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Forum Discussion
495brian
Nov 14, 2016Aspirant
After Factory reset, quickest way to X-Raid2 with Dual redundancy 6x 2TB drives (RNDP6000)
I have 3 of the pro ready NAS drives (6 bays), one business and to readynas pro RNDP6000. One is set up as the "in use" drive and the other two are for back up. The "in use" drive was set up as XRAID2 with redundancy. Back then I didn't know how to do the dual x-raid 2 redundancy and thought this was two layers deep before data loss. I was wrong. When a drive is compromised, I replace it immediately, but the volume is not protected. I've had bad experiences with single redundancy. When one drive fails, they start to tumble like a house of cards. The back up drive is set up as x-raid 2, dual redundacy and functions very well.
I have the third drive that I would like to set up as the new "in use" drive and tried to quickly set it up as dual redundancy with x-raid2.
I dropped 6 2TB drives in and booted it up. The menu didn't let me choose dual redundancy and it appears that the only option was xraid2. Is there a sequence that I need to do this? Start with one drive, expand, add, expand etc (repeat for 5 drives?!). I downloaded the most recent OS x.x.30 (I can't remember the numbers but can update this when I get to work).
Can someone tell me the quickest way to set this 6 drive array as x-raid 2 with dual redundancy. Without any data on it I don't understand why it takes so long to "set up", what exactly is being copied for configuring drive 6?
I read on an old post that the older versions of the OS allowed users to select dual redundancy, so perhaps this is the answer. Thanks if anyone still checks this and knows the solution.
9 Replies
- StephenBGuru - Experienced User
495brian wrote:
Can someone tell me the quickest way to set this 6 drive array as x-raid 2 with dual redundancy.
What I suggest is installing 5 drives first, and let it set up as XRAID-2 single redundancy. Then set the system to "add the next disk for redundancy" and hot-insert the final drive. That might not be "quickest", but it works reliably the first time.
495brian wrote:
Without any data on it I don't understand why it takes so long to "set up", what exactly is being copied for configuring drive 6?
RAID basically creates a virtual disk volume that sits between the physical drives and the file system. Each sector of the volume is protected by the RAID partity blocks - the RAID layer has no idea if the sectors are used or not. During the sync process, the system is mostly computing the parity blocks.
- mdgm-ntgrNETGEAR Employee Retired
The quickest way on RAIDiator-x86 would be to do a factory reset, click setup in RAIDar during the 10 minute countdown and choose X-RAID2 and check the dual-redundancy option.
On OS6 the quickest way would be to disable X-RAID, delete the default volume and create a new one using RAID-6 and then re-enable X-RAID. It's preferable to call the new volume "data" (no quotes).
- StephenBGuru - Experienced User
mdgm wrote:
The quickest way on RAIDiator-x86 would be to do a factory reset, click setup in RAIDar during the 10 minute countdown and choose X-RAID2 and check the dual-redundancy option.
True. I take a pretty cautious approach here, because I've had some trouble with the RAIDar method with jbod (often I've ended with spanning RAID-0, and had to do it over). Though this scenario is different.
- 495brianAspirant
Thanks so much for the advice!
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