size installed when you add the 7th - otherwise the system won't be able to convert."
I don't understand this statement. Will it convert to RAID 6 and will I gain storage capacity if I add one 12TB and one 18TB HDD to my NAS? Also, if yes, should I add these new drives one at a time, first the 12TB to convert to RAID 6, and then add the 18TB to gain storage?
Thanks again!
XrayDoc88 wrote:
I don't understand this statement. Will it convert to RAID 6 and will I gain storage capacity if I add one 12TB and one 18TB HDD to my NAS? Also, if yes, should I add these new drives one at a time, first the 12TB to convert to RAID 6, and then add the 18TB to gain storage?
If you want to use all the storage on the drives with RAID-6/X-RAID, then the four largest drives in the system need to be the same size.
When you transition from 6 to 7 drives, you also want to make sure you end up with the four largest drives being the same size. Otherwise the system can't transition to dual redundancy. This means that the three largest drives already in the NAS need to be the same size as the drive you install.
So the net is that you'd need four 18 TB drives to get dual redundancy with no wasted capacity. If you use your approach you'd end up with the same capacity as you'd get with 8x12TB.
Wow, kind of complicated. I don't believe Netgear gives this kind of detail about the effects of adding different sized hard drives. I assumed that if you always added a larger size, you'd waste some space, but the RAID would still configure properly.
To make sure I understand, here's an example: NAS has five 16 TB drives. You gradually add three 18TB drives. In this situation does this occur?
6th drive - RAID 5 with some wasted space on 18TB drive
7th drive - Doesn't convert to RAID 6 because you only have two 18TB drives. Does it stay at RAID 5 and still work or do you destroy the RAID?
8th drive - Still stays at RAID 5?
Later, you buy a fourth 18TB drive and replace one of the 16TB drives. At this point will the system convert to RAID 6?
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