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ReadyNAS 424 Swapping disks
I am new to the ReadyNAS appliances - and NAS in general, so excuse if this is real basic. I bought a RN424 and loaded it with three used disks just to test it out before committing with "real" N...
EagleTRL wrote:
Since the two 1TB drives are older, I would like to run some tests on them. I noticed that there is an option for "Disk Test" under the System:Volume tab, but I can not find any documentation on it. I ran the process, and got messages that the disk test had started and finished, but I can not find where the results are displayed.
It runs the long disk test using smartctl. Download the log zip file from the web ui, and look in disk_info.log - that has all the SMART stats.
Welcome to the Community!
There are two ways to expand your volume. Vertical and Horizontal expansion.
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Horizontal expansion. Expand the volume by adding more disks to the volume.
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Vertical expansion. Expand the volume by replacing disks in the volume with larger-capacity disks.
If you are running your RAID configuration using X-RAID and planning to replace the old ones with the 6TBs you ordered, it would be best to replace the two 1TBs one at a time then once the first 6TB disk finished resyncing that is the time you will add the second disk. Once the second 6TB has been added and resynced, that is the time you will be able to see the expanded volume.
Your data will automatically be synced on the new drives as well but it is still best if you can replace all disks with the same size and better if you add a 4th disk especially if you are on Flex-RAID to have the volume expanded. Also, backing up your data is a good practice before performing any expansion.
You can check this guide when you are going to do the expansion so you can do it by step. :)
Expanding X-RAID
Expanding Flex-RAID
HTH
Regards
Marc_V wrote:If you are running your RAID configuration using X-RAID and planning to replace the old ones with the 6TBs you ordered, it would be best to replace the two 1TBs one at a time then once the first 6TB disk finished resyncing that is the time you will add the second disk.
Generally I agree, but I think that does depend on the drives. All things being equal, I'd replace the oldest drives (and not worry about the 500 GB difference). If you want, perhaps let us know what drives you've installed.
Another option is to simply copy the data off to a USB drive or other storage. Then power down the NAS, remove all three of the existing drives, and insert the new ones. Power up the NAS and it will do a clean factory install. You can then reconfigure the NAS and restore your data from the backup. Given that you don't have much data on the NAS, this will be a fast process (and as Marc_V says, you should back up the data before you upgrade the disks in any event).
Marc_V wrote:
Once the second 6TB has been added and resynced, that is the time you will be able to see the expanded volume.
Almost. Right now you have a 2 TB volume (~1.8 TiB). If you upgrade a 1 TB drive to 6 TB, the volume will grow to 2.5 TB (~2.27 TiB). If you upgrade a second 1 TB drive to 6 TB, the final volume size would be 7.5 TB (~6.82 TiB).
So there would be a small expansion when you upgrade the first drive. Wait for that to happen before you upgrade the second. If for some reason it doesn't, try rebooting the NAS and see if that triggers it.
Thanks all for the advice. I have installed two Western Digital Red 4TB drives in slots 1 and 2 and left the two 1TB drives in slots 3 and 4. I followed the process of inserting the first 4TB drive in the empty slot and let it resynch, then removed the 1.5TB drive in slot 2 and replaced it with the second 4TB drive. The second drive is still resynching, and reporting about 4 hours to complete.
Since the two 1TB drives are older, I would like to run some tests on them. I noticed that there is an option for "Disk Test" under the System:Volume tab, but I can not find any documentation on it. I ran the process, and got messages that the disk test had started and finished, but I can not find where the results are displayed. Can anyone point me to the documentation on the command or tell me how to see the results?
EagleTRL wrote:
Since the two 1TB drives are older, I would like to run some tests on them. I noticed that there is an option for "Disk Test" under the System:Volume tab, but I can not find any documentation on it. I ran the process, and got messages that the disk test had started and finished, but I can not find where the results are displayed.
It runs the long disk test using smartctl. Download the log zip file from the web ui, and look in disk_info.log - that has all the SMART stats.
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