Mirror existing NAS to new NAS?

I would recommend you purchase the Pro 6 (RNDP6000-200). A key difference is the faster CPU: CPU Specs of the ReadyNAS

If purchasing diskless, I would suggest you put one disk in the new NAS, upgrade to the latest RAIDiator (be sure to reboot when prompted to install the update and then verify the update was successful). Then power down, put all disks in (must be at least four) and do a factory default via the boot menu (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu). Discover the NAS using RAIDar (http://www.readynas.com/downloads) A few checks will be run, then a 10 minute window will commence where you can click setup and choose X-RAID2 and tick the dual-redundancy option (I believe this is the default when you have 6 disks installed in the NAS when you do a factory reset, but best to make sure). Be sure to confirm your choice. The volume will then be created and you will have a clean setup on the latest firmware.

I would setup the new NAS perhaps configuring manually or restoring from Config Backup. I would suggest you at the very least backup the users and group from the old NAS and restore them to the new one. The key thing is you want the same users and groups with the same UIDs and GIDs respectively.

You can use Frontview backup jobs to transfer the data across. You can use NFS for the first backup and then edit the backup job properties to use Rsync for incrementals.

It's been a while since I reviewed the specs - you're right. The Pro 6 is the only way to go...

I'll go the diskless route - I'm comfortable with installing drives. Looking at the cost for pre-configured NAS boxes makes the eyes bleed. I'll save a ton of money going diskless and installing myself. I'll spend some of the savings on a memory upgrade. Any recommendations?

Edit: never mind - found this topic: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=56166

Do note that memory upgrades are not supported. If you have issues NetGear will deny support. Memory manufacturers have changed memory modules rendering them incompatible but keeping the same module number so NetGear removed the memory compatibility list.

Like the Pro BE, the Pro 6 has 2 memory slots. So like on the Pro BE you can use 2x4GB RAM modules. Take a look at the community HCL for memory: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=110

I would run at least a few passes of the memory test (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu) before trusting the memory.

Thanks for the pointer to the community HCL. It looks like an overnight test of the memory to get >5 loops through the memory test to complete is the way to be confident in the memory.

Ack! Newegg is out of stock of the Pro 6 diskless!

Where have all the Pro 6 models gone at newegg? At the weekend there were 5 or 6 - now there is only 1. eAegis is out of the diskless Pro 6 too!

Product refresh in the offing???

It does take a while to get into the position of using a second NAS as a backup to the first. While the first backup with NFS will take some time, when you change over to rsync, you will be amazed at the speed of the backup. Of course the first backup will be from your current NAS to the new, you may have to do a second one back. If you currently have all 6 bays occupied, in order to move to dual redundancy, you will have to perform a factory default. If you have at least one empty bay, then you can do the change on line.

When you set up the initial backup, your source is a share and the target is NFS Server, and the path is the same share. The shares on the backup target should be set up to mirror the shares on the source. Once you have made the initial backup, shift the target to Rsync Server, verify the path is still the same and run the rsync backup. This will verify the backup is good. Rsync synchronizes each file on a sector by sector basis between the two units. Once the initial backup has been made, and verified by a rsync, each additional backup can be measured in minutes and seconds, not hours.

I have four shares set up, and the largest contains my video. Even after adding tens of gigabytes of video files, the rsync update of the backup only takes a handful of minutes. My backups start running at midnight, and it is a great comfort knowing that if I have a problem, I have a backup that is never more than 24 hours old.

I doubt there'll be a refresh of the Pro 6 anytime soon, but I can only guess. The Pro 6 is a new product. The diskless version came out earlier this year and is understandably very popular. The semi/fully populated ones came out late last year.

I answered a similar question recently: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=318973#p318973

PapaBear wrote:
It does take a while to get into the position of using a second NAS as a backup to the first. While the first backup with NFS will take some time, when you change over to rsync, you will be amazed at the speed of the backup. Of course the first backup will be from your current NAS to the new, you may have to do a second one back.

This is exactly what I want to do. Given that the volume on my current NAS has had a couple of problems requiring support's intervention, I want to do a factory default with up to date firmware before using it as the backup device.

mdgm: thanks for the history lesson - I'll have to sit tight until they become available again.

eAegis does have them in stock. For some reason, Netgear is no longer a "featured" brand, but are in stock. Here is the link to the listing.

Newegg had as many as 42 listed products this past weekend, but it is not at 27. Strange.

here is what I do/did when upgrading to new nas

create NFS backup jobs for each share I want to copy to new nas, I would run them on the new pro since its more powerful than the old.

the x86 devices can run them in parallel, but I would try to keep it to 2 or 3 max at the same time.

after a NFS job completes, edit the backup job (click the # button) and change from NFS to RSYNC, make sure the source/destination fields are correct, then run the rsync job.

99.9% of the time, the NFS job will have done a perfectly fine copy, however following up with rsync will ensure that you get a bit for bit exact duplicate from the source to the destination.

since the data is already there on the destination, the rsync job should take a few seconds to less than minute if you have a huge number of files.

once the rsync job has finished, you should make sure permissions are set/reset to however you want them configured.