Changing from Flex-RAID to X-RAID

I was casually looking at the volumes tab of my ReadyNAS admin page.

And so I noticed that the X-RAID button was not lit. I specifically recall getting a ReadyNAS specifically for X-RAID capabilities and cannot recall at all having changed or made any setting that would set it to Flex-RAID instead. But this is beside the point.

I was looking up whether I could simply change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID by clicking the button, but I don't want to risk losing the data if I can avoid it.

What I did find, was a thread changing X-RAID to Flex-RAID from 2009. This felt fairly outdated, but it mentioned one would need to do a factory reset. A recent incident has made me want to avoid this as far as I am able.

I also found KB 22813 that states I can simply click the button and my data will be retained. Simple as pie, right? Not if you're insecure like me, no.

Long story short, can I click this button and switch to X-RAID and keep my data?

And if yes, will it increase my disk space and storage capacity? See below.

Thanks for any help on this!

Installation & Upgrade

mdgm-ntgr
May 19, 2016
Your logs show a 4x2TB RAID-5 layer and a 3x2TB RAID-5 layer. Replace the 3TB disk with a 4TB disk and you should get some more expansion.

17 Replies

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lrizos
Aspirant
Jul 04, 2024
I accidentally went from X-Raid to flex-Raid and cannot go back on my readynas

I click on the button and get an error message

You are attempting to switch from Flex-RAID to X-RAID. This is not possible because you have expanded volumes

I attached. photo

Can anyone advise me how do I go back so the memory can increase.

I have tried calling netgear but they are not responding.

Regards
Leon
- StephenB
  Guru - Experienced User
  Jul 04, 2024
  lrizos wrote:
  
  Can anyone advise me how do I go back so the memory can increase.
  
  AFAIK, The only way to do that is to destroy the volume and recreate it. That will destroy your shares, so you would need to recreate them and restore the data from backup. You would also need to re-install any apps.
  
  Expansion is still possible with FlexRAID, but more complicated.
  - Sandshark
    Sensei
    Jul 04, 2024
    At some point, Netgear made it impossible to go from FlexRAID back to XRAID if you have a vertically expanded volume. IMHO, this makes no sense, as I know of no FlexRAID expansion that's not XRAID compatible unless you've done so outside the GUI via SSH. But it is what it is, and I know of no work-around. I have documented how to do XRAID-like expansion of a FlexRAID volume from SSH: How-to-do-incremental-vertical-expansion-in-FlexRAID-mode.
Chokehold
Aspirant
May 19, 2016
Quick reply:
Crucial things are backed up, changed the thing to X-RAID, nothing happened, so I rebolted the device and still nothing seems to be happening in the way of expansion.
I am not seeing much activity in the logs either aside from background services started and the fact that we rebooted.

OS is 6.5.0.

I believe I saw some thread about replacing a drive and the result or progress didn't show anywhere until it was actually done. Could this be something similar? And how long would this theoretically take? I understand if there's an entire index needing to be rewritten but am not too experienced with RAID arrays myself.
- mdgm-ntgr
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  May 19, 2016
  Please send me your logs (see the Sending Logs link in my sig).
  - Chokehold
    Aspirant
    May 19, 2016
    mdgm-ntgr
    Logs are now sent as per instructions.
    
    Thanks for having a look!
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
May 18, 2016
If you are running RAID-5 with a single volume then you should be able to switch to xraid with no data loss.

What is your current disk configuration? Are all the disks the same size?
- Chokehold
  Aspirant
  May 18, 2016
  Sadly they are not the same size.
  It is currently RAID-5 with Flex-RAID, like so in this order from left to right in the bays:
  
  WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 3TB
  WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 4TB
  WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 4TB
  WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 4TB
  - StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    May 18, 2016
    Chokehold wrote:
    
    Sadly they are not the same size.
    
    This is not a problem, it simply suggests that XRAID is a better mode for you.
    
    You can turn XRAID on. I haven't tried that in this scenario, so I am not sure if the volume will automatically expand when you do. So let us know. If it doesn't immediately expand, try rebooting.
    
    jak0lantash wrote:
    
    Also, please, if you're unsecure, have an external backup of your data!
    
    The truth is, you should feel concerned if you don't have a backup. Your data is always at risk if it is only stored on one device. Raid reduces that risk some, but it is still there.