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Forum Discussion
Upgrade of my ReadyNAS from RN312 to RN214
I have a RN312 with 2 disks (1TB each) running in X Raid (RAID1). System is working well, with 390GB disk space free. OS 6.10 (Hotfix 2)
I now plan to buy a new RN214 (with 4 x 1TB, to be configure...
WarrenT wrote:
As an alternative approach to change over from RN312 to RN214:
I don't recommend doing it this way. One reason is that the upgrade path from x86->arm NAS isn't a main use case - Netgear seems to assume that the main path is arm->x86. So it's not as well tested as the arm-x86 case (and might not even be fully supported). If you do try it this way, then make sure that the firmware on the RN214 matches the RN312 before you begin. Also uninstall your apps first, as they generally won't run on the RN214 (and won't migrate).
This would be a better path if you went with an RN424 (which is x86, but is also more expensive).
WarrenT wrote:
I will be using 4x WD Red drives,
Of course you can start with 4x4TB, though I'd suggest starting with 2x4TB with two empty slots instead. Then add drives later on when it fills. Perhaps get 4 drives, and upgrade one of the RN312s to 2x4TB while you are at it. That will ensure that you can back up the NAS for now (and also when/if you go to 3x4TB on the main NAS).
Thank you Stephen.
I will stick with your suggestion of the RSYNC route to populate the new RN214(from old RN312). I was surprised the 'new' RN214 was equipped with ARM processor and not Intel. Netgear must have had their reasons.
Point taken on the 2x4TB WD Red costing.
Thanks again for your very helpful advice.
Warren
I think a configuration backup on the old unit and restore on the new should move over all users and groups. It should work between OS6 units, ARM or Intel, just not from an OS4.x or 5.x system.
The 214 is getting to be a bit old. If you needed a faster machine as well as more bays, you should have gone with the 400 series or higher.
Thanks for the suggestions. Can I clarify your suggestion:
1. On the existing RN312, perform a configuration back up (say to my PC desktop).
2. On the new RN214;
a. Manually configure the identical Shares as on the RN312 (is this required or will a config Restore do this?);
b. Perform a Restore of the config file from my desktop.
3. This will transfer all the users, LUNs, permissions, backup jobs to the new RN214.
I note you say the RN214 is getting old. Do you know when this model was introduced? When was the new series RN424 introduced. I note the 214 has an ARM processor, whereas the 424 has Intel.
Thanks very much for your advice thus far.
Warren
WarrenT wrote:1. On the existing RN312, perform a configuration back up (say to my PC desktop).
2. On the new RN214;
a. Manually configure the identical Shares as on the RN312 (is this required or will a config Restore do this?);
b. Perform a Restore of the config file from my desktop.
I tried this (some time ago), and found that the configuration backup/restore didn't restore all the settings - and there is no list from Netgear on exactly what it skips. I think volume quota was one of them - but my recollection is that there were several others.
Also, the process will restore some app configuration files, even when the app isn't installed on the new system. That can cause issues later on (reinstalling the app might not work, attempting to remove it won't work, etc).
So while it can save some time (especially if you have a lot of users), you end up needing to
- uninstall apps prior to backing up the config
- hand-check the RN214 configuration after you are done
WarrenT wrote:
3. This will transfer all the users, LUNs, permissions, backup jobs to the new RN214.
Not sure about LUNs since I don't use them. But it won't copy the LUN itself.
It will transfer the file permission configuration for the share, but the actual file permissions (like all the attributes) are transfered when you copy the data over - and depending on the backup protocol you use, they might not be match the RN312. Rsync backup will preserve permissions.
WarrenT wrote:
I note you say the RN214 is getting old. Do you know when this model was introduced? When was the new series RN424 introduced. I note the 214 has an ARM processor, whereas the 424 has Intel.
The RN214 was introduced in the fall of 2015. The RN424 series was introduced in the fall of 2017.
Direct migration of your disks to an RN424 is simpler, since the RN312 is also Intel. So you could use one of your alternate procedures
- remove one disk from the RN312 (replacing it and resyncing)
- insert that disk in the RN424, and modify the configuration slightly (particularly the hostname, but also change static IP addresses if you use them, and you'll need to join the RN424 to ReadyCloud if you use that)
- Insert a second disk in the RN424 to fix the degraded volume.
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