Much Ado About ReadyNAS Ultra 4

Putting new drives in an NAS is almost as much fun as setting up a new computer from scratch. Neither is something you really look forward to, but when it's done and fully functional, it's a beautiful thing.

Just completed! My drive 1 is showing up as DEAD. That's one down. Checking the other drives now... :(

Drive 3 failed the SMART test... :(

And there's no volume detected! That means I've got to do a "default factory reset" right? Zzzzzz...

How many drives are in the NAS and how many have failed?

so far 2 have failed out of 3. i've a 4th which i've not inserted yet. so, number 1 and 3 are down. number 2 is ok.

And some of these have already been back to Hitachi. That's an abysmal record. My experience with Hitachi has been very good. Are either of the failures the refurbished drive?

I'm sorry folks. After so many months. Here's the final verdict. The 2Tb Hitachi Deskstars suck. And because all this happened during the floods in Thailand, stocks of the more reliable Hitachi Ultrastars were in low stock. I've held up until NOW! I've finally initiated 4 new units of Hitachi Ultrastar 3Tb HDDs. All are working fine! I've given up hope on the Deskstars. I'm just trying to get rid of them

So, now my real challenge starts.

As a ReadyNas newbie, I seek advice from the Jedi order... ;)

How to go about transferring my data from my NV+ to my new Ultra 4?

I've not been lazy. I've done my searches on Google and have come up with the following found on the eHow site:

1 Open the Frontview browser application installed when you configured your ReadyNAS units. For each ReadyNAS, click "Services," then "Standard File Protocols," and ensure that the check boxes for "NFS" and "Rsync" are checked. This will allow you to use both protocols for your ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS backup.
2 Click "Shares," then "Add Shares" for your backup ReadyNAS. You should duplicate the names of the shares you will be backing up from your source ReadyNAS. For example, if you have a share called "Music" on your source ReadyNAS, you should input the same name for a share on your backup ReadyNAS.
3 Click "Shares," then "Share Listing" for both ReadyNAS units. Make sure that the "NFS" and "Rsync" protocols are active on each machine. If the icon is colored, the protocols are active. If the icon is grayed-out, click on the icon, and select "Read/Write" from the drop-down menu to activate the protocol.
4 Click "Backup" on your source ReadyNAS. then "Add a New Backup Job." You should set up a separate backup job for each share on the source ReadyNAS. In the "Select Backup Source" section of the screen, select the share from the drop-down menu. In the "Select Backup Destination" section, select "Remote: NFS Server." Input the path to the share location in the format "myserver:/mypath". An example would be "readybackup/music".
5 Choose your backup schedule. The backup schedule can be left at the default, because you will only be doing an NFS backup the first time. NFS backups are quicker than Rsync backups, and you will want your first full backup to be quick. Subsequent backups, which will be incremental backups that back up only files that have changed on your source ReadyNAS, can be done through Rsync since speed won't be an issue.
6 Select "First Time" in the "Schedule Full Backup" drop-down menu. This will perform a full backup, using the NFS protocol, as soon as you click the "Apply" button at the bottom of the window.
7 Create additional full backups of all of the shares on the source ReadyNAS, using the same procedure. When the backups are complete, you have completely backed up your source ReadyNAS to the destination ReadyNAS.
8 Select "Backup," then "Backup Jobs" for the source ReadyNAS. Disable all of the full NFS backup jobs you created. These are NFS backups and your future backups will be done using the Rsync protocol.
9 Create new backup jobs for each of your shares, using the same procedure as you did with the NFS backups. In the "Select Backup Destination" portion of the screen, choose "Remote: Rsync Server" and input the path to the share location in the format "myserver::share". An example path would be "readybackup::music".
10 Choose your regular backup schedule. The two ReadyNAS units will synchronize their files based on this schedule, every four, six, eight, 12 or 24 hours. You can also select whether you want to do a backup every day or on specific days by clicking the check boxes next to the days.
11 Click apply. The first Rsync backup will begin, though there will probably be little if any data transferred because you have already performed a full backup. Based on your schedule, the source ReadyNAS will automatically and regularly back up all of the shares to the destination ReadyNAS.



I got stuck at number 9. What should the "HOST" and "PATH" be, for both the Source and Destination drives?

- Both my ReadyNASes have got fixed IPs.
- Files in the NV+ are located in "Backup"

So how do I get these copied over to the Ultra4 using NFS?

Would appreciate any input in this matter. Many thanks.

Host: Static I.P. of other NAS
Path: sharename

It's simpler than what it used to be on very old firmware.

Thanks for the quick reply mdgm! So in my case, the sharename would be.... "backup"?

Yes. It's case-sensitive I think.