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ReadyNAS 204 X-Raid, X-Raid2 HUH!?
Hello,
I'm totally new to this type of NAS so bear with me.
When I first added 3x 250 GB drives, the system stated that I was in x-Raid Mode, which if I understand correctly looks at all 3 HDs as a single 750GB HD.
One of the 250 GB drives failed, and since I had to purchase a new one I opted to fill the 4th slot also; both with 4TB drives.
I put the 2 new 4TB drives in slot 2, which was vacated by the bad drive, and slot 4 which was already empty and powered the system up.
After going through the formatting and such I noticed the Raid monikerr had changed from X-RAID to X-RAID2. When I opened up the web interface to see how the drives were configured I saw all of the drives, but the available drive spaces was ~4.5TB...the sum of the 2x 250GB HDs and only 1 4TB drives.
OK so 1) what happened to my other 4TB HD? I can see that is there in the graphical display of the 204, and 2) does the fact that the RAID type changed from X-Raid to X-Raid2 have anything to do with the missing volume?, and 3) if 2 is "YES" how do I get the NAS to return to the X-Raid type where it sees all drives as one large drive?
Whew! That was painful to type...can imagine how you feel reading it!
Regards!
You were running XRAID2 all along. Your original setup should have given you a 500GB volume size.
The rule for capacity is "sum the disks and subtract the largest". That gives you capacity in TB, if you want to convert to the TiB units that Windows and the ReadyNAS use, you multiply by (1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024). Similarly to convert GB to GiB (dropping off one factor).
The benefit is that you are protected against a single disk failure with no data loss.
If you don't care about that, then you should rebuild your NAS as jbod (4 volumes, one for each disk). Using one massive volume is a bad idea, since if any drive fails you will lose all your data. Either way, doing that requires destroying your current data volume and rebuilding everything from backup.
For most users, the best option is to stay with XRAID2, adding more drives as needed. Upgrading one more would gain you 3.75 TB of space - you've already paid the raid "tax".
5 Replies
You were running XRAID2 all along. Your original setup should have given you a 500GB volume size.
The rule for capacity is "sum the disks and subtract the largest". That gives you capacity in TB, if you want to convert to the TiB units that Windows and the ReadyNAS use, you multiply by (1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024). Similarly to convert GB to GiB (dropping off one factor).
The benefit is that you are protected against a single disk failure with no data loss.
If you don't care about that, then you should rebuild your NAS as jbod (4 volumes, one for each disk). Using one massive volume is a bad idea, since if any drive fails you will lose all your data. Either way, doing that requires destroying your current data volume and rebuilding everything from backup.
For most users, the best option is to stay with XRAID2, adding more drives as needed. Upgrading one more would gain you 3.75 TB of space - you've already paid the raid "tax".
Hello StepanieB,
Thank you for the speedy reply.
I guess it shows my ignorance of this system...could have sworn on a stack of bibles that screen read X-RAID and not X-RAID2! Good thing I didn't put money on it.
OK I think I will stick with the X-Raid2 safety net. I was just confused as to why the drive showed up but there was no space available.
Must say...that RAID Tax is a HOOT! Just can't get away from them taxes can ya!
Thanks again until my next question!
Regards!
Hello again Stephen,
I have followup questions.
I understand the math regarding RAID [ I think], but according to my findings I am still short on available space.
The way I see the math as explained earlier is 4TB+4TB+250GB+250TB = 8.5TB, this minus the largest drive 4TB = 4.5TB available, but according to the attached I only have 4TB available; please clarify.
Also I have another 500GB attached via eSATA...is this also a part of the equation; if so then the total availbility should increase to 5TB available correct?
One more thing [thanks for your patience] I also attaced a screen shot that says the system is in XRAID5; I'm alittle overwhelmed by allof this...why didit change from XRAID2, which is what I agreed with you would be best, to XRAID5 which I have no idea what means.
I'd like to get this straight before I begin moving files to the ReadyNAS.
Regards!
On the first question -
There are two commonly used units of measure for storage - TB and TiB
1 TB = 1000*1000*1000*1000 bytes
1 TiB = 1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes.
Drive Manufacturers use TB; Windows and ReadyNAS use TiB (but call it TB).
You have 4.5 TB in the volume. If you convert that to TiB you get 4.5*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024)*(1000/1024) TiB = 4.09. There is a little space taken up by overhead and the OS partition - which is why the NAS is reporting 4.08
GPSIS_HQ wrote:
One more thing [thanks for your patience] I also attaced a screen shot that says the system is in XRAID5; I'm alittle overwhelmed by allof this...why didit change from XRAID2, which is what I agreed with you would be best, to XRAID5 which I have no idea what means.
It says RAID-5 not XRAID5. The system is still XRAID2 (you should see a green stripe on the xraid control on the right of the volume tab). I agree the presentation is confusing.
GPSIS_HQ wrote:
Also I have another 500GB attached via eSATA...is this also a part of the equation; if so then the total availbility should increase to 5TB available correct?
It's not part of the RAID array. That is a separate 500 GB volume. It is not protected from failure, it is functioning like an eSata or USB drive would function in a PC.
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