ReadyNAS 104 x Flex-RAID x RAID 0 -- replace one disk with larger?

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GusT wrote:

For the Samsung, I could not find accurate information, however it's recommended for desktop PCs, so probably they are not SMRs either.

 

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Many (perhaps most) desktop drives in the 2-6 TB range are now SMR.  That is one reason why I recommend either enterprise class drives or WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf for ReadyNAS generally.  

But as I said earlier, 1 TB drives are CMR.  SMR allows 2-6 TB drives to have fewer platters (making them less expensive).  New 1 TB drives typically only have one platter anyway, so SMR doesn't have any cost benefit.  In any event, your disks are too old to be SMR.

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GusT wrote:

• 1 x WDC WD10JPVT-75A1YT0
• 2x SAMSUNG HD103SI
• 1x WDC WD10EADS-22M2B0

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All very old, and discontinued a long time ago.

• WD10JPVT - introduced 2011
• HD103SI - introduced 2010
• WD10EADS - introduced 2008

Drives can work well for a very long time.  I have four WD20EARS drives (introduced in 2010) that are still working ok.  

But they do eventually fail, so a failing disk is a possibility.  We'd have to have more information from the logs to tell.

You can also download the full log zip file, and look at the smart stats in disk_info.log.

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GusT wrote:

 

With RAID-5 my experience was 2 MB/s, kind of USB2.

 

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USB-2 disk speeds are typically 30-40 MB/s for large file transfers.  

No way to tell now what the problem was.  It could have been network-related or disk-related.  It might even have been an issue on the PC you were using at the time.

Also, with mechanical disks, the speed does depend on what you are copying.  The speeds I am giving are for larger files.  If you are copying a folder full lot of small files (for instance, jpg photos), then the speeds are much slower.   But RAID-5 read speeds should about the same as RAID-0.

SSDs don't have that problem, as there is no delay waiting for the data to reach the write heads for the platter.  So if you want to maximize the performance, one option would be to get a single 2-4 TB SATA SSD, and set that up as a JBOD (single disk) volume.  If that works well for you, you could add a second SSD (as a second volume) and retire the old mechanical disks.

Whether you use RAID redundancy or not, you should still have a backup plan for your data - RAID isn't enough to keep it safe.  And without RAID redundancy you do need to have another copy in order to deal with disk replacements (either failures or expansion in capacity).

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GusT wrote:

 

I guess once or twice I could see 50 MB/s, but the usual rate was not higher than 20 MB/s on 5e UTP cables capable of a lot more. Disk tests run regularly, and only the drive I plan to replace shows ATA errors (I don't know if 105 ATA errors is high or not).

 

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The RN100 series can't keep up with gigabit ethernet (which would be about 100 MB/s).  As noted above, the speed does depend on what you are copying.

You say "cables".  Are you using both NIC ports in the NAS?  That can be a factor if you don't know how to set that up properly.  I don't recommend connecting them both - the RN100 series can't keep up with a single gigabit connection, so there is no benefit. 

I'd consider 105 ATA errors to be concerning myself.  But it does depend on the details - in particular whether the counts are regularly rising or not.

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GusT wrote:

(Nowadays I can access it via WiFi, so it's inherently limited to 12-15 MB/s.)

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FYI, WiFi 6 can deliver a lot more than that.