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NAS
I own a Netgear NAS 204 and 214. Both have eSATA connections. Can either or both connect to the below item? External 4 Bay RAID System for 3.5" SATA HDD USB 3.0 from Icy Box IB-RD3640SU3, Manufac...
Sandshark wrote:
The ReadyNAS is designed to have "dumb" drives on eSATA -- it wants to see and control the drive directly. Since your enclosures have both USB and eSATA, I'm not surprised they don't work on ReadyNAS eSATA. The 100 and 200 series also don't have port multiplier functionality on eSATA, so don't support a multi-drive chassis on it (or see only one of the multiple drives). Of course, I'm not sure why you'd want to, anyway, since USB3 is faster.
I have no idea if a ReadyNAS could see the individual drives in a unit like that when not in RAID mode, but it definately couldn't make it's own RAID from them if it did. Using an internal RAID mode of the unit and USB, the NAS should be able to see it (it saw the internal RAID on my similar Drobo box for the short time I used it as one big drive). Of course, if there are any utilities needed to fully utilize it (as there are on the Drobo), that'll create another issue since they're not going to run on the NAS.
For some reason this thread is locked - I can reply, but cannot unlock it for Sandshark, so I am posting on his behalf. JohnCM_S , Marc_V - I've seen this happen a few times over the past few months. Can you follow up with the forum administrator?
StephenB wrote:Sandshark wrote:
I have no idea if a ReadyNAS could see the individual drives in a unit like that when not in RAID mode and connected on USB, but it definitely couldn't make it's own RAID from them if it did.
StephenB : Thanks for posting for me. I left out one small detail, added now. It was probably evident that I meant that, but now it's explicit I don't know if one of the Netgear mods released it for replies or of your post did it, but now others can reply.
CABird_UK : You are welcome. I've done a lot of experimenting with various hardware connected to the NAS because I'm more a hardware guy than software. I'm glad my experience helped you. My overall conclusion has been that external devices connected to the NAS should only be used for backup or archival storage not often accessed, and eSATA isn't the best way to go for that. If you need more active storage, get bigger drives or a bigger NAS. I ultimately went with 12-bay rack-mount units for primary and backup, but not everyone has a place to put one of those noisy beasts, much less two, or the budget.
My issue with the Drobo USB unit is likely quite different from what you'll see with that RAID box on USB, but I still don't recommend USB for primary storage. The Drobo doesn't report the real space available except through it's app, it reports what's available in a virtual drive space if you were to add more actual drive space up to the max volume size. It is, quite frankly, the most idiotic way of reporting space I have ever seen, far inferior to XRAID. You can run out of real space when the unit still reports it has plenty. Avoid those like COVID-19.
The chipsets used on these expansion boxes are supporting different modes. The enclosure makers typically restrict the usage by what is available on the chipset (hardware jumpers, or microcontroller, ..) resp. or the controlling software or App. For an eSATA port, the box can work as a SATA port multiplier (just like the ReadyNAS expansion box was - so the RAID had to be run on the ReadyNAS) or present itself as a single on-chip run software RAID. For a USB port, it can act a USB hub with multiple USB Attached SCSI (UAS) or USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) devices, or it can act as a single on-chip run software RAID as a single UAS or UASP. Or it does expose the chipset control to the host, which can control the JBOD or RAID, and can gain some limited monitoring (sometimes including SMART) on al storage blocks.
Other NAS makers are offering such dedicated expansion box hardware with USB 3.0/3.1 hosts and using proprietary SATA-over-SAS controllers for higher bandwidth - everything neatly integrated with the respective NAS OS.
Netgear had added support for their own expansion boxes (true SATA multpliers) only, and crippled it somehow so 3rd party SATA multipliers can't be used (well, nobody reverse-engineered it at least) - however on x86 hardware only. On the USB port, there is no support for USB hubs or the like, only a single USB storage (UAS device) is accepted.
I fear ReadyNAS is stuck on historic specs, similar to Netgear's routers. Adding more powerful CPUs, some faster interfaces, and more storage block slots resp. faster SoC and latest WiFi seems to be it...
schumaku wrote:Netgear had added support for their own expansion boxes (true SATA multipliers) only, and crippled it somehow so 3rd party SATA multipliers can't be used (well, nobody reverse-engineered it at least).
Not true. I successfully (well, to the same poor performance level of an EDA500) used two third party 5-bay eSATA expansion chassis plus a real EDA500 on an RN516. The OS thought they were all EDA500's. But, they were "dumb" chassis -- just a port multiplier, no RAID, no USB option. It was a hot mess, and I moved to a 12-bay rack mount system, but it worked as well (poorly) as three EDA500's would have.
Sandshark wrote:Not true. I successfully...
Sorry, forget about your test 8-/
The SATA multiplier boxes I had at hand were not recognized in my test back then. Hey what performance you had expected driving multiple SATA drives over a single SATA interface? Never mind.... this just proofed Netgear had not added much progress since - especially when comparing to Q and S.
There are two forms of SATA port multiplication, command and FIS based, though my knowlege of them is pretty limited. While most systems support both, some may only support one. FIS would ceretainly be better for a NAS expansion, but I have no idea whether the ReadyNAS supports one or both. The boxes I used support both, which doesn't help me figure it out. If you know which method the boxes that didn't work use, then maybe we could. Not that it really matters since it's such a terribly slow way to expand a NAS. Of course, that may be in part because it only supports command-based switching. That may also be a factor in why the chassis with both eSATA and USB don't work -- they are limited to the wrong protocol.
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