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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS 312 swapping HDD for SSD, filesystems, data transfer
Hi, i am looking for the easiest solution.. ReadyNAS 312, only 2 bay NAS device having only primary HDD for ages in slot 1 so it contains ReadyNAS OS install + data recently i have connected ...
ddewrbbdg wrote:
recently i have connected SSD as secondary into slot 2 and realized i could use it for OS (only for OS) to make it faster and remaining HDD for data......
No, you cannot make it only for the OS. The OS is mirrored on every drive (in your case two). The system normally boots from the first drive, but any writes are made in parallel to both the drives.
Also, the OS partition is only 4 GB, so you would definitely be wasting space if you do this.
You can instead switch to FlexRAID, and set up two jbod volumes (one for each disk). Then set up some shares on the SSD. The performance gain is highest with folders that have a lot of small files, so keep that in mind when you plan out what shares should be on SSD. If you put the SSD in slot one, you might get some performance gain from the OS, but only for reads.
ddewrbbdg wrote:Question 1: if i swap drives, or remove HDD completely and connect SSD only, install ReadyNAS OS to SSD, right after i connect HDD, will be old data in HDD (that contains OS + data, probably or maybe two partitions, EXT3/4??? if im right?) normally accesible via ReadyNAS?
No, that is not the right process to add a second jbod volume. It won't do what you want, and you could end up destroying the data on the existing HDD if you aren't careful. What you normally would do is switch FlexRAID, select the SSD, and create a jbod volume on it.
The question suggests you have no backup plan for the NAS. That is quite risky. and something you should take care of.
BTW, your NAS uses the BTRFS file system for both the OS and the data volume
ddewrbbdg wrote:
now lets get things more complicated, got another HDD, lets call it HDD2, brand new one
1) need to transfer data from HDD1 to HDD2, how to do this using easiest and most simpliest way?
i would like to leave HDD2 only for data, no OS
final positioning would be > primary : SSD with ReadyNAS OS only > secondary : HDD2 with data only
There is no good way to put the OS on only one drive.
The ways to transfer data to a new volume are
- install both volumes (requiring FlexRAID) and set up NAS backup jobs to copy shares from one volume to the other.
- or back up the data to another disk (USB or storage in a PC), and then restore the data from the backup.
Ok, i understand. There is no problem for me with having OS at every disk drive, altought its unusual. But 4GB so who cares.
So basically.. yes i use FLEX RAID and JBOD for all drives.. the easiest and recommended is...........
Leaving current (data) HDD1 in slot 1, removing (currenty empty) SSD from slot 2, and connecting new HDD2 to slot 2?
Then transfering data.. from old HDD1 to HDD2 i would probably use ssh and linux commands or samba and total commander .. but it would be probably transfer speed of half of network speed, doing this from PC with windows via network?
Then removing old HDD1 from slot 1 and inserting SSD to slot 1. Then should OS to SSD install.
I have no usage for SSD except system and maybe some marginal data, but i could make shares.
I presume, NAS boots from slot 1 as preferred, when two drives are connected, right?
Another option would be connecting old data drive to Windows PC, but im not sure what pick or howto read BTFRS in windows easily and transfer files simultaneously via network to NAS. Or first to PC NFTS filesystem and to NAS via network as second step.
Regarding parallel writing from OS to both drives, system partitions.. it probably does when installing programs, apps, right? But does this happen, include, even when doing changes via SSH, like apt-get install packages, update, etc? Editing selected files and so?
If you mix an SSD with a spinning drive, you will gain no significant speed in OS operations. You would gain speed only for files stored on the SSD JBOD volume. That's because RAID doesn't work the way you seem to think it does -- it doesn't use one drive alone with the other as a backup. Besides, the most important OS processes are running continuously in RAM, not executed on demand from the OS partition.
Unless I'm missing something as to your final goal, IMHO, you're better off just adding HDD2 as a second JBOD volume and leave the SSD out of the NAS. Of course, you still should insure you have a backup, and backup on a separate JBOD volume on the same NAS is a very risky way to do that, as both volumes could be destroyed by a hardware failure.
What exactly is it that's running too slowly on your NAS? There may be a way to speed it up, just not what you think it is.
I am unclear on what you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes it sounds like you are trying to expand capacity, and sometimes it sounds like you are wanting to increase performance. If the latter, it would be useful to know what performance you are getting now, and also what disks you are using (or planning to use).
As far as SSDs go, both SSDs and quality HDDs are faster than your network connection. The main performance benefit in using SSDs in a NAS is that there is no seek time. So random access speeds increase, but large sequential transfers will not. The performance benefits are in activities like browsing large directories, copying folders with a lot of a small files, in-place video editing, and database access - all of those do some random access.
Personally I am ok with the performance of my mechanical disks, so I haven't deployed SSDs in any of my NAS.
ddewrbbdg wrote:
Then transfering data.. from old HDD1 to HDD2 i would probably use ssh and linux commands or samba and total commander ..
SSH works, but the built in NAS backup jobs also work, and are more convenient. You'd need to use different share names on HDD2. Then you can delete the shares you move on HDD1, and rename them on HDD2.
ddewrbbdg wrote:
but it would be probably transfer speed of half of network speed, doing this from PC with windows via network?
If you do this from the PC, you are reading from NAS to the PC and then writing back from the PC to the NAS. If you are using wifi to connect the PC, then network throughput is 1/2 the actual wifi speed (not nearly has high as the wifi link speed). With ethernet, it would be 1 gbps, since ethernet is full duplex.
Still, I'd just use the built-in NAS backup jobs if both drives are in the NAS.
Thank you for further information.
Intention is to replace old low capacity HDD in slot1 with new one (HDD2). I'm currently having empty but formatted SSD in slot2 connected just for testing. Both are JBOD using Flex Raid.
Final goal is to have slot 1 with SSD and booting from this drive, slot 2 with HDD2. Scrapping old HDD.
Im awared of transfer speeds we talk about ethernet and internet cable / optic / wired connections up to .. limited by 1gbps at LAN and even more / less than 1gbps at WAN.
Got NAS with only 2 slots. (ReadyNAS 312)
Purpose is having OS at SSD along with APPS. I had/have Pi-Hole for dns filtering, HTTP+PHP+MySQL for hosting some basic stuff, used to TeamSpeak and these very not consuming very much resources. But every of these could put NAS under heavier load, mostly hosting stuff. But main resources consumer is probably smart house controller app from Ubiquiti that services and mantains large DB (database), thats why im gonna try SSD.
The only thing i need to achieve and be sure about is, that system boots from SSD when 2 drives connected, but can recheck this using SSH. Another big advantage im glad of is having OS that i could reinstall if necesarry or some linux updates or installs fail on standalone SSD that is / files / regularly backuped to HDD.
Also i'd prefer keeping above on SSD with some scheduled backup ops to HDD and leaving HDD only for marginal data of low importance but big volume. Gonna start the job during today or tomorrow.
ddewrbbdg wrote:
The only thing i need to achieve and be sure about is, that system boots from SSD when 2 drives connected, but can recheck this using SSH. Another big advantage im glad of is having OS that i could reinstall if necesarry or some linux updates or installs fail on standalone SSD that is / files / regularly backuped to HDD.
No idea how you can check that from ssh as there isn't any logging until the system has booted..
The system will boot up from the first disk it finds. Normally that disk is in slot 1 (unless that disk has failed or the slot is empty).
But the NAS is designed to mirror the OS on every disk. That allows the system to boot if disk 1 fails. That mirroring is done using RAID-1, and the OS is mounted as a RAID-1 volume. As Sandshark points out, RAID-1 isn't just using the your second disk as a backup. It will read from the disk too. I think there still is some performance gain in your SSD+HDD scenario, but the details depend on the exact strategy mdadm uses for disk reads.
One thing you might consider - the RN312 ships with 2 GB of RAM. It can be upgraded to 4 GB (but unfortunately not more than that).
ddewrbbdg wrote:
Intention is to replace old low capacity HDD in slot1 with new one (HDD2).
I'd suggest dealing with this first.
Since the HDD disk performance does matter to you, I suggest using an enterprise-class disk for HDD2. If your disk is between 2-6 TB, make sure it is NOT SMR. (Enterprise disks aren't, but most desktop drives in this size range are SMR).
I'd destroy the SSD JBOD volume, and then insert HDD2 in slot 2. Create shares on HDD2 using the web ui (don't create folders using ssh). These need to be unique names, then can't be the same as the sharenames on HDD1. Then copy the shares, ideally with NAS backup jobs.
Most apps designed for ReadyNAS also use a hidden .apps folder that is on one of the data volumes. That is done in order to keep the apps from filling the OS partition. You'll need to copy that folder manually. I'd copy it to a temporary share on hdd2 as well as to .apps on hdd2 just for safetey. When all the data is transferred to hdd2, you'd export the HDD1 volume (or alternatively destory it). Then remove the disk, and rename the shares on HDD2 to match the original.
If you are using the "Home" folder feature on the NAS, then I suggest copying the home folder(s) on HDD1 to public shares on HDD2. Then discontinue use of home folders after the migration to HDD2 is complete.
At this point, you should have a fully functional single-disk system. You can then insert the SSD into slot 1, and create a JBOD volume on it. It does make sense to put the ubiquiti database on the data volume of the SSD. That might require putting a soft link on the OS partition.
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