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Forum Discussion
Migration of RN426 from X-RAID RAID 5 to FLEX-RAID RAID 6
I have an existing RN426 (called ‘Primary’) populated with 6 x 2TB WD Red EFAX disks, formatted as X-RAID, RAID 5. This device has all my data files in 8 shares, in 1 volume ‘data’. Total data is abo...
Hi Stephen,
Having read further including your recent reply and other notes, it seems a should re-phrase my original question to you about RAID 6.
Migrate from RN424 (X-RAID RAID 5) to New RN426 (X-RAID, RAID6)
I have a RN424 which holds all my data on 4 disks (X-RAID, RAID 5). I will purchase a new RN426 ‘Primary’ and re-purpose the RN424 as ‘Backup’. The 4 disks on the RN424 (4 x 2TB WD Red) will physically be migrated to the new RN426 as the starting core of 4 disks, containing all my data. I have two brand new WD Red 2TB disks to top up the 426 up to 6 disks. (In a later exercise I will repurpose the RN424 as my main Backup and close down the 2 x RN312 which are currently on Backup duty.)
RN426 6 x WD20EFAX from: 4 x WD20EFAX from RN424, and 2 x WD20EFAX new
- Shut down 424. Remove all 4 disks, taking note of channel number. Keep in order 1-2-3-4.
- Install 4 disks, in same order into 426, taking note channel number 1 is at top of box. This will bring across all the main attributes of the data volume on the RN424
- Start up 426 – should be same password and IP address and configuration as old 424.
- Change IP address to 192.168.1.60 and device name to ‘Primary’.
- Change from X-RAID, RAID 5 to FLEX-RAID and configure as RAID 6.
- Add 5th disk (new WD20EFAX). Add under FLEX-RAID as a Parity disk (I presume the second Parity Disk??), and allow to sync
- Add 6th disk (new WD20EFAX), Add under FLEX-RAID as a what type of disk???, and allow to sync
- Allow to run for 2 days to be sure of no problems
- Change from FLEX-RAID back to X-RAID. RAID will remain as RAID 6
Your advice on this route will be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Warren
WarrenT wrote:4. Change IP address to 192.168.1.60 and device name to ‘Primary’.
The device name will already be Primary. If the IP address is static, it would still be 192.168.1.60. If it is reserved, you will need to change the reservation.
WarrenT wrote:5. Change from X-RAID, RAID 5 to FLEX-RAID and configure as RAID 6.
6. Add 5th disk (new WD20EFAX). Add under FLEX-RAID as a Parity disk (I presume the second Parity Disk??), and allow to sync
7. Add 6th disk (new WD20EFAX), Add under FLEX-RAID as a what type of disk???, and allow to sync
Not quite. You
5. Hot-insert the 5th disk and let the volume resync and expand
6. Change from XRAID to FlexRAID
7. Hot-insert the 6th disk. Follow the instructions on page 43 of the user guide to "add parity" to the volume and allow it to resync. http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf
8. Change back to XRAID
To clarify- RAID 5 and RAID 6 don't have dedicated partity disks. There are partity blocks that are distributed evenly across all the drives.
Good day Stephen,
Thanks for the helpful advice. I am out the office for some hours today so please allow me time to digest the advice.
Kind regards,
Warren
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your patience. As I am inexperienced in terms of RAID matters, I would like to be quite sure I am following the correct process as I know that a wrong move in this area can often not be easily reversed. Could I ask you to look at the attached pdf document which summarises what you have told me and I have read in the OS Service Manual. In particular, I'd be grateful to your guidance on Q1 and Q2 within the document.
Kind regards and TIA,
Warren
WarrenT wrote:
[Q1: What RAID level will be assigned based on the default for 5 disks? Probably RAID 5???]
The RAID level isn't "assigned" when you switch to FlexRAID. It's a property of the volume itself, and changing from XRAID to FlexRAID doesn't change that property.
In your specific case, your volume is RAID-5 now, and it will remain RAID-5 after you horizontally expand it in step 5. So it will be shown as RAID-5 when you switch the mode to FlexRaid.
WarrenT wrote:
[Q2: Is this assumption regarding change of RAID from 5 to RAID 6 correct??]
There will be no increase in the volume capacity with step 7(c), since the new disk is added for redundancy/parity. But the process will result in a RAID-6 volume, and it does require reshaping/resynchronization to convert the volume to RAID-6.
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