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Forum Discussion
Leventh
Dec 20, 2019Apprentice
ReadyNAS 214 Tier Configuration
Dear All, I am new to forum, so I have had new ReadyNAS 214 four bay and did not setup yet. I am planning to configure it 3x2TB WD NAS Hard Drive using FlexRAID 0, but i need to know about tier setu...
- Dec 20, 2019
Personally I think a better plan would be to use two larger mechanical disks in RAID-1 (at 2x6 TB), and then use a pair of SSDs.
It'd be risky to use a single SSD for metadata tiering. It's not a cache, so if the disk fails you could lose your volume. I'm not sure if you can only do data tiering, or if data tiering includes metadata tiering. But even data tiering is described as "mostly temporary". https://kb.netgear.com/000060806/ReadyNAS-OS-6-10-Data-Tiering
But if you are also using RAID-0 for the mechanical disk, I guess you are already giving up on RAID redundancy.
As far as size goes, I suggest setting up the NAS w/o the SSD first, and see if the performance is ok for you. That would also give some more info on the amount of metadata your volume uses.
Personally I am ok w/o it on my RN526x. The data tiering won't help with large file speeds (which is limited by the network). Metadata tiering would be helpful for browsing large folders.
StephenB
Dec 20, 2019Guru - Experienced User
Personally I think a better plan would be to use two larger mechanical disks in RAID-1 (at 2x6 TB), and then use a pair of SSDs.
It'd be risky to use a single SSD for metadata tiering. It's not a cache, so if the disk fails you could lose your volume. I'm not sure if you can only do data tiering, or if data tiering includes metadata tiering. But even data tiering is described as "mostly temporary". https://kb.netgear.com/000060806/ReadyNAS-OS-6-10-Data-Tiering
But if you are also using RAID-0 for the mechanical disk, I guess you are already giving up on RAID redundancy.
As far as size goes, I suggest setting up the NAS w/o the SSD first, and see if the performance is ok for you. That would also give some more info on the amount of metadata your volume uses.
Personally I am ok w/o it on my RN526x. The data tiering won't help with large file speeds (which is limited by the network). Metadata tiering would be helpful for browsing large folders.
- LeventhDec 20, 2019Apprentice
Thanks StephenB,
so i have just 3x2TB HDD nothing more, as my understanding it is risky and not worth to setup like this tier thing,
I am thinking to setup raid 0 directly :-) old fashion way.
- LeventhDec 28, 2019Apprentice
Btw. Which tool can calculate the disk transfer speed for my NS214, is there any sofware to compare NAS disk performance,
eg. with or w/o SSD tier so i can decide to configure it.
thx.
- StephenBDec 28, 2019Guru - Experienced User
For large file transfer tests, I use NasTester. http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance But that won't give you much information on ReadyTier performance, since those transfers are limited by your network.
I don't know of a good tool for measuring directory browsing and small file transfers. Intel did make a tool called NASPT, but it was end-of-lifed quite a while ago, and I don't have any experience with it. I suppose you could create some windows scripts that copied folders, etc and simply time them.
- LeventhDec 29, 2019Apprentice
StephenB thanks for your quick & helpful answer,
Sorry but one more question if you do not mind :)
I setup the system volume RAID 0 and (if it's possible) when I add a SSD for metadata tier (128GB for now) can I expand or replace it with larger size one for future requirement (flushing metadata to spindle drive and getting/moving back to larger one SSD?
kohdee says,
"A tier is just a special RAID group. You can incrementally expand a tier as long as your Tier is not a RAID 0, and you can also remove a tier.
When you are looking at your System > Volumes screen, select the RAID group Tier (the one that says SSD) and click the circle X underneath the dropdown box. It will restore you to pre-tier configuration. Right now, if you select more SSDs to add "another tier," it will say "add group" but we will probably change it to say tier."
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