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X-Raid vertical expansion - harddrive compatibility
We run a ReadyNAS 4200 - RN12T1210 (RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31) with 12 of 1TB harddrives drives and we want to proceed with a vertical expansion. Unfortunately the harddrive compatiblility list is listin...
Avram wrote:
You are saying that I won’t be able to get more than 16 TB per volume. Can I assume that it is not worth it to replace all 1TB 12 harddrives with 2 TB since the system will not recognize more than 16 TB?
You could do a factory reset with 12x2TB in place. That will work, and give you the full volume (22 TB with RAID-5, 20 TB with RAID-6). You won't be able to expand that volume, and since it requires a factory reset, you would need to restore all the data from a backup.
Avram wrote:
However, if I can get an extra 7 TB to the existing 9 TB that will be ok for a few more years and the next upgrade will be the unit itself.
That is not guaranteed, it depends on the initial size of your volume. For instance, if you started with 1 TB and then added the remaining disks, then you'd already be at the growth limit of your volume. You'd have to look through the expansion history to figure out where your ceiling is.
Thank you, guys, for all your replies. Very informative.
About updating to OS6 I don't think it is worth the effort.
You are saying that I won’t be able to get more than 16 TB per volume. Can I assume that it is not worth it to replace all 1TB 12 harddrives with 2 TB since the system will not recognize more than 16 TB?
However, if I can get an extra 7 TB to the existing 9 TB that will be ok for a few more years and the next upgrade will be the unit itself.
Avram
Avram wrote:
You are saying that I won’t be able to get more than 16 TB per volume. Can I assume that it is not worth it to replace all 1TB 12 harddrives with 2 TB since the system will not recognize more than 16 TB?
You could do a factory reset with 12x2TB in place. That will work, and give you the full volume (22 TB with RAID-5, 20 TB with RAID-6). You won't be able to expand that volume, and since it requires a factory reset, you would need to restore all the data from a backup.
Avram wrote:
However, if I can get an extra 7 TB to the existing 9 TB that will be ok for a few more years and the next upgrade will be the unit itself.
That is not guaranteed, it depends on the initial size of your volume. For instance, if you started with 1 TB and then added the remaining disks, then you'd already be at the growth limit of your volume. You'd have to look through the expansion history to figure out where your ceiling is.
Hi Stephen
The unit is in its original state. No other updates or repairs have been performed other that the RAIDiator and replacement of 2 failed harddrives since we bought it back in 2011.
Avram
If the initial volume size was 9 TB and you are using XRAID, then you can bring it up to 16 TB without needing a factory reset.
Yes that is the case 9TB with X-raid since the begining.
In this case I can start replacing 1 by one the harddrives until I reach the 16 TB limit?
Avram wrote:
Yes that is the case 9TB with X-raid since the begining.
In this case I can start replacing 1 by one the harddrives until I reach the 16 TB limit?
Yes. You hot-swap one drive at a time, waiting for the resync to complete before doing the next.
I think you are likely running dual-redundancy (since RAID-6 with 12x1TB would give you a 9 TiB volume size). If that's the case, then you won't see any expansion until after you hot-swap the fourth drive. At that point you'd need to do a system reboot to trigger the vertical expansion (which would add 2 TB to the volume size). Hot-swaps after that will increase the volume by 2 TB per disk.
If you are running single redundancy, then you'd see expansion after you hot-swap (and resync) the second drive. Again, you'll need to do a system reboot at that point in order to trigger the vertical expansion.
After the system does vertically expand, the reboot step isn't needed - hot swapping each additional disk will resync and then expand.
Thanks so much for the info Stephen.
Avram
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