Upgrade from RN104 to RN316

It is supposed to be.

The 104 and the 316 don't use the same CPU type so you can't just transfer the disks like that. I believe the system won't boot.
A 100% sure way to do this is to copy files to a backup location then transfer the disk to the 316, erase them and copy data back.
I think support has a procedure to do this without erasing the drive using their recovery shell (not sure though), you could ask them and see what they tell you.

For the expansion, this is not a problem. Once you get all your disks in the 316, hot plug one of the 4Tb drive, wait for the rebuild to finish, then insert the second one. If you decide to erase the disks, just put them all in and do a factory default, raid will be rebuilt only once that way.

I'd also like to stress the importance of backup, no matter what you do, RAID is not enough, so you should have at least a totally independent copy (preferably in another physical location).

xeltros wrote:
The 104 and the 316 don't use the same CPU type so you can't just transfer the disks like that.

As I said, this migration path is supposed to work. :D

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... -system%3F does NOT say that you need to stay within the processor family.

Though of course you always should have a backup, and it is particularly important when you are playing with disks.

Indeed your link suggests it should be possible.
I just have a hard time believing it. There is a reason why there is an ARM and an intel OS version. So system would have to be reinstalled somehow I guess. This could be a matter of a simple OS reinstall, but if the 316 comes with 6.0.x while the 104 has 6.1.9 and uses the new BTRFS block size, you'll have a problem there...

I may lack faith here, but I would have the support to confirm that. It is so easy to forget to tell something in a short document like this, having a single phrase saying "change is only possible within the same CPU arch" at the beginning of the page would have changed everything. It isn't there but I don't know if they handled the problem, if they forgot the phrase, or if the document is taken off-context and is destined for RMA.
By the way, the procedure doesn't work for the RN716X ?

Clearly there would need to be an OS reinstall. And there could also be a problem with add-ons.

I agree it would be useful to have a clear statement from Netgear on migration - I think quite a few people will want to migrate up from the RN100 series.

If I had the money I would ;) But I'm the kind to wipe everything and start fresh anyway ;)
That said I'm interested in the answer anyway, this can be a handy thing to know.

Users have done the migration and it works. There have been some threads on this.

Putting a spare disk (must not be from your array) in the 316, updating the firmware, removing the spare disk then migrating the disks across is what I would recommend.

Of course if you have the time a clean setup is better, especially if you installed apps on the 104.