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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS State of Union?
Over the years I have always wanted to play around/use one of the ReadyNAS units. Everything I read about them sounded great and over at AVSForum a ReadyNAS employee ran a power buy and offered support over the years and I was impressed. Enough that if I decided to go the NAS route I'd purchase a ReadyNAS. Well the week I begin my journey that employee leaves... bad luck I guess. Now I see another high visible one leaving... and once again no one new introduced beforehand as a replacement.
All of this time I thought when ReadyNAS was purchased by Netgear they retained a great deal of their culture. Sadly, when I needed support I found myself talking to overseas support which is OK in and of itself until they insisted the model I have isn't the model stamped on the front of the unit and can't offer support beyond saying they put the wrong model in the box. At that point I gave up on support which isn't all that unusual in this day and age.
However, I still thought the online forum would more than take care of my needs should any arise. But now seeing people disappear with no replacements in sight and a HCL list that's beyond small and largely contained of outdated drives that are virtually impossible to find (if not afford). After trying a few models with a few bumps my general impression is ReadyNAS to a large degree is dropping prices and more or less giving up on technology per se. Recent pricing on the DUO+ v2 (grabbed one for $118 - shopblt - deal although Amazon is currently $125) and NV+ v2 (grabbed a couple at $222 - amazon promotion). Are we seeing fire sells? Perhaps a mass market approach forgoing the technology and support?
What do you other users think? I'm sure you are have been around a lot longer than me and have a better feeling. I'm just trying to decide if I want to implement some small scale installations with them which will need to be maintained down the road. So far the only promising feature I have found is price which in my case only goes so far.
All of this time I thought when ReadyNAS was purchased by Netgear they retained a great deal of their culture. Sadly, when I needed support I found myself talking to overseas support which is OK in and of itself until they insisted the model I have isn't the model stamped on the front of the unit and can't offer support beyond saying they put the wrong model in the box. At that point I gave up on support which isn't all that unusual in this day and age.
However, I still thought the online forum would more than take care of my needs should any arise. But now seeing people disappear with no replacements in sight and a HCL list that's beyond small and largely contained of outdated drives that are virtually impossible to find (if not afford). After trying a few models with a few bumps my general impression is ReadyNAS to a large degree is dropping prices and more or less giving up on technology per se. Recent pricing on the DUO+ v2 (grabbed one for $118 - shopblt - deal although Amazon is currently $125) and NV+ v2 (grabbed a couple at $222 - amazon promotion). Are we seeing fire sells? Perhaps a mass market approach forgoing the technology and support?
What do you other users think? I'm sure you are have been around a lot longer than me and have a better feeling. I'm just trying to decide if I want to implement some small scale installations with them which will need to be maintained down the road. So far the only promising feature I have found is price which in my case only goes so far.
18 Replies
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- Charles R,
Thanks for the post. It's nice to see the appreciation for the forum and the support you have received from the Jedi Council. While it will be hard to replace yoo-dah and chirpa, there are definitely new Jedi ready to lead the charge and bring a new wave of innovation and support to the community.
While I obviously can't say what is coming in future products... It's sure to have something new and exciting for everyone. :D
Are there features missing in the current product which you need for the 'small scale installations' you have?
If you want support to look at your case, PM the details of the issue and some contact info.
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” JabbaTheHutt wrote: Are there features missing in the current product which you need for the 'small scale installations' you have?
Support wise I worked through the issue (myself) which evolved around the NV+ v2 consistently crashing only when reading/writing files at faster speeds (than over a 100Mbps network). I tried several units and had identical results using a drive listed on the HCL. Well during the process the drive disappeared from the HCL (no I didn't dream it up :)) and moving to another drive on the list resolved the issue.
A lot of the goodwill I had built up was lost over this experience. And finding out the new models (arm based) lacked a good chunk of the features of the older models gave me the impression the new goal was a low cost approach over features and performance. Also, looking over the HCL I came away with the belief that time has virtually stood still regarding supporting current (not even new) drives and other hardware.
Right now if I turn off via the NV+ v2 or DUO v2 via the Dashboard after x hours (18 or so) you can't use WOL and if you try the power button stops working. You have to unplug/plug them in to get back online. Not that bad of a bug and I guess the line is virtually starting over with the arm processor and perhaps it's just a difficult translation time. Perhaps that also explains why new features aren't being released with new models.
As far as what's missing. It's more faith regarding features and support that will be available in the future. Will the HCL ever catch up to the current drives on the market, will the arm based models (entire line eventually) go beyond the older models or simply become a low-end line. Right now I have to wonder if I'll ever be able to use 4TB ( or larger) drives as an example.Charles R wrote: Well during the process the drive disappeared from the HCL (no I didn't dream it up :)) and moving to another drive on the list resolved the issue.
What model drive was this?Charles R wrote: Also, looking over the HCL I came away with the belief that time has virtually stood still regarding supporting current (not even new) drives and other hardware.
I would also like to see them qualify more drives.Charles R wrote: As far as what's missing. It's more faith regarding features and support that will be available in the future. Will the HCL ever catch up to the current drives on the market, will the arm based models (entire line eventually) go beyond the older models or simply become a low-end line. Right now I have to wonder if I'll ever be able to use 4TB ( or larger) drives as an example.
In the x86 (Intel) units, some users have used 4TB drives and found them to work fine for them even though none are on the compatibility list yet. You may find the same if you try some in ARM units but if you run into issues using drives outside the list NetGear will be unable to help. NetGear performs rigorous testing before approving drives for use with the ReadyNAS.- Would it not be a good idea to test and qualify drives that users are all'ready using with success, i myself am using a drive Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 9YN164 that is not on the HCL its a chance i took because it was a very good price, and if it did not work i could just use it in my pc and get one that was on the HCL but it as worked flawlessly in my Duo v2.
- Just because a user has success with a drive it doesn't necessarily mean it's compatible. NetGear does rigorous testing that exposes compatibility issues that an ordinary user might not discover for quite some time.
Having said that it would be good to see a number of more drives qualified. - The HCL either needs to be updated more often or retired - it isn't particularly useful to see which drives worked last year.
Here is a solution - write an add-on that aggressively phones home to Netgear with drive stats, errors, crash-dumps, logs and anything else that is useful to the developers and I'll run it on the twenty or so ReadyNAS's I have access to. I'm sure there are quite a few others that would do the same. I've got 500GB drives on the low end and 4TB drives on the high end and maybe half are on the HCL but they are all running in a RN somewhere. If you get enough auto-responses back that lead you to believe the drive is functional make a new list and populate it with the data you get back. Essentially, leverage your user base for hardware testing. While failures may be hard on some they are most probably going to be using and failing drives anyway given the state of the current HCL. When you get data back that indicates an incompatibility buy one and determine what you can do to mitigate the failure.
This works for memory, USB and network UPS's and printers too.
Anyone else willing to grant that much visibility into their home or business storage device for the betterment of the community? - Yes i would happily do that for the good of the community.
This is already in development. I think the end goal is for it to be more part of a support contract, to automate RMAs and such. But I hope there will be a more basic version for reporting that is free for home users.ahpsi wrote: Here is a solution - write an add-on that aggressively phones home to Netgear with drive stats, errors, crash-dumps, logs and anything else that is useful to the developers and I'll run it on the twenty or so ReadyNAS's I have access to. mdgm wrote: What model drive was this?
Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB SATA III 64 MB Cache Bare/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD30EZRX
I documented the issue(s) I ran into on the Forum as it played out. Rightfully or wrongly the HCL presents a large reflection of ReadyNAS. Some what repeating myself... When I started to go down the NAS path my business was ReadyNAS' to lose. Simply from my past impressions. As I started to research current offerings I saw other manufacturers recommended higher and overall found them to be more up-to-date. Once again repeating myself... such as supporting roughly 5 times the number of drives.
Frankly, after the couple weeks I spent resolving drive issues (for a drive that was once on the list) I have zero interest in using one that isn't. I can just see as I add that fourth drive a year from now the entire array blowing up. :) Why would one want to risk such when there are clearly alternatives.chirpa wrote:
This is already in development. I think the end goal is for it to be more part of a support contract, to automate RMAs and such. But I hope there will be a more basic version for reporting that is free for home users.ahpsi wrote: Here is a solution - write an add-on that aggressively phones home to Netgear with drive stats, errors, crash-dumps, logs and anything else that is useful to the developers and I'll run it on the twenty or so ReadyNAS's I have access to.
I hope so as well Chirpa it will a big advantage to everyone.
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