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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS Ultra 6 space upgrade
I've been away from the forum for a while now and my ReadyNAS Ultra 6 NAS is filling up. I currently have (6) 2TB disks. I'd like to upgrade to (6) 4TB disks. Can I just replace each disk one b...
My apologies - I am already running 6.10.4 Hotfix 1 on my Ultra 6. So I don't have to worry about any expanion "limits" since I'm on 6.10.4.1?
While it would be nice to replace the disks with (3) 8TB disks, that would require a factory reset and I don't have another copy of the data anywehre - nor do I have anywhere to copy it to. :-) It's mainly movies and TV shows - nothing critical, but a large collection.
So I would be able to replace the (6) 2TB disks with (6) 4TB disks, one at a time until each finishes the rebuild, in order to double my capacity? I realize that it's a long process, but no data loss that way.
I didn't realize that anything over 4TB disks were supported with this old unit. Compatibility charts only show up to 4TB disks. So 8TB disks should work?
Thanks for your help - you've been a big help with this thread and another you recently replied too. I appreciate it!
jtrosky wrote:
My apologies - I am already running 6.10.4 Hotfix 1 on my Ultra 6. So I don't have to worry about any expanion "limits" since I'm on 6.10.4.1?
Correct. Those limits only apply to 4.2.x firmware.
jtrosky wrote:
I didn't realize that anything over 4TB disks were supported with this old unit. Compatibility charts only show up to 4TB disks. So 8TB disks should work?
The HCL for legacy NAS hasn't been updated in years (back when 4 TB was the largest disk size on the market). There is no known ceiling for the disk size in systems running OS 6 - including legacy NAS. So 16 TB should also work. Though sync times will obviously get longer, and you will eventually run out of memory. If you are still running the stock 1 GB of RAM you should consider upgrading. 2x2GB is reasonably available and affordable. 2x4GB is possible - but compatible 4 GB modules are hard to find and expensive. 2x2GB will match the RAM in the RN526, so it is certainly enough.
My own Pro-6 running OS-6 is currently has 2x8TB+4x3TB (20 TB volume)
jtrosky wrote:
While it would be nice to replace the disks with (3) 8TB disks, that would require a factory reset and I don't have another copy of the data anywehre - nor do I have anywhere to copy it to. :-) It's mainly movies and TV shows - nothing critical, but a large collection.
So I would be able to replace the (6) 2TB disks with (6) 4TB disks, one at a time until each finishes the rebuild, in order to double my capacity? I realize that it's a long process, but no data loss that way.
Large USB drives for backup are actually pretty affordable. You might want to look into that - even though your media isn't critical, it still would take time and effort to replace it. Even if you avoid the factory reset, there is some risk when replacing disks or expanding the array. There is no RAID redundancy during the process, so if an existing disk fails you will lose the volume.
You can certainly upgrade one disk at a time, but there is no need to upgrade all six. XRAID will handle unequal size disks - the capacity rule is "sum the disks and subtract the smallest".
3x8TB + 3x2TB would give you 22 TB for about the same money as 6x4TB (current US amazon pricing is about $600 for three 8 TB Seagate Ironwolf or WD Red Plus drives). Plus expansion is much faster, since there are only three resyncs needed. Also, you can further increase storage later by just upgrading one other 2 TB drive to 8 TB.
Similarly, 2x10TB + 4x2TB would give you 18 TB for about $520, and you could increase storage by upgrading one more 2 TB drive to 10 TB later on.
One limitation of XRAID - when upgrading storage, the replacement drive generally needs to be at least as large as the biggest drive in the array. Though if a 2 TB drive fails, you can replace it with another 2 TB drive.
Wow - that is some fantastic information! Thank you VERY much - you just made my life a lot easier. :-)
StephenB wrote:
2x4GB is possible - but compatible 4 GB modules are hard to find and expensive.
Actually, it's not on the Ultra6. The Ultra6Plus and the Pro6 can, but the Atom D510 CPU of the Ultra only supports 4GB, and then only as two 2GB modules.
Does anyone have any experience with the HGST MegaScale drives? I mean I can get brand new 4TB MegaScale drives for under $60 (NOT "renewed" drives). I realize that they are only 5400 RPM drives, but for my uses, I really doubt that matters - and they would most likely run cooler to boot. They get great MTBF ratings too.
They are "end of life" drives, but are still warratied through the seller for 5 years.
Kind of hard to pass up.
Any potential issues with mixing 5400 rpm drives and 7200 rpm drives in a RAID array though? Currently, I have (5) 2TB 7200 rpm HGST Ultrastore drives and (1) 2TB Seagate 7200 rpm drive. Four of the HGST's are pretty old (runtime hours up in the 30k+ hour range) and the one Seagate is really old - with over 50k hours). Just recently replaced the one HGST drive as the one it replaced was logging smart errors.
I figure that it's probably good to start replacing them anyway due to age - and those 4TB HGST MegaScale drives sure are attractive ..
Thanks for any input you have.
jtrosky wrote:
Any potential issues with mixing 5400 rpm drives and 7200 rpm drives in a RAID array though?
I mixed speeds for several years (back when I was running 4.2.x firmware) and never had any issues. I believe you will get a warning with OS 6, but IMO that can be safely ignored.
This could reduce performance in some cases (since seek time will be longer on the 5400 rpm drives). But it won't be slower than an array with only the megascale drives would be.
FWIW, personally I haven't replaced drives just because they are old - instead I wait until I see some signs of distress (or until I need to expand storage - when I often will upgrade the oldest drives). I have several drives in service with over 50K hours (though they aren't in my primary NAS). But I have a good backup plan in place, and I can tolerate some down time. Still, I'm sure many folks do replace old drives on a maintenance schedule.
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