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Forum Discussion
chriz_dk
Aug 06, 2023Aspirant
ReadyNas 104 replace disk 1
Hi, I have a ReadyNAS 104 with 3 of the bays in use and I would like to add the fourth disk (I'm using RAID1). Ideally, I would like to add the new disk in bay 1 (as I assume this is the system d...
- Aug 08, 2023
chriz_dk wrote:
I've added a screnshot of Volumes from the admin panel.
You are running FlexRAID/JBOD (one volume per disk). So all you need to do is hot-insert the additional drive in bay 4, and create a new volume (data_4) on the disk.
The NAS always uses mdadm (software RAID), even with JBOD. So it does report RAID-1 in this situation, even though there actually is no RAID redundancy.
StephenB
Aug 07, 2023Guru - Experienced User
I suspect you are using XRAID
Can you post a screenshot of the volume page in the admin web ui?
Sandshark
Aug 07, 2023Sensei - Experienced User
The OS is redundantly installed on every drive, so you needn't worry about that. You do not want to be moving the drives around -- it serves no useful purpose and has the potential for making things confusing.
If you started with two drives in XRAID RAID1 and added the third, then you have RAID5, not RAID1. If the 5TB is the largest drive, then you currently have unused space on it that will be used once you install another 5TB for redundancy. If you really do have RAID1, then likely that 5TB isn't being used at all. All this will be answered by the screen shot StephenB asked for. Chances are, you simply need to insert the new drive in the empty slot, but wait till we have a look at the screen shot to be sure.
- chriz_dkAug 07, 2023Aspirant
Hi,
Thanks for your replies
I'm not at home ATM, so can't provide a screenshot, but I'm not using xraid, so I guess it makes sense for me to just add the disk in the 4th bay - I was just puzzled that the admin UI tells me I'm running RAID1 .. 🙂
I'll see if I can add a screenshot later today or tomorrow morning, just to make sure..
Kind regards
- StephenBAug 07, 2023Guru - Experienced User
chriz_dk wrote:
I'm not at home ATM, so can't provide a screenshot, but I'm not using xraid, so I guess it makes sense for me to just add the disk in the 4th bay - I was just puzzled that the admin UI tells me I'm running RAID1 .. 🙂
We need to be certain exactly what you are using and what you are wanting to achieve before we can give you proper advice.
To answer one of your questions - the OS is actually installed on every disk, so the NAS can boot even if disk 1 fails. It is mirrored on every disk, so all copies would normally be up to date.
So there is no need to shuffle disks around, and it can make troubleshooting complicated.
But we need more information on your goal - whether you are trying
- to add redundancy to an existing volume (and which one?)
- to expand an existing volume (and which one?)
- to create a new jbod volume
and
- what disks you are using now
- what volumes and RAID modes you are actually using
As far as disk replacements go, I am also wondering about the purchase of a 5 TB drive. I haven't seen a 5 TB internal drive model for many years now. If you have shucked an external drive, then it is quite likely that it is SMR technology. SMR isn't a good option for RAID, as the write speeds are extremely variable (and can be glacially slow). They generally don't work out well in ReadyNAS. Generally speaking, you need to be careful about SMR for any drive between 2 and 6 TB - desktop drives in that size range (and unfortunately WD Reds) are almost all SMR. I normally recommend WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf drives for most ReadyNAS (including the RN100 series).
- SandsharkAug 07, 2023Sensei - Experienced User
If you are not running in XRAID mode, then nothing is going to happen with the new drive until you tell the OS what you want to do with it. But then you should also have more than one volume. You've said one is RAID1, and then you should have another that's JBOD. If you don't have that second volume, then it sounds likely your current 5TB isn't being used at all.
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