How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??

Question

So I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 6 with 6x2TB drives. I was getting low on space and was planning on buying new, bigger HD's and replacing them one by one.

However, I ended up just buying another used Ultra 6 with no drives and populating it with (6) new HGST MegaScale 4TB drives (was finding good Ultra 6's on Ebay for like $110!).

Sow now I have my original Ultra 6 with 6x2TB drives (4GB RAM) and I also have the "new" Ultra 6 with 6x4TB drives (2GB RAM).

Now I need to figure out the best way to copy my data over (after I have it copied over, I will set up some sort of selective sync to have another copy available if needed). I can obviously just copy the 8TB of data from NAS to NAS over my gigabit network using a Frontivew backup job via NFS. But then I thought that maybe I'd be better off coping the data to a 8TB drive that I have in an external USB encloseure - and then connecting the drive to the new NAS and copying the data from the external USB drive. I'm just thinking that it would save a LOT of wear-and-tear on the NIC's - and really not take much longer. Or should I not worry about wear and tear on the ReadyNAS NICs? The external 8TB drive is just an "extra" drive that I use for various tasks.

Thoughts?

EDIT: By the way - I got the Ultra 6 for $135 shipped and got 6 brand new 4TB drives ( NOT "Renewed") for $381 (including tax and shipping). So I got a 6-slot NAS with 24TB of space (brand new drives) for $516!! Can't beat it... :-)

Sandshark · Answer

Ethenet is differential.&nbsp; That is, one side is driven high and the other low.&nbsp; So even at rest, it's pumping current on one wire of each pair and sinking it on the other.&nbsp; In other words, if it's going to overheat and eventually fail due to it, it doesn't require any traffic to do so.&nbsp; There are also two ports that are pretty much independent, and you only need one, so you can switch ports if one quits.&nbsp; If that somehow concerns you, that is what a "green" switch reduces to lower overall power.&nbsp;I have never seen or heard of a legacy NAS with a NIC failure that was not induced by something external like a nearby lightning strike or allowing the unit to get too hot.&nbsp; The NIC is powered when the unit is "off" except via the rear switch or unplugging, and some don't realize they can't let it get too hot when it's "off".&nbsp; There were some more recent NAS (202's I think) that must have had a bad batch of tranceivers, as there were a lot of overheat issues, but that was early in life, in normal use, and fixed under warranty if reported.&nbsp;Rsync jobs are best for periodic backup between NAS, though the initial transfer can take a bit longer than other methods.&nbsp; But if you plan to set up periodic jobs, it would be a good test to set them up and use them for the initial transfer.&nbsp;That is a good price on the Ultra6.&nbsp; I figure their value without caddies (so as a replacement to a broken one) to be around $150 and the caddies go for $25 - $35 each.&nbsp; I've bought some "as-is" ReadyNAS for just the price of the caddies and/or drives they contain, though I was able to get many running.&nbsp; But they are getting harder to find, propbably because replacement OS6 units are in scarce supply.

StephenB · Answer

jtrosky&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
EDIT:&nbsp; By the way - I got the Ultra 6 for $135 shipped and got 6 brand new 4TB drives ( NOT "Renewed") for $381 (including tax and shipping).&nbsp; So I got a 6-slot NAS with 24TB of space (brand new drives) for $516!!&nbsp; Can't beat it...&nbsp; :-)

Good pricing.&nbsp; But 20 TB of capacity if you are using RAID-5/single redundancy XRAID.&nbsp; Note it won't be expandable if you use XRAID, bcause with 4.2 firmware doesn't support expansion over 16 TiB.
&nbsp;
FWIW, Ultras can be converted to run OS-6, though I do recommend upgrading the RAM to at least 2 GB if you want to do that.&nbsp; That requires a factory reset, so it is best to do it now.
&nbsp;
jtrosky&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
Now I need to figure out the best way to copy my data over (after I have it copied over, I will set up some sort of selective sync to have another copy available if needed).&nbsp; I can obviously just copy the 8TB of data from NAS to NAS over my gigabit network using a Frontivew backup job via NFS.&nbsp; But then I thought that maybe I'd be better off coping the data to a 8TB drive that I have in an external USB encloseure - and then connecting the drive to the new NAS and copying the data from the external USB drive.&nbsp; I'm just thinking that it would save a LOT of wear-and-tear on the NIC's - and really not take much longer.&nbsp; Or should I not worry about wear and tear on the ReadyNAS NICs?&nbsp;

NICs don't wear out - no mechanical parts - so that is not a concern.
&nbsp;
The fastest way to transfer the files is over your gigabit connection.&nbsp; Ultras are limited to USB-2 speeds.

jtrosky · Answer

Thanks for the repsonse.&nbsp;I have already upgraded the RAM to 2GB (recently upgraded the RAM in the original Ultra 6 to 4GB, so I took the 1GB of RAM I took out of the original Ultra 6 and added it to the new Ultra 6).&nbsp; So I have 4GB in the original and 2GB in the "new" one right now.&nbsp; Will probably swap the RAM once the "new" one becomes the "primary" one.&nbsp; :-)&nbsp;Both are running 6.10.4 Hotfix 1.&nbsp;Regarding the data transfer - yes, I completely understand that NIC's don't "wear out" in a physical sense (obviously), but surely using the NIC so heavily for days at a time is more "taxing" on the NIC hardware than an idle NIC, isn't it (I'm assuming the components heat up more, etc)?&nbsp; I mean NIC's still fail even though they are not mechanical devices.&nbsp; Is a heavily-loaded NIC no more likely to fail than a completely idle NIC?&nbsp; I honeslty don't know, which is why I asked the question.&nbsp; &nbsp;I assumed a heavily-used NIC would be more likely to fail than an idle NIC, but maybe that is completely false?&nbsp; I mean that thing will be going full-throttle for quite a while for ~8TB of data.&nbsp;Since the NIC's are items that aren't easily "replaceable" in these devices - I'd rather limit the chances of a NIC failure, if possible.&nbsp; If using an external USB drive to trasnfer the data lessens the risk of a NIC failure, I'd prefer that.&nbsp; If there is virtually no reliability difference between a heavily used NIC and an idle NIC, then I'll just go ahead and use the network.&nbsp; Transfer speed is not a priority in this case.&nbsp;Thanks for your input!&nbsp;&nbsp;

jtrosky · Answer

Great information on NIC's!&nbsp; Thank you vey much.&nbsp; I never realized that NIC's operate like that and that the amount of "activity" doesn't impact the longevity/reliability of a NIC at all.&nbsp; That is great to know.&nbsp; Now I will start my data transfer and just not worry about it.&nbsp;Yeah, I couldn't believe how cheap these Ultra 6's were on Ebay - all very clean and loaded with (6) original disk trays.&nbsp; I saw that people are asking $30+ for the empty trays by themselves!&nbsp; So I snagged one up since I feel a lot more comfortable just copying the data to another unit vs. replacing single drives one at a time with larger drives in order to upgrade the capacity, like I was originally going to do.&nbsp; For the price of the used Ultra 6 and (6) brand new 4TB drives, it's a no-brainer, IMO.&nbsp; I love these Ultra 6 devices - especially when you can find them dirt cheap in the used market.&nbsp; :-)&nbsp;Both of my Ultra 6's are running OS6.&nbsp; That is the very first thing that I did to each of them when I bought them.&nbsp; Also upgraded RAM once I saw that large file copies would crash the system with only 1GB of RAM on OS6.&nbsp; :-)&nbsp; Even the RAM for them is dirt cheap.&nbsp; Plus they use pretty standard power supplies, which is nice (had to replace the power supply in my original Ultra 6 once already).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Thanks to everyone for their input - I appreciate it!

Sandshark · Answer

Used just for storage, the Ultra6 running OS6 is a fine system.&nbsp; It's a bit underpowered to run some apps, though, and probably will slow if there are a lot of concurrent users.&nbsp;You probably already know this, but besides the advantages of having a more up to date OS, running OS6 on a legacy NAS also means that if the NAS ever dies, you don't have to look for an older replacement.&nbsp; Any current OS6 system with sufficient bays can accept your volume as-is.&nbsp; Of course, at that price, another legacy system might still be a good choice.

Forum Discussion

How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??

5 Replies

Related Content

ReadyNas 104

ReadyNas 212 HELP needed

Readynas rnd4000

readynas duo v2 disk failed ..

ReadyNas Duo

NETGEAR Academy

ProSupport for Business