Not sure what do about my old ReadyNAS NV+ v2 to make use of it?

Question

Hi Experienced Readynas folks,&nbsp;I have an old 4-bay&nbsp;ReadyNAS NV+ v2 that I brought out of retirement after not using for a long time. &nbsp;It booted up and seems to work&nbsp;fine for over a week now, with old 3TB drives.&nbsp;It is configured using XRaid-2 and seems to be working and in order. I can reach it from my local network and read and write to it and interact with the web menus. &nbsp;No errors indicated in the log and all the current disks look fine.&nbsp;I have 4 new 6TB drives that I want to use to replace the 3TB drives.&nbsp;What I want - Reconfigure the system fresh with 4 x 6TB drives in XRaid-2 configuration so I can use it as a backup/file server.&nbsp;What I tried - First thing I did was to pull drive #2 out and replace it with a 6TB drive. &nbsp;Booted back up and it rebuilt the drive, but took about 2 full days to do it. &nbsp;OK ... I patiently waited, and then replaced drive #3 which took just as long. It is dreadfully slow so ...&nbsp;What I would like to do - is to pull all the drives out and rebuild from scratch, replace them all at once with 6TB drives and then rebuild / reformat / reconfigure ( whatever the correct terminology is ) the whole system.&nbsp;Q1 - Is there a manual or list of steps here online that I can follow to rebuild this NAS from scratch as if I had just bought it diskless?&nbsp; Can someone point me to it with a link? &nbsp;This thing is old and probably EOLed for support, which is OK, I just want to use it as a backup for as long as it can last. &nbsp;it is very handy and quiet, and if I can expand it, huge, maybe 18TB.&nbsp;Q2 - Can anyone estimate about how much space I will get if I can get 4 x 6TB drives in XRaid-2 configuration? &nbsp;Is it close to 18TB in one big volume? &nbsp;That would be awesome.&nbsp;&nbsp;

StephenB · Answer

BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
What I would like to do - is to pull all the drives out and rebuild from scratch, replace them all at once with 6TB drives and then rebuild / reformat / reconfigure ( whatever the correct terminology is ) the whole system.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Yes, you can do that, and it will be faster than replacing them one at a time.
&nbsp;
BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
Q1 - Is there a manual or list of steps here online that I can follow to rebuild this NAS from scratch as if I had just bought it diskless?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

One thing to triple-check is whether you have the original NV+ or an NV+ v2
&nbsp;
The original NV+ (called v1 here):

says ReadyNAS NV+ on the front panel
runs 4.1.x firmware
often has other labels that say v2 or v3 - these are confusing, and should be ignored.

The NV+ v2

says ReadyNAS NV+ v2 on the front panel
runs 5.x firmware

&nbsp;
Once we confirm the model, we can provide the manual links.
&nbsp;
BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
Q2 - Can anyone estimate about how much space I will get if I can get 4 x 6TB drives in XRaid-2 configuration? &nbsp;Is it close to 18TB in one big volume? &nbsp;That would be awesome.
&nbsp;

This depends on the model question above.&nbsp; The original NV+ only supports disks &lt;= 2 TB.&nbsp; Larger disks will install, and appear to work, but the volume size will be very wrong.
&nbsp;
But if you do have an NV+ v2 running 5.3.x firmware, then you will get an 18 TB RAID-5 volume.
&nbsp;
Though you aren't asking about disk models, I'll comment on that anyway.&nbsp; WD Red Plus drives and Seagate Ironwolf drives are both good options.&nbsp; Avoid desktop-class drives and ordinary WD Reds - both use SMR technology, and don't work very well in ReadyNAS.&nbsp; Enterprise class drives are fine, but IMO are overkill for your model.
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StephenB · Answer

BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
These 6TB drives are Western Digital Blue drives.
WDC WD60EZRZ-00RWYB1 5588 GB
All shucked from WD My Book enclosures.
Looking them up it says they are CMR drives, not SMR.
"Recording Technology:&nbsp;Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) Technology"
I hope they work. &nbsp;If not I have to toss this box.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

The WDC blue datasheet only lists the WD60EZAZ (SMR)and WD60EZAX (CMR).&nbsp; But the WD60EZRZ is an old model (2015 or so), so it predates the shift to SMR desktop drives.
&nbsp;
BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
ReadyNAS_NV+_V2
Radiator_5.3.13
&nbsp;

Ok.&nbsp; Manuals are here:

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RND2110/ReadyNAS_Duov2_NV+v2_HW_en_23-Mar-12.pdf
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS%20ARM-PLATFORM%20(DUO%20V2,%20NV+%20V2)/RAIDiator%205.3%20SW%20Manual_5Sep12.pdf

The factory default procedure is in the hardware manual (look in the boot menu section).&nbsp; Since one drive is at least partly synced, you should probably just use the boot menu to force the clean installation.
&nbsp;
The NAS only support SMB 1/CIFS, so you will need to enable that on Windows PCs.&nbsp; Microsoft has warned that at some point they'll remove SMB 1 altogether.&nbsp; You could still use FTP (FileZilla or WinSCP), or NFS when that happens.
&nbsp;
You also likely have run into the SSL protocol version mismatch problem with the browsers.&nbsp; There is a third-party addon that can be installed to add support for TLS 1.2&nbsp; You can get that here:

https://github.com/rdynsxtrs/r5bin/blob/master/apache2/Apache2_2.2.34-arm-0.0.1.bin

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StephenB · Answer

BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
You mean to access data from HTTP[S]?
I don't do that or plan on doing that, so I shouldn't need the add-on, right?
&nbsp;

You do need https to access the web admin interface (the dashboard), so you should install the add-on.
&nbsp;
BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
I only have Macs now. &nbsp;When I was testing it, it seemed that both the SMB and AFS worked OK.
&nbsp;

I'm not a Mac user, but they are going down the same path.

AFP was deprecated in&nbsp;macOS 10.9 (Mavericks), though it can still be enabled.
SMB 1 was deprecated in macOS 10.15 (Catalina).&nbsp; You can patch&nbsp;/etc/nsmb.conf to allow it to still connect, but I don't think there is a way to configure it from normal user interface.

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StephenB · Answer

BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
Tried Factory reset, failed. &nbsp;Did a reinstall OS, and that worked. &nbsp;Went into RAIDar,
and started to configure it, but it will not configure it for me unless I register it?
&nbsp;

You can click through the registration request.&nbsp; It's long out of warranty, so no need to try to track down an ancient receipt.
&nbsp;
Your failed factory default is a sign that something might be wrong with the disks.&nbsp; Though if you are getting the registration message, then perhaps the factory default actually succeeded.&nbsp; You don't normally get that message after an OS reinstall.
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BrucKlin&nbsp;wrote:
&nbsp;
Do you actually work for Netgear

No, this is a user-to-user forum and I don't work for them.&nbsp; But we can generally help (and IMO our track record is at least as good as Netgear's).
&nbsp;

BrucKlin · Answer

Thanks StephenB:ReadyNAS_NV+_V2Radiator_5.3.13

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Not sure what do about my old ReadyNAS NV+ v2 to make use of it?

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