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ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus Expanded With a 6TB Disk (6x2x2x2) shows 7398 GB and unbelievable allocation
I have a ReadyNas Ultra 4 Plus still using 4.2 OS. Original Configuration was 2TB which I then expanded to 6TB by filling the Chasie with 4 2TB drives. Yesterday I switched out one of the 2TB driv...
OS6 on an Ultra4Plus with 2GB of RAM runs at least as fast as a 200 series NAS unless you are using SSDs. It does only have USB2, which may matter to you.
OS6 adheres to much more recent security protocols than RAIDiator. Some of the old ones have been depreciated but can currently be re-enabled on your PC. But how long that ability to enable them will continue is anyone's guess. Much newer apps are also available, if you use those. I personally find the BTRFS file system to be much better as well, though some still think it's not yet ready for prime time.
Once running OS6, if you Ultra does ever quit completely, or you just want to upgrade, you can also take the drives from it and just put them into a native OS6 NAS. No hoops to jump through (you've already jumped through them when converting to OS6).
SMR drives have adjacent sectors that overlap. So when you write to one, it may have to re-write a much larger section, using drive cache RAM to hold the data while it re-writes it in the proper overlapping order. For writing large files or many files continuously, and especially on RAID sync, scrub, and balance (the last two unique to BTRFS), they can run out of cache, and things slow to a crawl at best or the volume becomes corrupt at worst.
Before WD admitted they changed the Reds to SMR, I put one in my NAS as a replacement to one that failed. The RAID sync took at least three times longer -- with just one of six being an SMR drive. A scrub also locked up the GUI. Normal operations didn't seem a lot slower, but I rather quickly replaced it with a CMR drive, so my use was limited.
RolG wrote:
Also disk 4 reads as 3721 GB allocated, but it's ony a 2TB disk.
No it's not. Per your post (the table at the end), it is a WD40EFRX, which is a 4 TB disk.
RolG wrote:
I now have a reported disk space of 7398 GB which seems a little high to me.
Again, this is because disk 4 is 4 TB. That allowed the volume to expand by 2 TB when you upgraded drive 1. The volume size is "sum the disks and subtract the largest" - which gives 2+2+4 => 8 TB (or ~7.4 TiB).
You can still execute your expansion plan by hot-swapping disk 4 next. Though if you are willing to do a factory default, you could get 12 TB total storage with 2x6TB + 4TB + 2TB.
RolG wrote:
Yesterday I switched out one of the 2TB drives with a 6TB drive
Unfortunately you've chosen an SMR drive (WD60EFAX). My general advice for ReadyNAS is to avoid the current WD Red drives (all SMR), and instead use WD Red Plus (all CMR). SMR drives definitely create problems in OS-6 NAS, though they might work out in a 4.2.x system. Still, I suggest exchanging it for a WD Red Plus model. The current model for that is WD60EFZX, though you might also find the older WD60EFRX.
Thanks, you are absolutely correct. The false memory that I had bought two 2TB disks for expansion blocked out all reality. Also I did not realize the disk size was contained in the displayed WDxxxx number. Anyway it sounds like the factory default is the way to proceed. Since I'm going to factory default anyway I'm wondering why not upgrade to OS-6. Besides better disk expansions are there any other advantages to upgrading. It's been my past experience that a SW upgrade usually deprecates the efficiancy of the undelying HW. Also your coutions about WD SMR drives is worrysome. What are the problems you refer to? Disk failure or some more subtle problem?
Anyway, thanks for your help. It was a relieve to read that the expansion had gone normally. I'll check on exchanging the disks if I decide to procede with the OS upgrade.
OS6 on an Ultra4Plus with 2GB of RAM runs at least as fast as a 200 series NAS unless you are using SSDs. It does only have USB2, which may matter to you.
OS6 adheres to much more recent security protocols than RAIDiator. Some of the old ones have been depreciated but can currently be re-enabled on your PC. But how long that ability to enable them will continue is anyone's guess. Much newer apps are also available, if you use those. I personally find the BTRFS file system to be much better as well, though some still think it's not yet ready for prime time.
Once running OS6, if you Ultra does ever quit completely, or you just want to upgrade, you can also take the drives from it and just put them into a native OS6 NAS. No hoops to jump through (you've already jumped through them when converting to OS6).
SMR drives have adjacent sectors that overlap. So when you write to one, it may have to re-write a much larger section, using drive cache RAM to hold the data while it re-writes it in the proper overlapping order. For writing large files or many files continuously, and especially on RAID sync, scrub, and balance (the last two unique to BTRFS), they can run out of cache, and things slow to a crawl at best or the volume becomes corrupt at worst.
Before WD admitted they changed the Reds to SMR, I put one in my NAS as a replacement to one that failed. The RAID sync took at least three times longer -- with just one of six being an SMR drive. A scrub also locked up the GUI. Normal operations didn't seem a lot slower, but I rather quickly replaced it with a CMR drive, so my use was limited.
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