Data: DEGRADED on RN104

Hi guys,

Ran the sea tools and the WD Lifeguard and both did not find the HDD - so presume it is DOA

Contacting the supplier to come and collect meaning that it will be 2 or 3 weeks before I get the drive back or replacement.


Many thanks for the support and advice as always.

A question about the RAID

When I added the drive it automatically changed the RAID from JBOD to RAID 1

Surely Removing the additional drive and just having the single 4TB in slot 1 as always that it would revert back to JBOD or there is a way to change it back to JBOD or am I misunderstanding the situation altogether.

Regards

You were using xraid, so when you added a disk it converted to raid-1. When you remove a disk it becomes degraded raid-1, not jbod. Unfortunately if you want to go back to jbod you need to destroy the volume and create a new one. Then restore the data from backup.

Hi StephenB, many thanks for the replies as always.

I am just wondering that when the XRaid was changed - was this on all drives ? In other words the initial drive in slot 1 which is still performing well, will I have to modify anything on this drive or is it the newly added second drive that changes need to be made. Also second HDD gone back and it will take 7-10 working days before I get a replacement which seems a very long time - even offered them a quicker solution but no joy - so will have to wait.
Or is it the raid is determined by the OS of the NAS on determining how to read the drives.

Apologies if questions seem stupid but trying to get an idea on how it works.

Thanks again !

The readynas software keeps track of the RAID mode in its database, and mounts the data volumes at boot time using that information.

When you get the new drive, you should hot-insert it into the NAS (into the same slot as the one you removed). XRAID will detect the new disk, and will resync it to the drive in slot 1. There won't be any changes to the existing drive.

FWIW, if the replacement disk is from Western Digital it will be a recertified drive. If you are getting it from the retailer it will be a new one. Either way it is a good idea to run Lifeguard on it before you insert it into the NAS.

Hi guys, I know its been a while since I was on last about this issue but here is an update.

Received the replacement 4TB from the web retailer and inserted it into SLOT 2 where it was originally and left it for a while.
The good news is that the DATA DEGRADED has now disappeared and everything is back to normal except that from what I have learned from you guys (huge thank you !!!) I now have my RN104 in RAID 1 meaning that the SLOT 2 drive is a replica of SLOT 1

So now the next step I presume is I would have to get another 4TB drive for SLOT 3 to use for more data as SLOT 2 is used by SLOT 1 for backup purposes or as was stated at the beginning change the RAID factor from 1 to JBOD so to use the Drive in SLOT 2 as an extension to storage.

Regards

NJP

If you add another 4 TB drive in slot three, you will end up with an 8 TB data volume. Underneath, xraid2 will convert the RAID-1 volume to a RAID-5 volume automatically.

You will still have protection from a single disk failure but slot 2 will no longer be a mirror of slot 1. RAID-5 is more complicated than RAID-1.

Hi StephenB

Well, seeing as there are 2 bays left empty and I will have to get another 4TB to extend the storage capacity what your saying is inevitable.

When you say RAID5 is more complicated - whats ahead of me when I get there !

NOTE: Many many thanks for all the help StephenB

Regards

NJP

njpryan wrote:
When you say RAID5 is more complicated - whats ahead of me when I get there !

It's not more complicated to use, it is just harder to understand how it works.

Backups do become more important, since data recovery (if the array fails) becomes more difficult. But they are also important with RAID-1.

Hi StephenB,

Again it's been another while and everything is still the same with regards to my RN104 - Slot 1 (4TB), Slot 2 (4TB) and currently RAID-1

I have noticed of late that the space available has suddenly increased from 2GB (approx) to 4GB (approx) for no apparent reason. Also on a more scary note I keep losing connection to the RN104 on the web (ip192.168.1.1) - keep getting the server is currently busy and I click on re-connect but same issue. Any ideas ?
I can still connect to it to add files etc but using the readynas software to connect and get the logs etc - not happening. I did carry out a restart and this worked for about 5 mins and then the RN104 started updating files and the connection was interrupted again on the web access but continues to work by adding files through the normal network.

With regards to the earlier conversation about RAID-1 and RAID-5 when I add the third 4TB drive - what is going to happen - e.g. will I have 12TB of storage or 8TB of storage and 4TB(slot 2) remains backup of Slot 1 - sorry in advance for seeming confused and repeating some questions.

Regards

NJP

Can you download the logs using RAIDar 6.0 then email them to me (see the Sending Logs link in my sig for the email address).