Why should I buy another ReadyNAS?

With the ReadyNAS there are firmware updates etc. built for you. With a HP server, installing an OS, updating it etc. fixing things if they go wrong would require more work on your part. It really depends a lot on your skills.

I'd recommend keeping the Duo v1 for additional storage or for backing up the new NAS whichever you go with.

Do note the NV+ v2 is charcoal in colour. The v1 is silver in colour. Don't confuse the two. See How to tell whether I have a Duo v1 or Duo v2 or NV+ v1 or NV+ v2

You'll also get the benefit of being able to back up one NAS straight to the other with Replicate. I've never used it, or looked into it's features, but If the marketing blurb is to be believed, it should be a doddle to back up your new NAS to your old one and use the old one as a backup store. Obviously, if you get an NV+ and fully populate it, you'd get to a point (perhaps) where you have more data than the the backup NAS can store, but that is further on down the line.

Also, having two systems by two different manufacturers means you are duplicating your requirements for support. The HP N40L looks like a nice piece of kit, but will it be supported by HP for the length of time the ReadyNAS line has been supported by Netgear? I have my doubts.

If I were in your shoes, i'd go with the ReadyNAS NV+ V2.

[EDIT]: looks like Replicate is x86/ARM only from the add-ons page. However backing up from one ReadyNAS to another should still be a lot simpler than with two different products by different manufacturers. I'd still go with the NV+ V2 considering they are both the same price from the support viewpoint.

Replicate only works with Intel ReadyNAS devices, and not ARM enabled devices such as the NV+.v2.

http://www.readynas.com/?p=4853

spinaltap wrote:
Replicate only works with Intel ReadyNAS devices, and not ARM enabled devices such as the NV+.v2. http://www.readynas.com/?p=4853

No its available for ARM devices its just not listed on the addons page, if you go into frontview and look at available addons its there just click the get button and it downloads and installs.

What is the full list of additional 'add-on's for the NV+v2 that are not listed on the 'add-on's' page?

Even so, as 'Replicate' isn't available on my existing ReadyNAS Duo v1, the Replicate software doesn't help in transferring existing files over to a new ReadyNAS.

Readynas Remote, photos 2, Replicate.
community addons look here viewforum.php?f=147

If both units are on the same network, replicate is not needed. You can back up one ReadyNAS to the other using NFS transfer to make the first backup, the switch to Rsync to verify the backup and synchronize the files on the two NAS units from then on. Note: follow on backups are not incremental as in other types of backups as Rsync synchronizes the files and only copies over the updates to a file. It is blindingly fast, typically only taking a few minutes to synchronize all the files in a share.

My Rsync jobs run every night starting at midnight. When they are through my NVX Pioneer has the identical files to my NVX BE. With the addition of NFS and rsync to ARM based ReadyNAS units with 5.3.5, all ReadyNAS desktop units support rsync. I am not sure about the HP.

Reading comments on Newegg, the Proliant apparently comes without software. One user commented about FreeNAS and another about installing Ubuntu. This means that in setting it up and configuring it, you may be fairly much on your own. The ReadyNAS even if purchased without drives is pretty much plug it in and let it set itself up. My first NAS (NV+ v1 in 2007 was this way as was my NVX BE in 2010. Several months before that my NVX Pioneer was not, but it had a memory module that was not seated properly. Once it was reseated, it was turn it on and let it do it's thing.) Of course the default setup is X-Raid2 on all the current models.

Of course having experience with a Duo, you pretty much know how they are supposed to react. If you go with a 4 or 6 bay unit you will gain the advantage of a message panel telling you the status of your NAS while booting and setting up. It goes off after a few minutes of inactivity. What looks like a similar panel in some photos of the Proliant is actually a blank panel covering a top 5 1/4" bay.

If you are happy with your Duo, you should be very happy with an NV+ v2. I think it's performance is about equal to my NVX (both are 32bit and faster than the sparc units) and I am very happy with my units.

A strange query, you might think...

On a NV+ v2; if I have two 2Tb drives for video and audio streaming duties, and then install a couple of spare 500Gb drives in the free drive bays, can the latter be used for TimeMachine duties for backing-up my Mac, while the larger drives deal with streaming duties?

No. With X-Raid2 (and X-Raid) you cannot add a drive smaller than the previous smallest drive. Now, if you use Flex-Raid and establish a Raid1 volume with the first two drives (mirrored) I don't know if that precludes smaller drives in the new volume (volume would be D:) or not. I don't know of any forum topic that has answered that.

If you start with the two 500GB drives and then add the two 2TB drives you could have a net volume of 2.7TB (after overhead), with one 2TB drive providing redundancy, a first layer of 1.35TB (net) across the two 500GB drives and 500GB of the 2TB drive and a second layer of 1.35TB (net) on the 2TB drive. This is a feature not available with X-Raid on the sparc based Duo and NV+ (v1) which you are familiar with. Then if you replace one of the 500GB drives with another 2TB, it would result in another increase of 1.35TB (net) bringing you total volume of just over 4TB (net). As you can see you would get more volume this way. If you assign only 500GB to Time Machine, the other 2.2TB (net) would be available for streaming.

The N40L is a nice "looking" piece of kit. It's very aeasthetically pleasing - at least to me. But will HP still be providing updates for it in 5 years time? With their track record I seriously doubt it. Function over Form here is the best policy. The ReadyNAS line aren't without their quirks and issues, but by the same measure Netgear aren't No.1 NAS vendor for no reason. And if it were me, i'd stick with kit i'm already familiar with, as I did when i migrated to the Ultra from the Duo. Not the mindset everyone should adopt, maybe. But it worked for me.