ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus.... 18TB -> 24TB

These 3TB disks were installed at the time of purchase so initially volume was configured as it is now. No expansion was ever done.
So it appears like is will work?

Yes, it does appear that it would work.

Process started.....hotswapped 2x3TB disks our of 6 total with 4TB ones (one by one of course) and synced, then got this message after second one synced:

Found space that can be used to expand capacity, expansion process will start during next boot.

Hrm... shouldn't I get this after 4th drive had been synced?

Should I expand volume now or continue with hotswapping all of the remaining 4 disks?

frusnet wrote:
Process started.....hotswapped 2x3TB disks our of 6 total with 4TB ones (one by one of course) and synced, then got this message after second one synced: Found space that can be used to expand capacity, expansion process will start during next boot. Hrm... shouldn't I get this after 4th drive had been synced?

No, with single redundancy you get it when you install the second drive.

frusnet wrote:
Should I expand volume now or continue with hotswapping all of the remaining 4 disks?

I'd reboot, and let the expansion complete on each drive before proceeding to the next.

Thank you for your fast reply StephenB! I was actually waiting to proceed. :)

Actually I have dual redundancy. Isn't it weird?
Is this a situation where I should be alarmed?

I don't want to make a mistake to mess up the upgrade process.

Should I hot-swap the 3rd one now or...reboot, let it expand capacity, then continue with 3rd?

I called Netgear and they told me to reboot, then continue hot-swapping...crossing fingers, hope all goes well.

you should only hot swap when the volume is redundant.

if you hot swap more than 1 drive a time, you will likely lose all your data

I always hot swap 1 drive at a time....
So far 3rd swap went well...synced..OK

BUT!
on 4th drive, it synced well then it FAILED to expand volume, here is what logs said:

Thu May 8 17:34:27 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:34:26 EEST 2014 Incompleted file system expansion detected. Resuming...
Thu May 8 17:34:24 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:34:21 EEST 2014 Newly added drive has more space to expand the volume, will start volume expansion.
Thu May 8 17:34:18 EEST 2014 RAID sync finished on volume C.
Thu May 8 01:14:28 EEST 2014 RAID sync started on volume C.
Thu May 8 01:14:03 EEST 2014 Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 4.
Thu May 8 01:12:56 EEST 2014 New disk detected. If multiple disks have been added, they will be processed one at a time. Please do not remove any added disk(s) during this time. [Disk 4]
Thu May 8 01:07:37 EEST 2014 A disk was removed from the ReadyNAS. One or more RAID volumes are currently unprotected, and an additional disk failure or removal may result in data loss. Please add a replacement disk as soon as possible.
Thu May 8 01:07:37 EEST 2014 Disk removal detected. [Disk 4]
Wed May 7 19:29:24 EEST 2014 RAID sync finished on volume C.
Wed May 7 09:06:07 EEST 2014 RAID sync started on volume C.
Wed May 7 09:05:44 EEST 2014 Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 3.
Wed May 7 09:04:35 EEST 2014 Data volume has been successfully expanded to 15740 GB.

.....
All disks seem fine:
Disk 1 Seagate ST4000DM000-1F2168 3726 GB , 37 C / 98 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 Seagate ST4000DM000-1F2168 3726 GB , 39 C / 102 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 Seagate ST4000DM000-1F2168 3726 GB , 37 C / 98 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 Seagate ST4000DM000-1F2168 3726 GB , 37 C / 98 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 5 Seagate ST3000DM001-9YN166 2794 GB , 42 C / 107 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 6 Seagate ST3000DM001-9YN166 2794 GB , 40 C / 104 F , Write-cache ON OK


Now I stopped and I don't know what to do....anybody have an idea?
(my gut is telling me is to stop immediately and backup everything now while it's been reading everything fine....backing up 13TB is a pain!)
Should I go on hot swapping 5th disk, then 6th disk too?
Or should I run some other thing to fix this volume expansion?

Any help is appreciated.

Though it is a pain, making backups is always a good idea.

I wouldn't continue until you get it resolved. Since you are running dual redundancy, this is the first expansion step that gives you more space. I would try a reboot.

I rebooted 3 times already...

same errors:
Thu May 8 17:56:43 EEST 2014 System is up.
Thu May 8 17:56:36 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:56:34 EEST 2014 Incompleted file system expansion detected. Resuming...
Thu May 8 17:55:32 EEST 2014 Rebooting device...
Thu May 8 17:55:32 EEST 2014 Please close this browser session and use RAIDar to reconnect to the device. System rebooting...
Thu May 8 17:45:59 EEST 2014 System is up.
Thu May 8 17:45:49 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:45:48 EEST 2014 Incompleted file system expansion detected. Resuming...
Thu May 8 17:44:46 EEST 2014 Rebooting device...
Thu May 8 17:44:46 EEST 2014 Please close this browser session and use RAIDar to reconnect to the device. System rebooting...
Thu May 8 17:34:27 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:34:26 EEST 2014 Incompleted file system expansion detected. Resuming...
Thu May 8 17:34:24 EEST 2014 Volume expansion failed
Thu May 8 17:34:21 EEST 2014 Newly added drive has more space to expand the volume, will start volume expansion.
Thu May 8 17:34:18 EEST 2014 RAID sync finished on volume C.
Thu May 8 01:14:28 EEST 2014 RAID sync started on volume C.
Thu May 8 01:14:03 EEST 2014 Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 4.



Although in this last 4th disk I noticed something different than previous 3 disks...
That last 4th one was labelled SPARE prior to syncing.....previous 3 were not.
I am guessing this is something to do with NAS software