Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Apr 20, 2018

RN42800 new install with 8 HGST NAS 8TB Drives how to set up as X-Raid with Raid 5

Have a new RN42800 with drives arriving in the next day or two and want to set it up with X-Raid in Raid5 format. From what I've seen in the Netgear Raid Calculator, it appears the system will set u...

Installation & Upgrade

johnw248

Aspirant

Apr 22, 2018

I'm wondering if the following set-up routine would work for the 428:

1. Install six of the 8TB HGST NAS disks and proceed with normal first set-up: power on/discovery/admin and let the unit configure with X-Raid in Raid 5

2. Change from X-Raid to Flex-Raid

3. Install the remaining two discs and then from the Admin page expand the Flex-Raid volume to include the remaining two disks.

Is this the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this without undue formatting time?

Marc_V

NETGEAR Employee Retired

Apr 22, 2018

Hi @johnw248

With Flex-RAID formatting, if you want to add disks to expand your storage capacity, you must back up the data to another system, add a disk, reformat the RAID volume, and restore the data to the new RAID volume.

Disks added to a Flex-RAID volume can only be used for protection. They cannot be used for storage (horizontal expansion). You will have to switch back to X-RAID to use the disks as data storage but that will make your RAID Level to RAID 6 and if you will switch back to Flex-RAID a format is again needed to be on RAID 5.

So it will be better to add all the disks once configured, destroy and create a volume with RAID Level 5 as your choice.

Note: Newer firmware has Flex-RAID enhancements if you want read this thread.

Please see the following articles as well regarding expansion

Adding protection on Flex-RAID

ReadyNAS Volume Expansion

Note: From 6.9.3 Manual

Horizontally Expand a Flex-RAID Volume Horizontal expansion of a Flex-RAID volume is possible, but more complex and less space efficient than expanding an X-RAID volume. In effect, you create a new Flex-RAID volume and ReadyNAS OS uses both the existing and new volumes as parts of the same larger volume. Other configurations are possible, but We recommend expanding the volume by the same number of disks as the original volume; for example, expand a 3-disk RAID 5 Flex-RAID volume by adding three disks.

To horizontally expand a Flex-RAID volume:

1. Add disks to the ReadyNAS, if necessary.

2. Log in to the local admin page.

3. Select System > Volumes.

4. Select the volume to expand.

5. Select the unallocated disks to add to the volume. When you select disks additional buttons appear on the volume.

6. Select the Expand button. A Window opens asking you to verify you want to expand the volume.

7. Select the Yes button. The volume expands immediately, but requires a resync, which starts immediately. The volume display includes a resync progress bar.

Thank you @StephenB for pointing this out, I have requested for the article to be updated. It is somehow outdated not incorrect.

Regards

StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Apr 22, 2018
Marc_V wrote:

Disks added to a Flex-RAID volume can only be used for protection.

Sorry, the information in that kb article is simply incorrect.

See page 45 of the software manual ( http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf )

Marc_V wrote:

So it will be better to add all the disks once configured, destroy and create a volume with RAID Level 5 as your choice.

Despite the wrong information the kb article, this is the fastest way to get what you want. Do the normal factory install with all disks in place. Then immediately switch to flexraid, destroy the volume and create a new RAID-5 volume. There's no need to wait for the initial volume to resync.

Though it is worth considering just going with the default dual redundancy XRAID when you have that many disks. One option is to get fewer (but possibly large) disks initially, and leave some slots open for future expansion. For instance, 6x10TB would give you 50 TB of single-redundancy storage, and you then have the option of expanding to 70 TB single-redundancy or 60 TB dual-redundancy later on.