Replacing ReadyNAS 1100

galorin wrote:
Our trusty 1100 is really playing up

How is it playing up. You might wish to use the 1100 as a backup NAS if it's not an issue with the NAS chassis. When did you purchase the 1100? If it was purchased brand new on/after Aug 21, 2007 it would still be under warranty.

galorin wrote:
XRaid2 - we'd have 3TB of space available if I understand correctly, am I right?

Yes. Of course the NAS considers 1TB=1024^4 bytes whereas disk manufacturers consider 1TB=1000^4 bytes and there are overheads, so it will be a bit less.

galorin wrote:
XRaid2 - what happens when a drive fails?

Data remains intact

galorin wrote:
What happens when 2 fail?

NAS enters life support mode. If one of the disks can't be repaired or cloned onto another disk then you'll need to restore from backup. The Pro 6 (desktop 6-bay) and the 12-bay rackmount 3200/4200 have optional dual-redundancy feature.

galorin wrote:
iSCSI - 1100 never did play nice with Active Directory. can we use iSCSI to a server, then distribute that as a share, or is there a better way to provide AD-controlled access?

You could mount the iSCSI target on the server and share folders on that from the server I think. You might wish to give CIFS on the NAS another try though.

galorin wrote:
How long until the 2100 hits EOL?

Don't know. NetGear doesn't announce their product plans. It will remain supported by firmware updates for a long while yet. The ReadyNAS Team has a history of providing firmware updates long after a product is discontinued when there are new products on the same platform (2100 is x86). In fact the ReadyNAS 600 (Sparc) released by Infrant back in 2004 and discontinued well before the NetGear acquisition still receives free firmware updates as does the more recently discontinued 1100, Duo (v1) and NV+ (v1). Though with the discontinuation of the Duo (v1) and NV+ (v1) there are no longer any new Sparc ReadyNAS products in production.