NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Pre-purchase Questions - RN424
Hello all, I hope you will be able to help with a few questions (I have looked though the 300 odd page manual - impressed) I hope to be purchasing one of these shortly. 1) I see most RN424 liste...
Many thanks Stephen for prompt responses
1) Max 48T or 40T - excellent that its just documentation catching up
2) X-Raid / Flex-Raid / Mirroring x2 sets
This is my first steps in to NAS and starting out I error on side of caution, perhaps overly so :-)
- Part of reason for 2 mirrored sets 10Tx2 & 4Tx2 is i have the 4T's already and they would have no other use
- The other is should I have a chassis failure I believe I could mount 1 of each pair on a linux box supporting the Btrfs NAS file system in an emergency whilst the chassis is replaced - am I correct on this?
- On the subject of failures, I see that NetGear appear to have a good reputation with shipping replacement unit were failures confirmed ahead of the return of the faulty unit, is this also during the 1st year or do you have to go via the oriignal supplier for 1st year
3) Internet
Thanks, I'll do some more reading on this, but all my devices PC's/TV etc are on the inside of my FW. Anything allowed inbound connects to a DMZ LAN which is where I had envisiaged placed the NAS
Many thanks again
Paul-NG wrote:
- Part of reason for 2 mirrored sets 10Tx2 & 4Tx2 is i have the 4T's already and they would have no other use
- The other is should I have a chassis failure I believe I could mount 1 of each pair on a linux box supporting the Btrfs NAS file system in an emergency whilst the chassis is replaced - am I correct on this?
As I tried to say, you can use 2x10TB+2x4TB in XRAID also - they just wouldn't be in a mirrored set. The upside is that you'd get more capacity (18 TB instead of 14TB).
Recovery from chassis failure is possible either way, though you'd need at least three of the disks connected to the linux box if you use XRAID. Though you should keep in mind that chassis failures can result in data corruption, so there are scenarios where RAID recovery software (or specialized skills) are needed. Two mirrored sets does simplify recovery a bit, though personally I rely on backup - since recovery is always uncertain.
Paul-NG wrote:
- On the subject of failures, I see that NetGear appear to have a good reputation with shipping replacement unit were failures confirmed ahead of the return of the faulty unit, is this also during the 1st year or do you have to go via the oriignal supplier for 1st year
I've never had to RMA a unit myself (though some years back I did get a new PSU for a very old NV+ from Netgear support).
The hardware warranty on the RN424 is 5 years for the original purchaser. The warranty is not transferable, so there is no warranty (or software support) available for used equipment. My understanding is that you need to pay shipping on the returned unit, and Netgear will pay shipping on the replacement. Not ideal, but it is what it is.
Whether it is best to return a faulty NAS to the seller or the manufacturer depends on consumer laws in your geography. I'm in the US, and here it is possible to exchange the unit with the seller if it fails immediately after purchase - but after that you have to return it to the manufacturer. But I believe that can be very different in other countries.
Hi Stephen/everyone
Just a wrap up after all Stephens assistance. I purchased as RN424 approx 2 weeks ago and all is going fine.
Only thing I wished I'd learnt sooner was you can't rename a volume, you have to destroy and create anew so get this right before you have lots of data on it, I have my volumes as generic names now and let the share name describle purpose.
Also, having destroyed volume to change name which had home dir's it was nice to see these automatically recreated. Home data obviously lost thou.
Mine is now configured as Flex-Raid to allow mirrored slot1 & 2, and mirrored slot3 & 4
Slot 1 10Tb WD Red Pro
Slot 2 10Tb WD Red Pro
Slot 3 4Tb Segate spare
Slot 4 4Tb WD space
Recovery from a chassis failure was one of my concerns as this was my backup/storage and no means to backup the NAS itself.
I have successfully mounted one of the 4Tb drives on a Linux Mint laptop with a TeckNet UD037 USB caddy.
For those interested here's how....NAS shutdown and a drive removed and connected via usb/chaddy and powered up
loaded btrfs-progs (I loaded these before finding the steps below so not a 100% sure this required but likely is)
# sudo snap install btrfs-progs --beta
create a mount point
# sudo mkdir /mnt/nasdrive
use GUI, run disk to find the /dev/sdxy, in my case the bulk of the disk was sdb3
Get Mint to understand the raid
# sudo mdadm --assemble --run /dev/md0 / dev/sdb3 (Make sure md0 is not in use, pick another number if so)
Now mount the md0 readonly
# sudo mount -o ro /dev/md0 /mnt/nasdrive
Hey presto you have access, including to snapshots
To remove...
# sudo umount /dev/md0
My drive was returned to NAS and hadn't been missed when powered back up.
NB. If you have 3 drives in raid5 the above might still work with a 2 port caddy as mine is as mdadm allows multiple drives (ie 2 out of 3) to be linked to the md0 - not tried thou.
Oh did I mention you can't change a volume name....
Hope this is all of interest
Paul
Paul-NG wrote:Oh did I mention you can't change a volume name....
Via SSH, you can: Changing-the-volume-name-on-an-OS6-based-NAS . The actual renaming is pretty simple, but the impacts to other configuration items isn't. Once you see what it takes to do it, it's a bit easier to see why it's not implemented in the GUI, especially if Netgear doesn't expect it to be used often (which is likely true).
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
